It seems like 2001 all over again, and not just because today is the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In the 2001/2 FIDE World Championship in Moscow, the semi-finalists were Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk and Viswanathan Anand. Ponomariov faced Svidler and Ivanchuk faced Anand. Fast forward ten years, and it's practically the same thing. Anand "graduated" to become the current world...

In contrast with the British Championships last year, this time I found the chess hard work. My first game was a gruelling 94 move struggle and I didn’t have many smooth wins. I was also certainly in bad shape at various stages of my games against the other three highest rated players and 2 points [...]

Συνεχίζεται με πολύ καλές παρτίδες το Παγκόσμιο Ατομικό Κύπελο Σκακιού 2011 που διεξάγεται στην πόλη Khanty-Mansiysk της Ρωσίας. Την πολύ δυνατή παρτίδα που παίχτηκε κατά την διάρκεια του 5ου γύρου ανάμεσα στον GM από το...

Manuel PonceΤο πρώτο μέρος Campo από την σύνθεση γιά κιθάρα Sonatina Meridional του μεξικανού συνθέτη Manuel Ponce (8/12/1882 – 24/4/1948) θα ακούσουμε σήμερα. Ερμηνεύει πολύ όμορφα η ρωσίδα κιθαρίστρια Irina Kulikova.Irina KulikovaΚαλημέρα και καλή Κυριακή!

Here’s another one I missed at the time with Lothar Schmid using his patented 2.Ne2 d6 3.c4 line against the Sicilian again (he previously did so in his game with Robert Byrne). This turned out to be quite an entertaining game with both kings coming under attack and Jan Heim Donner finally escaping with a [...]

Ο Κυριάκος Φραγκούλης, από το Νυδρί Λευκάδας, ήταν συνθέτης σπουδών.Μπορείτε να διαβάσετε μια παρουσίασή του στο ιστολόγιο τού Μεγανησιώτη Παναγιώτη Κονιδάρη εδώ, ή στο σκακιστικό ιστολόγιο (με λιγότερες φωτογραφίες...

I don't think I want any comments on this one! Wow. Is it possible for a team to blow a game worse than they did tonight? (Stay tuned next week to find out the answer.) I did say I'll never learn, didn't I?

(Correct, I'll never learn!) Starting in about ten minutes, the University of Notre Dame will begin their merciless drubbing of the Michigan Wolverines. (The carnage will be televised starting at 8 p.m. tonight on ESPN.) Bring your appetite, unless you're a Michigan fan.

We had another round like we're used to at the World Cup, with lots of fight and lots of wins. There were also plenty of mistakes - chess mistakes and mental errors too, which is to be expected near the end of such a long tournament. Vassily Ivanchuk was in the best shape of anyone after the first day of round 5, as he had defeated Teimour Radjabov while all the other games were drawn.  No...

Today I was up against Alexandr Fier, a GM from Brazil. He used to be over 2650 and I knew this would be a tough game. I decided to return to my beloved Dragon for this one and the opening worked out pretty well. He offered me a draw after 17 moves but I decided [...]

The World Cup Quarter Finals day 2 saw four full-blooded struggles full of interesting moments. First Teimour Radjabov crushed Vassily Ivanchuk with an interesting piece sacrifice where the compensation became quickly apparent. Peter Svidler took advantage of Judit Polgar's overestimation of her own chances to break through just before first time control. David Navara took advantage of Alexander...

IM Malcolm Pein talks about the round 4 playoffs that saw a lot of drama. He examines Judit Polgar's blitz win against Leinier Dominguez Perez and also one of Vugar Gashimov's wins against Peter Heine Nielsen.

The World Open was the start of a busy chess period for me. It had been nice to get a break in our condo in Key Largo but with kitchen renovations, sunsets and cocktails, Chessbase didn’t get much of a look in! Despite this, I managed quite well in the World Open winning a few [...]

Here’s Robert Byrne defending against a dangerous attack by his (then) young opponent. I love the bit when Robert Byrne says: “He would do that right in my time pressure. What a brat.” This kind of thing often happens to the more mature Grandmaster…

Η τελική ευθεία έχει αρχίσει για το παγκόσμιο κύπελλο. Η πρώτη μέρα κύλισε ήρεμα με αρκετές ισοπαλίες. Οι περισσότεροι παίχτες έκαναν γρήγορες ισοπαλίες ίσως εξαντλημένοι από τους προηγούμενους γύρους. Δεν συνέβη...