All news

• The Mega-open: Cappelle la Grande

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  For the 26th time the small town of Cappelle la Grande in the north of France near Dunkirk has organized its annual open.
  Mikhail Gurevich (now of Turkey) leads alone on 4.5/5 with no less than 26 players on 4/5.

• Moscow Aeroflot nears its climax

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  With one round to go there are two leaders on 6/8, both of them from Vietnam: Ngoc Truong Son Nguyen and Quang Liem Le (in the photo) who incidentally also had a good tournament in the earlier Moscow open.

• Status Quo in Linares

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  There was no change in the rankings for the second day running after three rather calm draws today.
  Topalov and Grischuk lead, the only two players to have won a game so far.

• Three amazing draws in Linares

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  Topalov and Grischuk are still ahead as three really complicated games all led to draws. Veselin Topalov came up with some fireworks to save a dubious-looking position and Vallejo Pons lost his queen but kept fighting and saved the game!

• Topalov and Grischuk draw blood.

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  The favourite Veselin Topalov and in-form Alexander Grischuk both won with direct kingside action.
  World Cup winner Boris Gelfand is in Linares as a late substitute, but since his success in Khanty Mansiysk his results haven't been as good.
  The other loser Vugar Gashimov is also going through a rough patch.

• Linares underway!

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  The small town of Linares in Andalucia has long been associated with this top level event.
  World number two Veselin Topalov starts as favourite but Levon Aronian is the highest rated amongst his rivals.

• Moscow: Capital of the Chess World!

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  Yet again our attention comes back to the Russian capital.
  In February there are two important open tournaments the first of which has just finished.
  Four players finished with 7/9 and 46th seed Konstantin Chernyshov was awarded the title due to a higher number of wins.

• Open of the month: Gibraltar!

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  The GIBTELECOM MASTERS ran from the 26th of January to the 4th of February 2010 and had sufficiently big prizes to entice several big names to play.
  Adams won the play-offs beating Vallejo Pons in the final.
  Michael seems to have form and luck on his side at the moment as in his win last month over Bacrot in the British League (photo courtesy of Meri Grigoryan).

• A brand new series of Videos for Subscribers!

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  Simon Williams is known as a daring player who is quite willing to take risks in order to seize the initiative and aims to mount an attack. Over the coming weeks he will be giving us some insight into some of his aggressive openings. Some great ideas that we can all learn from and consider trying out in our own games!

• Carlsen again!

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  The younger players had a strong influence in this year's Corus festival. Not just Magnus Carlsen but Anish Giri and others confirmed their progress towards the very top.
  Some of these youngsters have probably made their trainers happy!?
  In the top group only Nakamura won, otherwise the top positions remain the same with of course Carlsen winning the tournament.
  Yet another milestone in his string of successes in recent months!
  See the final Video report and tables below.

• Carlsen set to take Corus crown

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  Anand does Carlsen a favour by beating Vladimir Kramnik in the Petroff. Definitely the Indian's best game for some time!
  Otherwise Smeets recued some honour by making a mess of Van Wely's Najdorf.
  Read on for further details and the latest Video report.

• Carlsen and Kramnik are neck-and-neck!

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  Magnus Carlsen overcomes Dominguez to catch Kramnik who drew with Shirov.
  The top two seeds now head the field.
  Anish Giri and Li Chao-b both win and stay ahead in the other groups.
  Read on and see some great Videos!
  

• Carlsen rebounds, Shirov slips and Kramnik leads!

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  After yesterday's unfortunate loss Carlsen bounces back with a win. Shirov threw away his game against Anand in time trouble and drops back to equal second behind Kramnik.
  Tomorrow the fire-raising Shirov has a chance to make amends as he has White in the eleventh round against Kramnik.

• Revenge is sweet

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  After losing to Carlsen in London the ex-World Champion got his own back today. Indeed Vladimir Kramnik won with Black, giving him 4.5/5 in the last five rounds.
  This enables Kramnik to catch Shirov, who drew, and now everything is up for grabs!

• Countdown to Carlsen-Kramnik

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  It's the second rest day in Wijk aan Zee before tomorrow's ninth round including the clash between Carlsen and Kramnik. Remember Carlsen won against the former World Champion in London last month.
  Ivanchuk has the White pieces against Shirov who begins a double-black.
  For subscribers there is a new endgame video (see Videos) plus an analysis of the latter stages of Short-Kramnik (see Notable games, Analysis of the Week) where Short should really have won.

• Kramnik closes in!

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  Vladimir Kramnik joins Magnus Carlsen in second place.
  The former World champion outplayed Nakamura to overtake him in the tournament. In the other big clash between Shirov and Carlsen, just when anything seemed possible the players settled for a repetition.

• The leader wobbles!

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  The tournament is wide open as Nakamura defeats Shirov and gets himself within half-a-point of the leader. Carlsen dominates Ivanchuk and is now also breathing down Shirov's neck!
  See the latest video report!
  

• Dominguez, Leko and Kramnik win, but Shirov can only draw!

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  The leading players all draw, including Shirov, despite trying his best for more, but Kramnik's win brings him up into the chasing pack on equal second.
  Leko and Dominguez also won with White.
  Leinier Dominguez is one of the least well-known of the participants, but he was World Blitz Champion in 2008, so is no slouch!
  See the latest video report.

• New on the Chessanytime site

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  I hope that you are enjoying the site whether you have subscribed yet or not. Have you seen our latest video report from Wijk aan Zee?
  For subscribers only, my latest video is available (see Videos) and, new this morning, a selection of annotated games from the early rounds of the Corus tournament (see Notable Games).

• Kramnik hits the target but Shirov dominates!

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  Two black wins, one by Vladimir Kramnik and the other by, yes that's right...Alexei Shirov. Five straight wins is almost unheard of at this level. Carlsen, Ivanchuk and Nakamura share a distant second.