Chess is not simple, but it can seem uncomplicated compared with the issues swirling around the governance of the game.

Chess requires exceptional reasoning ability, but problems besetting the game seem to defy logic. In the last few weeks, disputes within the World Chess Federation have led two top players to withdraw from the world chess championship selection process, while another player faces a two-year ban for failing to take a drug test - although he almost certainly did not take any since there are few if any drugs that can enhance a chess player’s performance. The episodes illustrate the struggles and foibles of a game that at times achieves immense popularity around the world and at other times - sometimes for reasons of its own making - falls by the wayside

While many beginners may confuse them because they look similar at first glance, check, checkmate and stalemate are very different situations. It is important to be able to identify each and understand what they mean.

A description and guide to the common openings lines which can be reached from the Italian Game.

Learn how to read and write algebraic chess notation.

Learn how to checkmate with a king and a queen, one of the most basic endgame checkmates in chess.

The defending chess champion, the Dallas Destiny, won the 2008 United States Chess League, a 14-team Internet competition that ended this month. Dallas’s final match against the Boston Blitz was tied 2-2, but IM Davorin Kuljasevic won the title for Dallas, defeating former U.S.

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) plans to begin the third tournament of its Grand Prix series today in Elista, Russia. The first two Grand Prix tournaments were unqualified successes, featuring exciting chess battles between many of the world’s top 20 grandmasters.

Chess Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk refused to submit a urine sample for a drug test at the Chess Olympiad in Dresden and is now considered guilty of doping. The world of chess is outraged that he could face a two-year ban. Professional chess player Vassily Ivanchuk, born in Berezhany, Ukraine in 1969, has been a grandmaster for the past 20 years and is currently ranked third in the world.

The question of the week is what makes the difference between a good chess grandmaster and a world chess champion/world No. 1 player? It is extremely difficult to become a chess grandmaster