There was a four way tie in the cup. Pentala Harikrishna took first on tie-break.

The SPICE Cup took place September 19th-28th 2008 at the Texas Tech Student Union Building. There was a four way tie in the cup. Pentala Harikrishna took first on tie-break. Eugene Perelshteyn was the defending champion.

Games in PGN

Official website: http://www.SPICE.ttu.edu

The 58th Hungarian Championship takes place in Nyiregyhaza (220 km east from Budapest) 12th-23rd September 2008.

The championship is an 16 participant, KO-system event with Zoltan Almasi (6 times Hungarian Champion) and Gyula Sax (Gold medalist of the Buenos Aires Olympiad, 1978).

Official site: http://www.hotelpagony.hu/ or more directly http://dodicsek.unsoft.hu/2008/0912ferfiko/menkoch2008.htm.

Hou Yifan and new world women's champion Aleksandra Kosteniuk Photo © Eugene Atarov.

The World Women's Championship 2008 took place in Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria (Russian Federation), 28th August - 18th September 2008 with a prize fund of 450,000 USD. Aleksandra Kosteniuk defeated Hou Yifan in the final, which she dominated more than the 2.5-1.5 score suggests, with winning positions in at least two of the other games. The 24 year old Russian succeeds Xu Yuhua who went out in the second round of the knockout contest. In recent years China has dominated the event and Kosteniuk is the first Russian women's champion since Elisabeth Bykova (champion 1958-1962).

Sudden Death Playoff regulations: White shall receive 6 minutes, Black shall receive 5 minutes, without any addition. The winner qualifies for the next round. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces qualifies for the next round.

Games in PGN from the final

Games in PGN all games up to the final

Official site: http://nalchik2008.fide.com

http://www.chessdom.com/ has live blog coverage.

Round 2-4 results in TWIC 722

Round 1 results in TWIC 721

This years European Union Championships took place in Liverpool, England 9th - 18th September 2008. The prize fund was 30,000 pounds with 6000 pounds first prize. Jan Werle secured first place with a quick draw in the final round to finish on 8/10 after Adams drew early too. Short won in the final round to finish level with Adams half a point behind the winner along with Viktor Laznicka.

Games in PGN

Official site:  http://www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk            

The 61st Russian Championship Higher League took place in Novokuznetsk 3rd-14th September 2008. The event was a qualifier for the superfinals held in October. The event was an 11 round swiss with some very strong players.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.rcc2008.org/eng/index.htm

The Tournoi international de Montreal took place 24th August - 2nd September 2008. The main sponsor was the EMPRESA Group. Yuri Shulman took clear first place with 6½/9.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://perso.b2b2c.ca/lesechecauquebec/tim2008.htm

The Antwerp tournament took place 23rd-31st August 2008. Bu Xiangzhi took clear first place with 7/9.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.inventichess.com the website http://www.schaakfabriek.be will be on the spot.

Wang Yue. Photo © Fred Lucas http://www.fredlucas.eu/

The 3rd NH Chess Tournament took place in Amsterdam August 20th-30th, 2008. The venue of this clash between 'Rising Stars' and 'Experience' is the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in the centre of the Dutch capital, at a five minutes’ walk from Central Station.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.nhchess.com

The Chess Classic Mainz took place 28th July - 3rd August 2008. The 13th GRENKELEASING Rapid World Championship takes place 1st-3rd August 2008. The time rate will be 20min + 5 seconds a move and 5min + 5 seconds a move if playoffs are required (play starts at 17:30pm each day). There is a double round robin amongst the players Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Morozevich, Magnus Carlsen and Judit Polgar.

Anand beat Carlsen in the final 3-1 with a game to spare after winning the first two games of the four game final. Alexander Morozevich won the final game of his match against Judit Polgar to take 3rd.

The 15th Ordix Open took place 2nd-3rd August and the time rate is also 20min + 5 seconds a move and was won by rising star Ian Nepomniachtchi on tie-break from Pavel Eljanov

Final Games in PGN

3rd-4th Place Games in PGN

Games in PGN

Ordix Open Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.chesstigers.de

The VI.Gyorgy Marx Memorial took place in Paks, Hungary 24th July - 4th August, 2008. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the event with 7/10.

Alongside was the XII.Paks Open 30th July - 3rd August, 2008, 7 rounds.

The time control was 100 minutes for 40 moves and then 50 minutes for 20 moves and finally 15 minutes. There is an increment of 30 seconds per move first move 1.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.ase.hu/marxgy/2008/index_eng.html

The Najdorf Memorial took place 2nd-10th August 2008. Krishnan Sasikiran took clear first with 6.5/9 a point clear of Tomi Nyback and Emanuel Berg. Grzegorz Gajewski edged out Kacper Piorun and Vladimir Onischuk on tie break to take the open event after all scored 7/9.

