They might want to think about renaming the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting to the Vladimir Kramnik Invitational. Kramnik finished off this year's tournament with a 6.5/10 score, a full point ahead of the pack and good enough for his 9th Dortmund championship. Kramnik clinched his victory by defeating local GM Arkadij Naiditsch. The game was very competitive until Naiditsch blundered badly on move 38, and was forced to resign just four moves later.

Kramnik took the title by a point over three chasing players: Peter Leko, Magnus Carlsen and Dmitry Jakovenko. Carlsen led for some time, but was passed when Kramnik defeated him in Round Eight. French GM Etienne Bacrot scored 4 points to finish 5th, while Naiditsch managed just six draws against four losses, finishing last.

Can Kramnik make it to double figures at Dortmund next year? Only time will tell, but he should be near the top of the world rankings for at least a few more years, which means you have to expect him to get #10 at some point. Here is Kramnik's critical win over Carlsen in Round 8:

White: Vladimir Kramnik
Black: Magnus Carlsen
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.a3 Nc6 9.Qc2 Qa5 10.Rd1 Be7 11.Be2 dxc4 12.Bxc4 Nh5 13.0-0 Nxf4 14.exf4 g6 15.g3 Rd8 16.Rxd8+ Qxd8 17.Rd1 Bd7 18.f5 gxf5 19.Qd2 Qb6 20.Qh6 Be8 21.Ng5 Bxg5 22.Qxg5+ Kf8 23.Qh6+ Kg8 24.Qg5+ Kf8 25.Rd6 Qc7 26.Qh6+ Ke7 27.Qh4+ Kf8 28.Qh6+ Ke7 29.Nb5 Qa5 30.b4 Nxb4 31.Rxe6+ fxe6 32.Qxe6+ Kd8 33.Qf6+ Kc8 34.Qxf5+ Kd8 35.Qf6+ Kc8 36.axb4 1-0

A large gap emerged in the results. When the opponents were unknown, or they were thought to be of the same sex, the pairs did about as expected; both sides won approximately an equal number of games. However, when the pairs were told the truth about who they were playing, the women fared much worse -- scoring barely over half as many points as they did against the same opponents when they were unknown to them. The researchers theorize that this is due to less confident and more cautious play on the part of the female players when they know they're playing against men.

I have no idea how much this study will add to or impact the research being done on this topic, but there has certainly been plenty of work done to try and find out why women are underrepresented in chess. It may well be for a variety of social and cultural expectations that lead to many young girls giving up the game in their teenage years, and many more playing the game only casually. On the other hand, while some people may think it's true, I seriously doubt that women are "naturally" less talented at chess. I'd love to see a growing proportion of women who play the game seriously, and hopefully the information being gathered can help find ways to make this a reality.

The tournament is a double round-robin, with 10 rounds in total. Carlsen jumped out to the early lead by defeating Jakovenko in the first round, and is currently the only player at 1.5/2.

I'll be providing updates on the tournament's progress over the next week. Here's Carlsen's victory over Jakovenko from round 1:

White: Magnus Carlsen
Black: Dmitry Jakovenko
2009 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting (Round 1)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Ne2 Be7 12.Bg5 Be6 13.Nf4 Bd5 14.Bxe7 Kxe7 15.Ng5 Nd4 16.Rad1 Ne6 17.Ngxe6 Bxe6 18.h4 a5 19.a3 a4 20.Rfe1 g6 21.f3 Ra5 22.c3 Rb5 23.Re2 Ra8 24.Rd4 Raa5 25.Kf2 Rxe5 26.Rxe5 Rxe5 27.Rxa4 Rb5 28.b4 c5 29.Ra7 cxb4 30.cxb4 Kd7 31.Ne2 Rb6 32.Ke3 Bc4 33.Nd4 Kd6 34.Ra5 Ra6 35.Rxa6+ bxa6 36.g4 hxg4 37.fxg4 Ke5 38.Nc6+ Kf6 39.Kf4 Ke6 40.h5 gxh5 41.gxh5 Bd3 42.Ke3 Bf1 43.h6 Kf6 44.Ne5 Bb5 45.Kd4 Ba4 46.h7 Kg7 47.Nxf7 Kxh7 48.Ng5+ Kg6 49.Ne6 1-0

Finishing second was Boris Gelfand, who won two games without a loss, while Alexei Shirov and Radjabov tied for third at 5.5 points each.

