According to a recent study carried out in Italy, the answer is yes -- at least for women. In an interesting experiment, men and women of similar strength were paired up to play chess with each other over the Internet. Each pair played two games, although they did not know they were playing the game opponent. For the second game, some pairs were told they were playing same-sex opponents, while other pairs were told the truth.

A large gap emerged in the results. When the opponents were unknown, or they were thought to be of the same sex, the pairs did about as expected; both sides won approximately an equal number of games. However, when the pairs were told the truth about who they were playing, the women fared much worse -- scoring barely over half as many points as they did against the same opponents when they were unknown to them. The researchers theorize that this is due to less confident and more cautious play on the part of the female players when they know they're playing against men.

I have no idea how much this study will add to or impact the research being done on this topic, but there has certainly been plenty of work done to try and find out why women are underrepresented in chess. It may well be for a variety of social and cultural expectations that lead to many young girls giving up the game in their teenage years, and many more playing the game only casually. On the other hand, while some people may think it's true, I seriously doubt that women are "naturally" less talented at chess. I'd love to see a growing proportion of women who play the game seriously, and hopefully the information being gathered can help find ways to make this a reality.

The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting has traditionally been one of the world's elite chess events, and certainly the strongest event held each year in Germany. This year's version features six strong GMs, including Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Dmitry Jakovenko, Etienne Bacrot and Germany's own Arkadij Naiditsch.

The tournament is a double round-robin, with 10 rounds in total. Carlsen jumped out to the early lead by defeating Jakovenko in the first round, and is currently the only player at 1.5/2.

I'll be providing updates on the tournament's progress over the next week. Here's Carlsen's victory over Jakovenko from round 1:

White: Magnus Carlsen
Black: Dmitry Jakovenko
2009 Dortmund Sparkassen Chess-Meeting (Round 1)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 h5 11.Ne2 Be7 12.Bg5 Be6 13.Nf4 Bd5 14.Bxe7 Kxe7 15.Ng5 Nd4 16.Rad1 Ne6 17.Ngxe6 Bxe6 18.h4 a5 19.a3 a4 20.Rfe1 g6 21.f3 Ra5 22.c3 Rb5 23.Re2 Ra8 24.Rd4 Raa5 25.Kf2 Rxe5 26.Rxe5 Rxe5 27.Rxa4 Rb5 28.b4 c5 29.Ra7 cxb4 30.cxb4 Kd7 31.Ne2 Rb6 32.Ke3 Bc4 33.Nd4 Kd6 34.Ra5 Ra6 35.Rxa6+ bxa6 36.g4 hxg4 37.fxg4 Ke5 38.Nc6+ Kf6 39.Kf4 Ke6 40.h5 gxh5 41.gxh5 Bd3 42.Ke3 Bf1 43.h6 Kf6 44.Ne5 Bb5 45.Kd4 Ba4 46.h7 Kg7 47.Nxf7 Kxh7 48.Ng5+ Kg6 49.Ne6 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk took a final round draw with Teimour Radjabov to comfortably win the Turneul Regilor (Kings' Tournament) in Banza, Romania. Ivanchuk finished with a 7.0/10 score, without losing a single game. He won by taking advantage of the tail end of the table, defeating Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu twice and Gata Kamsky once -- both of whom finished with 3.0 points, tied for last.

Finishing second was Boris Gelfand, who won two games without a loss, while Alexei Shirov and Radjabov tied for third at 5.5 points each.

Here is the only decisive game of the final round, a win by Shirov over Nisipeanu. Shirov looked to be in better form after some recent tournament struggles:

White: Alexei Shirov
Black: Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu
Kings' Tournament, Banza, Romania, Round 10

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.O-O-O Bb4 9.f3 Ne7 10.Nde2 b5 11.Bf4 e5 12.Bg5 Qb6 13.a3 Bc5 14.b4 Bf2 15.Qd6 Qxd6 16.Rxd6 Neg8 17.Ng3 h6 18.Nd1 Ba7 19.Be3 Bb8 20.Bc5 Ne7 21.Ne3 Bxd6 22.Bxd6 Bb7 23.c4 Bc6 24.Kb2 Ng6 25.Ngf5 Kd8 26.Nxg7 Ne8 27.Nxe8 Rxe8 28.Nf5 Re6 29.h4 h5 30.c5 Re8 31.g4 hxg4 32.h5 Nf4 33.Nh6 gxf3 34.Nxf7+ Kc8 35.Bxe5 Rxe5 36.Nxe5 Kc7 37.h6 Rh8 38.h7 Bxe4 39.Rh4 Rxh7 40.Rxf4 Rh2+ 41.Kc3 Black Resigns

Anyone who has spent time at a chess tournament has likely seen groups of kids (and often adults) playing the wild form of chess known as bughouse. Played by teams of two on two separate boards, a typical bughouse game will see dozens of pieces passed back and forth between the players, stunning mating attacks, and at least one player who has control of four knights at once!

If you have no idea how to play bug, you're missing out: it's lots of fun, and can even help improve your creativity and tactical vision in regular chess. I've just added an article detailing the rules of this great game. Check it out, grab a partner, and find another team to play with. After a few games, you'll be hooked.