The Sparkassen Chess-Meeting takes place in Dortmund 13th-22nd July 2012. 10 players in a single round robin: Daniel Fridman, Peter Leko, Fabiano Caruana, Georg Meier, Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Mateusz Bartel, Arkadij Naiditsch, Ruslan Ponomariov and Jan Gustafsson. There is a second all-play-all (Helmut Kohl tournament), swiss opens and junior events alongside.

Greek WGM (and multi-champion) Anna-Maria Botsari, together with the Ukrainian IM Ihor Nester with 5.5/6 are leading the field of the 35th International Chess Tournament “Ikaros” 2012 that is under way at Aghios Kirykos, the capital town of Ikaria island in Greece. Close to the leaders are the Hungarian GM Peter Prohaszka, the Finn IM [...]

The Turkish Isbank Chess League is taking place from July 10th to July 22nd, 2012, at the Konya Rixos Hotel. The Champion of 2011, the Istanbul Egitim Chess Club Aquamatch, lost the second match in a row against Adana Truva Satranç Spor Kulübü. Top seeds Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Michael Adams could not win their games [...]

Μεγαλύτερη από την αναμενόμενη, η συμμετοχή σκακιστών και σκακιστριών στον φετινό "Ίκαρο"! (Participation in “Ikaros” 2012 was larger than what was initially expected!)(* Non-greek speaking visitors, please scroll below) Η πολυπρωταθλήτρια Ελλάδας Άννα-Μαρία Μπότσαρη και...

Forty years ago today, Bobby Fischer resigned game one of the 'Match of the Century' against Boris Spassky at Reykjavik. The game started the previous day and was adjourned overnight in a lost position for Fischer. Fischer had lost a bishop with perhaps the most famous blunder in the history of the game. Fischer's Bxh2 is often misinterpreted by amateur players. Of course he saw the...

Forty years ago today, Bobby Fischer resigned game one of the 'Match of the Century' against Boris Spassky at Reykjavik. The game started the previous day and was adjourned overnight in a lost position for Fischer. Fischer had lost a bishop with perhaps the most famous blunder in the history of the game. Fischer's Bxh2 is often misinterpreted by amateur players. Of course he saw the...

Igor Lysyj and Roman Ovetchkin, The Open Games For Black (Chess Stars 2012). 244 pp. I recently reviewed the authors' work on the Berlin Defense; this volume is a supplementary companion to that one. This book's lengthy subtitle makes their aim clear: "A complete black repertoire with 1.e4 e5 against everything except the Ruy Lopez". There are thus replies for Black to the Center Game...

Live games with analysis

Σκάκι δρόμου στο μεσαιωνικό κέντρο της Γενεύης, στην Ελβετία.  Aν πρέπει να κρατήσουμε μόνο μια εικόνα της Γενεύης αυτή θα είναι η παλιά πόλη με τα λιθόστρωτα και πλακόστρωτα δρομάκια, τα καφέ και τα πολυάριθμα...

Λεζάντα φωτογραφίας: Μεγαλύτερη από την αναμενόμενη, η συμμετοχή σκακιστών και σκακιστριών στον φετινό "Ίκαρο"! Η Μπότσαρη και ο Νέστερ προηγούνται στην ΙκαρίαΗ πολυπρωταθλήτρια Ελλάδας Άννα-Μαρία Μπότσαρη και ο ...

Δεν επετράπη στον Ολλανδό κορυφαίο γκρανμέτρ Λουκ Φαν Βέλι να εισέλθει στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες επειδή δεν διέθετε “βίζα εργασίας”. Όταν ο Φαν Βέλι είπε, ανάμεσα στα άλλα, ότι σκοπός του ταξιδιού του είναι να...

Seeing this book on day trading one’s retirement funds gives me the opportunity to quote Dirty Harry Callahan: A man’s got to know his limitations. I haven’t read the book and for all I know it may be very good, but trading, chess and other fields require a broad skill set, certain personality traits and [...]

The 2nd Lev Polugaevsky Memorial is being held from 5th to 13th July in the Russian city Samara as a 9-round Swiss competition. 101 players compete. GM Alexei Fedorov from Belarus set off to a furious start by scoring consecutive victories in the first six rounds. GM Igor Kovalenko finally put a stop to Fedorov’s [...]

The 5th International Chess Festival “Sport Summer 2012″ is taking place on 6-13th July in Hotel Petrus in Paraćin, Serbia. The main event is Open A – International Championship of Central Serbia, a 9-round Swiss tournament with FIDE time control which will be valid for FIDE rating and GM/IM norms. There are two groups, OPEN [...]

The Turkish Isbank Chess League is taking place from July 10th to July 22nd, 2012, at the Konya Rixos Hotel. The Turkish Team Championship was inaugurated in 1995. In 2004, it changed the name to Super League, but after the Turkish Isbank assumed sponsorship in 2006, the name was changed once again to the present [...]