ChessBase Magazine Online

The biggest Internet chess tournament of all time
27.08.2002 – On Saturday night there will be an attempt to break all records for Internet chess. It is being conducted by the Singapore Ministry of Education, which is mobilising over 2700 students to take part in this mammoth event. The previous record was 1460 players taking part in the III Dos Hermanas Internet Chess Championships in March 2002. So if you awake at the time (8 p.m. NY, 2 a.m. European time, 6 a.m. Singapore) do look in. But you might find the chess rooms pretty crowded. Full information...
 

Men and women together in Val d'Isère
27.08.2002 – In France the national championship, with a total of over 1000 players, has men and women playing on the same stage in Val d'Isère. For the first time ever one of the women, Almira Skripchenko, is even playing in the top men's section. The women's section is being led by the young and very talented Marie Sebag (2344, picture right). More
 

Better than sex?!
26.08.2002 – Europe's largest computer magazine, ComputerBild, has tested board games for PCs. The winner is Fritz 7. The editors were deeply impressed by the program's clarity, functionality and playing strength. "This is what a board game should look like!" they write. The only puzzling thing is the illustration to the article, which seems to compare Fritz to having sex. Judge for yourself in our synopsis here
 

The best way to annotate games
23.08.2002 – Analysing and annotating games is a good way to improve your chess skills. Electronic tools like ChessBase and Fritz make the fine art of chess annotation easy and fun by offering a wide range of handy means for storing your thoughts and ideas as part of a chess gamescore. In a two-part course, one of our longest-standing contributors, Steve Lopez, explains all the fine points of annotation in ChessBase. You will find a list of all his past tutorials here.
 

'Double knockout' for world chess?
22.08.2002 – After signing the Prague agreement to unify world chess Vladimir Kramnik still has some residual doubts about it. "Why not include Anand and Ivanchuk in the cycle," the classical chess world champion says impassionately, "It is still not too late." He speaks eloquently and in carefully enunciated English on this and a new system he is proposing for FIDE which involves a very interesting double knockout tournament mode. Read and listen to this exclusive Kramnik interview.
 

Getting to know the Moldavian Slav
22.08.2002 – Er, not the friendly gentleman on the right. He's our GM trainer Dorian Rogozenko who lectures on the Playchess server. Tonight (Thursday, 21:00 h CET) he will be telling us about an opening called the Moldavian Slav: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6. The goal is to provide the audience with an easy-to-learn opening for Black against 1.d4.
 

Karjakin youngest Grandmaster ever
20.08.2002 – We saw it coming. You are now going to have this little boy respectfully as "grandmaster". As Ukraine Chess Online reports 12-year-old Sergei Karjakin (pronounced car-yack-kin) has completed his third GM norm and gets his title well before his 13th birth in January 2003. That breaks all records, making Sergei the only person in the world to become a grandmaster and second a world champion before reaching his teens! We are maintaining a list of child prodigies here.
 

Anand beats Ponomariov, Kosteniuk wins tie-break
20.08.2002 – It was the absolute climax to a very exciting tournament. In the last game of the last day of the Mainz Chess Classic Vishy Anand struck out with a double pieces sacrifice to vanquish his successor to the FIDE title Ruslan Ponomariov. And Germany's Elisabeth Pähtz suprised everybody by scoring 4:4 against the Russian star Alexandra Kosteniuk. You will find an illustrated report and all the games here.
 

The Burgermeister vs the Chess Champion
18.08.2002 – He's one of the coolest Lord Mayors in Germany. Jens Beutel is popular, successful and a 2250 chess player. He is currently taking part in the Mainz Chess Classic, and also got a draw in a simul against Alexandra Kosteniuk. But the burgermeister also took part in an interesting experiment: two games of "Advanced Chess" against Vishy Anand. Read all about it in our illustrated report.
 

Anand equalises, Kosteniuk maintains the lead
17.08.2002 – Another exciting day at the Mainz Chess Classic: Anand struck back in game four against Ponomariov to equalise, the next two games were fighting draws. Elisabeth Pähtz won game four and almost took the lead in game five. She lost game six go return the lead to Alexandra Kosteniuk. Report to follow here.
 

Ponomariov and Kosteniuk in the lead
17.08.2002 – On the first day of the Mainz Chess Classic 18-year-old Ruslan Ponomariov started powerfully, pressing the world's number three player Vishy Anand in all three games. Result: 2:1 for Ponomariov. Women's vice champion Alexandra Kosteniuk won the first two games against Elisabeth Pähtz, who was victorious in game three. Illustrated report with games.
 

Ponomariov was offered $30,000
17.08.2002 – Fide world champion Ruslan Ponomariov has revealed that he was offered a $30,000 starting fee and a $50,000 prize sum for a match against the reigning computer world champion Deep Junior in Jerusalem. He refused, and the organisers invited Kasparov for a starting fee ten times as high and a total prize fund of $1 million. Ponomariov also discusses his upcoming match against Garry Kasparov in this interesting interview.