Αυτό που μετράει δεν είναι η επιθυμία σου για να νικήσεις και να πετύχεις. Όλοι έχουν τέτοιες επιθυμίες. Αυτό που πραγματικά έχει σημασία είναι η αποφασιστικότητά σου να δουλέψεις σκληρά για να εκπληρώσεις την...

The superfinal of the St. Petersburg Rapid Cup 2012 was played on 5-7th October at the Hotel Oktyabrskaya. Twelve players, winners of the qualifiers, top St. Petersburg players and invited guests, competed in the round robin event with the time control of 15′+10”. The total prize fund was 24,400 EUR (985,000 RUB), with 4500 EUR [...]

Οι σκακιστές του πάρκου Washington Square, στo Μανχάταν της Νέας Υόρκης, συγκεντρώνονται στο νοτιοδυτικό άκρο της έκτασης. Ανάμεσα στους τακτικούς θαμώνες ήταν ο Στάνλεϊ Κιούμπρικ, ο οποίος έπαιζε παρτίδες με στοίχημα. Από...

The 77th Individual Chess Championship of Spain was held from 29th September to 7th October at the Hotel Gloria Palace de San Agustín on Gran Canaria. 124 players competed in the 9-round Swiss event, including 8 Grandmasters. Grandmasters Julen Luis Arizmendi and Miguel Munoz Pantoja won their last round games to finish the tournament on [...]

As a break from the deep and insightful posts we’ve had lately I thought I’d share a very nice piece of FREE software with you that seems to be little known right now. It’s called Guess The Move and was written by Fred Mellender. You can download it from here and see how it works [...]

(Sorry for the scare quotes, but it's an absurd name, at least in English.) The ridiculously strong double round-robin event that started a couple of weeks ago in Sao Paulo, Brazil resumes tomorrow (today for many of you) in Bilbao, Spain. When we left off after the first cycle, Fabiano Caruana (send him back!) was leading with 11 points (on 3-1-0 scoring), with Levon Aronian in second with 7...

The 13th Karpov tournament in Poikovsky, Russia, was a strong event and would have received more coverage here and elsewhere were it not for the London Grand Prix and the Final Masters in Sao Paulo and Bilbao. A very strong field of 10 included five 2700s and three other players rated between 2691 and 2698. Dmitry Jakovenko won with an undefeated +3 score, finishing half a point ahead of former...

Today at Hampton Court House there were no lessons between morning break and lunch. Instead, the students and staff were treated to a ‘cello and piano recital by BBC Young Musician of the Year Laura Van Der Heijden and Martin Bartlett, a piano finalist in the same competition. After hearing compositions by Bach, Liszt and [...]

“Chess is good for you”, we are told. “Chess makes kids smarter.” “Chess helps kids think analytically or how to think one step ahead, which is a good life skill”, according to a (not terribly literate) Google Alert which reached my inbox a couple of minutes ago. It’s always struck me that saying “Chess is [...]

The 16th Unive Chess Tournament will be held from 19th to 27th October at the town hall in Hoogeveen, Netherlands. The tournament consists of the Crown Group, the Unive Open and two Amateur events. The Crown Group is traditionally a four-player double round-robin, this year featuring the Women World Champion Hou Yifan, the US champion [...]

8.1 Speelman – Benko, Rotterdam 1987 Σχετικά απλή είναι η πρώτη θέση. Πώς κέρδισε ο Άγγλος GM με τα λευκά; 8.2  Kapengut – Shereshevsky, USSR 1969 Πώς κέρδισαν τα λευκά; «Θύμα» του συνδυασμού είναι ο Μιχαήλ Σερεσέβσκι, γνωστός από το...

Tonight's massacre makes the Irish 5-0 on the year; seven victims remain, not counting the bowl game. Next week's victim is Stanford. Now for some high quality music:

Αν και πρόκειται για μια μικρή κωμόπολη της Ηπείρου, η Κόνιτσα είναι αρκετά γραφική, φιλόξενη και αποτελεί ένα καλό σημείο αφετηρίας για τους τουρίστες που επιθυμούν να εξερευνήσουν τα βουνά της Πίνδου.Επίσης υπάρχει...

The Moscow Chess Federation and the Russian State Social University have reached an agreement on holding the RSSU International Chess Festival – Moscow Open 2013. The 8th Festival will offer the same prize fund as the this year’s event – 3,5 million rubles or approximately 113,000 USD. The Festival will include eight competitions: Russian Cup [...]

The event isn't quite over, but Dutch correspondence GM Ron A. H. Langeveld has clinched clear first place in the 26th World Correspondence Chess Championship, and will by anywhere from a half-point to a point and a half margin. The most notable participant, to my eyes, is third-place finisher Rafael Leitao from Brazil, a GM in OTB chess. Also notable is that eight of the 17 players are...