The city of Evansville installed a new life-sized chess board (in the hopes to get people outdoors and more active). Columbus already has one. But St. Louis has them both beat with the world’s largest chess piece—14½ feet tall.

Matthew Fishbein won the Maine State Chess Championship but is only 14 years old.

The president of the World Chess Federation held diplomatic talks with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad (perhaps at the request of the Russian government) and asked him not to retaliate against rebel regions of the country. In contrast, a 10 year old Tunisian refused to play against an Israeli opponent in the World School Chess Championship.

A World Chess Championship title match opens Thursday between defending champion Viswanathan Anand of India and Boris Gelfand of Israel. The contest will take place in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, Russia and proceed for 12 games over 3 weeks.

The 2012 U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women’s Championships started Tuesday in St. Louis. In the former, 12 players are competing in an 11 game round-robin tournament. In the latter, 10 players in a 9 game round-robin.