It was a day when it was hard to find a single outstanding headline. 6 of the 8 games were decisive, in 2 of them black won and some well known names lost. Vladimir Potkin's reputation grows by the day as he punished risky opening play and time trouble by his friend Alexander Grischuk. Leinier Dominguez took advantage of some over-ambitious play from Judit Polgar when she really should have...

Όσοι πιστεύετε ότι οι κορυφαίοι παίχτες του κόσμου δεν χρησιμοποιούν το κάρφωμα και την διπλή απειλή, τότε κάνετε λάθος! Ο Ναβάρα, ένας από τους κορυφαίους παίχτες του κόσμου χρησιμοποίησε το «πιρούνι», δηλαδή την...

The FIDE World Cup has reached its fourth round, and six out of the eight games ended decisively: Polgar-Dominguez 0-1, Kamsky-Svidler 1-0, Gashimov-Nielsen 1-0, Radjabov-Jakovenko 1-0, Zherebukh-Navara 0-1 and Grischuk-Potkin 0-1. The games Ponomariov-Bruzon, Ivanchuk-Bu Xiangzhi ended in draws. Games & results, more later. General info The 2011 FIDE World Cup is a 128-player knock-out [...]

A new chess season has started, and isn’t that a great moment to start working on your chess a bit, with our weekly PDF & PGN magazines? ChessVibes Openings helps the tournament player’s understanding of openings and keeps your repertoire up to date. ChessVibes Training provides the club player instructive middlegame and endgame lessons, and [...]

There was lots and lots of blood today, which is always pleasing for the spectators, though there weren't any slashing attacks headed for the anthologies. Another bonus was a nice upset, although by this point in the competition it's unclear if anyone who wins should be thought of as a serious underdog. Proceeding in bracket order, we start with Polgar-Dominguez. When I first played through this...

Malcolm Pein looks at Judit Polgar's win against Sergey Karjakin from their first game in Round 3 of the World Cup. Also a puzzle from the game Shirov-Potkin.

The 2nd Women's Grand Prix of the 2011-12 series takes place 7th-19th September 2011. The event was pushed back a week from the original start date to give Women's World Champion Hou Yifan the best chance of participation. She was in the FIDE World Cup but was eliminated in the first round. Other participants: Ju Wenjun, Victorija Cmilyte (winner of the Women's Botvinnik Memorial), Zhu Chen, Anna...

Hello from Rome! As I type this we’ve played two rounds and about to head off for round three. The internet a bit slow so not sure if I’ll be able to post before the game but I’ll try. The weather here is very hot but the organisers have done their best with fans everywhere [...]

Gawain will return to Corsica to participate in the Corsican Circuit from the 22nd until the 30th of October. Last year he reached the quarter finals where he unfortunately lost to the eventual winner, Shak Mamedyarov. I remember last year, we were confused about the format of the event but now we know how it’s played. There [...]

Ο Γιώργος Σπυρόπουλος του ΣΟΠ επιβεβαίωσε τα προγνωστικά και αναδείχτηκε σχετικά άνετα νικητής του πρώτου τουρνουά Mega Patra που διοργάνωσε με επιτυχία ο ΣΟΠ.Στο τουρνουά που πραγματοποιήθηκε στον πολύ όμορφο χώρο της...

The last time Judit Polgar made a deep run in a FIDE World Cup / FIDE KO Championship we were still in the 20th century. She cruised to the fifth round in Las Vegas, where she lost to eventual winner Alexander Khalifman's amazing run of form. Other than that trip, she has usually underperformed these events, losing early to underdogs Almasi and Milov. The 2004 and 2007 events corresponded with...

Here’s an early game from this great British rivalry in which Nigel Short breaks through using some classic pawn play. It’s interesting how players who started playing the French early on (Sergei Dolmatov is another one)  have a great understanding of these structures. They often play h2-h4-h5 before pushing forward with the f-pawn and this [...]

Στο Καράκας της Βενεζουέλας, παιδιά αντιμετωπίζουν σε σιμουλτανέ προπονητές σκακιού. Η εκδήλωση ήταν γιγαντιαία,  έγινε σε 800 σκακιέρες στην εργατική γειτονιά Καρικουάο, λίγο πριν την έναρξη της νέας σχολικής χρονιάς...

18 year old Yaroslav Zherebukh eliminated another seed by defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 1.5-0.5 in a rapid playoff. David Navara finally eliminated Alexander Moiseenko with a very convincing 2-0 win in the rapids. Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Kamsky, Svidler, Potkin, Peter Heine Nielsen, Bruzon and Dominguez Perez joined them.

Για άλλη μια φορά ο Ανάντ απέδειξε ότι είναι ο κορυφαίος αθλητής του κόσμου κερδίζοντας το τουρνουά ράπιντ, δηλαδή γρήγορου σκακιού, εις μνήμην του Μποτβίννικ. Ο Κράμνικ ως συνήθως τερμάτισε στην μέση του τουρνουά, για...