Malcolm Pein reports on rounds 3 and 4 of the 4NCL 2011-12. David Howell defeated Nigel Short in the game of the weekend.

It's a two-man race at Wijk aan Zee - or at least that's how it seems. In fact, while Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian have been taking turns leading (both alone and with each other), Teimour Radjabov is and has been only half a point behind most of the way. Today was Carlsen's day. He didn't have much with White against Boris Gelfand, who played very well for the first 30 moves. As often happens...

From Hikaru Nakamura on ICC, kibitzing the Wijk aan Zee games after drawing against Teimour Radjabov: CapilanoBridge(GM) kibitzes: None of us tell the truth about how much we study ;)

Ο λευκός μόλις έπαιξε Bg5 καρφώνοντας την μαύρη βασίλισσα μπροστά από τον μαύρο βασιλιά. Ο μαύρος όμως απαντά με ματ σε 5 κινήσεις!Παίζει ο μαύρος και κάνει ματ σε 5 κινήσεις.

Στη σειρά των εκπαιδευτικών DVD της ChessBase προστέθηκε το Chess Expertise Step by Step Vol. 4: Endgame Magic που επιμελείται ο GM Στράτος Γρίβας. Το dvd, 4ωρης διάρκειας, είναι αφιερωμένο σε θέματα του φινάλε, κοστίζει €29.90 και δεν είναι απαραίτητη...

Σήμερα είναι τα γενέθλια του Diyan Kostantinov, ενός νέου και πολύ καλού συνθέτη από την Βουλγαρία (Bulgaria), (happy birthday Diyan!).Αυτός επινόησε μια νέα συνθήκη για μυθικά προβλήματα, τους KoBul βασιλιάδες. Ένας KoBul βασιλιάς κινείται και...

Here’s some nice coverage of a Nigel Short win over Garry Kasparov from the Speed Chess Challenge final in London 1987. Kasparov won the match 4-2 but lost a couple of games en route. Short’s opening is totally offbeat of course, but perhaps not such a silly choice against his supremely well prepared opponent.  

Levon Aronian is simply on fire, and maybe by year's end he too will threaten or surpass Garry Kasparov's all-time rating record of 2851. (Of course it's pretty likely that Magnus Carlsen will pass it first, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Aronian follow suit.) Except for his round 3 loss to Carlsen, he is just about rolling the field and leads the A-group at Wijk aan Zee with a fine...

Levon Aronian had a comfortable victory against out of form Vugar Gashimov to lead alone in the 74th Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee. This was because Magnus Carlsen was held to a draw by David Navara in a game which could easily have been drawn early rather than the 81 moves it was. Teimour Radjabov got a small advantage that he eventually converted to a win against Sergey Karjakin to move...

IM Malcolm Pein reports on the fourth round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament and looks at Boris Gelfand against Teimour Radjabov.

Having received the iPad as a Christmas present I have now taken to my new toy. It is very gadgety and highly addictive. The pros are that it is easy to use especially when you are travelling and the batlay lasts an amazing long time. There are some cons that come with the device such [...]

The Chess in Schools and Communities Charity is an integral part of the London Classic event and has made great strides in it’s short existence, having introduced an ever growing number of teachers in many schools. In the spirit of this, I read in Chess Magazine that Malcolm Pein had made a visit to Scott [...]

Το "Σκακιστικό Καφενείο" παρουσιάζει το εξαιρετικό ντοκιμαντέρ του 2011 "Bobby Fischer Against the World" του κινηματογραφιστή Liz Garbus. Ο κορυφαίος σκακιστής όλων των εποχών σε ένα πολύ ενδιαφέρον ντοκιμαντέρ. Ας το απολαύσουμε λοιπόν!

Alexander Ilyin-Zhenevsky(28/11/1894 - 03/09/1941)Μία παρτίδα παιγμένη το 1929 στο Λένινγκραντ θα παρακολουθήσουμε σήμερα. Δύο ισχυροί Ρώσοι σκακιστές σε μία διδακτική παρτίδα. Με τα λευκά παίζει ο Alexander Ilyin-Zhenevsky και με τα μαύρα ο Peter Arsenievich...

A major problem faced by those who teach chess to children can be the apparent slow progress of their students. Why do they get better so slowly? Well this is the nature of any art form whether it be music, painting or chess. Yet these days we are very used to things happening quickly, instant [...]