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Anand continued his winning edge against Kramnik by beating him at Wijk aan Zee in the 12th round. Ironically, Kramnik had been displaying sparkling form and had even beaten the current world no. 1, Carlsen. Anand thus beat 2 of the 3 top players at the ongoing tournament. See full game: Key moments: 18 ... Bf8 Not losing, but Kramnik could probably just continue with 18. ... Bf5 19 Qe5 Qxe5 20. Nxe5 Bd6 and so on. A draw is not bad with the Petroff against the world champ. 27 .. Nb3? Again, Bf5 or Bc5 will do just fine. 34 .. Qg6? Loses immediately at these levels. Probably plain time pressure. One winning line for example is 35 Qxg6 hxg6 36. Bg4 Rxc4 37 Nf7 Kg8 38 Be6 Anand played the immediate Bg4, probably laying a trap into which Kramnik walked in playing Rxc4. The win was demonstrated with usual technique by Anand.

Poor Shirov's bad luck against Anand continues. He added another loss to his already lopsided tally against him. Worse, he had a chance to beat the reigning World Champion yesterday at the Corus Chess tournament. Under agonizing time pressure, and with just 2 moves to make, Shirov first let Anand slip and then even missed drawing chances to go down in flames (or fire!) Tragic :( Analyze the following position. What should Shirov have played? See the full game here:

Carlsen has just played 35. Nb6? Show me the win! Vladimir Kramnik outplayed Magnus Carlsen in the 9th round of the Wijk aan Zee tournament of 2010. In a tournament where the current unified World Champ, Anand cannot show all his skills, this certainly was the game everyone was waiting for. Kramnik has shown tremendous character after he was crushed by Anand in the World Championship match. He is now very close to joining the 2800+ club. Anand is now ranked 5th in the world. Here's hoping that he has something really special cooked for the World championship match against Topalov. See the full game here:

So, who's the hottest property in the top 10 rakings at the moment? Yeah, we know Carlsen is making waves and the no. 1 tag has that special feel to it. So, what is your other guess? Yes, its none other than Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. With is fantastic run in the World Team Championship at Turkey recently, he has jumped into the top ten again. After the tragic cheating incident at last year's Aeroflot open, where Mamedyarov accused Kurnosov of getting help, his performance had slumped and he even dropped out of the top 20 in the world at one time. After some lacklustre performances, Mamedyarov started his rise from the low 2717 rating and at the WTCC bludgeoned mostly lower rated Grandmasters on the third board and leapt into the top league of the world rankings. He is now rated 2760 live, which was his previous highest rating. He seems to be more determined this time to reach his goal - the No. 1 ranking (according to his declaration on his website.) We watch his progress keenl

Why is it that Nakamura manages these amazing games even in an age where Chess engines almost prohibit creativity? Is it that he is imagining ideas that no one does? Is he plain bluffing!? Does he manage to shake his opponents psychologically? Well, probably all of the above and more. If you observe his games closely, you will notice that he throws the game off balance much more often than the other "principled" top Chess players. Which means that even if Nakamura is making an objectively slightly inferior move, he is constantly forcing his opponents into areas where they are not in the comfort zone. They expect Move A and then bang comes Move P, expect Move B and there comes Move J. Mind you, the supposedly inferior moves cannot be measured in the usual Fritzy way. The value of the move is the accuracy he is giving up vs the complexity he is throwing up! And it is sometimes a good plus, even if it is minus per the engines. Now, the problem for the bunny GM is that Naka is no

At the World Team Championship Chess tourney at Bursa, Turkey we are seeing some very interesting developments. Nakamura is shooting up the Live Ratings ladder. There are bunch of others making waves, namely Mamedyarov, Onishchuk, Grischuk, Vitiugov, and Sutovsky among others with 2800+ performances. Now we come to another interesting observation. The top three players after Anand, namely Harikrishna, Ganguly, and Sasikiran are not only making a valiant effort at reaching the top of the standings in the event, but are battling among themselves indirectly against each other to finish second highest after Anand. They have already swapped places a few times just in this event alone. The standout performer is by far Sasikiran, who has wins against Gashimov and hold your breath, Aronian (in a Rook and pawns endgame!!! excuse the exclamations- really!)

Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen, and Kramnik are Chesshousehold names. But how many of the others invited to this years Corus Chess tournament do we know? We present these talented but relatively lesser known players in a different, interesting way. Be aware that most of them are super stars in their own country/region. Pentala Harikrishna Look at this www.chessmetrics.com list. 1 Kramnik, Vladimir 2541 2 Bu Xiangzhi 2520 3 Kundin, Alexander 2494 4 Radjabov, Teimour 2474 5 Leko, Peter 2466 6 Kamsky, Gata 2462 7 Polgar, Judit 2458 8 Ponomariov, Ruslan 2452 9 Bacrot, Etienne 2432 10 Harikrishna, Pentala 2381 According to Jeff Sonas, this is the list of the highest ratings of 14 year olds, ever! Sure, No. 3 Kundin is not popular, but No. 10 is not a bad ranking to have, especially if you go down the list and find Jakovenko, Aronian, Naiditsch, Short, Kasimdzhanov, and last but not the least Topalov at Nos 12, 13, 17, 30, 44 and 50! i warned you No. 10 is not bad! (Probably No. 11 now

Now that Carlsen (and Kasparov!) is giving us some breathing time after the fireworks of the year, we go back a bit in time (and a bit more for Kasparov) to look at the Scotch that they now share. Last year Carlsen beat Leko with a Scotch that had commentators gasping in awe. Working with Kasparov was one thing, but whipping out the Scotch against one of the most durable players in history was another thing. Carlsen beat Leko in an interesting struggle. This win set the tone for his eventual progress towards the No. 1 spot. The surprises and the strength were for all to witness. We also present the vintage Scotch that Kasparov threw on the young Bacrot back in 2000. The same Scotch that he used against a much deadlier opponent, Karpov. Spend quality time to sip through the games slowly and tell us what you found interesting.

The Chess world has recently been rocked by anti-draw slogans. Is this justified or not? Well, its for you to decide. Let me know your views after seeing this game. What we definitely need to cultivate is the taste for really well played out draws by Super Grandmasters. We visit London again and in the Queen's Gambit Declined - Ragozin Defence game, both Kramnik and Nakamura shun obvious moves to make the game more interesting. Watch the game between the most principled and arguably the most unorthodox player. Can't get better than this! What do you think Nakamura will do in this position ;-) ? Watch the full game here.

Chess prodigies usually have a volatile time in some phases of their phenomenal run up the ratings charts. With talents like Caruana, it is more due to over-confidence, and going for too much. In the following position, Caruana had winning chances being an exchange up by the middle game stage. He infiltrated White's territory without back and lost that advantage. Now, in the diagram position, Caruana can try to hold the game with Rb1+ but instead he brings in the Queen to attack. This uncoordinated attack is made to pay. See the full game here:

Illya Nyzhnyk is just 13 years old and has GM norms(can anyone confirm if he has completed the criteria?) At the recently concluded Groningen Open, Nyzhnyk decimated GM opposition to win the tournament by a point! The performance was so awe-inspiring that GM Sipke said that no one so young had dominated a GM field like this at this age except Carlsen. Sipke should know since he was at the receiving end of a sacrificial gem by Carlsen who was also 13 at that time. Here's a sample game where Nyzhnyk systematically grinds down GM Chadaev. In the standings for the tournament, you will see another teenage prodigy in the field. You will effortlessly spot several strong GMs in the field. Final Standings 1. Nyzhnyk, Illya 7.5 2. Werle, Jan 6.5 Reinderman, Dimitri 6.5 4. Chadaev, Nikolai 6.0 Greenfeld, Alon 6.0 Nijboer, Friso 6.0 Brandenburg, Daan 6.0 Baklan, Vladimir 6.0 Giri, Anish 6.0 Deviatkin, Andrei 6.0 Poetsch, Hagen 6.0