ChessBase Magazine Online

The Traxler Counter Attack – play 5.Bxf7!
20.06.2004 – Last week Boris Alterman showed us the Traxler Counter Attack, and how White can get into a lot of trouble by trying to win quickly with 5.Nxf7. Instead Alterman advocates taking with the bishop, which leaves White a pawn up but with some tempo problems. Visit Playchess.com for GM Boris Alterman's lecture and simultaneous exhibition.
 

FIDE WCCh: top seeds win through
20.06.2004 – They expected 128 players, only 124 turned up, giving four players a comfortable bye in the first round. All the top seeds won their games, there were only two minor hiccups (Azmaiparashvili and Bologan lost). FIDE is offering comprehensive coverage, including video interviews. We bring you a report, games and pictures.
 

Victor Victorious!
19.06.2004 – Will someone please tell Victor Korchnoi to start acting his age? We have 12-year-old Grandmasters running around and 73-year-old Korchnoi is still winning strong GM tournaments. Did we say winning? We meant to say dominating! He scored six wins and won the 2nd György Marx Memorial in Hungary by a full point. Report and games.
 

FIDE World Chess Championship starts today
19.06.2004 – 128 players have gathered together in Tripoli, the capital of Libya, to play for the World Championship. The first round starts at 14:30 local (and European Central) time. A special FIDE site is offering comprehensive coverage. We bring you pictures, schedules and the pairings of round one. Also full instructions on how to follow the event.
 

Hit the board, Jack!
18.06.2004 – The great musician Ray Charles, who died last Thursday, will be laid to rest today at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. We pay homage to this legendary pianist and soul singer by taking a look at a chess game he played two years ago against GM Larry Evans. Rest in peace, Ray.
 

ChessBase 8 printout
18.06.2004 – If you've ever fired up ChessBase 8 and loaded a game which has a ton of opening variations, you'll know that the regular notation display can sometimes be a little tough to read and navigate. In this week's ChessBase Workshop, Steve Lopez shows you how to clean up that display and make a nice professional-looking paper printout of the result. Workshop...
 

It's politics as usual
17.06.2004 – The Israeli chess federations is suing FIDE (and apparently Libya), the ACP is complaining about irregularities, FIDE replies to the ACP, world champion Ruslan Ponomariov wants to know why FIDE is silent now, and Georgian WGMs reply to the women's championship finalists. On the eve of the World Championship in Tripoli it is a chess world in turmoil.
 

Gata Kamsky plays chess!
15.06.2004 – After a five year absence, American GM Gata Kamsky returned to the chessboard on Tuesday night. He came to play in the 106th New York Masters at the famous Marshall Chess Club. The former world championship candidate showed considerable rust in tying for first and giving up two draws in the four rapid games. Is he back to stay?
 

World Team wins Petrosian Memorial by a point
15.06.2004 – A heroic comeback by the Petrosian team in the final two rounds fell a point short. Anand-Kasparov was one of several short draws in the final round. Vaganian had the only win of the round, an impressive bind against Adams. Gelfand, once Petrosian's star pupil, battled hard for the full point against Bacrot to no avail. Report and games.
 

Leko and Lputian strike back for Petrosian
14.06.2004 – Peter Leko defeated Vishy Anand and the Petrosian Team cut the World's lead in half with one round to play. After losing three of four Lputian came back and scored a full point against Vallejo. For the first time the World failed to notch a win. Tomorrow sees Anand-Kasparov. We have the results, games and analysis here now.
 

Who will be the next FIDE world champion?
14.06.2004 – We cannot be 100% sure, but at least the statistical odds are 13% in favour of Morozevich or Topalov to win. Adams has a 9% chance, Grischuk 7%. And there is a 1 in 100 million possibility that the next FIDE world champion will be Tarik Abulhul of Libya. Read all about it in Jeff Sonas' World Championship Statistics.
 

Makropoulos: Why were they silent in Prague?
14.06.2004 – Georgios Makropoulos has been a high FIDE dignitary for almost a quarter of a century. Recently the eloquent and humourous Greek sat down for an interview with "Sport-Express" journalist Yuri Vassiliev, talking about the FIDE World Chess Championship in Tripoli and reunification. We bring you excerpts...