Vladimir Kramnik

Position No. 6082: White to play and win. From the game Yun Fan-Rusudan Goletiani, U.S. Women's Championship, St. Louis 2009. Solution to Position No. 6081: Black wins a piece with 1 . . . d5 2 Ne3 d4 3 Nc4 (or 3 Rxc7 dxe3+) b5. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won the Tal Memorial in Moscow by scoring an undefeated 6-3. The round robin featured 10 of the world's top 13 stars. Kramnik, in his prime at age 34, seems fully recovered from losing the 2008 world championship match to Viswanathan Anand of India.

Timur Gareyev, an Uzbek grandmaster who attends the University of Texas in Brownsville, won the National Open last weekend in Las Vegas. Gareyev yielded a first-round draw to IM Joe Bradford of Texas but won his next five games. He was particularly tough on Southern Californians, inflicting defeats on IM Andranik Matikozyan and, in the final round, GM Varuzhan Akobian. Tied for second at 5-1 were Akobian and GMs Arthur Kogan (Israel), Alex Lenderman (New York) and Alejandro Ramirez (Costa Rica)

Garry Kasparov, the brilliant and volatile reigning champion of chess for the last 15 years, lost his title Thursday night to a former pupil and fellow Russian who was a schoolboy when the master rose to power. Kasparov's stunning defeat at West London's Riverside Studios left admirers slack-jawed and stuttering to explain how the king--still just 37 years old--could let his crown fall to upstart Vladimir Kramnik.

Position No. 6104: White to play and win. From the game Tornike Sanikidze-Alexander Fedorov, Dubai 2010. Solution to Position No. 6103: Black wins with 1… Nxa1 2 Qxa1 Qc2! 3 Rxc2 bxc2, setting up 4 … Rd1+. The world championship match, which began Saturday in Sofia, Bulgaria, will determine the champion for the next two years. There is a hefty prize fund of 2 million euros (about $2.7 million), of which the winner will receive 60%. But even more is at stake.

The genteel world of chess spun out of control at the world championship final in recent days in Elista, Russia, with finger-pointing and accusations flying, closely resembling a normal week in the NFL. Whatever happened to the gentleman's game? Well, too many visits to the Gents room, it seems.

When Garry Kasparov lost his world championship crown Thursday, he succeeded at prophecy: Years ago, he said that Vladimir Kramnik would replace him at the top someday. That day came sooner and more forcefully than Kasparov may have expected. Kramnik dethroned him in the Braingames Network world championship with another draw in the 15th game of the 16-game series, bringing the overall score to 8 1/2-6 1/2 and clinching victory. Kramnik, 25, won two games and drew the rest.

In the end, world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik was apparently undone by an attribute that separates humans from machines: an appreciation of beauty. After eight matches, a contest here between the Russian-born champ and a German-made computer program, Deep Fritz, was declared a draw Saturday night.

Position No. 6083: White to play and win. From the game Leonardo Tristan-Rinat Jumabayev, World Junior Championship, Puerto Madryn 2009. Solution to Position No. 6082: White gains a piece by 1 h7! Rg7 2 Rxg2 Rxg2 3 Be4. The World Blitz Championship in Moscow assembled 22 leading grandmasters for a three-day extravaganza of speed chess. Each player had three minutes, plus a bonus of two seconds per move, to complete a game. This time limit has supplanted five minute games as the standard for blitz.

At a television studio in London, grandmasters Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik bend silently over a chessboard hour upon hour, plotting each move with the speed of a snail on Prozac. At stake: $2 million. And at home computers worldwide, chess enthusiasts are logging onto Internet sites to follow the action rook-by-rook and pawn-by-pawn--and to get almost instant analyses and take part in guess-the-move competitions. The game of kings has embraced the Internet.

May 4, 2001 Position #5636: Black to play and win. From the game Svidler--Korchnoi, Zurich 2001. Solution to Position #5635: White wins a piece with 1 d5! cxd5 2 Nd4 Qe5 3 Nxf5 Bxe3 4 Nxe3, as 4 . . . d4 allows 5 Bxb7. If 1 . . . Qe4, then 2 Nh4 Qb4+ 3 c3 Qxb2 4 Bxh6 wins. INTERNATIONAL NEWS World champion Vladimir Kramnik defeated his predecessor, Garry Kasparov, to win a tournament of 25-minute chess last weekend in Zurich, Switzerland.

