Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC), a new charity that uses the ancient game of chess as a learning tool in classrooms across England and Wales have been shortlisted and highly commended in the annual Community Sport and Recreational Awards, formerly the Sports Club of the Year Awards, for 2012. The judging panel, chaired by the BBC’s Eleanor Oldroyd awards sport and recreation...

Magnus Carlsen is back at the board as he competes at the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland. The world number one quickly changed his plans after the Bazna Super Tournament was cancelled. The Masters is a six player double round all play all and is one of the strongest tournaments of the year.

Magnus Carlsen is back at the board as he competes at the Biel Chess Festival in Switzerland. The world number one quickly changed his plans after the Bazna Super Tournament was cancelled. The Masters is a six player double round all play all and is one of the strongest tournaments of the year.

Κυκλοφόρησε το νέο βιβλίο του Στράτου Γρίβα με τίτλο ‘Chess Analytics: Training with a Grandmaster’. Το βιβλίο πραγματεύεται 40 θέματα στρατηγικής, τακτικής και φινάλε, τα οποία αναλύονται μέσα από 240 παραδείγματα, σε 320 σελίδες. Ο...

Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Biel Chess tournament. There was an initial announcement that his round 3 game was postponed but then on the official Facebook Feed Stefan Tock said "Official: Due to medical issues Alexander Morozevich has retired from the GM Tournament" and said there would be more news later. The other two games were delayed but eventually started, no doubt there was...

Alexander Morozevich has withdrawn from the Biel Chess tournament. There was an initial announcement that his round 3 game was postponed but then on the official Facebook Feed Stefan Tock said "Official: Due to medical issues Alexander Morozevich has retired from the GM Tournament" and said there would be more news later. The other two games were delayed but eventually started, no doubt there was...

The 20th Annual Southern Open will be held from July 27-29, 2012, at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, 8001 International Drive, Orlando, FL. The event has a $16,000 projected prize fund with $12,000 guaranteed. The event has 5 sections: Open, Under 2100, Under 1800, Under 1500 and Under 1200. All sections are 5 round Swiss tournaments [...]

The start of the 3rd round of the Biel Grandmaster Tournament was 15 minutes late. Alexander Morozevich is not in condition to play the game due to medical problems. The official website states that the match “Alexander Morozevich – Magnus Carlsen is postponed”. Our sources say that Morozevich withdrew from the tournament. In the first [...]

We arrived into Tynemouth (where we will stay for the duration of the British) on Sunday afternoon and to my delight found a lovely village with lots of amenities including chocolatier! In the afternoon we walked over to Parks Leisure Centre in North Shields. The coastal route was lovely albeit a bit windy with the [...]

The 2012 Philippines National Open Chess Championships for men and women, dubbed as the “Battle of Grandmasters”, was held at two venues in the Province of Aklan, the Paraw Club in Station 1, Boracay Island from July 14 – 20 and at the Cabagnot Training Center, Old Buswang, Kalibo Aklan from July 21 – 26, [...]

Αμέσως μόλις τελείωσε το Dortmund ξεκίνησε το Biel, έτσι ώστε οι λάτρεις του σκακιού να απολαμβάνουν συνέχεια παρτίδες, σκάκι, υψηλού επιπέδου. Έξι από τους ισχυρότερους σκακιστές του κόσμου παίρνουν μέρος στο τουρνουά, το...

These days it’s quite normal to see female chess players competing successfully against the men, but at one time it was unthinkable. Breaking this taboo was far from easy, but Vera Menchik managed it and was a trailblazer for future female players. Here’s a nice documentary about her:

The Mayors of the 85 sister cities of Moscow, together with that of Moscow’s partner city, Paris, have received from Mr. Vladimir Palikhata, President of the Moscow Chess Federation, a chess set to mark International Chess Day. “I hope that with the help of chess you will be able to get rid of some part [...]

(For now.) While there's yet a little more in this one (HT again to Jai Unudurti) about the tension between Viswanathan Anand and Garry Kasparov (and a remarkable story going back to 1990), the main area of interest comes when Anand offers some realism and wisdom about the effects of aging on the chess player (at least most chess players) and how he copes with it.

Fabiano Caruana won the Sparkassen Chess Festival after two wins in the last two rounds. Caruana overcame Vladimir Kramnik in round eight as demonstrated the power of the two bishops in a very fine game. Five players shared the lead at the start of the last round on 5/8 and Caruana crushed Mateusz Bartel to reach 6/9. Arkady Naiditsch drew a wild game with Peter Leko and the pair...