ChessBase Magazine Online

Peter Svidler prepares to dance the Mainz Shuffle
12.08.2003 – In recent years a part of the Mainz Classic events has been "Chess960," aka shuffle chess or Fischerrandom chess. Russian GM Peter Svidler won the open event last year and will face Peter Leko in a match of this curious variant in a few days. Svidler talks about that match, his return to the top 10, and what being a father has meant for his chess. More
 

It's official – Garry Kasparov vs X3D Fritz
10.08.2003 – Newsweek broke the story and we reported on the preparations. Now it's official. X3D Technologies has announced that Garry Kasparov will take on the computer program X3D Fritz "in total virtual reality, with the chessboard floating in the air between man and computer". Here is the X3D press release.
 

Dortmund Round 10: Viorel Bologan sole winner
10.08.2003 – Viorel Bologan has created the sensation of the year. The 31-year-old Moldovan clinched sole victory in the Sparkassen Chess-Meetings 2003 in Dortmund, a full point ahead of Kramnik and Anand. Bologan led the tournament from the first round all the way to the end. With 6.5/10 his performance rating was 2814. Full report now up.
 

Grandmasters brutalised in Lippstadt
10.08.2003 – The weather is sultry, but one participant at the Lippstadt GM tournament is keeping its cool. Our experimental hardware program Brutus is taking point after point from its opponents. Brutus has won all three games so far – the first one with a spectacular piece sacrifice against Ukrainian GM Oleg Romanishin. Here are the computer games.
 

Dortmund Round 9: Big guns quiet, showdown on Sunday
09.08.2003 – Just when you would expect things in Dortmund to be heating up they have gone stone cold. Bologan's pursuers, Anand and Kramnik, again played short draws. The only person happy about this is Viktor Bologan, who can wrap up the tournament with a draw tomorrow in the final round. He was held to a draw by Radjabov today and will have his hands full with black against Kramnik on Sunday. Report and games
 

Fritz – the ideal chess coach
09.08.2003 – Everyone knows that Fritz is strong – strong enough to take on world champions in match play. But is it weak enough to be genuinely useful to the chess amateur? Emphatically yes, according to a review published on the Deaf Gamers site. Mainly the author is impressed in how realistically the program plays weak chess. Here are excerpts.
 

'I decided to end my professional career'
09.08.2003 – Alexander Morozevich has a 2679 rating and is currently number 23 in the world. This enigmatic and innovative player has decided to give up serious professional chess. The reason: there are no real prospects left in the chess world. "That’s why I study chess no more than four or five hours a week." Alex explains it all in this interview given after a stunning victory in Biel.
 

Anand: 'Stop the circus!'
09.08.2003 – In 2001 Vishy Anand won the FIDE title of world champion, which he lost a year later to Ruslan Ponomariov. Now the the world's number three has been shut out of the championship cycles. Anand calls the current situation a complete mess. "It is tough to get sponsors, and people are still trying to hold three World Championship matches," he says in this critical interview.
 

Dortmund Round 8: Radjabov's revenge, leaders draw
08.08.2003 – Not all short games are created equal. Bologan-Leko went from slow to stop in 19 moves. Kramnik-Anand was a complicated 21-mover that required precise defense from Black. Then there was the 26-move battle of the teens rematch between Radjabov and Naiditsch. Black was under attack before his seat was warm and threw in the towel with mate not far off. Report and analysis
 

Read our lips: no magic tours!
08.08.2003 – Remember our article on the Knight's Tour? We mentioned that full "magic" knight's tours are believed to be impossible for the 8x8 chessboard. Now this has become a certainty, after an exhaustive computer search on distributed computers. The result: there are exactly 140 distinct semi-magic knight's tours, but no full magic tour on an 8x8 board. We just thought you'd like to know.
 

Germany's new Grandmaster: Shredder!?
08.08.2003 – The Sixth Magistral de la Republica Argentina was won convincingly by the ChessBase program Shredder 7. It's 8.5/10 score was well above the GM norm and two points ahead of the pack of GMs and IMs chasing it. That's a 2752 performance rating! The human side of things was won by Andres Rodriguez of Uruguay. Report and games
 

Dortmund Round 7: The real Vishy Anand is in the house!
08.08.2003 – What a difference one game can make. Anand beat the player who defeated him in the second round, beat the leader, moved into a tie for second, and played a spectacular rook sacrifice. And he did it all in one game against Viktor Bologan. Radjabov swindled a draw against Leko, Naiditsch-Kramnik was a 27-move draw. Analysis and report are now up here.