The fourth stage of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2011-2012 is taking place from June 10th to 22nd in Kazan (Russia). After the press conference FIDE President Kirsan Iyumzhinov made the first symbolic move in the game between Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan. The opening round passed in a tense struggle, nevertheless the first three [...]

The 7th Tal Memorial Round 3 on 10th June 2012. This page will have games and updates. Some links: TWIC live coverage with my tweets - Official live site. - Ian Rogers official video commentary. Carlsen-Caruana (Gruenfeld sideline from Carlsen) Aronian-McShane (a6 Slav. McShane ate up tonnes of time early on) Radjabov-Kramnik (Ruy Lopez Berlin going quite...

Yesterday my son Sam was assigned to a section in which he was the lowest rated player. Nevertheless he scored a respectable 2/5 and was raring to go by the end. Being the underdog can be tough, though anyone who wants to improve must face the terrors of this status sooner or later. My own [...]

After the 2nd round of the Tal Memorial in Moscow Teimour Radjabov has moved into a clear lead on 2/2. McShane 0-1 Radjabov He defeated Luke McShane who blundered in time trouble with move 40.Kh2? Kramnik 1-0 Grischuk Vladimir Kramnik is on 1.5 after showing that playing the King's Indian against him is a risky proposition. He outplayed Grischuk with some fantastic unused preparation from the...

Teimour Radjabov emerged the sole leader of the 2012 Tal Memorial with 2/2 after beating Luke McShane with black pieces. The Englishman used the interesting move 5.b3 in the Rossolimo Sicilian, following in the footsteps of the World Champion Anand from the recent WCC match. Apparently he didn’t have time for thorough preparation and ended [...]

The Blitz tournament that opened the 7th Mikhail Tal Memorial at Moscow was a most enjoyable spectacle as ten of the world's best players fought for the right to have five games out of nine with the white pieces in the main event. There was also the small matter of the €5000 first prize which Alexander Morozevich won on tie break from Magnus Carlsen. The pair scored 6.5/9 but...

The Blitz tournament that opened the 7th Mikhail Tal Memorial at Moscow was a most enjoyable spectacle as ten of the world's best players fought for the right to have five games out of nine with the white pieces in the main event. There was also the small matter of the €5000 first prize which Alexander Morozevich won on tie break from Magnus Carlsen. The pair scored 6.5/9 but...

Here is part two of ChessVibes' interview with Boris Gelfand. One of the most interesting aspects is his report that Garry Kasparov offered to work as his trainer before and second during the match, an offer which Gelfand refused. Here's Gelfand: I was really shocked. He had just been helping Vishy in the previous match, I knew he was working with Hikaru [Nakamura], so obviously I said no. For...

In today's first game, Francisco Vallejo crushed Veselin Topalov with White in a Najdorf-cum Keres Attack Scheveningen, rounding the game off with a nice combination. In the day's second game, however, Vallejo varied from the McCutcheon French, which proved so successful in game 2 on Friday. This time he played the quieter 4...Be7, allowing Topalov to obtain the initiative all to himself. This...

It was a day of shocks for the foreign Grandmasters in action at the Chetana College where the fourth round of the Mumbai Mayor’s Cup-International Chess tournament conducted by the Venus Chess Academy and co-sponsored by LIC of India was played. Top seed GM Aleksej Alexandrov of Belarus was all but lost against Praveen Kumar [...]

Teimour Radjabov hasn't been in any world championship matches or gotten too close yet, and while he was one of the youngest players ever to become a grandmaster his presence at #4 on the rating list is a little "sneaky". But there he is, past 2790, and for the moment he is the sole leader at the 2012 Tal Memorial. Today he defeated Luke McShane with the black pieces, taking advantage of his...

The English Chess Federation (ECF) has reacted to the Turkish Chess Federation's decision (hosts of the next Olympiad) to reject their arbiters with a letter of protest to FIDE. The Turkish Chess Federation President Ali Nihat Yazici, in really quite an extraordinary letter, said that it was on his own personal initiative that arbiters from the English, French, German, Swiss, Ukrainian and...

The English Chess Federation (ECF) has reacted to the Turkish Chess Federation's decision (hosts of the next Olympiad) to reject their arbiters with a letter of protest to FIDE. The Turkish Chess Federation President Ali Nihat Yazici, in really quite an extraordinary letter, said that it was on his own personal initiative that arbiters from the English, French, German, Swiss, Ukrainian and...

The 2nd round of the Tal Memorial is under way in Moscow. After the first round which saw 4 decisive results and a lot of mistakes will the players settle down or will we see more action? Play started at 3pm Moscow 12pm BST. Official English Video Commentary with Ian Rogers, Official live transmission with added Russian Video, TWIC live page with my tweets during play. Round...

Thanks to Richard Judy for letting me (and thus all of you) know that there is live English-language commentary on the Tal Memorial, offered by GM Ian Rogers. Enjoy!