WELCOME TO THE INTERNET CHESS CLUB

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.

 Sultan of Brunei Birthday Blitz Bash

We all know ICC is the place to be for the biggest and best online prize tournaments - and we've got another coming up later this month for our members, as we collaborate with the official 62nd Birthday celebrations for the Sultan of Brunei!

The 1st Brunei Internet Chess Blitz, with a total prize fund of $6,500 USD, will take place on Tuesday, July 15th starting at 2:00AM ET (2:00PM Brunei Time).  Registration is free and open to players from all over the world. The 13 round, 3 0 minute blitz promises to attract many top grandmasters, all of whom will be battling it out for the five major cash prizes, including the first prize of $1,500 USD.  ICC Rules and guidelines can be found at here.

There will also be plenty of consolation prizes on offer for what promises to be a fun-filled, through-the-night tournament here at ICC, where our members in the likes of Australia and early-risers in Europe finally get the time zone advantage over North American members!

We'll also be linking-up directly with the Brunei Chess Centre, located at Hassanal Bokiah National Sports Complex and the Brunei Shell Recreation Club Chess Centre, where Brunei Darussalam locals there will take part in their own prize tournament.

Major sponsors for this gala birthday event include: Alif Technologies, DST Group, PT. Wai IIIa Sarana Utama & PT Talenta Pratama Madri, Pines Enterprises - Verde and Adison Marketing Services.  The tournament is also sponsored by The Empire Hotel and Country Club, i-Centre, Everyman Chess UK, London Chess Centre UK, Mutiara Shakila Nabilah Transportation Services, Royal Brunei Technical Services Sdn Bhd, Zisen Enterprise, PT. Budi Gunawan and PT. El-Nusa.

• Press Release

• Rules and Guidelines

• Official Brunei Website

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