The 76th Spanish Championship took place in Arenal den Castell on Menorca 15th-23rd October 2011. Alvar Alonso Rosell scored 7/9 and took first place on tie-break. He qualified for the European Individual Championship in Plovdiv in March 2012. Alvar Alonso caught Miguel Illescas Cordoba with a win (totally garbled in transmission) after the latter took a quick draw in the final round against Olga...

Konstantin Sakaev, _The Petroff: An Expert Repertoire For Black_. Chess Stars 2011. 292 pp. The Bulgarian publishing house Chess Stars has been publishing consistently worthwhile material for more than a decade, especially in the openings. They get very high-rated players (e.g. Alexander Khalifman and Kiril Georgiev, to name just two) to write remarkably thorough but moderately priced books with...

*** “Ένα δισεκατομμύριο έξυπνοι άνθρωποι στον πλανήτη”  είναι το σλόγκαν του προέδρου της FIDE Κιρσάν Ιλιουμζίνοβ. Το επανέλαβε πολλές φορές στις ομιλίες του κατά τη διάρκεια του 82ου συνεδρίου της FIDE, στην Κρακοβία...

Of course the big news of today was the Rugby. Glenn Flear headed over here early to join in watching the World Cup Final. To be honest, I didn’t think New Zealand played very well but their defences were strong and the All Blacks held on to defeat France 8-7 in a very tense game, [...]

Δεν τα κατάφερα αυτή την φορά η εφηβική ομάδα της ΕΣ Αιγιαλείας. Γνώρισε την ήττα στην Ναύπακτο απο την τοπική ομάδα της Ναυπάκτου με σκορ 3.5 -2.5.για την δεύτερη αγωνιστική του διασυλλογικού πρωταθλήματος παίδων...

Αύριο Δευτέρα 24/Οκτοβρίου ο Ι. Σμίρνοβ θα βγάλει τη νέα του σειρά μαθημάτων για το ποζιτιονέλ παιχνίδι. Υποσχέθηκε ότι οι πρώτοι 100 που θα του στείλουν e-mail θα λάβουν δωρεάν τη σειρά μαθημάτων για να την μελετήσουμε 2-3...

Fischer is famous for having said this and it fits many peoples’ perception of what a monomaniac chess player should think, but I’m not sure it should be taken too literally. He totally psyched out most of his opponents and then switched from the ‘best by test’ 1.e4 in his famous first match against Boris [...]

Denis Yevseev, Fighting the French: A New Concept (Chess Stars 2011). 384 pp. Reviewed by Dennis Monokroussos. A new concept, really? The idea promoted by GM Denis Yevseev isn't his invention and goes back at least a couple of decades, so it isn't brand new. I'll bet, though, that it'll be new to most of your opponents. It was new to me, and in the experimenting I've done with it the last couple...

USC did play better, but if it weren't for Dayne "Santa" Crist's -14 point contribution while briefly filling in for a slightly injured Tommy Rees it might well have been a very different story. Terrible. Next week's victim: Navy.

In what will doubtless be the high point of everyone's weekend - as long as they're not USC fans (and why would they be*?), the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team will conduct an on-the-field dismantling of their cross-country rivals, the USC Trojans. The gruesomeness will start around 15 minutes from now, and will be televised on NBC.   * I hate to admit it, but some of my favorite...

This week we continue our "quick" look at the Ruy Lopez, now starring lines with 5.d3 and 6.d3. It's a surprisingly poisonous approach for White, one that has been successfully used all the way up the food chain to Magnus Carlsen. It can be used as a geniune weapon, and it's not at all clear that Black has some way of achieving a foolproof equality. (I'm not claiming that White has a certain...

Κλικ στις εικόνες για μεγέθυνση: η αναμέτρηση Φίσερ – Σπάσκι στο περιοδικό Estrellas del Deporte (Mexico, 1973), σελίδα 31. Από το αρχείο του Edward Winter.

Malcolm Pein reports that Vladimir Kramnik's draw against Anish Giri in the Unive Crown Group saw him use all his endgame skill to avoid the loss.He also examines two games by Stewart Haslinger in the open alongside.

Malcolm Pein reports that Vladimir Kramnik's draw against Anish Giri in the Unive Crown Group saw him use all his endgame skill to avoid the loss.He also examines two games by Stewart Haslinger in the open alongside.

This evening I played the opening round of the Corsica Masters. I was up against a kid from Switzerland: Alexis Skouvaklis, which sounds like he has Greek roots. I was Black and wheeled out the Dragon. This was actually my first pure Dragon since the draw with Mickey Adams at the British but I keep [...]