05.11.2009 – Organisers don't like the 'all games drawn' headline. But in round one of the
very strong Tal Memorial all were more or less hard fought. Carlsen, Anand and
Leko had at some stage shaky positions against Kramnik, Ivanchuk and Morozevich
respectively, but all three pulled it together and held draws. On the spectators spotted some fairly prominent
kibitzers. Round one report.
05.11.2009– Shabtai Kalmanovich, a former Israeli double agent who penetrated Golda Meir's government on behalf of the KGB, has been shot dead in Moscow. An unidentified gunman fired at least 20 shots into his chauffeur-driven Mercedes Benz. Why do we report this? Because Kalmanovich was a patron of women's basketball and chess. News reports.
05.11.2009– This event, which ended on Tuesday, brought us lively games and a dramatic finish. But being staged in a remote place at the other end of the world there was a dearth of pictorial material. Which was a shame, since the venue, the southern end of South America, is scenically beautiful. Well, thank heavens for Åse Østebø, captain of the Norwegian squad. She has sent us this spectacular report.
05.11.2009 – The annual Tal Memorial starts on Thursday, November 5th and ends on November
14th. At category 21 (average Elo 2764) it is one of the strongest of all time
and includes Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik and Aronian. After this the World Blitz
Championship will be held. We will be broadcasting the moves from Moscow live
on , which soon celebrates a
remarkable anniversary. Tournament details.
05.11.2009 – The European Team Championship in Novi Sad witnessed an exciting final
round in which the decision as to who would win the gold medal came as the
result of a rook ending. Vugar Gashimov, White, absolutely had to win in order
to secure the title for the Azerbaijani team. Daniel Stellwagen, Black, was fighting
for a draw. In the position shown in our diagram, which move would you have chosen as
Black? Think carefully. GM Karsten Müller has analysed the decisive phase of the endgame
Gashimov-Stellwagen for