Here is the only decisive game of the final round, a win by Shirov over Nisipeanu. Shirov looked to be in better form after some recent tournament struggles:

White: Alexei Shirov
Black: Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu
Kings' Tournament, Banza, Romania, Round 10

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.O-O-O Bb4 9.f3 Ne7 10.Nde2 b5 11.Bf4 e5 12.Bg5 Qb6 13.a3 Bc5 14.b4 Bf2 15.Qd6 Qxd6 16.Rxd6 Neg8 17.Ng3 h6 18.Nd1 Ba7 19.Be3 Bb8 20.Bc5 Ne7 21.Ne3 Bxd6 22.Bxd6 Bb7 23.c4 Bc6 24.Kb2 Ng6 25.Ngf5 Kd8 26.Nxg7 Ne8 27.Nxe8 Rxe8 28.Nf5 Re6 29.h4 h5 30.c5 Re8 31.g4 hxg4 32.h5 Nf4 33.Nh6 gxf3 34.Nxf7+ Kc8 35.Bxe5 Rxe5 36.Nxe5 Kc7 37.h6 Rh8 38.h7 Bxe4 39.Rh4 Rxh7 40.Rxf4 Rh2+ 41.Kc3 Black Resigns

If you have no idea how to play bug, you're missing out: it's lots of fun, and can even help improve your creativity and tactical vision in regular chess. I've just added an article detailing the rules of this great game. Check it out, grab a partner, and find another team to play with. After a few games, you'll be hooked.

2009 has been a great year for chess tournaments. While the great "super-tournaments" have lived up to their billing, there has been no shortage of excellent second-tier tournaments, which often attract a smattering of top ten players along with other elite grandmasters.

At the moment, the big event is a tournament in Banza, Romania, a six-player double round robin with five players rated over 2700. Teimour Radjabov is the highest rated player, but the rest of the field is nearly as strong: Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, Gata Kamsky and top Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Ivanchuk is currently in the lead with a score of 4.5/6.

It's also nice to see Shirov recovering from his recent bad performances; he's sporting a solid 3.5/6 score after a sixth round win over Kamsky. Gata and Nisipeanu are at the bottom of the standings, each with 1.5 points. The most recent games, complete with commentary from Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco, are available at ChessBase. I'll have another report at the tournament's conclusion, on June 25th.

The Karpov tournament (named after former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov) was recently held for the 10th time in Poikovsky, Russia. As always, the tournament drew a strong field -- not to the level of one of the super-tournaments like Linares or Corus, but a 10 GM field with an average rating of 2694 is nothing to sneeze at. In the end, Russia's Alexander Motylev took first place with an impressive 7/9 score.

However, the story of the tournament was Alexei Shirov's poor performance. Fresh off winning the Mtel Masters in Sofia, Shirov started with four losses en route to a 2/9 score, which placed him last. Shirov settled down towards the end of the tournament, drawing four of his final five games, but finished without a single win. It's a tough result for Shirov, who looked like he was in top form at Mtel. Hopefully he'll be able to put in some more impressive results in upcoming tournaments; his aggressive attacking style often results in entertaining games, win or lose.

In other news, ChessBase recently linked to a study being conducted by economists at the University of Kassel in Germany, for which they need chess players to participate. It's unclear exactly what's being tested; the "experiment" is a rather simple game (although the correct strategy for winning is not simple at all), with prizes being awarded by ChessBase for the participants who win. All you have to do is pick a number between 0-100, and have your number be as close as possible to two-thirds of the average of all numbers picked. Good luck!

