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The Internet Chess Club (ICC) is the longest running, most popular, and best place to play chess on the Internet. Nowhere else can you find as many chess enthusiasts ready for a quick round of blitz, a short chat, an impromptu tournament, or simply enjoying the wealth of Chess.FM shows and live event coverage. It is not uncommon to find more than 3,000 chess players hanging out on ICC where more than 100,000 games are played each day.

ICC Dasher is a Windows program for playing chess. Membership enables you to play chess online within the ICC community, challenging your skills at ICC online tournaments. You can download Dasher for free and use it to play offline or online and to register for a free trial ICC account.

 Playing like a God at Dortmund

Who would have guessed it?  The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting could be heading for a big surprise result as the German bottom seed, Jan Gustafsson (GodGusti here on ICC) is playing the tournament of his life so far to be the unlikely sole leader going into Saturday's penultimate round.

The unbeaten Gustafsson set the Independence Day fireworks off early on Friday July 4th, as he took only 18 moves to beat the hapless Dutchman Loek Van Wely in a miniature - and with the black pieces!   He's now on a +2 score of 3.5/5 (2863 performance) and a half point ahead of nearest rivals Peter Leko and Ian Nepomnichtchi.

The tournament also saw a sensational piece of giant-killing with the last German player to win Dortmund (in 2005), Arkadij Naiditsch, easily beating former world champion Kramnik with a big novelty in the Petroff's Defence that featured in GOTD.

Will GodGusti live up to his ICC handle by going on to become only the second German player in the last 25 years to win Dortmund?  You can find out here by joining us at Chess.FM as Mig Greengard is joined for the final two rounds f by top commentators GM Larry Christiansen and GM Gregory Kaidanov or move-by-move coverage.  Play starts Saturday at 9:00AM ET with Sunday's final round at 7:00AM ET.

Our full schedule can be found here.

On ICC: fingerDortmund08

IX 'New In Chess' Trivia Contest winners

The IX 'New in Chess' TRIVIA Contest! ICC Chess.FM ICC and New in Chess present The XI 'New in Chess' Trivia Contest! Tune-in to Mig on ICC Chess.FM for our round-by-round coverage of Dortmund Chess Tournament 2008, and each round you could win a 1-year subscription to the world's best chess magazine. For more information and rules, visit our help page.

 Mainz Chess960

The human qualifier is over, but now its the turn of the machines! The qualifiers were held here at ICC on Thursday, and the best-of-six-game computer final will be on Saturday, June 28, 3pm ET, with NaumXMP and Sjeng battling it out for a spot in the Livingston Chess960 Computer World Championship in Mainz.

Second seed GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville) of the USA reasserted his authority as one of the top dogs on ICC on Sunday by winning the Mainz Chess Classic online Chess960 title. After winning the first qualifier, Nakamura beat with ease Cassano (3-0), VerdeNotte (2.5-0.5) and Yarosavich (3-0) en route to the six-game final. And in a more closely contested final, Nakamura beat the young Russian top seed Dmitry Andreikin, 4-2, to claim the $1090 (700 Euro) first prize, invitation to the FiNet and Ordix opens, hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel by the banks of the Rhine, just 1 block from the picturesque Old Town. All of last week, qualifiers were held here on ICC for the coveted spots in the 16-player KO Mainz Chess Classic online Chess960 finals. The full list of finalists and results can be found below or at our dedicated Mainz Chess960 page.

Download games from the finals in PGN format

Regular ICC Events

ICC Newsletter XXV-2008 June 20 In this issue: Sultan of Brunei Birthday Blitz Bash, Playing like a God at Dortmund, Chess.FM videos, Tomato Central, and the ICC Store.

All events are free to ICC members unless noted. All times are Eastern Standard Time. Add 5 hours for GMT. Add 6 hours for CET.

Saturday, July 05   00:45   Tournament Sleepless - 3 tourneys - 5 rounds of 3 0     07:00   Tournament Early Morning - 3 1, 7 rounds     09:30   Webcast India with Arvind Aaron     12:00   Tournament Monthly Standard (15 5, 3 rounds)     13:00   Tournament League Of Losers     13:00   Simul 30 60 ch 3 IM Vojislav Milanovic     16:00   Tournament Bullet (1 0, 10 rounds)     19:00   Tournament Blitz 1200-1800 (2 6, 7 rounds)     19:00   Tournament Blitz Under 1300 (2 6, 5 rounds)     20:00   Simul manest 30 30 - 30 boards ch 3     23:00   Tournament Nightly O1500 (5 0, 7 rounds)     23:00   Tournament Nightly U1500 (2 6, 7 rounds)     View this week's entire event list