When I started coaching with my mentor, GM Nigel, I adopted the slogan “desire to win” on my Skype profile. I’ve now changed this to “playing the position” as the way my mentor has shaped my game. In simple terms you should respect the board and should not play emotionally because chess is an extremely [...]

The Final of the 72nd Ukrainian Women Chess Championship is taking place from 24th September to 3rd October at the Students’ Palace of National University “Law Academy Yaroslav the Wise” in Kharkiv. Ten players compete in the round robin event, forming the line-up for the strongest national Championship in the history. Before round one the [...]

Today is the last game of the FIDE Grand Prix tournament before the first free day. So far, we have only one leader: Boris Gelfand. Due to Yom Kippur, Boris and Shakhriyar had to start the game at 1pm. Ivanchuk, who arrived a bit earlier to watch the game, was surprised by the pawn sacrifice [...]

Before more than a thousand spectators, the first round of the Chess Grand Slam Masters Final, which is being held in the Brazilian metropolis of Sao Paulo with the concluding round to be held in Bilbao from October 8 to 13, was played. Anand (India) – Vallejo (Spain) 1-1 (duration 3hrs 45 mins; 59 moves) [...]

The Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club of San Francisco held the Third Imre Konig Memorial on September 22-23, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of International Master Konig, the first top-rate player to reside in San Francisco. The event, sponsored by Tibor Weinberger, was a seven-player round-robin, featuring a rapid time control of Game [...]

          Ετοιμαστείτε να παίξετε σκάκι μέχρι τελικής πτώσεως! Για πρώτη φορά στην Ελλάδα διοργανώνετε ένα τέτοιο πρωτάθλημα. Κατά την ταπεινή και προσωπική μου γνώμη οι διοργανωτές θα πρέπει να...

Μια σκακιέρα στη γαλλική ταινία του 2008 «Le Grand Alibi» (το ακλόνητο άλλοθι). Κλασσικό θρίλερ μυστηρίου που περιέχει ένα ερωτικό τρίγωνο με έναν ένοχο κι έναν δολοφονημένο σαν αρχή, και η συνταγή είναι έτοιμη, για το παιχνίδι...

FIDE, the FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG), the FIDE Commission for Women Chess (WOM) and the Federación Cubana de Ajedrez (FCA) are organizing the FIDE Trainers’ Seminar on 14-18th November in La Habana, Cuba. The FIDE Trainers’ Seminar will take a total of 15 hours. The lectures will be conducted in Spanish language and a lesson [...]

After spending a couple of weeks alone in my study looking at chess books, with only the cat checking on my progress, I can tell you a certain existential angst occasionally creeps in along with the cat. Also a touch of lower back pain, until I rummaged around the basement and found a card table [...]

Two super-tournaments at once! Of the top 18 players on the Live Ratings list, all but five are busy in either London or Sao Paulo/Bilbao (the first cycle is in Sao Paulo, and then they'll shift over to Bilbao for part two). We're up to round 4 in London, and it was a good day for two of the three G-stars, as Gelfand and Grischuk won their games. (Giri only drew.) In Grischuk's case, it was the...

London endured the wettest day of the year so far, but as Ivanchuk said: “It’s great weather to play chess!” Today’s round of games of the FIDE Grand Prix tournament saw some dramatic action, with no short draws and the players happy to slog it out over three hours of play. One of the leaders [...]

Round 1 of the Bilbao Chess Masters Final will start momentarily, with the following pairings: Caruana - Carlsen Aronian - Karjakin Anand - Vallejo I'll have more to say about round 4 of London later today; in brief, the two decisive games were Grischuk beating Mamedyarov in a lively game and Gelfand beating Wang Hao when the latter blundered into mate in a rook ending. Gelfand is in clear first...

To Sunny είναι ένας από τους μεγαλύτερους και ιστορικότερους Αθλητικούς Ομίλους της Αττικής στον οποίο, μεταξύ άλλων αθλημάτων και δραστηριοτήτων, διδάσκεται και σκάκι.Μπορείτε να επισκοπηθείτε τη σελίδα πατώντας...

Ένα γεμάτο πρόγραμμα σκάκι μπορούν να απολαύσουν οι λάτρεις του βασιλικού παιχνιδιού. Με το που τελειώνει το τουρνουά στο Λονδίνο, ξεκινάει το μεγάλο τουρνουά στη Βραζιλία!Στις 9 το βράδυ ώρα Ελλάδας, ξεκινάει το πρώτο...

Sorry for the bad photos but all I had was a small camera and the lighting was very dim. Again you can check out the good quality stuff from Ray Morris Hill and if you go right to the end you’ll see a photo of yours truly with Gawain. You can read the write up from [...]