Chess Satranç ajedrez échecs schaken Schach scacchi escacs xadrez şah шахматы šahmaty

Can you find a win out of this? Do you feel something like this sometimes? Editor

Fischer played Table Tennis the way he played Chess: fiercely, ferociously, going for his opponent's jugular. He was a killer, a remorseless, conscienceless, ice-blooded castrator...' wrote Marty 'The Needle' Reisman in his autobiography The Money Player - The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler. From kenilworthchessclub.org: Both Chess and Table Tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision.  There is nothing hidden in either game.  Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are.  In Chess we call this "board vision," and Table Tennis definitely has its "table vision."

I always thought playing with non-standard chess pieces was awkward, although I wouldn't mind doing it on the beach and not in a tournament. What do you feel? What would be your comfort level? Editor

GM Abhijeet Gupta of India India's talented 22 year old Abhijeet Gupta is all set to break into the top 100 club of the world. On the November 2011 list, the 100th ranked player was rated 2651, so if all goes well, Abhijeet should make it. It will help him receive attractive invitations to higher level tournaments. Abhijeet hails from Bhilwara, Rajasthan and is a World Junior Champ (2008). His other notable performances are 1st at Dubai Open Chess 2011, and runner up at the Orissa GM tournament.

Several Grandmasters are expected to participate in the 10th Parsvnath International Chess Tournament 2012 which starts from 14th to 23rd January 2012 Venue: Ludlow Castle Sports Complex, Civil Lines, New Delhi. Total Prize Fund: INR 15,00,000/- First prize: INR 3,00,000/- There are 30 main cash prizes and many other reserved prizes. Accomodation is being provided and the playing conditions are expected to be good. The first round starts on Jan 15 2012.

Nakamura and Kasparov are stopping their work together at Chess. The brief training sessions did not go far and it was always going to be rough with two strong personalities with differing views. Rex Sinquefield was funding the program. What probably sealed the nail on the coffin was when Nakamura reportedly said that Kasparov was mainly strong in opening preparation.

Yes, there is a lot of Chess excitement around the Tal Memorial Chess where Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik, Ivanchuk and many other stars are playing. But shouldn't we also pay some attention to the Women's World Championship. These girls are very young and also nearly 2600+ Open Grandmasters. Super stars in their own right! Yifan leads 3.5-2.5, but it is early days yet. Humpy played two super openings but could not convert them to full points. Yifan just got one good chance and she was really a surgeon at the board.

The Live Chess Ratings list shows some exciting changes. We now have three highly entertaining/enterprising/risk-taking fighters in the top 10 - Ivanchuk, Morozevich, and Nakamura. Of course, the other top players are no less entertaining, but they are pretty much stable in the top list. World Championship contenders V Anand and B Gelfand are at No. 2 and 14 respectively. If you glance a little lower, you see that Tomashevsky has gained huge points and now is well placed to enter the top 10. The big losers recently are Kamsky and Ponomariov. For India, we have a 2700+ player back in the group after a long time. K Sasikiran is playing the Corsica Masters and one hopes that he maintains the form that has brought him this invitation. Editor

An old photo of Carlsen vs Ivanchuk Magnus showed his class by grinding down current tourney leader, Ivanchuk in a French defence game. What was amazing was that Carlsen came up with a win in a double bishops ending! In other games, Nakamura beat Vallejo Pons. Anand drew his game against Aronian. Watch the game here:

World Champ V Anand. Photo courtesy thechessdrum.net Anand beat Vallejo Pons in the fourth round of the Sao Paulo masters Chess tournament. Ivanchuk continued his outstanding form beating 2800+ rated and World No. 3 Aronian. In the live chess ratings Ivanchuk only trails the very cream of world Chess, Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, and Kramnik. Ivanchuk is by far the most active top Chess player in the world. Usually he slips back in the rankings and then climbs steeply. It remains to be seen if this occurs again! We hope not! Watch Anand beat Vallejo Pons

Ivanchuk Vassily Ivanchuk, the people's favorite for all his pleasing emotional expressions, is back in the World's top 5 on the Live Chess Ratings list. He is currently on 2777. Both Anand and Carlsen have lost over 6 ELO by losing their previous round against lower rated players. Watch Ivanchuk's earlier win over Vallejo Pons:

World Champion V Anand and World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen both lost in the Sao Paolo Masters Chess tournament. While Anand's trick against Ivanchuk backfired, Carlsen blundered and lost. Play the games and see for yourself! Anand Ivanchuk 0-1 Vallejo Pons vs Carlsen 1-0

Some updated details about Peter Svidler, who recently won the World Chess Cup 2011 at Khanty Mansiysk. Name: Peter Svidler Age: 34 (6/17/1976) FIDE Title: Grandmaster (gained his GM norms in 1994) Current ELO rating: 2740 ( FIDE rating list ) Current Live Chess rating : 2760 (9th in the World, just 5 ELO points from his highest level) Current Chess960 rating: 2733 Current coach: IM Andrei Lukin Hobbies: Listening to good music, reading, cricket and any kind of billiards Courtesy his official Web site www.psvidler.net

