From an improvement perspective this one contributes towards the ‘why’. The game itself has an immense amount of respect from people in many different fields and this makes our noble pursuit of excellence seem like something worthwhile.

Just a reminder, or a first-time notice for those who missed the earlier post, that this Saturday I'll be giving a simul at the UP Mall in Mishawaka, Indiana. More details here.

Anna Muzychuk entered the last round of the European Women's Championship with a full point lead over her closest rivals on the strength of her win with Black against Viktorija Cmilyte in the previous round. A bit of bad luck was getting Black once again in the final round (a bit odd in the normal course of things, as not only normal color alternation but the rule that the higher-rated...

In issue 4143 of Chess Today, Mikhail Golubev annotates the crucial game Cmilyte-A. Muzychuk from the penultimate round of the European Women's Championship. The winner of this game (Muzychuk, as it turned out) would more or less guarantee herself first place (or so one would have thought!), so Golubev could write the following after move 8 (the first moves were 1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 c6 4.Nc3 e6...

The 19th Annual Western Class Championships were held from March 9-11, 2012, at the Sheraton Agoura Hills Hotel (formerly Renaissance), 30100 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, California. The Master Section was won by Californian International Master, Enrico Sevillano, who finished in clear first with 4½/5. Sevillano gave up a draw in round 1 but then went [...]

Gawain Jones, Simon Williams and Adam Hunt are playing the Reykjavik Open where top seed Fabiano Caruana leads on 6.5/7.

Gawain Jones, Simon Williams and Adam Hunt are playing the Reykjavik Open where top seed Fabiano Caruana leads on 6.5/7.

In the seveth round of Campeonato Catalán de Ajedrez, the Cuban Grandmasters Lazaro Bruzon won his 4th consecutive game, which also broght him into the 2700 club. Currently the live rating of Bruzon is 2705, putting him between Malakhov and Vitiugov, and making him the second Cuban player to be member of the club besides [...]

Fabiano Caruana survived a scare against Hou Yifan in the final round to win the Reykjavik Chess Festival 2012. Hou missed big chances in a mutual time scramble on the run up to move 40 but even had chances after that. The game ended in a draw as did the top four boards. Caruana will gain a few ratings points to help maintain his new top 10 status winning with 7.5/9. 7 players finished on 7/9...

Fabiano Caruana survived a scare against Hou Yifan in the final round to win the Reykjavik Chess Festival 2012. Hou missed big chances in a mutual time scramble on the run up to move 40 but even had chances after that. The game ended in a draw as did the top four boards. Caruana will gain a few ratings points to help maintain his new top 10 status winning with 7.5/9. 7 players finished on 7/9...

The 28th Cappelle-la-Grande Open took place 3rd-10th March 2012. Pentala Harikrishna won on tie-break ahead of Parimarjan Negi, Tornike Sanikidze, Tigran Gharamian and Martyn Kravtsiv after all scored 7/9.

The 28th Cappelle-la-Grande Open took place 3rd-10th March 2012. Pentala Harikrishna won on tie-break ahead of Parimarjan Negi, Tornike Sanikidze, Tigran Gharamian and Martyn Kravtsiv after all scored 7/9.

Thursday evening we headed over to Heathrow for a flight to Keflavik, Iceland. The flight was a little delayed and, with very windy weather over Iceland, very bumpy but we arrived safely and were at the hotel by 2am Friday morning. Simon Williams was on the same flight but couldn’t make it onto the bus to [...]

Carlsen, Anand, Radjabov, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, average ELO 2790

Ο νεαρός Ιταλός Fabiano Caruana κέρδισε το ισχυρό Reykjavik τουρνουάτου 2012 αφήνοντας δεύτερο τον Ι. Σοκόλοβ, τρίτο τον Ν. Ναβάρα, και πιο πίσωαρκετούς ισχυρούς γκρανμέτρ. Ο Έλληνας Στέλιος Χαλκιάς τερμάτισε στην 18ηθέση.Την...