Games in PGN and Open Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.poloniachess.pl/najdorf2008/index.php?lang=en

The XXIII Villarrobledo International Rapid Open took place over the weekend of 2nd-3rd August 2008. There was a strong entry at the top headed by Veselin Topalov who took clear first place with 8/9 half a point clear of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Former FIDE Champion Ruslan Ponomariov was a further half point behind and Alexei Shirov a further half point behind that.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.ajedrezenvillarrobledo.es/

Magnus Carlsen played a simultaneous exhibition in aid of Dusan Popovic who has chronic kidney failure. The exhibition will take place on ICC on August 11th 2008.

Details at: http://www.chessclub.com/

The 23rd Acropolis 2008 International Open Chess Tournament took place in Athens, Greece, 9th-17th August 2008. Ilya Smirin edged out Mircea Parlgras on tie-break after both scored 7/9.

84 chessplayers from 22 countries competed. "Acropolis" is Greece's longest-standing traditional competitive chess event, with its 23rd edition taking place this year.

Official site: http://www.chessfed.gr/acropolis2008 (with results, standings, games, photos as well as live transmission of the most important games of each round.)

The 83rd Argentine Championship took place 30th July - 11th August 2008. Anton Kovalyov, Diego Flores and Ruben Felgaer all finished on 8/11. Ruben Felgaer won a rapid (g15+10s/move) playoff amongst these players to take the title.

Official site: http://201.216.215.172/torneos/FINAL-83-ARG-08/

The French Championship took place in Pau 11th-23rd August 2008. Etienne Bacrot took the title after beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1½-½ in rapid playoff. Both scored 8½/11 in the tournament.

French National A Games - French Women's Championship Games - French National B Games

Official site: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/

Europe Echecs Videos on the French Championship.

Alekseev, Dominguez and Carlsen receive their prizes. Photo © http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/

The 41st Biel International Chess Festival took place 19th July - 1st August 2008. Leinier Dominguez Perez and Evgeny Alekseev finished on 6.5/9 half a point clear of the pre-tournament favourite Magnus Carlsen. Alekseev won the title after a playoff 2.5-1.5 by winning game four and thus avoided taking the match into a sudden death (Armageddon) 5m-4m playoff.

Games in PGN and Playoff Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.bielchessfestival.ch/

Playoff format: Two rapid games (15 minutes) were both drawn, Alekseev won the second 5 minute + 2secs a move game to take the cup.

The North Urals Cup took place in Krasnoturinsk (Sverdlovsk region) July 26th - August 3rd 2008. Antoaneta Stefanova took clear first place with 4½/7 half a point clear of Anna Ushenina and Marie Sebag.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.northuralscup.ru

Leko-Naiditsch Final Round 7. Photo © http://www.chessvibes.com (who also have videos from the event)

The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting took place in Dortmund 28th June - 6th July 2008. 8 player all-play-all. Peter Leko took clear first place. Elo-Favourite Vladimir Kramnik finished in 7th place losing in the final round to Vassily Ivanchuk.

Malcolm Pein on rounds 6-7, Karjakin - Short and the start of Poikovsky

Malcolm Pein on rounds 1-4

Games in PGN

Details of all events including the open and other tournaments: http://www.sparkassen-chess-meeting.de

The Poikovsky tournament took place 8th-17th July 2008. There was a four way tie on 5.5/9 between Rublevsky, Jakovenko, Gashimov and Shirov.

Games in PGN

Malcolm Pein on rounds 5-6 Poikovsky. Winton Capital British Chess Solving Championship and Paris Championship.

Official site: http://russiachess.org/

The "Lake Sevan 2008" International tournament took place 10th-20th July, 2008, in Martuni, Armenia. Arman Pashikian won the event with 6.5/9.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://www.sevan.chessacademy.am/

Sergey Karjakin defeated Nigel Short by the convincing margin of 7.5-2.5 in Kiev (Kyiv) in a rapid match which took place 3rd-7th July 2008. Things went wrong for Short early when he blew a completely winning position in game two and Karjakin handed out a bit of a thumping in the end.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://chess.life.com.ua/index.php?lng=en

Lubomir Ftacnik. Photo from the World Open © Shelby Lohrman

The 36th World Open took place in Philadelphia 2nd-6th July 2008. There was a 4-way tie for 1st place, and according to the tiebreak rules, the two players with the best tiebreak points then fought a playoff for the title of champion. GM Evgeny Najer defeated GM Parmijaran Negi in the Armaegeddon playoff game to claim the title.

Games in PGN

Official site: http://monroi.com/2008-world-open-chess-tournament-home.html

The Aerosvit-2008 tournament took place in Foros, Crimea 7th-20th June 2008. Magnus Carlsen won the