August was an exceptionally rich month for chess events. The chess blogs were packed with news about these (and many more): 40th Biel Chess Festival, where the top event was won by Magnus Carlsen; U.S. Open; MonRoi Womens' Grand Prix, won by Pia Cramling; Arctic Challenge (Tromso, Norway), won by Sergei Shipov; 5th Gyorgy Marx Memorial (Paks, Hungary), won by Peter Acs; 5th Staunton Memorial, won by Michael Adams; 94th British Championship, won by Jacob Aagaard; Chess Classic Mainz, won by Viswanathan Anand over Levon Aronian, with Aronian taking revenge over Anand to win the Chess960 event; French Championship, won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave; Euwe Stimulans (Arnhem, Netherlands), won by Amon Simutowe; 4th China vs. Russia match; NH tournament of 'Rising stars' (Amsterdam); and the start of the U.S. Chess League's (USCL) 2007 season. • Of special interest to the chess blogosphere was the first Chess Blog Carnival, hosted by jacklemoine.blogspot.com. Appearing on the 1st September, it featured blog posts from August and earlier.

Competing priorities left us little time to browse the August blogs, making this summary two weeks later than it should be. With limited time available, we restricted our tour of the blogs to those on our list of Top Blogs. The topic that garnered the most scrutiny concerned Judgements by the FIDE Ethics Commission. Three rulings caught the blogs' attention:

• Background: FIDE: No "dunderhead" allowed, (susanpolgar.blogspot.com) • Commentary: No “Dunderheads,” the Chess Ethics Commission Rules, 'British grandmaster Nigel Short used the word "dunderhead" to characterize two high-ranking officials of the world chess federation.' (paulhoffman.wordpress.com)
  
  
• Background: FIDE rulings about Topalov and Danailov, (susanpolgar.blogspot.com) • Commentary: Department of Oxymorons, 'The FIDE ethics commission has issued the expected wrist slaps a few high-profile cases. Short was reprimanded for calling FIDE veep Azmaiparashvili a "dunderhead."' (www.chessninja.com)
  
  
• FIDE Finishes Off African Nightmare, 'Do you remember the case of the so-called "African Nightmare" in which [Australia's] own Alex Wohl was involved?' (closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com)
  
  

Fourteen year old Fabiano Caruana, who earned his third grandmaster (GM) norm in July, was also an subject of considerable interest.

• Who will stop this little man?, 'True, he didn’t yet play against cracks like Kasimdzhanov, Krasenkow or Tiviakov, but still the question rises who will stop Fabiano Caruanua.' (www.chessvibes.com) • Caruana superstar in Vlissingen, 'Italian top rated player is the sole leader of the HZ open tournament, which takes place in Vlissingen (Holland).' (midaschess.blogspot.com)

To complete our tour of the top blogs, here are posts from the others (in no particular order). The hardest task in writing this article was to restrict each blog to a single post.

• Aberdeen • International Conference on Chess in the Schools and Communities. (susanpolgar.blogspot.com)
  
  
• In lieu of a profile: Jacqueline Piatigorsky • 'While most of you probably haven't heard of Jacqueline Piatigorsky (1911- ), American players especially should know who she is.' (chessmind.powerblogs.com)
  
  
• Goeller Wins Honorable Mention • 'Congratulations to Michael Goeller of The Kenilworthian for winning an Honorable Mention in the Best Review category from the Chess Journalists of America in 2007!' (jimwestonchess.blogspot.com) • More from Goeller: Traxler Counter Attack (Wilkes-Barre) Webliography • 'The Traxler Counter Gambit (a.k.a. the Wilkes-Barre Variation, after an obscure Pennsylvania chess club that likely published about it) seems rather insane to the uninitiated: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5!?' (www.kenilworthchessclub.org)
  
  
• Rybka-Junior Crashes • 'I know you don't have anything better to do this weekend than read an eight-page article that gives the blow-by-blow behind the scenes action of a computer match that isn't going to happen.' • More: Rybka-Junior 1.1 (www.chessninja.com)
  
