What have been some of the biggest surprises in all 3 groups so far? Standings after 9 rounds: Group A 1. L. Aronian, M. Carlsen 5½3. V. Kramnik, T. Radjabov, M. Adams, V. Anand 57. S. Mamedyarov, V. Ivanchuk,...
Royal Diamond Chess Set

Have you ever wondered how much the most expensive chess set in the world would cost? The Royal Diamond Chess Set is without a doubt near the top of the list in terms of expense, value, and beauty. To...
Spoelman scores 1st Corus win

Final position GM Smeets (2573) – IM Spoelman (2424) [B51]22.01.2008Corus Group B 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 4.0–0 Bd7 5.Re1 Nf6 6.c3 a6 7.Bf1 Bg4 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 g6 10.Na3 Bg7 11.Nc2 Nd7 12.Rd1 0–0 13.d4 cxd4 14.cxd4...
Shocking news

28 year old Oscar nominee Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan residence at 3:26 PM. The Australian-born actor was nominated for an Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” where he met his wife, actress Michelle Williams, in...
The final resting place?

I just received this picture (Laugardælir church in the town of Laugardælir) from one of the posters on this blog. It states that this is where Bobby Fischer was burried. Can anyone confirm this picture? Chess Daily News from...
Claudia Munoz

FIDE Woman Candidate Master Claudia Munoz won the 2008 Susan Polgar National Open Elementary Section with the score of 5.5 of 6. In addition to the first place trophy, she also won a state of the art laptop computer....
Special games from Corus

GM Cheparinov (2713) – GM Krasenkow (2636) [D31]22.01.2008 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c6 4.e4 dxe4 5.Nxe4 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Qxd4 7.Bxb4 Qxe4+ 8.Be2 Na6 9.Bd6 b6 10.Nf3 Bb7 11.0–0 Rd8 12.Qd2 c5 13.Rad1 Nb4 14.a3 Nc6 15.Bd3 Qg4 16.h3...
No handshake, no big deal

According to the official website, there was no handshake between Topalov and Kramnik. Since neither offered, they did not have to. In addition, it was reported that the novelty 12.Nxf7 was prepared by GM Cheparinov, Topalov’s second, as far...
Van Haastert 0-1 Nakamura

Final position IM Van Haastert (2416) – GM Nakamura (2670) [B90]22.01.20082008Gibraltar Open 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 h5 9.0–0–0 Bb7 10.Bd3 Nbd7 11.Rhe1 Rc8 12.Kb1 Be7 13.h4 Ne5 14.Bg5...