ChessBase Magazine Online

Second chance: Women's Blitz Qualifier on Playchess
23.06.2010 – The first Women's World Blitz Championship is in Moscow from September 15 to 18, with a total prize fund of € 60,000. Two Online Qualifiers on the Playchess server allow five players each to qualify for the finals. The first was completed last Saturday, the second will be held on Thursday, June 24th at 19:00h (CEST). You can still make it. Results and details.
 

Zalakaros Chess Festival 2010
23.06.2010 – IM Tamas Horvath is the organiser of this impeccably run event, which takes place in a pretty little spa town in the Balaton lake region of Hungary, an oasis of peace and tranquility. The 2000 Euro first prize drew a large number of titled players: nine GMs, 22 IMs and 19 FMs, WGMs and WIMs. Young talents abound. You will see many new faces and this big pictorial report.
 

Physical fitness of young chess players
23.06.2010 – You may have suspected it, but a study by two scientists has produced empirical proof: being physically fit is good for your chess. Their conclusions: organisers should provide facilities for active forms of recreation; parents and chess coaches, and the players themselves, should be aware of the significance of fitness preparation. Study by Agnieszka Fornal-Urban and Anna Keska.
 

Medias R8: Carlsen draws (at last), leads by one point
22.06.2010 – For a while there, towards the end of his game against Boris Gelfand, it looked as though the Norwegian super-GM was going to pull off a fifth victory. Actually Magnus Carlsen had escaped from some pressure exerted by his Israeli opponent. Radjabov-Ponomariov ended in a draw, while Wang Yue messed up his white game against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and lost. GM commentary.
 

From the Z1 to the Singularity – Zuse's 100th birthday
22.06.2010 – The German engineer and computer pioneer Konrad Zuse was born one hundred years ago today. He is considered the inventor of the world's first programmable computer, and the first high-level programming language. This anniversary leads us to pause and consider how far we have come in a single human lifetime – and where the development of computers is leading. Food for thought.
 

Medias R7: Carlsen wins fourth game in a row
22.06.2010 – The Kings Tournament has moved to its original location in Bazna, and Magnus Carlsen continues his amazing series, scoring his fourth consecutive win, this time on the white side of a Sicilian Dragon against Teimour Radjabov. The performance of the 19-year-old Norwegian: 2955. Gelfand defeated Nisipeanu and is now alone in second place. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.
 

Ivanchuk wins Capablanca Memorial with 2839 performance
21.06.2010 – Vassily Ivanchuk has won the Elite Group of this auspicious tournament, for the fourth time – something no other player has yet achieved. Second was 19-year-old GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, followed by Leinier Dominguez and Nigel Short. The FIDE presidential campaign has hit Cuba, with both Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Anatoly Karpov visiting the closing ceremony. The former came there bearing gifts.
 

Openings surveys in CBM 136
21.06.2010 – After 6...c5 in the Vienna Variation of the Orthodox Queen's Gambit, theory frequently stretches far into the middlegame. But recently 6...h6 has come into contention – Kramnik, Aronian and Ivanchuk have all tried it. If this alternative turns out to be reliable, Black will have an elegant option to simply avoid the thicket of variations after the main move. Evgeny Postny has looked into the subject and provided us with thorough analysis of top games. His conclusion is cautious, since the idea is still fresh. But in the next issue of CBM there will be fresh annotated games with 6...h6. Read: Postny: Vienna with 6...h6.
 

Medias R6: Carlsen's hat-trick against Ponomariov
21.06.2010 – Two games in round six of this Category 20 Super-GM ended in draws, but the ever astonishing Magnus Carlsen struck out again, for the third time in succession and with the black pieces, this time goading Ruslan Ponomariov into complication which the young Norwegian understood better. His performance so far is 2919, his "live rating" 2821. Commentary by GM Dorian Rogozenco.
 

The Rybka4 Book – a treasure trove for tournament players
21.06.2010 – Two weeks ago we brought you an interview with the Rybka4 autor Vasik Rajlich. Today his openings specialist Jiri Dufek, who was a member of the Veselin Topalov World Championship team, tells us about the Rybka4 Book, which was generated with a 100-core machine and which not only makes the program even stronger – it also contains important novelties for tournament players. Part one.
 

Smeets, Peng win the 2010 Dutch Championships
20.06.2010 – Anish Giri, the reigning champion, and Jan Smeets led the 2010 Dutch Championship from the start. They were joint leaders until the penultimate round, when young Anish lost to veteran Loek van Wely. In the final round Smeets secured the title with a three-move draw against the tail ender. In the women's section Peng Zhaoqin won her twelfth title. Final report.
 

Medias R5: Carlsen strikes again, leads the field
20.06.2010 – It's not easy being the hot favourite in a Category 20 tournament – anything but clear victory would be considered a sensation. Well, top seed Magnus Carlsen has set to work. After three draws he has won two games in a row and leads the field ahead of Radjabov and Gelfand. On the free day there was a soccer match. Pictures and GM commentary of round five.