Grischuk replaces Morozevich at Amber

Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Amber tournament, which starts in six days from now in Nice, France. The Russian is replaced by his compatriot Alexander Grischuk. To get you a bit in the mood already, today we present a video with footage from 2008 and 2009. Read more

VIDEO: Interview Veselin Topalov

In our last video from Linares we speak with Veselin Topalov, just after he won his first Linares. He talks about the game against Gelfand and several other topics, and it includes a brief comment by Grischuk as well as footage from the closing ceremony. Below we give many photos from the closing. Read more

VIDEO: Grischuk-Topalov

In our second video from Linares we give the mic to Alexander Grischuk, who gave his view on his victory over Topalov. “I didn’t understand why people thought I had no chance against him.” Read more

VIDEO: The Draw

This year the Linares tournament has seen a lot of draws, despite the newly introduced rule that draws are in principle not allowed under move 40. Yesterday we spoke with Gashimov, Vallejo, Gelfand and Aronian about their draws and this rule. Video! Read more

Chess in cinema – the ultimate collection

Chess is often represented in films. Sometimes merely as decoration, often with a deeper, symbolic meaning. In Hollywood the connotation of chess seems to be that of the lonely, disturbed man, seeking pastime and consolation in the royal game. One YouTube user has collected a great number of chess scenes in four videos. Read more

Learn from Shirov (and Svidler)

If you like, on this rest day at Corus you can spend some time and learn from top grandmasters. In this post we publish both press conferences Alexei Shirov gave, after round 3 and 4, and an ICC Game of the Day video, in which Peter Svidler explains the game Short-Nakamura from round 3. Enjoy! Read more

Press conference R2: Hikaru Nakamura

At the moment of writing he’s already on 2.5/3 and yesterday he gave a demonstration of his victory over Loek van Wely. Hikaru Nakamura was enjoying the session with the demo board, and made the game understandable to a wide audience. Enjoy! Read more

Press conference R1: Loek van Wely

Due to some technical problems it took a bit longer than normal, but finally we can present you the first press conference from Wijk aan Zee, in which Loek van Wely explains is smooth win against Nigel Short in the first round. Hikaru Nakamura’s round 2 press conference will be available soon as well. Enjoy! Read more

The chess queen’s tweets (and videos)

Alexandra Kosteniuk keeps on looking for ways to popularize chess online, while simultaneously working on the “brand Kosteniuk”. The reigning Women World Champion (probably helped by her husband here and there) has her own website and YouTube channel and seems to be the most active Twitter user of all chess grandmasters. Update: actually Natalia Pogonina has much more followers. Read more

13-year-old Nyzhnyk wins Groningen Open; Timman beats Van Kampen 2.5-1.5

This year’s Groningen Chess Festival saw a sensational victory of 13-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine), who finished clear first, a full point ahead of GMs Reinderman and Werle. In the match between a former Junior Champion and the reigning Junior Champion, Jan Timman beat Robin van Kampen 2.5-1.5. Big, pictorial and video report. Read more

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