Bobby Fischer - Photo Book by Harry Benson (Powerhouse Books)

Harry Benson’s rare, exclusive photos of the elusive and controversial chess genius Bobby Fischer taken during the historic World Chess Championship match in Iceland in 1972 are collected by powerHouse Books for the first time, in Bobby Fischer.

See the video of the book on this page:
http://www.rupamedia.com/?p=921

Almira Skripchenko and Alexandra Kosteniuk - Battle of Chess Beauties

Two of the most beautiful Chess players - Almira Skripchenko and Alexandra Kosteniuk battle it out in an interesting game of wits.

Watch the game here:

Magnus Carlsen vs Hou Yifan

Carlsen vs Yifan. Sounds like fantasy to you? Well, they may actually play a couple of years from now considering the growing strength of Yifan, but until then watch a game that they played in 2008 at Cap d'Agde.

Watch the video on youtube here:
http://youtu.be/71X80RuxxPI

Mouse Trap Chess

Black opened with the Hamster gambit opening and white responded with the mouse trap.

Anthony Wiring Chess

Hope he is not receiving assistance through his antenna!

Hou Yifan beats Judit Polgar!

Still a teenager, but already the World Women's Champion, the Chinese star Hou Yifan leads with none other than Michael Adams at the Gibraltar Chess Tournament. Behind her are several International stars including former World Championship contenders!

She beat Le Qiang Leim in the previous round, but what caught the whole World's attention was her win against Judit Polgar. We have to go back decades to find a loss by Judit against another female player!

Rankings after Round 8 (From Chess-results)

1	GM	Hou Yifan	CHN	2605	6.5	2859.0
2	GM	Adams Michael	ENG	2724	6.5	2843.0
3	GM	Short Nigel D	ENG	2677	6.0	2790.0
4	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	AZE	2747	6.0	2778.0
5	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	IND	2700	6.0	2750.0
6	GM	Almasi Zoltan	HUN	2717	6.0	2748.0
7	GM	Howell David W L	ENG	2603	6.0	2737.0
8	GM	Movsesian Sergei	ARM	2700	6.0	2726.0
9	GM	Gopal G N	IND	2566	6.0	2720.0
10	GM	Svidler Peter	RUS	2749	6.0	2714.0

Levon Aronian bags Tata Steel Chess tournament, Carlsen second

Levon Aronian of Armenia did not give any chance to Carlsen to catch him up and in the end won the prestigious tournament at Wijk aan Zee of 2012. Aronian produced some gems in the tournament and Carlsen's usual efficiency was not sufficient. Caruana was the find of the tournament.

In Group B, P Harikrishna finished first and could be invited to next year's Group A. The chances appear more bright since Harikrishna is from India and the main sponsor is an Indian company.

GM Oliver Barbosa wins Delhi Open Chess (Parsvnath)

Oliver Barbosa of Philippines won the Parsvnath Delhi Open Chess tournament. He finished half a point ahead of two others who collected 9 points.

Wijk aan Zee 2nd round highlights and Interesting Live Chess Rating Observations

Levon Aronian is on 2/2 after the 2nd round of the Tata Steel (formerly Corus) Chess tournament of 2012. Aronian beat American Chess star, Nakamura. Caruana beat Karjakin. In other groups, Harikrishna beat Lahno and Tiviakov beat Timman. Young Sahaj Grover of India beat Paehtz of Germany.

After this round, we have some interesting observations to make on the Live Chess ratings.

• Magnus Carlsen is just 13 points shy of Kasparov's all time highest FIDE rating of 2851
• Aronian will surpass Anand as the 2nd highest ever FIDE rated player if he gains another ELO point but retains it until the end of the rating period.
• Caruana is nearly 2750 at the age of 19 and is ranked 12 in the World!
• Giri is 2735 and is No. 17 in the World!
• Harikrishna has gained impressive ELO after his 2/2 start, but it remains to be seen if he can mantain it. He has had to face frustration many times to reach 2700.

FIDE Chess Rating list - Muzychuk, Yifan, Nakamura (live) notable moves

Notable points on the new FIDE rating list:

Nakamura is No. 12 (but No. 6 and just a couple of points away from No. 5 on the Live Chess Rating list.

Three ELO 2800+ players.

Anna Muzychuk is now ELO 2580 and No. 4 in the Women's world ranking list.

Hou Yifan is 122 points (!!!) ahead of the No. 2 in the World Junior Girls ranking.

Editor
www.IMChess.com

Chess Art

Can you find a win out of this?

Do you feel something like this sometimes?

Editor

Bobby Fischer, the ultimate enigmatic Chess genius excelled at Table Tennis

Fischer played Table Tennis the way he played Chess: fiercely, ferociously, going for his opponent's jugular. He was a killer, a remorseless, conscienceless, ice-blooded castrator...' wrote Marty 'The Needle' Reisman in his autobiography The Money Player - The Confessions of America's Greatest Table Tennis Champion and Hustler.

From kenilworthchessclub.org:

Both Chess and Table Tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision.  There is nothing hidden in either game.  Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are.  In Chess we call this "board vision," and Table Tennis definitely has its "table vision."

Exotic Chess pieces

I always thought playing with non-standard chess pieces was awkward, although I wouldn't mind doing it on the beach and not in a tournament. What do you feel? What would be your comfort level?

Editor

Abhijeet Gupta set to crack top 100 Ranking list

GM Abhijeet Gupta of India

India's talented 22 year old Abhijeet Gupta is all set to break into the top 100 club of the world. On the November 2011 list, the 100th ranked player was rated 2651, so if all goes well, Abhijeet should make it. It will help him receive attractive invitations to higher level tournaments.

Abhijeet hails from Bhilwara, Rajasthan and is a World Junior Champ (2008). His other notable performances are 1st at Dubai Open Chess 2011, and runner up at the Orissa GM tournament.

2012 Parsvnath International Chess Tournament

Several Grandmasters are expected to participate in the 10th Parsvnath International Chess Tournament 2012 which starts from 14th to 23rd January 2012

Venue: Ludlow Castle Sports Complex, Civil Lines, New Delhi.

Total Prize Fund: INR 15,00,000/-
First prize: INR 3,00,000/-
There are 30 main cash prizes and many other reserved prizes. Accomodation is being provided and the playing conditions are expected to be good.

The first round starts on Jan 15 2012.