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Chess In the Media

A New World Chess Champion, With Modest Moves (New York Times)

Vaselin Topalov, a Bulgarian chess grandmaster, is on top of the world.

Ten days ago, Mr. Topalov, 30, won the championship organized by the World Chess Federation by a margin of a point and a half over most of the world's best players. His performance was so dominant (he won six of his first seven games) that by the midpoint of the tournament the suspense was all but over.

His victory was not a flash in the pan. Five months ago, at the Mtel Super GM tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, Mr. Topalov scored two more victories than his closest competitor, finishing a full point ahead of a field that had most of the world's best players, including Vladimir Kramnik, a Russian grandmaster who is a rival claimant for the title of world champion.

Grandview chess team continues success (Rapid City Journal, South Dakota)

A sign on a trophy cased at Grandview Elementary School in south Rapid City proclaims: “Happiness is a passed pawn.”

A “passed pawn” is a chess term for a piece that ... well, it’s complicated, but there are more than 140 chess players at Grandview who understand exactly what it means. Grandview has one of the largest, most successful chess programs in the region.

Last weekend, the Grandview Cougars Chess Club continued to dominate elementary school chess competitions in South Dakota. At the Governor’s Cup Scholastic Tournament in Sioux Falls, Grandview teams won first place in the K-6 and K-3 divisions.

Pumpkin-patch chess in Cohasset (Boston Globe)

For Halloween, Phil Lehr designed a 2,500-square-foot chess board, complete with 8-foot-tall figures, using nearly 3,000 pumpkins.

"The pieces can be moved so visitors can actually play a game of chess," said Lehr. "The pawns are ghosts; one side white and the other side black."

Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.