A dreadfully dull game left the world championship match between Vishy Anand and Boris Gelfand tied 2.5-2.5 at Moscow. Game 5 saw Anand play white and he switched to 1.e4 perhaps in an attempt to sharpen the play. For the second time in the match the challenger wrong-footed the champion by playing a defence not previously in his repertoire and Anand was left somewhat unprepared. Gelfand usually plays the Sicilian Najdorf or Petroff Defence but he uncorked the Sicilian Sveshnikov and equalised easily. Posted on 19 May 2012 | 11:20 am
After Fahim Mohammad won the French national championship for boys under 12, the government allowed his family to begin the process to become citizens. Posted on 19 May 2012 | 12:00 am
Boris Gelfand tried a different approach against Viswanathan Anand's Semi-Slav in Game 6 of the World Chess Championship in Moscow but the result was the same, a short draw. 6 draws, 3-3 at the halfway point. Yet again this was deep opening preparation from Anand that took him pretty much to the endgame. Whilst I'm sure the players weren't that happy to hear Kasparov was making a visit most probably everyone else was. Kasparov came with pearls of wisdom to cast before the journalistic swine. His theory was that Anand has been "sliding downhill" since 2008, that he lacked motivation, the draws were mostly Anand's fault because of his unambitious "Maginot Line", defensive wall tactics with black and that Gelfand best strategy (as he hasn't beaten Anand since 1993) was to heighten the tension by keeping the match level as long as possible as Anand is "not the most stable player psychologically." Transcript (that took much longer than I expected) below along with IM Malcolm Pein's notes combined with some Kasparov and Svidler suggestions. Game 7 with Gelfand white again follows on Sunday 3pm Moscow time, 12pm UK. Posted on 18 May 2012 | 3:28 pm
Boris Gelfand couldn't make any headway in Game 6 against Viswanathan Anand but Garry Kasparov was in town for the day with his thoughts. Posted on 18 May 2012 | 2:43 pm
The 5th game of the World Chess Championship might not have been that exciting but the Europe Echecs video also has interviews with Nepomniachtchi, Anna Gunina and Evgeny Sveshnikov and a nice exchange between Alexander Grischuk and the man he lost out to in the Candidates final Boris Gelfand. Posted on 17 May 2012 | 1:55 pm
The US Chess Championships take place in Saint Louis 8th-19th May 2012 (play-off, if required 20th). Hikaru Nakamura returns after missing last year. Defending champion Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk and Yasser Seirawan are also in the 12 player field. Anna Zatonskih is favourite to retain her title with Irina Krush as second favourite in the women's 10 player event. We're back to straight forward all-play-alls for both tournaments. Round 1 Tues 8th May 1pm local time 7pm BST. Live updates of games and results. Posted on 17 May 2012 | 1:48 pm
The live coverage of the US Chess Championships fronted by Jennifer Shahade, Ben Finegold and Mike Klein and produced by Macauley Peterson has been a lot of fun as have the player interviews. Watch the daily recaps. Posted on 17 May 2012 | 1:44 pm
Viswanathan Anand, the titleholder, and his challenger, Boris Gelfand, are tied 2 to 2 in the best-of-12 match, with no game lasting more than 40 moves. Posted on 16 May 2012 | 12:00 am
Viswanathan Anand, the titleholder, and his challenger, Boris Gelfand, are tied 2 to 2 in the best-of-12 match, with no game lasting more than 40 moves. Posted on 16 May 2012 | 12:00 am
The top-ranked players grabbed leads in the United States Championship, the Sigeman & Company event and the 47th Capablanca Memorial tournament. Posted on 13 May 2012 | 12:00 am
Vaibhav Suri joins the ranks of teenage grandmasters, not all of whom have lived up to the promise they showed when they were young. Posted on 6 May 2012 | 12:00 am
Kirsan N. Ilyumzhinov held a three-hour meeting with Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, on Sunday, but it was unclear whether he was acting on his own or unofficially on Moscow’s behalf. Posted on 3 May 2012 | 12:00 am
Anna Zatonskih and Camilla Baginskaite finished first and second in St. Louis. After the last round, both players answered questions for the live Chess.FM webcast. The 18-minute interview spans a wide range of topics including questions from the ICC audience. In the final video from the 2009 U.S. Women’s Championship, Chess.FM takes you behind the scenes of [...] Posted on 21 October 2009 | 1:59 am
The hugely popular United States Chess League, hosted exclusively on the ICC on Mondays and Wednesdays, readies itself for the title-deciding playoffs as the regular season draws to a close. Chess.FM will also have exclusive live commentary of the USCL finals in December. Three teams are already assured playoff spots, including the Boston Blitz (GM Larry Christiansen [...] Posted on 19 October 2009 | 10:00 am
Irina Krush takes us through her Round 6 win over Battsetseg Tsagaan. It was part of a three game winning streak by Krush, but was too little, too late to catch Zatonskih and Baginskaite. VIDEO (Running time: 22:21) Posted on 17 October 2009 | 8:13 pm
Finishing in clear second place, and earning her first IM norm was Camilla Baginskaite. Baginskaite, who was co-U.S. Women’s Champion in 2000, was the only player to nick Anna Zatonskih for a draw, finished on an impressive +4 score, suffering only one loss at the hands of Irina Krush in the penultimate round. Baginskaite is originally Lithuanian, [...] Posted on 16 October 2009 | 2:18 am
New comer Yun Fan, a sophomore at DePauw University, hails from Beijing, China, and was rated only 2125 going into the U.S. Women’s Championshp. Her qualification in St. Louis was the subject of much debate, as her 2201 rating for the August supplement was based on just 30 tournament games at that time. Nevertheless, Fan achieved two [...] Posted on 15 October 2009 | 1:04 am