In the final part of our coverage of the lectures held at the Valencia, birthplace of modern chess symposium in Valencia during last month's Karpov-Kasparov match, we will take a closer look at the mysterious 'lost' chess treatise by Francesch Vic...
I’ve been known to defend the position that women’s tournaments are all nonsense: after all, we don’t have math competitions especially for women, nor do we have girls-only musical concourses. But a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, plead...
The more you understand of chess, the harder it is to understand how difficult it really is. At least, this is my personal experience when explaining beginners the absolute basics of chess. Suddenly, a capture is not obvious anymore; a developing ...
During last week's Valencia, cradle of modern chess festival, the audience could not only enjoy the Kasparov-Karpov match, but also a series of lectures on the history of chess, with special attention to Valencia's role in it. As promised, we'll n...
On the second day of the Kasparov-Karpov rapid match, the Valencian spectators were treated to some high level chess by both legends. Karpov won the third game in good style but again handled the clock poorly in the fourth to lose the match 1-3. A...
The first day of the match between the two K-legends in Valencia evoked mixed feelings all over, but did put Garry Kasparov in the lead by a comfortable margin of 2-0. Remarkably, Anatoli Karpov lost both games on time. Report, games and many phot...
The ChessVibes team arrived in beautiful Valencia yesterday for full coverage of the Valencia cuna del ajedrez moderno festivities. This afternoon, there was a first press conference with over a hundred (!) journalists attending. The 12th and 13th...
In just over a week, Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov will play an exhibition match in Valencia, Spain, as part of the festivities of the Valencia Cuna del Ajedrez Moderno program: “Valencia, birthplace of modern chess”. ChessVibes wil...
As a fairly decent club player, I have always been impressed with club members, whether higher or lower rated than me, who were able to quickly evaluate basic endgames as 'elementary' draws or wins. I must admit I have always had difficulties reme...
It's easy to become spoiled. In my review of Kasparov's book on his first two matches against Karpov (1984-1985), I expressed the hope that his next books would be as great as the first. But now that Kasparov has written about his 1986-1987 matche...
It's an endless - and often pretty boring - debate: are men better in chess than women? But recently, there was an interesting blog discussion about the All Girls US Chess School in which some points where raised that are not usually heard in this...
For over a decade, I have been ridiculed by chess friends for playing the Centre Game, an opening with a respectable history which nevertheless has a very bad image in modern opening theory. In Mainz, I witnessed Ian Nepomniachtchi and Levon Aroni...
Opening books and even more opening books: does it ever stop? Not likely, looking at the pile of opening books that have come out recently. In this review, I will look at a small selection of the sample from four different major publishers. But fi...
As the cockpit announces that we're about to land at the airport of Palermo, the capital of Sicily, I'm thinking of the Sicilian Defense. There’s no chess opening more beautiful, more difficult, more sinister than the Sicilian. Who is attacking wh...
The Mainz Chess Classic is probably the most professional, well-organized and streamlined tournament in the world. On top of that, Mainz itself is an interesting city to visit, with a rich history and a more than fascinating architecture. Arne Mol...
The quarterly Matten provides a mixture of interviews, stories and anecdotes with a literary flavour, interweaved with drawings, cartoons and photos. Recently the 6th issue came out, and as a rare exception we bring a review in the Dutch language....
Prejudice is the root of all evil. It took me over five years before I finally picked up Mark Haddon's prize-winning novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, just because I thought the title was terribly pretentious. Once I had rea...
In my previous review, I praised Bobby Fischer's compact use of language. This time, I want to show that good chess writing doesn't have to be compact - the book I'm reviewing today is everything but compact, but it's also very good. IM Herman Gro...
Peter told me last week he had been to a concert called The Beatles vs. The Stones. Tastes differ, but still ... as a Beatles fan I can't help feeling tempted to start a discussion with Stones fans sometimes, just for fun. Do they really think Sti...
Ivan Sokolov's Winning Chess Middlegames - an Essential Guide to Pawn Structures has already received so much positive feedback from reviewers that it seems difficult to say something different about the book. I had very high expectations of this ...
Igor Stohl's Instructive Modern Chess Masterpieces is written in the tradition of classic chess books such as Tarrasch's Dreihundert Schachpartien and Nimzowitsch's Die Praxis Meines Systems: serious game analysis put in a broader context of chess...
If you have kids, you've probably thought hard about how to name your child. Should you choose a 'special' kind of name, or rather a very trendy or well-known one? Popularity is an important aspect when it comes to choosing virtually anything. The...
This week ChessBase published translations of two interesting interviews, with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and with UEP President Joseph Resch, about the 2008 Anand-Kramnik match, the 2010-2011 World Championship cycle and the failed negotia...
It's not always easy keeping track of all the super tournaments that are going on in the world. Apart from the US Championship and the M-Tel Masters in Sofia, the Sahovski Klub Bosna, Sarajevo, is currently holding its traditional tournament; a st...
