Mark Crowther (Wed Sep 1 22:42:00 2010)

The organisers say they are ready, but others are concerned. It seems that FIDE's official in charge of the Olympiad, FIDE Vice-President Israel Gelfer, is under great strain right now. He sent an abusive E-Mail to one of the representatives of the nations that support the current FIDE regime, something regarded as quite out of character for him. It is however the changes to the times of flights to the venue that is causing most concern.

Mark Crowther (Mon Aug 30 15:07:00 2010)

The Arctic Securities Chess Stars tournament took place in Kristiansund 28th-30th August 2010. Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Judit Polgar and Jon Ludvig Hammer played in the two stage event. The Double Round Robin between the four players was dominated by Anand. Time control: 20 minutes + 10 seconds a move. Carlsen beat Anand 1.5-0.5 in the final and Hammer beat Polgar to take third place.

Mark Crowther (Thu Aug 19 17:52:00 2010)

The RAW World Chess Challenge under the tag-line "CAN YOU BEAT MAGNUS CARLSEN?" takes place the Cooper Star Hotel in New York City in New York City on Friday September 10th 2010. This one day match is part of Magnus Carlsen's G-Star fashion sponsorship (their RAW brand) and represents some of the best news for chess in years. The challenge see Carlsen take on registered viewers from throughout the world, they will receive help from Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France, Hikaru Nakamura from the United States and Judit Polgar from Hungary who will suggest moves that will be voted on. The event is just one day but is similar to the hugely successful Kasparov versus the World in 1999. Kasparov will also be on hand as an Ambassador for this match.

Mark Crowther (Sun Aug 22 16:17:00 2010)

The 5th NH Chess Rising Stars vs Experience Tournament took place in Amsterdam 12th-22nd August 2010. The experienced Gelfand, Svidler, PH Nielsen, Van Wely and Ljubojevic took on the Rising Stars of Nakamura, Caruana, Wesley So, Giri and Howell.

The tournament finished with the Youth side defeating the Experience 26-24. Boris Gelfand scored 7/10 for the Experience team. Anish Giri lost his final game to allow Hikaru Nakamura to catch him on 6/10. The two had a play-off for a place in next year's Amber tournament. The blitz playoff with a time rate of 3m+2spm saw Nakamura win with a 2-0 score. It wouldn't really surprise me if Giri gets an invitation anyway.

At the closing ceremony it was confirmed that this will be the last edition of the tournament.

Mark Crowther (Tue Aug 31 14:46:00 2010)

The Baku Open took place 23rd-31st August 2010. Gata Kamsky in spite of a loss to Rauf Mamedov secured victory alone with 7.5/9 half a point clear of the field. Games from the final round are not complete.

Additional coverage at www.ulvichess.az with Photos from the event.

Mark Crowther (Sun Aug 29 20:52:00 2010)

Boris Gelfand beat Peter Leko 4.5-3.5 in an 8 game rapid match in Miskolc, 25th-29th August 2010. The time control was 25m + 10spm. This was the 6th such match Leko has played in Miskolc since the first one in 2005 (Adams, Karpov, Kramnik, Carlsen and Anand). Arbiter: Zsuzsa Veroci.

Mark Crowther (Thu Aug 12 09:09:00 2010)

The field for the 2nd London Chess Classic has been strengthened again this year with the addition of Viswanathan Anand. Returning are World Number One Magnus Carlsen, Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, US Number One Hikaru Nakamura and the top English players Michael Adams, Nigel Short, Luke McShane and David Howell.

There will be many events alongside this major tournament.

Mark Crowther (Tue Aug 10 10:11:00 2010)

The 17th Chess Classic Mainz took place 6th-8th August 2010. The festival has suffered from the general economic slowdown with the Grenke Rapid World Championship Open taking the lead along with simuls by World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Aronian, Grischuk Shirov, Movsesian, Kamsky, Kasimdzhanov, Bologan, Inarkiev, Bareev and Zvjaginsev played the main open tournament. Gata Kamsky took clear first place with 10/11, he started with 9/9 before draws with Gashimov and Grischuk saw him home. Vugar Gashimov, defending champion Levon Aronian and Evgeny Bareev were half a point further back.

Mark Crowther (Sun Aug 29 08:21:00 2010)

The Spanish Chess Championships CECLUB Honor Division took place in Sestao, Vizcaya, 23rd-28th August 2010. 6 Rounds: 10 teams. First 4 rounds a Swiss, Final 2 Rounds settled the final placings. Kasparov Marcote took clear first place by beating Linex Magic 4.5-1.5 in the final. Hosts Setao Naturgas took 3rd place. There was a rapid playoff won by Gros XT to settle 5th place.

The rather messy format has come in for a lot of criticism with round 4 seeing a lot of quick draws, some agreed before play. It seems very likely there will be a change next year.

Shirov, Ponomariov, Caruana, Gashinov, Vallejo, Bacrot, Kasimdzhanov, Navara, Laznicka, Almasi, Harikrishna, Dreev, Krasenkow, Bruzon, Nakamura, Vachier, Short were amongst the high profile players.

Mark Crowther (Thu May 13 16:17:00 2010)

The World Chess Championship took place in Sofia, Bulgaria Saturday 24th April to 11th May 2010. Viswanathan Anand won a very hard fought match 6.5-5.5 against his challenger Veselin Topalov to retain his title. In the final game Topalov's quest for complications led to trouble and he couldn't recover from a bad blunder.

This page contains all the stories, results, games and videos from the match.