Merry Christmas!

There will be some strong events coming up in the new year especially the annual Corus event with Carlsen and Anand etc. Maybe in the spring we'll have a World Championship match to report on, all being well... At the moment a match between living legends Victor Korchnoi and Boris Spassky is taking place in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia in Russia.

Korchnoi, who is still very active in the chess world, beat Spassky in the first game and made a draw in the second. I'm not sure when they first played, but I believe that they were both present in 'Leningrad' during the Second World War.

More on this match after Christmas especially if any of the games are particularly interesting.

official site

At the end of the year there are a few reasonably strong open tournament but the next premier event will be Wijk aan Zee (sponsored by Corus in mid-January).

official site

The world champion Viswanathan Anand will be second seed behind Magnus Carlsen in next year's Corus.
© Europe Echecs

As it comes closer we'll be delving into the ins and outs of the planned World Championship match between Anand and Topalov in Bulgaria. The contract has been signed, the hands have been shaken and...let's hope there are no late hitches!

If you hadn't noticed there is a new endgame video available.

Otherwise we'll be back with lots of news, games and further videos in about a week after taking a break over Christmas.

So Merry Christmas!