All news

• Kramnik wins again!

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  Vladimir Kramnik has beaten Luke McShane in the eighth round of the London Classic to take the lead going into the final round. The other three games were drawn leaving Magnus Carlsen as Kramnik's closest challenger. It was Viswanathan Anand's birthday today, the World Champion now being 42 years of age.

• Carlsen, McShane and Kramnik

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  The tournament has divided itself into three distinct groups, with Magnus Carlsen, Luke McShane and Vladimir Kramnik edging ahead of Hikaru Nakamura at the top. Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand make up the middle ground, with the three other English players lagging behind.

• Four solid games in London

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  The sixth round will be remembered for the distinct lack of winning chances in all four games. In the clash of World champions, Viswanathan Anand sacrificed the exchange for a pawn or two, against which Kramnik gave back material for activity which led to a complete decimation of the queenside and equality. Hikaru Nakamura still leads in a virtually unchanged table.

• A bad day for the English!

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  Hikaru Nakamura won comfortably against David Howell and has taken the lead after five rounds of the 2011 London Classic. The English players scored 0/3 today, with Short losing to Anand and Adams to Kramnik. In second place is Magnus Carlsen after he drew with Levon Aronian.

• McShane up with Carlsen

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  There were three black wins in round four. Luke McShane won his second game of the campaign, and this has given him the chance to share the lead with Magnus Carlsen. Behind this pair is Hikaru Nakamura who beat World Champion Viswanathan Anand, and finally Nigel Short opened his account with a victory over Michael Adams.

• Carlsen out on his own

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  A win over Hikaru Nakamura has enabled Magnus Carlsen to take the lead after three rounds of the London Classic. An enterprising exchange sacrifice paid off as Carlsen then built up a decisive attack. Luke McShane has again hit good form, just like in last year's tournament, and is now in second place after his victory over Michael Adams.

• Kramnik and Nakamura join Carlsen in the lead

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  In the second round, Vladimir Kramnik outplayed Nigel Short in the Four Knights, whereas Hikaru Nakamura maintained an advantage throughout to beat Levon Aronian. Luke McShane tried long and hard to repeat last year's victory over Magnus Carlsen, but the World No.1 held out for a draw.

• The London Classic is underway!

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  Magnus Carlsen started just as he finished last year - in the lead! His win occurred at the expense of David Howell, who was unable to cope with various threats coming from different directions, the Englishman's king being insecure whatever he tried.

• Gros Xake Taldea wins the Spanish Team Championship 2011

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  The Spanish Team Championship 2011 took place in the Spanish enclave of Melilla (situated on the North African coast) from the 21st to the 26th of November. It's the first time that Gros (a suburb of San Sebastian) have become Spanish Champions. In the photo, (in blue from left to right) there are Pablo San Segundo, Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexei Shirov, Etienne Bacrot, Luc Van Wely, and kneeling, IM Santiago Gonzalez de la Torre.

• London Chess Classic 2011

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  This year's London Classic features the World's top four, the leading US player, and the majority of the English National team. The venue is the Olympia Conference Centre, Kensington, and play will take place from the 3rd to the 12th of December 2011. Magnus Carlsen, who was 21 a few days ago, is back in town, having won the first two editions of the tournament. For some recent annotated games featuring Magnus Carlsen, see the Notable Games section where the Tal memorial comes under scrutiny!

• World Youth Championships

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  This year the World Youth Championships took place from the 18th to the 26th of November in Caldas Novas, Brazil, perhaps the biggest hydro-thermal resort in the World. The Armenian Samvel Ter-Sahakyan won the Under-18s open by a whole point, while Meri Arabidze from Georgia became the World Girls (u-18) Champion. Russia with three golds was the most successful country.

• Vladimir Okhotnik wins World Seniors

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  The 21st World Senior Championships took place in Rijeka, Croatia from the 15th to the 26th of November. A last round victory with Black enabled Vladimir Okhotnik (now of France, formerly of the Ukraine) to beat Bojan Kurajica, and finish the tournament with 9/11. The Russian Galina Strutinskaya is the new Women's Senior Champion.

• It's Carlsen and Aronian

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  Magnus Carlsen has a habit of finishing strongly in major tournaments. Here a last round win against Hikaru Nakamura enabled him to catch the previous leader Levon Aronian, who drew his game. Aronian had to defend carefully in a long game in order to avoid defeat, and now provisionally becomes the World No.2 for the first time. The other winner was Peter Svidler who beat an out-of-sorts Vladimir Kramnik.

• Hou Yifan retains World Championship

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  A solid draw today was sufficient. Hou Yifan wins the Women's World Championship match against Humpy Koneru by the convincing margin of 5.5-2.5. The Chinese World Champion was never in any danger throughout the match and thoroughly deserved her victory.

• Aronian takes the lead!

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  Levon Aronian has taken the lead, with one round to go, with four players only half-a-point behind. Hiis eighth round victory came at the expence of Peter Svidler in a Grûnfeld where the Armenian kept a small pull throughout.

• Hou Yifan almost there!

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  In the seventh match game Humpy Koneru played the Zaitsev variation in the Spanish. Despite the choice of a relatively active choice, World Champion Hou Yifan kept control throughout. Indeed she picked off one pawn towards the time control and a second one shortly afterwards. The technical phase took time, but Hou Yifan's third victory was always inevitable.

• Ivanchuk the sole winner

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  Vassily Ivanchuk outplayed Hikaru Nakamura and won with the black pieces in a quiet line of the Grünfeld Defence. He now joins the lead with four other players: Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin. The other four games were drawn.

• Another five draws!

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  Despite the best will in the world, no one could break the deadlock for the third round running. The closest to a win could well have been Peter Svidler, who seemed to be doing well in the middlegame, but Carlsen fought back creating enough counterplay to maintain the balance.

• Hou Yifan strikes again!

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  Another win with Black has left World champion Hou Yifan with a dominating 4-2 lead. The Challenger Humpy Koneru gave up a pawn for activity, but Hou Yifan responded by giving it back for decent counterplay in a queenless middlegame. Later, from move 30 onwards, in a balanced position, Humpy Koneru completely lost the thread and fell into a mating net just before the time control.

• A solid draw in Tirana

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  Humpy Koneru repeated the Open Variation of the Spanish in the fifth game. After simplification, Black was left with pawn weaknesses, but the Indian challenger able to obtain enough activity to compensate. Hou Yifan still leads by one point at the halfway stage of the match.