Of FIDE's rule changes in the last few years, perhaps the most controversial has been the "zero tolerance" policy in regards to tardiness. Simply stated, the rule says that if you are not at the board when your game begins, the arbiter has the right to forfeit the game to your opponent. Arbiters have the latitude to enforce that rule how they see fit by setting a time limit for how late you can be before you lose, but the FIDE recommendation is now 0 minutes. This clearly had the potential for creating some controversy; while individual players were forfeited at the last Olympiad, I don't believe it had yet happened in a game that had serious prize or championship implications in a major event.

That all changed this past week, when the zero tolerance rule had a big role in deciding the Chinese Chess Championships. With two rounds remaining, GM Wang Hao held a nearly insurmountable 1.5 points lead over the field, and looked headed to victory. However, young Ding Liren, a strong but untitled player (FIDE rated 2458), upset Hao in their 10th round game, moving him to within a half-point of the leader heading into the final round.

Then things really got strange. Ding Liren still likely needed a win with the black pieces against GM Zhou Jianchao in the final round, while Wang Hao had White against GM Liang Chong, and still held a half-point lead. But when Zhou Jianchao failed to appear at the board at the start of the round, Ding Liren was given a forfeit win; coupled with another loss by Wang Hao, this made Ding the Chinese Chess Champion for 2009.

This wasn't the only strange zero tolerance application during the event; 15-year-old phenom GM Hou Yifan took a forfeit loss despite being in the playing hall, ready to play, because she wasn't in her seat at the time the round began.

FIDE's line has always been that requiring players to appear at the board on time is a mark of professionalism, but I can't see how forfeit losses for slight tardiness looks any more professional than the lateness itself. What do you think the punishments for late players should be, if any?

From teaching chess to children, talking to friends during tournaments, and my own experiences, I've found that everyone has occasional trouble getting over a difficult loss. Maybe you were winning, then hung a piece; perhaps you blundered early on and never recovered against an opponent you know should have defeated, or something else about the game is bothering you. Regardless of the cause, there's often a carryover effect heading into the next game if you can't get over your last loss.

I've been thinking about this topic lately because of a recent loss of mine. After a game where both sides missed opportunities for the advantage, my opponent -- a master -- blundered away a pawn early in the endgame. I now stood better, and decided to push for the win rather than offer a draw. Sure enough, not only did I fail to win the game, I managed to lose! A draw against a master would have been an excellent result for me, so blowing what seemed to be a sure half-point stuck with me for a while.

In my case, I was lucky: this was a club tournament, and I had a whole week to get over it before the next round. By then, I'd gone over what had been an interesting game several times, and was mentally prepared to play my game. But what should you do if you're at a weekend tournament where the next round might be in just a few hours, or even a few minutes?

In my experience, the answer to that question is different for everyone. Depending on my mood, I might take a walk away from the playing area, analyze a friend's game, or call someone who doesn't play chess at all (they tend to be good at putting these things in perspective). What do you do to get your mind off of a particularly frustrating game?

Here's a little something from the lighter side of chess: A chess fan from Rome, Italy has put together some nice compilations of the many chess scenes from movies and television history. They're all set (and well edited) to beautiful music. Chess is a popular plot point in fiction, so there's plenty of material to work with here, and the end results are very enjoyable to watch.

ChessBase has an article with more information and links to the videos. They're also trying to put together a database of all the movies, shows, and actors who appear throughout these productions, which you might be able to help out with.

Do you have any favorite instances of seeing chess portrayed on screen? From classics like The Seventh Seal, to surprisingly good portrayals of chess in recent television shows like The Sarah Connor Chronicles, I always give a lot of credit to any film or television writer who works chess into their project in a thoughtful way. Of course, it also helps if they set up the board correctly (white on right, prop people!).