In our September Trek through the chess blogs, Viswanathan Anand had just won the World Championship. The month of October started with reactions from around the chess world.

• Video: Closing ceremony: 'ChessVibes presents you a compilation of the best moments from the ceremony, including the complete speech that Anand gave in Spanish, with English subtitles.' (www.chessvibes.com)
  
  
• Informed Commentary: Some reflections on the world championship: 'Having spent a weekend in Mexico City, I'm in some ways less qualified to offer observations than those who watched the event from the comfort of their own homes' (chessmind.powerblogs.com) • Long Live the King?: '"I'm world champion now, bring me a BIGGER CAKE"!' (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com) • WCh Flashbacks: 'The dust has settled on Vishy Anand's new crown, at least everywhere except the comments around here. Here are a few of the better links to relive the glory.' (www.chessninja.com)
  
  
• Media Coverage: We do not exist: 'How come the story was reported so late?' (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com) • Anand in Time Magazine: '"India's Great Chess Hope"' (closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Perspective: World Championship Stats, Stats II, and Openings (all streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com) • Mexico City 2007 v. AVRO 1938: 'Both tournaments featured eight of the world's very best in a double-round robin format' (rlpchessblog.blogspot.com)
  
  
• Rybka/Zappa: The other world championship: 'Running alongside the (human) world championship, the computer programs Rybka and Zappa played a match for silicon supremacy.' (chessmind.powerblogs.com)
  
  

Other tournament news followed widely by the blogs included: Corsica Masters (won by Nakamura), Ivanchuk - Leko match, European Blitz Championship (Tkachiev), Casino de Barcelona (Nakamura again), Blindfold Chess World Cup (Bilbao; Bu Xiangzhi), Essent (Mamedyarov), World Junior Championship (Men: Ahmed Adly of Egypt; Women: Nebolsina Vera), World Senior Championship (Butnorius), and European Club Cup (Linex Magic Merida).

Two of the month's biggest chess news stories had little to do with chess. Many American bloggers commented on former World Champion Garry Kasparov's several appearances on popular U.S. television programs. Kasparov insider Mig Greengard summarized the shows on Hello from the Big Easy (www.chessninja.com). More mainstream media analysis was provided by "The New Yorker" Article on Kasparov (jimwestonchess.blogspot.com).

The scandal of the month broke when Dylan Loeb McClain, chess columnist for the New York Times, reported that 'Chess Group Officials Accused of Using Internet to Hurt Rivals', then followed up the story in

• The Lawsuit Against Polgar and Truong: A Closer Look: 'A lawsuit filed in federal court accuses Susan Polgar and Paul Truong, two members of the executive board of the United States Chess Federation [USCF], of posting inflammatory remarks on the Internet under false names in order to win election to the board earlier this year. The lawsuit was filed by Samuel H. Sloan, who ran unsuccessfully for re-election to the board.' (gambit.blogs.nytimes.com)

The story was immediately picked up by other top blogs and by the end of the month it was hard to find a chess news blog that hadn't offered an opinion.

• Slime Spillover: 'What happens on the Usenet doesn't stay on the Usenet.' (www.chessninja.com)
• Frivolous lawsuit and other items: 'Here is the USCF's official response' (susanpolgar.blogspot.com)
• Let no one say I threw the first rock: Lots of links to other blogs. (boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com)
• Sloan vs. Truong / Polgar: 'I have not wanted to discuss this case, but it has become so newsworthy that it would be wrong not to mention it' (www.kenilworthchessclub.org)
• Sloan vs. Polgar & Truong: Correcting Misrepresentations: 'Sloan decided to drag me into this dispute by blatantly misrepresenting something I wrote on this blog a couple of years ago.' (chessmind.powerblogs.com)
• Susan Polgar: 'Dylan McClain posted at his New York Times chess blog Susan Polgar’s statement from her popular chess blog regarding recent events.' (goddesschess.blogspot.com)

For blogs more interested in news about chess than about chess personalities, the U.S. Chess League (USCL) was the focus of dozens of blog posts; for example, Securing Their Spots (boylston-chess-club.blogspot.com, for the most recent news, see the blog's USCL tag). • Did you know that the American tradition of assigning colorful names to sports teams is not observed everywhere? A team by any other name: 'Seattle Sluggers? Does it refer to how they play or how they behave in the bar afterwards?' (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com)

Regular readers of our monthly Blog Trekking column know that at About Chess we have a passion for chess history and for chess videos. We found fuel for the chess history flame in Some unanswered questions about Howard Staunton (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com), Paul Charles Morphy (sbchess.sinfree.net), and Chess Sets from the Maryhill Museum of Art (cocjournal.blogspot.com). • The video fix came in Some day in Hoogeveen (www.chessvibes.com), and Domino Effect (streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com).

News of the Blogs: The word 'blogosphere' is not just an umbrella term. It has a life of its own and evolves just like any physical living organism. • The second edition of the blog carnival, Chess Blog Carnival II, found a host at Samurai Chess (samuraichess.wordpress.com). • Blog highlights: 'It's been over two years since I started blogging, more than 360 posts. Hence I thought it would be appropriate to make an annotated guide to the highlights of my blog thus far.' (chessconfessions.blogspot.com) • New Feature in Blogger: 'It is now possible for you to be notified of any follow-up comments in any one of my posts.' (closetgrandmaster.blogspot.com)

Improve Your Game: We spend so much time on topics about chess that sometimes we forget about the game itself. Posts about improving your game often seem to come in bursts, centered around some insight into the game. Starting with these examples from October, look at the same blog for posts written around the same time and you will find more thoughts on the theme. Another trait that they share is the creative use of images to reinforce the message. • Punishment versus reward in the postmortem: 'Everyone in the chess improvement business agrees that it is crucial to go over your own games. ' (chessconfessions.blogspot.com) • Mother of all Tactics: counting trades: 'Because counting problems are so common, I want to find a shortcut.' (temposchlucker.blogspot.com) • Saying What is NOT being said: simple, middle, or complex: 'An open post to temposchlucker: Tempo, you are the king here, no pun intended.' (dk-transformation.blogspot.com).

Last Call: Every month we gather approximately 120-150 blog posts that we would like to highlight. Among the posts that we don't use are always a few that we just don't want to leave out. • interview with GM Larry Evans: 'In another pathetic attempt at being a semi-legitimate chess blog, I made an attempt at interviewing a Grand Master.' (chessloser.wordpress.com) • Posts with label Alexander Pichushkin: Moscow's 'Chessboard Killer' is another story that has little to do with chess and that attracted considerable attention from the worldwide press. If there was ever a story that disproved the saying 'There's no such thing as bad publicity', this is it. (affairsofchess-wydarzenia.blogspot.com) • Chess Ultimate Collection: 'Part 1 : 10 Dangerous Moments in Chess; Part 2 : 25 Tell-Tale Signs of a Chess Addict; ... [more++]'. Here's a sample from Part 4, 644 Ultimate Chess Trivia:

The chap on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" who asks the audience to help him. 38% think that the word "gambit" is a word used in gardening. He believes them. It costs him $2,000. (philippinechesschronicles.blogspot.com)

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