Mark's Chess Blog October 2006 Archive

Looking for a digital chess clock? We reviewed two models from Digital Game Timer (DGT) Projects, The Netherlands. DGT Easy Plus Game Timer • The 'Easy Plus' is a budget model that offers ... Read More

GM Victor Mikhalevski won the GM Slugfest, the first grandmaster level tournament using the Ballard Anti-draw Point (BAP) system, held 13-15 October, at Seattle. The controversial BAP system, created by ... Read More

Only six weeks after winning the unified World Championship, GM Vladimir Kramnik will face a potentially tougher opponent: Deep Fritz, the multiprocessor version of Chessbase's flagship chess playing computer program. ... Read More

Did all of the openings in the 2006 Kramnik - Topalov World Championship Match look similar to you? If so, you are not alone. Even experienced players who don't play ... Read More

Newcomers to chess on the Web are sometimes confused by the term Chess Downloads. It can mean two things: chess data or chess software. Looking to load a chess database ... Read More

In Newbie Questions, Colock asks, 'If I give Rook odds am I allowed to castle on the Rook-less side? Why are the Knights facing left in all my chess books and software? ... Read More

The third and final week of the World Chess Championship Unification Match in Elista, Kalmykia, started with the score tied at four points each. Both players had won two games: ... Read More

Product announcements accelerate as the year end holidays approach. Here are recent product and service announcements from Konami, Symbian, Cellufun, Glu Mobile, and more. Looking first at chess playing software, we'll ... Read More

In Bookup and MasterChess 5000 etc., Absinthe says, 'There seems to be so much stuff out there. Bookup, Chess Position Trainer, Chessbase (and all the Fritz's), SCID, Chess Assistant, MasterChess 5000 and ... Read More

Congratulations to GM Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, who beat GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria in the rapidplay segment of the match tiebreak games. After the first tiebreak game was drawn, ... Read More

Thinking of buying a chess computer or chess playing software? Don't miss our three introductory overviews. Before You Buy a Chess Computer Before You Buy Chess Playing Software for Windows Before You Buy ... Read More

In September, the World Championship unification match created major ripples across the chess blogs. There were three distinct phases. Coverage of other chess events that took place before the match started. Coverage ... Read More

In Chess books, dwv16 says, 'I am looking for some chess books about chess history or personalities, etc. that aren't heavy on actual games and moves. I spend plenty of time on ... Read More

Veiled accusations of cheating, an unscrupulous Appeals Committee, locked toilets. • The first week of the World Championship Unification Match, held in Elista, Kalmykia, ended in crisis after GM Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria was ... Read More

A year has passed since we last looked at Blue Ribbon Chess Books (2005) : books that have shown outstanding commercial or critical success; almost guaranteed to please. With the holiday gift ... Read More

An extraordinary situation calls for extraordinary measures. To avoid immediate collapse of the World Chess Championship unification match, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov postponed the sixth game, originally scheduled for Saturday, ... Read More