Middlesex won the ECF Counties Championship last weekend after a close encounter with Surrey in the final, staged at Moat Community College Leicester. Middlesex won 8.5-7.5 in a match with only seven decisive games. On top board, IM Gavin Wall defeated IM Colin Crouch but Middlesex outscored their opponents on the lower boards. Hertfordshire won the Minor final and the competition for...

Middlesex won the ECF Counties Championship last weekend after a close encounter with Surrey in the final, staged at Moat Community College Leicester. Middlesex won 8.5-7.5 in a match with only seven decisive games. On top board, IM Gavin Wall defeated IM Colin Crouch but Middlesex outscored their opponents on the lower boards. Hertfordshire won the Minor final and the competition for...

The former World champion, Vladimir Kramnik, becomes the fifth player to confirm his invitation for the 4th London Chess Classic, at Kensington Olympia, 1-10 December, 2012. Kramnik, who will be back to defend his title, having won the 2011 edition of the London Chess Classic, joins World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Vishy Anand, [...]

The 14th International Open Sant Martí is taking place from 13th to 21st July at the Centre Cívic Sant Martí in Barcelona. The tournament is part of the 9th Catalan Chess Circuit. There will be two groups – Open A, for players with FCE, FEDA, FIDE elo higher than 2000, and Open B for players [...]

The series goes on! This week we have a look at the systems with Qe2; namely, 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.Qe2 and 5.0-0 Be7 6.Qe2. The presentation this week isn't (mini-) encyclopedic, so I don't say too much about lines with ...Bc5 or ...Be7 with ...d6; rather, the focus is on lines where Black plays ...Be7 and ...d5. The reason for that is threefold: first, to keep the length of the...

One of the annual super-tournaments, the favorite one of 10-time winner Vladimir Kramnik, is the Dortmund Sparkassen. This event just got underway, with the following first round pairings:   Sergey Karjakin (2779) - Vladimir Kramnik (2799) Fabiano Caruana (2775) - Arkadij Naiditsch (2700) Peter Leko (2730) - Ruslan Ponomariov (2726) Georg Meier (2644) - Mateusz Bartel (2674) Daniel Fridman...

Από το μακρινό 1865 έρχεται αυτή η ξυλογραφία που δημοσιεύθηκε σε ένα φύλλο της αμερικανικής εφημερίδας Harper's Weekly. Ο τίτλος της "Chek Mate". Με αφορμή τον αμερικάνικο εμφύλιο πόλεμο δείχνει τον Jefferson Davis να παίζει μία παρτίδα...

Σπάνια φωτογραφία που εικονίζει τον «επαναστάτη χωρίς αιτία»,  τον Τζέιμς Ντιν, απορροφημένο, συντροφιά με μια σκακιέρα τσέπης. Σκοτώθηκε σε δυστύχημα, το 1955. Αν ζούσε θα ήταν σήμερα 81 ετών.  Αν ζούσε βέβαια, ίσως και να...

Ακολουθούν μερικά παιχνίδια από το τουρνουά Πύρρος της Ηπείρου.

Ακολουθούν μερικά παιχνίδια από το τουρνουά Πύρρος της Ηπείρου.

It’s good to see that someone finally agrees with me that there’s been a lot of inflation in the rating system. What’s less clear is why he didn’t say something when his own rating surpassed Fischer’s. Perhaps the answer to this mystery is that when someone’s status is favored by inflation they won’t particularly want [...]

Live games with analysis

Chess Evolution May 2012 is already available for the chess fans from all over the world. The periodical edition of GM Arkadij Naiditsch, in cooperation with GM Bacrot, GM meier, GM Balogh, GM Miton, GM Predojevic, and GM Baramidze contains 416 pages of analysis of the strongest games played in the period March 1 – [...]

The 35th Barbera Open International tournament took place on 4-12th July at Torre d’en Gorgs, nº 40. in Barbera del Valles, Spain. The organizer of the tournament, Club d’escacs Barberà, celebrated its 60th anniversary. The players were divided in three groups: Open A (2150 elo and higher), Open B (1850-2150) and Open C (U1850). All [...]

Meeting GM Suat Atalik at the International Open tournament in Paracin was a good occasion to make an attempt in clarifying the complicated situation that arose after the banishment by the TCF and decision of the Greek Chess Federation Board. Atalik is currently under the fourth ban by the Disciplinary Committee of the Turkish Chess [...]