Archive for May 21st, 2009

I had a friend once that had many chess sets. He never played with it though. I even doubted if he know how to play. It served as decoration for him; just a pick of furniture to the left of his fireplace. The darn thing was beautiful though.
The individual pieces were so elegant and [...]

The calendar for women’s events is not full: still the first Women’s Grand Prix collided with the European Championship, and it looks like the second one will collide with the European Club Cup. On behalf of the ACP Elmira Mirzoeva appeals to FIDE to stop this happening. We include a lengthy exchange between the reigning women’s world champion and FIDE in these open letters on women’s chess.

All three games of round eight in Sofia, Bulgaria, were drawn. Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine drew against Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen in 41 moves. Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez drew against Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov in the same number of moves, and Alexei Shirov of Spain drew Chinese GM Wang Yue in 44 moves. Carlsen and Shirov lead. Games and standings.

Chess in the movies and on television – how often we have seen fleeting snippets or thematic scenes. But now an Italian chess fan has put together a large number of them as four “rhapsodies”, elegantly edited and set to music. They run, in chronological order, from 1925 to 2008. The music, truly beautiful, is by the exceptional Croatian pianist Maksim Mrvica. Take the time to enjoy this treat.