In 1992, Bobby Fischer played a series of ten training games with his old friend, the late Yugoslav/Serbian grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric. Gligoric was nearly 70 then, but Fischer clearly felt that Gligoric would make a useful training partner for his forthcoming rematch with Boris Spassky. Fischer won at least three games, Gligoric at least one, and at least two of the games are available to the...

And so concludes an easy but dull win over a poor team. In years past B.C. was a good opponent, and unfortunately they probably will be again someday. This year, though, they're just bad. Hopefully Notre Dame won't be too affected and will rise to the necessary level for next week against Wake Forest, and especially the week after that against the aptly-named Trojans of USC. Ten victims down, two...

Consider your local swimming pool. There are a number of things kids can do there. First of all you’ll probably want your kids to learn to swim. There will be times or places set aside for this where they will have either one-to-one or small group lessons with a swimming coach who may not be [...]

Την Τετάρτη 14 Νοεμβρίου ξεκινάει στο Πνευματικό κέντρο Ηγουμενίτσας το εσωτερικό πρωτάθλημα Θεσπρωτίας για τι χρονιά 2012-2013. Μπορείτε να δείτε τις κληρώσεις του τουρνουά πατώντας εδώ.   ΠΡΟΚΗΡΥΞΗ ΑΓΩΝΩΝΟ...

Presumably chastened from last week's scare, the 9-0 "Fighting Irish" of Notre Dame can be expected to drub 2-7 Boston College tonight, especially as they are perhaps ND's most despised rival outside the states of Michigan and California. BC isn't doing very well this year, and both for the sake of their BCS standings but also because it's the thing to do with despised rivals, Notre Dame should...

It's "halftime" at the Kings Tournament in Bucharest, Romania, and so far there has been just one decisive result in six: Vassily Ivanchuk's first-round win over Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Other games came close: Veselin Topalov had serious winning chances against Fabiano Caruana in round 1, while Caruana in turn probably could have beaten Nisipeanu in round 2 had he played 34.Kd4! Qd1+ 35.Kc5 Qxa4...

The World Women Chess Championship 2012 opening ceremony took place in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. In the presence of the Ugra governor Natalia Komarova and the Olympic biathlon champion Yevgeny Redkin, the President of FIDE gave the start of the World Championship. Part of the ceremony was the drawing of colors. The defending World Champion Yifan [...]

"I should break new barriers all the time". That was the advice Simen Agdestein (one of Magnus Carlsen's early trainers and a great player in his own right) gave Carlsen when he was 10, and seems to have been understood by Carlsen as advice to play new openings and new positions. (The full quote is here - HT to Michael Bagalman.) What was good advice to one person may not be so for another, and...

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The 17th Bora Kostic Memorial, honoring the first chess globetrotter, is taking place from 20th to 30th November at the Hotel Srbija in Vrsac, the city of his birth. Six players are competing in the double round robin tournament: Kiril Georgiev (BUL 2660), Predrag Nikolić (BIH 2650), Dmitry Svetushkin (MDA 2589), Nikola Sedlak (SRB 2572, [...]

As the 1000-mile-wide Hurricane Sandy approaches my home (I’m just a few miles north of that big red line that tracks the storm eye), I am reminded of a “hurricane” of the chess world. In his July 7, 2012 blog, Nigel provided an extraordinary documentary on the life and chess of Rashid Nezhmetdinov (1912-1974), acknowledged [...]

The General Secretary of the Paraguayan Chess Federation requested last Friday, November the 2nd, the transfer of Cuban grandmaster Neuris Delgado Ramirez, who currently represents the Colombian Federation (FECODAZ). Before placing the order, the General Secretary of the FEPARAJ, Julio Ingolotti, negotiated the change with the FECODAZ leaders. He highlighted the excellent disposition of the [...]

The San Remo Chess Festival is scheduled to take place from January 28th to February 3rd, 2013, at the Nyala Suite Hotel in San Remo, Italy. San Remo is a city that boasts exceptional renown in the chess world, having hosted a famous tournament in 1930 that became legendary with the convincing victory of Alexander [...]

Στο ενδιαφέρον γλωσσολογικό ιστολόγιο του Νίκου Σαραντάκου "Οι λέξεις έχουν την δική τους ιστορία" ανέβηκε στις 17-09-2012 μια ανάρτηση σχετική με το παιγνίδι του σκακιού : "Ταξίδι στα 64 τετράγωνα". Πρέπει να την διαβάσετε...

I’m pleased to announce that Gawain will be playing in the 88th Hastings  Chess Congress which will be held from 28th December 2012 to 6th January 2013. This will be our first year back since 2008, when I had a horrible start of 0.5/5 in the Christmas morning tournament which gave me a starting ECF Grade [...]