IM Rathnakaran Here are some noteworthy results of Round 5 live! K Rathnakaran and P Shyam Nikil maintained their all win record after the fifth round of the Mumbai Mayor's cup by winning against co-leaders Himanshu Sharma and K Priyadarshan. The other leaders, Enamul Hossain and S Sathyapragyan drew their match and thus fell behind by 0.5 points. Results: Enamul Hossain drew S Satyapragyan K Rathnakaran  bt Himanshu Sharma P Shyam Nikil bt K Priyadarshan A Aleksandrov bt R R Laxman R Siddharth lost to Kravtsiv

S Satyapragyan Several Grand Masters fell by the wayside in the fourth round of the Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Chess tournament at Goregaon. S Satyapragyan Swayangsu beat GM Chadaev while P Shyam Nikil beat young GM SP Sethuraman. Others to belt out wins against GMs were IM K Rathnakaran against GM Ziaur Rahman, and Akash Thakur against GM Kotanjian. Top seed GM Aleksandraov, GM Kunte, GM Murshed were held to draws by R Prasanna, Anwesh Upadhyaya, and GB Joshi respectively. Six players lead the table with a maximum of 4 points each.

C Aravindh is coming up with sensational performances. The 12 year old boy has just beaten Grand Master D Sengupta in the Mumbai Mayor's Chess tournament. Just last week, he won the Indian Junior Chess title ahead of much stronger rivals. Here's his rating rise in the last two years. It is bound to shoot much higher after his show in the Junior Championship and the Mumbai tournament. http://ratings.fide.com/id.phtml?event=5072786 Incidentally, Pon Krithikha won the Girls Junior title at Goa.

Grischuk and Svidler in an old photo Peter Svidler continued his fine touch with the black pieces and overcame a novelty from Grischuk in the finals of the World Cup Chess 2011 in the Ugorian Chess Academy at Khanty-Mansiysk. Ivanchuk could not convert his advantage against team mate Ponomariov and their game ended in a draw. Watch Svidler outfox Grischuk:

What made this book tick for almost 100 years? Some highlights: The book has two main sections: "The Elements," and "Positional Play" The tempo in the opening Create a weakness, target it, go for the target Pawn structures The center There are many other themes and topics. What did you like in it? Do write to us about your experiences.

Which one do you like? The Digital one or Antique one? Chess Clocks

Peter Svidler has been in good form in this year's World Cup Chess tournament. He has progressed to the final, where he plays Grischuk. Svidler beat Judit Polgar before eliminating Ruslan Ponomariov in an amazing show of strength, where Ponomariov's draw was declined in a very technical position. Incidentally, Svidler has been in great touch with the black pieces against formidable opponents. Here are the winning games in the most recent rounds. Polgar vs Svidler: Ponomariov vs Svidler:

Ivanchuk's blunder in the fast paced games:

Watch Magnus Carlsen and Morozevich discuss their game at Biel recently and hosted by GM Miso Cebalo! Video courtesy ChessbaseGmbH

Anish in a great mood after his win over Carlsen. It's interesting to see what he has to say right after the game. The game was at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament a few months back. Video courtesy Chessvibes.

Two great events and two predictable winners! Yes, Kramnik already won Dortmund with a round to go. He's still unblemished but Carlsen could not escape a loss. Kramnik breached the 2800 during the tournament on the Live Chess Ratings list. It is very clear that he is now back to his best. Expect a surge from here. Anand, Carlsen - guys, you better look out. Both the tournaments had a sprinkle of the future Chess World order - Maxime Vachier, Caruana, Quang Leim, and Anish Giri. Nakamura? Well, allow him to create his own destiny. Hard to predict! What do you think of the future of Chess?

Carlsen gave Kasparov a run for his money when he was just 13 years old. He was also known in the chess circles as a prodigy, but his draw against Kasparov threw him into the limelight instantly. In this Video, watch this pint sized pre-teen makes the giant squirm in his seat. Video:

Magnus Carlsen took back the number one ranking the world by winning the double round robin tournament at Medias, Romania. Carlsen won even though Karjakin tied with him on 6.5 points after 10 rounds. The results of this tournament have profound implications. Carlsen passes Anand and Karjakin passes Kramnik to be fourth on the live chess ratings list. Nisipeanu could not take advantage of home conditions and finished at the bottom with Ivanchuk with 4 points. Ivanchuk beat Nakamura in the last round to salvage some pride. Final Standings: Carlsen, Karjakin 6.5 Nakamura, Radjabov 4.5 Nisipeanu, Ivanchuk

Will it be Grischuk or Gelfand? For 3 games, the two players have been locked in draws. If the deadlock continues, there could even be sudden death play offs. Who do you think will go on to challenge the World Champion? Editor