Position No. 6088: Black to play and win. From the game Michael Hennigan-Roland Berzinsh, London 2009. Solution to Position No. 6087: White wins a piece with 1 Qh8+ Rg8 2 Rh6! Rxh8 3 Rxh8+ Ke7 4 Rdh1 Kd7 5 R1h7+ Qe7 6 Rxe7+ Kxe7 7 Rxb8. If 2 . . . Nd7, then 3 Rdh1 sets up 4 Qxg8+. White can refute the counterattack 2 . . . Qxe4 by either 3 Qxf6+ Ke8 4 Qe6+ or 3 Rxf6+ Ke7 4 Re6+ Qxe6 5 Qh7+ Qf7 6 Re1+ Kf8 7 Qh6+ Rg7 8 Qxd6+ Kg8 9 Qxb8+ Qf8 10 Re8. After the turbulent 1990s, the world of chess needed a calmer period.

Position No. 6083: White to play and win. From the game Leonardo Tristan-Rinat Jumabayev, World Junior Championship, Puerto Madryn 2009. Solution to Position No. 6082: White gains a piece by 1 h7! Rg7 2 Rxg2 Rxg2 3 Be4. The World Blitz Championship in Moscow assembled 22 leading grandmasters for a three-day extravaganza of speed chess. Each player had three minutes, plus a bonus of two seconds per move, to complete a game. This time limit has supplanted five minute games as the standard for blitz.

Position No. 6082: White to play and win. From the game Yun Fan-Rusudan Goletiani, U.S. Women's Championship, St. Louis 2009. Solution to Position No. 6081: Black wins a piece with 1 . . . d5 2 Ne3 d4 3 Nc4 (or 3 Rxc7 dxe3+) b5. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia won the Tal Memorial in Moscow by scoring an undefeated 6-3. The round robin featured 10 of the world's top 13 stars. Kramnik, in his prime at age 34, seems fully recovered from losing the 2008 world championship match to Viswanathan Anand of India.

The genteel world of chess spun out of control at the world championship final in recent days in Elista, Russia, with finger-pointing and accusations flying, closely resembling a normal week in the NFL. Whatever happened to the gentleman's game? Well, too many visits to the Gents room, it seems.

In the end, world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik was apparently undone by an attribute that separates humans from machines: an appreciation of beauty. After eight matches, a contest here between the Russian-born champ and a German-made computer program, Deep Fritz, was declared a draw Saturday night.

June 1 Position No. 5640: White to play and win. From the game Nijboer--Bischoff, Essen 2001. Solution to Position No. 5639: Black wins with 1 . . . Qxe4 2 Qxe4 Rxd1+. INTERNATIONAL NEWS Another elite tournament has turned into a two-man race between world champion Vladimir Kramnik and his predecessor, Garry Kasparov. Both have won several impressive games without a single loss in the first eight rounds of a double round robin in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Position No. 6104: White to play and win. From the game Tornike Sanikidze-Alexander Fedorov, Dubai 2010. Solution to Position No. 6103: Black wins with 1… Nxa1 2 Qxa1 Qc2! 3 Rxc2 bxc2, setting up 4 … Rd1+. The world championship match, which began Saturday in Sofia, Bulgaria, will determine the champion for the next two years. There is a hefty prize fund of 2 million euros (about $2.7 million), of which the winner will receive 60%. But even more is at stake.

Timur Gareyev, an Uzbek grandmaster who attends the University of Texas in Brownsville, won the National Open last weekend in Las Vegas. Gareyev yielded a first-round draw to IM Joe Bradford of Texas but won his next five games. He was particularly tough on Southern Californians, inflicting defeats on IM Andranik Matikozyan and, in the final round, GM Varuzhan Akobian. Tied for second at 5-1 were Akobian and GMs Arthur Kogan (Israel), Alex Lenderman (New York) and Alejandro Ramirez (Costa Rica)

May 4, 2001 Position #5636: Black to play and win. From the game Svidler--Korchnoi, Zurich 2001. Solution to Position #5635: White wins a piece with 1 d5! cxd5 2 Nd4 Qe5 3 Nxf5 Bxe3 4 Nxe3, as 4 . . . d4 allows 5 Bxb7. If 1 . . . Qe4, then 2 Nh4 Qb4+ 3 c3 Qxb2 4 Bxh6 wins. INTERNATIONAL NEWS World champion Vladimir Kramnik defeated his predecessor, Garry Kasparov, to win a tournament of 25-minute chess last weekend in Zurich, Switzerland.

When Garry Kasparov lost his world championship crown Thursday, he succeeded at prophecy: Years ago, he said that Vladimir Kramnik would replace him at the top someday. That day came sooner and more forcefully than Kasparov may have expected. Kramnik dethroned him in the Braingames Network world championship with another draw in the 15th game of the 16-game series, bringing the overall score to 8 1/2-6 1/2 and clinching victory. Kramnik, 25, won two games and drew the rest.