IM Malcolm Pein reports on a sad post-script to his dominant performance in Sao Paulo. He was held up at gunpoint on the way to the airport to travel to Bilbao for the second half of the event.

It’s nice to see a former student continuing his comeback trail and doing well in Norway. Matthew Sadler is one of Britain’s best ever players, a tremendous calculator with a great work ethic who brings tremendous energy to his games. Of course packing in chess for many years is not to be recommended to ordinary [...]

By a significant margin too, thanks both to his excellent play overall and the 3-1-0 scoring system. It helped too that Vassily Ivanchuk lost to the tailender while the four players tied for second drew with each other and thus didn't gain much ground. Ivanchuk always seemed to be in some trouble against Francisco Vallejo, who has forgotten the "script" so far in the Bilbao leg of the event...

In Oslo, Matthew Sadler defeated Viktor Mikhalevski yesterday to take a full-point lead; today he drew with Sergei Tiviakov. Only one player, IM Frode Elsness, managed to use that opportunity to come to within half a point of Sadler. Sadler has 6/7, Elsness has 5.5 and four others have five points apiece. Elsness will have White against Sadler tomorrow; if he loses, Sadler will guarantee himself...

The 7th Round of the 4th Final Masters saw the leader Vassily Ivanchuk defeated for the second time. Francisco Vallejo Pons played well to win a complex English Defence against Ivanchuk in a game that was settled in a time scramble. Ivanchuk's lead was only cut by a point as the other games were drawn. Levon Aronian's 9.h4 in the Queen's Gambit is a very old Botvinnik idea which led to a very...

18 years after playing Garry Kasparov in the Times World Chess Championship Nigel Short plays Kasparov in a blitz match in Leuven outside Brussels reports IM Malcolm Pein.

It’s amazing what you can find on Youtube. This ancient cli

Excellent video interviews of Anand, Carlsen, Vallejo, Aronian, Ivanchuk, Nakamura, and Leontxo Garcia in English for Round 6 of the 4th Final Masters, the first in Bilbao, by Vijay Kumar for Chessdom.com.

In my post remembering the late Jay Whitehead, I mentioned that he showed me an opening idea he had prepared for Walter Browne that I - unexpectedly - had the opportunity to use against the 6-time U.S. champion several months later. It was an exciting game that was lost forever - or so I thought - but to my amazement and delight someone posted the game score in the comments section of that...

Vassily Ivanchuk brushed aside his mugging at gunpoint in Sao Paulo to play and beat Hikaru Nakamura in the first round in Bilbao (Round 6 altogether) of the 4th Final Masters. Both players got incredibly short of time having only a few minutes each for the decisive part of the game, the final 18 moves. I don't think this was at all the right way to handle the clock. He now has a 6 point lead...

Το ενδιαφέρον πολλών περαστικών αλλά και όσων βρέθηκαν στον πεζόδρομο της Τοσίτσα για να παρακολουθήσουν τις εκδηλώσεις του φεστιβάλ «Επτά μέρες ζωής στην Τοσίτσα» συγκέντρωσαν οι παρτίδες σκακιού που παίχθηκαν...

Vassily Ivanchuk hasn't always been the most resilient player in the world, but today was impressive. Neither a loss to Magnus Carlsen in round 5, getting mugged on his way to the airport, dealing with his wife's visa issues nor making the trip from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Bilbao in Spain threw him off his game. He picked up where he left off in rounds 1-4, defeating Hikaru Nakamura in a nice...

The Oslo Chess International wouldn't normally catch my eye, but as Matthew Sadler is participating it's interesting to see his unretirement unfold before our eyes. He's the second seed, behind Sergei Tiviakov, but after five of nine rounds he's in clear first with 4.5 points, half a point ahead of Jon Ludvig Hammer and Victor Mikhalevski. Tiviakov and seven other players have 3.5. (Round 6 is...

Matthew Sadler plays his second open in two months returning to action in Oslo, Norway. Malcolm Pein also looks at the miniature Teterev - Sagalchik from the European Club Cup and continues to pay tribute to Konstantin Lerner.

Την διδακτέα ύλη του Σεμιναρίου Διαιτησίας του Κορυδαλλού(7-9/10) μπορείτε να δείτε στο σύνδεσμο της ΚΕΔ: www.kedchess.gr/iliko_seminariou.zip