ANAND SHINES IN BIEL For the thirtieth time hundreds of chess players gathered in Switzerland for the Biel Chess Festival. This year's festival also signalled the farewell of organizer Hans Suri. Viswanathan Anand demonstrated great form and took first place in the six-player top group. Boris Gelfand reports.
ANTWERP IS GETTING HOTTER AND HOTTER Among the traditional summer festivals the Lost Boys tournament in Antwerp is rapidly gaining in popularity. To celebrate its fifth year the pyramidal event was topped by a crown group, largely composed of the winners of the previous editions - plus special guest Veselin Topalov, who duly confirmed his top-seed status.
INTERVIEW: MARK TAIMANOV The Russian grandmaster hardly resents that the chess world knows him best as Fischer's victim. The hardships that followed his devastating 6-0 defeat did not break the spirit of a remarkable man, who can not only boast a rich chess career, but who also travelled the world as a celebrated pianist and who, moreover, is still bristling with vitality at the age of 71.
CHESS AFTER THE FLOOD Sergey Rublevsky posted an excellent victory at the annual Rubinstein Memorial in Polanica Zdroj, the first sporting event to be held in Poland after the tragic flood that disrupted daily life in a large part of Eastern Europe this summer.
FIDE'S K-O LOTTERY Can the coffee machine at the office of the International Olympic Committee become World Chess Champion? Why not? Hans Ree explains that this solution might even lead to the reunification the chess community has been craving for.
