Gata Kamsky finally ended Alex Shirov’s challenge and won the chess world cup to set himself up for a match against the fallen champion Topalov for the right to face the winner of Anand - Kramnik. Kamsky has had an amazing comeback year and though he will be an underdog against the mighty Topalov, he will be in it with a chance. Can we have the second U.S. world champion after Bobby Fischer in Gata Kamsky? Time will tell.

Right after Fritz 11 came out, chessbase has done it again. Now Shredder 11 is out. Wonder which one is the stronger engine. My money would be on Fritz though Shredder used to be stronger in previous versions.

For all you crazy chess fans, Fritz 11 is out! It is supposed to be 80 ELO stronger than Fritz 10, but we have heard that before. I am definitely looking forward to pitting Fritz 11 versus Rybka 3.0 to see which one is really stronger though at this point my money would be on Rybka. Why Rybka doesn’t get chess championship shots against the human world champ like Fritz and Junior have been getting in the past couple of years is really mind boggling to me as Rybka has proved to be the best chess engine in the world in the past 2 years.