  
• World’s most famous patzer • 'Some sooky patzer from across the Atlantic had thrown a ridiculous little tantrum, threatened to quit chess, and conned the New In Chess editorial team to devote the entire "Your Move" (i.e. letters to the editor) section of its 2007/5 issue to address his issue. And what, might you ask, was his issue?' (chesstyro.com)
  
  
• Aussies Being Neighbourly • 'Being just a few short hours away, Asia ought to be a boon for Aussies on a norm hunt. With the rise of moneyed tournaments within our region, Australian chessers should look closer to home - not only saving themselves the time, money and effort but, more importantly, building relationships. ' (closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Not chess, but still relevant: Chinook Seminar - Review • 'It was an entertaining seminar by Dr Jonathan Schaeffer this afternoon, although it did have its fair share of hyperbole. The majority of the talk was about the journey from the start of Chinook (his checkers playing program) until it defeated Dr Marion Tinsley for the World Man-Machine Checkers Championship.' (chessexpress.blogspot.com)
  
  
• First game, first book? • 'When on holiday in Norfolk recently, I taught my girlfriend's niece how to play chess.' (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com)
  
  
• How useful is opening study? • 'I'm not a grandmaster, so my verdict has not the power of law. Yet if I look at the figures, I'm inclined to think are they insane? If I see grandmasters memorizing lines 20 moves deep or more, I get the feeling they are fooling themselves and each other.' (temposchlucker.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Once a journalist, always a journalist • 'Howard Goldowsky stopped by the New England Masters tournament on Wednesday and filed this thought-provoking, "informal" report:' • More on Goldowsky: From the desk of Howard Goldowsky (and some news) • 'I got a very helpful email from Howard Goldowsky, author of Engaging Pieces.' (chessconfessions.blogspot.com)
  
  
• chess is so much easier when you are just watching • 'went to the chess club for the last time the other night, saw my friends, played a final game.' (chessloser.wordpress.com)
  
  
• GM Maurice Ashley Simultaneous Exhibition • 'St. Louis welcomed GM Maurice Ashley to town. The nation's only African-American grandmaster comes to St. Louis nearly annually and typically provides a simul when he's here.' (scholasticchess.blogspot.com)
  
  
• When 5½/6 Wasn't Good Enough • 'I've just received a most interesting message from Leonard Barden, who tells me about an occasion when 5½/6 in the first week wasn't good enough to win the British Championship. ' (bcmchess.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Attack the Najdorf way • 'The world has changed. When you play chess or anything else, the result seems everything.' (chesstales.blogspot.com)
  
  
• New Way • 'Daily I am studying--more like quickly viewing--tons of GM games' (dk-transformation.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Opening Study: Some Diverse Opinions, Part IV--Playing Black • 'In Part III I looked at some general principles of opening study for us 1200-2000 (USCF) players and recommended the repertoire approach, sticking to one opening for awhile, but mainly from White's point of view.' (See links to parts I, II, and III; rlpchessblog.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Chess Lies • 'Yesterday I watched a loud dispute between two woodpushers in Washington Square Park. Neither in fact was a particularly good player, but each was obnoxiously insisting that he had mastered the deepest secrets of the game.' (paulhoffman.wordpress.com)
  
  

We should also mention a couple of blogs on our 'Watch List', candidates for Top Blogs if a listed blog turns off the juice.

• Let me tell you about my best friend • 'I just love Searching for Bobby Fischer. While ostensibly it is the Josh Waitzkin story, it does a remarkable job of capturing many many of the arguments and sentimentalities of scholastic chess and even chess in general. ' (letmetellyouaboutmybestfriend.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Goddesschess Meeting 2007 • 'This year's Goddesschess meeting was held in the most beautiful spot in Milwaukee Wisconsin.' (goddesschess.blogspot.com)
  
  

For all posts in this series, see our ChessChrono on Chess Blog Trekking.