IM Malcolm Pein reports Nigel Short won the Gibraltar Masters 2012 after beating Hou Yifan in a rapid playoff. However it was Hou's performance that caught the imagination with the idea she may catch Judit Polgar as the women's top player. Shirov-Hou from round 9 is examined. Posted on 4 February 2012 | 11:27 am
At the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Hou Yifan defeated Judit Polgar, who has been No. 1 longer than Hou has been alive. Posted on 4 February 2012 | 12:00 am
IM Malcolm Pein reports on Round 8 of the Tradewise Gibraltar Festival. Hou Yifan won yet again this time against Le Quang Liem. She is level with Michael Adams. Posted on 3 February 2012 | 3:07 pm
IM Malcolm Pein reports on Hou Yifan's win over Judit Polgar. Also sees how Michael Adams managed to beat David Howell late in the ending. Posted on 2 February 2012 | 3:00 pm
The Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival took place Tuesday 24th Jan - Thursday 2nd Feb 2012. Peter Svidler, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Michael Adams, Zoltan Almasi, Le Quang Liem, Alexei Shirov and Judit Polgar were amongst the stars. In the final round Hou Yifan drew against Shakhriyar Mamedyarow which allowed Nigel Short to catch her with a fine win against Krishnan Sasikiran. Short went on to beat Hou in a 2 game 10 mins + 5 seconds per move playoff match 1.5-0.5 but could have won the second game had he needed to do so. Posted on 2 February 2012 | 1:06 pm
IM Malcolm Pein reports: Levon Aronian duly triumphed at the Tata Steel tournament after a disappointing, one might say perfunctory last round. Perhaps this was to be expected after the heroics of the previous few days. Aronian needed a draw to secure first prize and played white against Teimour Radjabov, for whom a win would bring a share of first. Posted on 1 February 2012 | 2:52 pm
IM Malcolm Pein reports: There was more drama at the Tata Steel tournament as Levon Aronian exploited a blunder in the fifth hour from world title contender Boris Gelfand and re-established his one point lead over Teimour Radjabov and Magnus Carlsen going into the last round. Posted on 31 January 2012 | 7:37 am
Levon Aronian is getting close to the No. 1 ranking in the world, but he does not get the attention of many of his lesser-ranked rivals. Posted on 29 January 2012 | 12:00 am
Dylan Loeb McClain Chess column explores the question of why there are so few women in the world of international chess competitions. Diagram Posted on 22 January 2012 | 12:00 am
A selected guide to the visual arts in New York and the area. Posted on 20 January 2012 | 12:00 am
The Northern California International tournament, which ended last Sunday, was modeled on ones in Europe. Posted on 15 January 2012 | 12:00 am
Format and scoring changes at the Donestia-San Sebastian Chess Festival in Spain and the Reggio Emilia event in Italy lead to surprising results. Posted on 8 January 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