The president of the Turkish Chess Federation Ali Nihat Yazici (who is on facebook ... if you didn't know) has issued a public press release to all chess news media outlets (we got it from susan's blog).

The letter is in reference to a court case that the Turkish Federation just won against the ECU ... who had been ignoring Turkey, Greece, and Georgia (to name a few countries). Several events have now been cancelled but maybe this kind of gestapo tactics by the ECU will now cease. Yazici has struck a major blow to the establishment ... let's see if he can hold a third term election. I personally hope so.

A new system of chess results is currently being discussed by Chessbase - win, almost win, draw, almost loss, loss.

I can't see where the justice is here. Draws are fare as they are and no change is necessary. People who draw at the top levels don't win tournaments and keep playing their best. A definitive result is still common in Supertournaments. I still don't get the argument from the "change-the-rules" crowd.

Any comments?

I always enjoy seeing candid pictures of professional chessplayers because we have an odd mixture of guilt and innocence when we're not ready to be photographed.

I saw this photo on Peter Svidler's website and just had to share it with my readers. I did not obtain permission to use this photo so if the owner has a problem with my using it it will be promptly removed (I don't know who it belongs to but I suspect it isn't a public media source).

There are new RATING and TITLE rules coming down from FIDE. I had some trouble spotting the changes in the title rules but I think one key change to the rating system is a more frequent rating list. Look for appearance fees to start varying wildly for top players.

Also, I'm interested to know why this change came through. I know that interest in chess is heightened by a frequent flip flopping of the top players (this is true of any sport) but is this the real motivation for FIDE? I mean, if we wanted odd swings in the better players why not institute a system similar to the ladder style rankings of Tennis?

Last years Tennis Nadal-Federer matchups would have nothing on this years Aronian-Kramnik Chess matchs in my opinion.
Just a few points to ponder.