The 4th Final Masters has reached the half-way stage, a break and a move to Bilbao. Magnus Carlsen defeated Vassily Ivanchuk with black in an interesting French Defence but there were a number of strange decisions from Ivanchuk and it was more his loss rather than Carlsen's win. It wouldn't surprise me if Ivanchuk's recent heavy schedule with the World Cup isn't catching up on him a bit. Perhaps...

And it really wasn't even that close, as Notre Dame missed a couple of shortish field goals and Purdue scored their only touchdown in the last 30 seconds of the game. Three down, eight (including the bowl game) to go. Next opponent: Air Force. Time for our usual celebratory music:

I'm pleased to announce that the powers-that-be have signed legislation outlawing Purdue football. We begin bombing in a few minutes. (Oops, is this mic on?) Of course this is a joking allusion; it's not true that Purdue football has been outlawed. That said, starting in about half an hour their fans will wish that it had been, as Notre Dame's football team start to dismantle the Boilermakers...

Την Παρασκευή 7 Οκτωβρίου στις 18:00μ.μ. ξεκινάει το τουρνουά Κάππα-53, με εθνική και διεθνή αξιολόγηση έλο. Θα είναι ανοιχτό τουρνουά με ελβετικό σύστημα επτά γύρων. Οι αγώνες θα συνεχιστούν με το εξής πρόγραμμα: Δε 10/10, Πα...

It wasn't a good end to what had been a great first cycle for Vassily Ivanchuk. Already near the end of the opening he was struggling with White against Magnus Carlsen, and it was the relative strengths of the players' c-pawns that made the difference. White's pawn on c2 was weak and eventually dropped off; Black's pawn on c3 was a pillar of strength that diverted almost all of White's army. In...

There were some very interesting games and results today, and since the Sao Paulo/Bilbao tournament will be on a travel break after today's round you'll have some time to catch up on the games of the final round of the European Club Cup. From what I understand, some team came in first and all the other ones failed to. Having done my duty as a reporter, let's turn to the more interesting aspect...

Το Δ.Σ. της Ε.Σ.Σ.Ν.Α., στη συνεδρίασή του της 29.09.2011, συζήτησε και πήρε αποφάσεις για τα παρακάτω θέματα: 1. Ενέκρινε τον Αγωνιστικό Προγραμματισμό της Ένωσης για το έτος 2012. (Δείτε εδώ). Οι κυριότερες μεταβολές σε σχέση με...

Gawain is currently on 3/3 with one more round to play today starting at 7pm local time. You can check out the live games though are down at the moment. I can’t seem to find a results page but will try and keep you updated with what I know. With a tough schedhule of 6 rounds over [...]

(πρώτο μέρος http://chessnewsgr.blogspot.com/2010/09/blog-post.html)(δεύτερο μέρος http://chessnewsgr.blogspot.com/2010/09/2.html)Ένα χαλαρό φωτογραφικό post μέχρι να κατεβάσω από τα ράφια το σκακιστικό κομμάτι της βιβλιοθήκης μου που βρίσκεται σε αχρηστία εδώ και 3...

Όποιος πίστευε ότι οι κορυφαίοι παίχτες του κόσμου δεν χάνουν με τα λευκά κομμάτια, απλά έκανε λάθος… Αναμφισβήτητα στο κορυφαίο επίπεδο έχει πολύ μεγάλη σημασία αν κάποιος παίζει με τα λευκά ή με τα μαύρα, όμως το...

Ακόμη και ο τίτλος κινεί την περιέργεια: «Castles with Knights and Bishops». Όλοι ξέρουν ότι you castle (κάνεις ροκέ) με τον Βασιλιά και τον Πύργο. Ο συγγραφέας εδώ δεν χρησιμοποιεί τον αγγλικό όρο για το σκακιστικό Πύργο (Rook), αλλά τo Castle...

In the 1982 series Andras Adorjan finally got his comeuppance against Eric Lobron. Possibly underestimating his young opponent Adorjan drifted into time trouble. And that’s when we all play badly. Outsiders did very well towards the end of this series, the last three winners being Lothar Schmid, Nigel Short and then Lobron.

Having built Andras Adorjan up with that somewhat dull draw with Larry Christiansen, here’s a game that he actually won. He returns Hecht’s pawn sacrifice to generate a strong initiative and goes on to win in flowing, beautiful style. I’d also like to say that Hecht deserved to lose wearing glasses like those; they’re the [...]

Malcolm Pein looks at Magnus Carlsen's loss to Francisco Vallejo Pons after failing to find a win. World Champion Viswanathan Anand also lost.

Malcolm Pein looks at Magnus Carlsen's loss to Francisco Vallejo Pons after failing to find a win. World Champion Viswanathan Anand also lost.