The eighth round of the 7th Tal Memorial was completely sensational with the sole round 6 leaders Vladimir Kramnik and Alexander Morozevich losing their 2nd and 3rd games respectively in a row. Luke McShane outplayed Morozevich with black before the game entered a big time scramble where McShane hit his opponent with a number of blows that led to resignation on move 40. Caruana now leads alone...

The 5th International Chess Festival “Sport Summer 2012″ is scheduled to take 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 [...]

Hello, This is a super quick update as we have just flown in from South Africa after having a lovely wedding (which we will write an update and share a few pictures with you as we have been internet free for the last few weeks). We flew Johannesburg to Amsterdam and landed at London City [...]

Italian champion Fabiano Caruana defeated Vladimir Kramnik in the penultimate round of the Tal Memorial to move into the sole lead with one game to go. Kramnik, who was the joint leader after the 6th round, suffered two consecutive losses with black pieces and slipped down in the standings. The game was fairly balanced, with [...]

The 7th Tal Memorial enters the eighth round on Sunday with success being within the grasp of every player. Only 1.5 points separates the five tied for first from Evgeny Tomashevsky in last. Only he is completely out of the running for at least getting into a tie for first place. Wins and losses today will have a huge impact on the final result of every player. Round 7 standings: Carlsen...

Live commentary of Tal Memorial 2012

It almost seems at this year's Tal Memorial that leading the tournament is bad for your subsequent play. Alexander Morozevich led entering round 6 and lost, when he was caught by Vladimir Kramnik. Both promptly lost in this round, and were caught by Teimour Radjabov (who co-led after round 4, if I recall correctly), Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. All five players are on +1 with two rounds to...

The 7th Tal Memorial resumed after Friday's rest day and saw both leaders defeated by the tail-enders. This has left Carlsen, Morozevich, Radjabov, Kramnik and Caruana tied on 4/7, Nakamura on 3.5, Grischuk, Aronian and McShane on 3 and Tomashevsky on 2.5. Alexander Morozevich tried one too many tricks against Tomashevsky in time trouble in a King's Indian and was lost at first time...

It’s fitting that there’s been some exciting chess at the Tal Memorial. In his heyday Mikhail Tal was the king of exciting chess with his games being full of sacrificial attacking play. I should issue a word of warning though, this kind of chess isn’t suitable for everyone. You need to have a special gift [...]

The 35th Ikaros International Chess Tournament 2012, Aegean Open Championship 2012, will take place on 7-15th July in Agios Kirykos, Ikaria island, Greece. Why do people keep coming back to Ikaria every summer? Article by Dimitris Skyrianoglou Ikaria derives its name from Ikaros, the son of Deadalus, who according to Greek mythology, was the first [...]

The two earlier leaders, Alexander Morozevich and Vladimir Kramnik, were defeated in the 7th round of the Tal Memorial by the tail-enders Evgeny Tomashevsky and Luke McShane, respectively. Such development complicates the things with only two rounds remaining as now five players are equal first with 4 points each. Alexander Morozevich took up the King’s [...]

The fourth stage of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2011-2012 is taking place from June 10th to 22nd in Kazan (Russia). Elina Danielian defeated Nadezhda Kosinteseva and again assumed the sole lead in the tournament. World champion Hou Yifan got better position in the middle game against Antoaneta Stefanova and later on launched a decisive [...]

The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov plumbed new depths of amorality earlier this week when he paid a visit to Damascus, and signed an Agreement on Cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Education for a Chess in Schools programme. As always, his timing was perfect, but as I have written before, it may augur well for the Syrian people as our beloved chess leader was spotted in ...

The FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov plumbed new depths of amorality earlier this week when he paid a visit to Damascus, and signed an Agreement on Cooperation with the Syrian Ministry of Education for a Chess in Schools programme. As always, his timing was perfect, but as I have written before, it may augur well for the Syrian people as our beloved chess leader was spotted in ...

The Armenian Chess Federation is organizing an international open chess tournament which will take place on June 16-25, 2012, in the prominent resort town of Jermuk. The 9-round Swiss event is dedicated to the memory of GM Karen Asrian, who passed away in June 2008, at the age of 28. He was member of the [...]