Here in the U.S. we let Fabiano Caruana get away, to Italy's joy, and in Russia their big loss (to the Netherlands) was Anish Giri. Maybe because of the family's work they would have left anyway, but as you can read here the Russian Chess Federation didn't do themselves any favors. [Lots more blogging to come the next several days!]

There's not much that's newsworthy here, but two things caught my eye. One was her claim that "only" Hou Yifan among other women has the potential to join her in 2700 land, and the other was her expression of disgust about how long Maria Muzychuk dragged out their game from Gibraltar last month. (It's difficult to disagree with her about this - remember that they're playing with 30 second...

The 2012 European Individual Women Chess Championship is taking place from 2nd to 13th March at the Anatolian Hotel in Gaziantep, Turkey. European Rapid Championship and European Blitz Championship will follow in the same venue on 15-18th March. The competition continued with the 7th round following a rest day. Valentina Gunina rode on the important [...]

It was only a rapid event, but the reduced time control didn't prevent German GM Arkadij Naiditsch from finding a stunning tactical idea: It's Black to move (the leadup was 16.Ng3-f5 Be6xf5 17.g4xf5), and it looks like White is in good shape. Black's rooks are doubled on the d-file, sure, but with pawns on c2 and d3 there's nothing for them to do. The bishop on g7 would be great for pressure on...

As I reported a couple of weeks ago, my team finished second in the US Amateur Team Championship (Northern Division) with a 4-1 score. We lost our third match, when we drew on boards one and four but lost on boards two and three. Board two was a battle of very talented youngsters, with Michael Chen (2092, age 12) on our side and Alexander Velikanov (2218, age 14) across the table. Here is the...

The Delancey UK Schools' Chess Challenge has announced a new partnership with Qatari Diar who have generously added an extra £20,000 into what is already the UK's foremost junior tournament. The extra funds will go into the Megafinal stage of the competition, with a significant monetary prize for the top Under 11 and the top female chess player.

The 2nd Torneio Aberto do Brasil – Taça Cidade de Fortaleza is scheduled to take place from 5th to 8th April at the Ponta Mar Hotel, Beira-Mar in Fortaleza, CE. The tournament will be played over 7 rounds of Swiss system, with the time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment (digital clock) or [...]

The International Olympic Committee organizes a World Conference on Women and Sport every four years with the objective of analyzing the progress made within the Olympic Movement and identifying ways to improve and increase the participation of women in the world of sport. The 5th IOC World Conference on Women and Sport was held from [...]

Gawain’s currently on 4/4 in the strong Reykjavik Open. I flew back to warm London on Wednesday and have been very busy juggling my three jobs. I’m sorry that there wasn’t a game of the month for March. Gawain’s schedule has been hectic as he’s juggling his travels plus his chess publishing. He’s got a [...]

As recently reported on this blog and elsewhere, FIDE has set the Candidates event for this October in London. That's the good news (except for those who are unhappy about London winning the bid); the bad news is that it's likely to have an adverse effect on no less than three major tournaments: the Grand Slam final in Bilbao and the London Chess Classic. Bilbao is scheduled to finish just ten...

I mentioned in the last post that no super-events were going on, and that's true. The Reykjavik Open is an impressive open event, however, with such stars as Fabiano Caruana, David Navara and Hou Yifan participating. There's also some excellent web coverage, with a live feed and post-round commentary with GM Simon Williams, IM Bjorn Thorfinnsson and my fellow ChessVideos presenter FM Ingvar...

In part from busyness and in part because no super-events have been going on, my blogging has been pretty light. Today I have a little more time than usual, so I'm in the mood for a lot of blogging. Let's have some fun!

Ένας 16χρονος -άγνωστος διεθνώς- Ιρανός, ο Πούγια Ιντανί (φωτ.) κέρδισε το ισχυρό διεθνές όπεν της πόλης Ραστ (Ιράν) συγκεντρώνοντας 9 βαθμούς σε 11 αγώνες. Ο Ιντανί κέρδισε στους τρεις τελευταίους γύρους τρεις γκρανμέτρ...

Αριστουργηματική τραγικωμωδία, με ήρωα έναν σεναριογράφο της Μαύρης Λίστας του μακαρθισμού. Η Αμερική των διώξεων και της επιβολής επαγγελματικών απαγορεύσεων στους «αντεθνικώς φρονούντες», μέσα από την πικρή...

One foolproof way to spot a good victim is if someone announces that they don’t take chess too seriously and that it’s ‘only a game’. I don’t want to say too much about juxtaposing chess with Hungry Hungry Hippos as someone might get offended. But to paraphrase Bill Shankly I am very disappointed that some [...]