ChessBase Magazine Online

Mastering The Game: A History of Computer Chess
14.08.2005 – In September the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, is opening a new physical and online exhibit on Computer Chess. It follows a chronological plan from Turing and Shannon to the development of PC chess software and the drama of Deep Blue. It also has a lot of other fascinating exhibits.
 

Mainz Rapid: Anand marches on
13.08.2005 – On the second day he was a bit lucky. After overcoming losing chances in both rapid chess games against Alexander Grischuk, Indian chess superstar Vishy Anand came out of the hall with 1½:½ points. Levon Aronian won the Chess960 section and the amateur program Spike the Chess960 computer tournament. Illustrated report.
 

Team Championship – The Homecoming
13.08.2005 – Last Sunday the European Team Championship ended with a great victory by the Netherlands. The Dutch players were given an enthusiastic welcome by officials and fans at Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. We have great pictures by Frits Agterdenbos, and also bring you some interesting performance statistics in our Gothenburg retrospect.
 

Anand takes the first two games
12.08.2005 – Alexander Grischuk, one of the young turks challenging the supremacy of the top players, started badly at the Chess Classic in Mainz, when he ran into the rapid chess firewall of Vishy Anand. The score: 2:0 for Anand. Meanwhile Peter Svidler took a 1½:½ lead in his Chess960 match against Zoltan Almasi. Report and pictures...
 

Karpov, Kortchnoi win Unzicker Gala
11.08.2005 – They are still mortal enemies – Anatoly Karpov moved his seat from next to Viktor Kortchnoi at the openings ceremony, the latter wore the trade-mark shades against Karpov's gaze. In the Gala Exhibition in honour of Wolfgang Unzicker's 80th birthday Karpov and Kortchnoi both scored 3.5/6. Unzicker Gala and 960 man vs machine reports.
 

Looking ahead: FIDE World Championship in San Luis
11.08.2005 – The FIDE Classical Chess World Championship is set to take place in San Luis, Argentina, from September 27 to October 16 this year. The venue is a beautiful lake-side hotel complex, the eight participants are amongst the strongest players in the world. Top seed Vishy Anand talks about the event.
 

Material searches in ChessBase 9 – part two
10.08.2005 – ChessBase's material search feature is a valuable tool for researching specific material balances (and, more importantly, imbalances). Here's a detailed explanation of this feature in the latest ChessBase Workshop.
 

Lubomir Kavalek's birthday guide to Prague
09.08.2005 – Today the well-known Czech-American GM and Washington Post chess columnist celebrates his 62nd birthday. He does this by sending us a spectacular photo report of his beloved Prague, where recently the Czech President and two FIDE presidential candidates attended the CEZ Chess Trophy. Here's Lubos' birthday report.
 

Open letter by GM Vadim Milov
09.08.2005 – Last year FIDE organised its knock-out world championship in Tripoli, Libya. But not all eligible participants were able to attend. Although the world chess organisation and apparently also the Libyan authorities assured the Israeli players they would be issued visas, none of them made it. One of them, Vadim Milov, sued FIDE and lost. Milov sent us an open letter on the subject.
 

'No they aren't', say 76% (correction: 84%, no 88%)
09.08.2005 – Recently we reported on an article about science and chess attracting more men than women, and the possibility that this might be due to a difference in the general intelligence level of the genders. The questionnaire attached to the article brought an overwhelming result: neither gender is smarter. Interesting how the 50 personalities are ranked.
 

ECTC R9: Netherlands win Team Championship
08.08.2005 – The European Team Championship 2005 was won by the Netherlands with 15/18 match points. Second was Israel and third France (on tiebreak). Ukraine came fifth, Russia 14th. In the women's section Poland came first with 15/18, followed by Georgia and Russia (on tiebreak). Full illustrated report.
 

The legendary, ill-fated Leonid Stein
07.08.2005 – His career as an elite chess player lasted a scant 12 years, prior to his sudden death at the age of 38. But in that short period Leonid Stein won three Soviet championships and displayed a style that was reminiscent of Tal and Spassky. In his Monday night Playchess lecturer Dennis Monokroussos shows us two examples.