The Tata Steel chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee is underway. This is always one of the most popular events on the chess calendar, as it brings together a large field (14 players) for a tournament that lasts more than two weeks. And that's just the top, "A" section; the B and C sections of the tournament also often attract plenty of interest by inviting intriguing guests to participate, such as this year's inclusion of veteran chess giant Jan Timman.

But most of the attention ultimately falls on the top section, which this year includes seven of the world's top 10 players, and 11 of the top 20. After two rounds, it's World #2 Levon Aronian who holds the lead with a 2/2 score, having already scored wins against Sergey Karjakin and Hikaru Nakamura. Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri and Fabiano Caruana are just behind the leader with 1.5 points in the early going. Karjakin has had the roughest time of it so far, losing in each of the first two rounds.

I'll have more coverage of the tournament throughout the next couple of weeks, but there are plenty of other ways to stay up-to-date on what's happening in the Netherlands. The tournament website includes live game coverage every day, allowing you to follow along with every step of the action as it happens!

I've recently added an article to the site on the topic of the best players never to win the World Chess Championship. This is always a subject of great debate, especially since these players span over 100 years of chess history and all share just one thing in common: they never quite reached the top of the chess world.

Who would you list as the greatest player never to win a World Championship title (in the championship era)? You can vote in the poll below, or add your own suggestion in the comments.

Computer chess has been gaining a lot of added attention in the past few months, and not for positive reasons. Last summer, Rybka was stripped of its ICGA computer chess championships after allegations surfaced that significant portions of Rybka (in particular, early versions of the software) were plagiarized from another chess engine, Fruit.

This past week, ChessBase published a report from Dr. Søren Riis that fiercely defended Rybka and creator Vasik Rajlich (you can read parts 1, 2, 3 and 4). That report provoked a couple of very strong responses, including a legal response from the ICGA and a long technical rebuttal. It's worth noting that Riis is a moderator on the Rybka forums, though it doesn't appear that he was asked to defend Rybka by Rajlich or anyone else related to Rybka.

I don't have nearly the level of technical expertise to determine what, if anything, Rybka stole from Fruit. I've heard arguments from people who seem to honestly believe either side of the issue, and a lot of the evidence appears to be open to interpretation. What's your take on the situation?

Rapid chess has become a more and more important factor in the world of chess over the past decade, in large part due to efforts by FIDE and chess organizers to promote quicker and (supposedly) more viewer-friendly forms of chess. With that in mind, it was probably only a matter of time before FIDE introduced official ratings for rapid play. As it turns out, that time is now: beginning on January 1st, FIDE will start officially collecting rapid tournament data for a new ratings list that will reflect only the results of rapid games. In addition, FIDE will also begin preparations to publish a blitz ratings list.

While many chess purists will likely see this as another push by FIDE to move away from classical chess, there are upsides to the move. There has long been debate over who the best rapid players (and blitz players) in the world are, and these lists will help frame those arguments. In addition, it's certainly possible that there are a handful of players who, despite not being World Championship contenders, are among the best quick chess players in the world; these rating lists will allow those players to gain deserved recognition for their skills, and hopefully earn them invites to prestigious tournaments in those formats.

The first FIDE rapid and blitz rating lists will be published in July 2012. Who do you think will rank surprisingly high on these lists when they are revealed?