Aronian wins World Blitz Championship

Levon Aronian today won the 2010 World Blitz Championship in Moscow, Russia. The Armenian scored 24.5 points out of 38 games and finished half a point ahead of Teimour Radjabov from Azerbaijan. Third came Magnus Carlsen from Norway, who won the title in 2009. Read full story 

16th Asian Games - GM Kasimzhanov and Yifan win gold, IM Harika Dronavalli wins bronze in individual section

The 16th Asian Games are underway, not to be confuse with the Asian Championship. This is a full-fledged Olympic sport event, with two full chess competitions in it. The first is an individual rapid event, men's and women's sections, followed by a tournament control team event. Rustam Kazimdzhanov and Hou Yifan brought gold to their countries. Here are the individual competitions. Read more

STOP CHEATING...SAVE CHESS

The issue of  "techno cheating" in chess has come back to limelight after AICF lifted the ban on Uma Kant Sharma, so far the only player having been caught red handed with blue-tooth near his ears during a match.

While a former Gold Medallist in the Olympics was put behind bars in the U.S. after she admitted to doping for success, the suspected Indian chess players continue to reap rich dividends by getting top government awards and winning important titles. On the other hand, many young players, who toil hard for success are suspected to cheat. 

Why is the Federation deliberately soft on the subject? There are rumours that a whole "Cheating Industry" is operating in certain parts of India taking money from players to guarantee them success by unfair means.

Please let us know your opinions on this extremely sensitive subject.

Tal Memorial: Aronian and Karjakin win the title

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored the same number of points as Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin, 5.5/9, but was relegated to third on tiebreak points. The other two appear to be absolutely equal. Three players had a 2800+ performance (one 2799), six gained between three and ten rating points (three lost 8, 12 and 18). We bring you all games, results, statistics and pictures.

Anand first on November rating list

Now FIDE will surely get complaints that even a two-month rating list is not frequent enough. On the 1 November list World Champion Viswanathan Anand is first and Magnus Carlsen second, because the Pearl Spring tournament wasn’t rated yet. Levon Aronian climbed to third place and Sergei Karjakin entered the top 10 for the first time. Read more

Grischuk replaces Carlsen; statement by Anand

Today in an official statement the World Chess Federation (FIDE) has announced that Alexander Grischuk will replace Magnus Carlsen in the 2011 Candidates matches. In a first reaction, Grischuk said: “It’s nice, I enjoyed his decision.” World Champion Viswanathan Anand called Carlsen’s decision “sad”. More details here

Anand and Obama meet in Delhi

He almost didn't make it – again. Just when Anand was about to board an aircraft from Chennai to New Delhi last Sunday, Cyclone Jal hit, bringing five days of torrential rain to Tamil Nadu. On that one day Chennai’s Nungambakkam received 47.3 mm rainfall, while the Airport observatory reported the figure at 44.8 mm, disrupting flight services. So, too, Anand's flight, scheduled for 09:00 a.m., which finally took off at 4:40 p.m., delivering the World Champion just in time for a dinner date. Details