16.02.2010– Our GM analyst Anish Giri sent us the following message: "Topalov: novelty, draw; Aronian: ending, technical, still draw; Grischuk: strange prep, maybe even worse, draw." That may be the shortest round wrap-up ever. Indeed after some very exciting games the three draws in round four were fairly uneventful. Draw ratio so far: 83%. Games, results, pictures.
16.02.2010– This is what happens when you travel half-way around the globe, accept more and more opponents in a strong simul, agree to play with white and black pieces, and start at 1 a.m. body time. You blunder a game against a 12-year-old and make it into the Canadian press. Alexei Shirov showed great sporting spirit in this Ottawa simul. Gordon Ritchie reports.
16.02.2010– Five players lead with 5.0/7 points in the A groupe of this prestigious Moscow open tournament two Vietnamese and three Russians. Eleven GMs from various nations following half a point behind. The female players start at place 48. There are a lot of very nice but uncaptioned pictures on the official tournament site. Thanks for the help in identifying them there are still a few names missing.
16.02.2010– In today's round all games were drawn, but all of them were very interesting! Gashimov continued his opening discussion with Grischuk in the Qd3 line of the Poisoned Pawn Variation; Gelfand-Vallejo was a Slav sideline which led to very dangerous play; and Aronian-Topalov saw both sides miss opportunities to improve their chances. Commentary by GM Anish Giri.
15.02.2010– It was one of the most controversial decisions in chess history: on February 15, 1985, the President of FIDE Florencio Campomanes terminated the World Championship match between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov after 48 games. Twenty years later "Campo" spoke about the reasons for the step he took. A new book published in Russia contradicts his version. Video and book extract.