28 year old Jonathan Hawkins had a notable success at the British Championships making a second GM norm and showing the way in chess improvement in your late 20's. Malcolm Pein takes a look.

Μπόμπι Φίσερ – Φιντέλ Κάστρο, Αβάνα 1966; Η φωτογραφία είχε δημοσιευτεί το 1966 στο περιοδικό «Chess Review» και η λεζάντα έγραφε: «Ο Μπόμπι Φίσερ απομακρύνει από τη σκακιέρα ένα από τα πιόνια του προέδρου της Κούβας Φιντέλ...

By tearing down his Berlin Wall, Sergey Karjakin defeated Vladimir Kramnik with White in the third round of the Russian Championship Super Final. As the other games ended in draws, Karjakin now shares the lead with Morozevich and Svidler. More later. General info The Super Final of the 64th Russian Championship for men takes place [...]

At the World U-20 Alex Rombaldoni started with six consecutive wins and a draw, before losing his first game today. In Chennai, India the Italian IM is now half a point behind FM (!) Koushik Girish (India) and GM Robert Hovhannisyan (Armenia), who are on 7/8. WGMs Olga Girya (Russia) and Deysi Cori (Peru) share [...]

Also confirmed so far are Aeroflot Open double winner GM Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) 2715, the 2010 SPICE Cup winner GM Alexander Onischuk (USA) 2675 and GM Georg Meier (GER) 2656, who is actually moving to the USA to attend the University.

Moscow will host the World Chess Championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand in May 2012. A premature FIDE press release that appeared on Monday was not signed by Kirsan Ilyuzhinov and there are claims that the final decision wasn't made until Tuesday. It does seem that the final specific venue is a source of dispute. Ilyumzhinov insists upon Skolkovo a small Moscow Science...

In the girls section, WGMs Cori T Deysi (Peru) and Girya Olga (Russia) share the lead with 7.0 points, scoring over Mammadova Gulnar Marfat Qizi (Azerbaijan) and Kulon Klaudia (Poland) respectively. The third spot is shared by Bulmaga Irina (Romania) and Elena Semenova (Russia) at 6.0 points.

More than two hundred thousand weekly visitors of the Ibirapuera Park in São Paulo will stumble upon an unusual scene between September 25th and October 1st. Inside a giant and transparent box in the middle of the park, the top chess players will fight for the trophy of the 4th Grand Slam Final Masters.

Now shipping: Fighting the French: A New Concept. Do you sometimes wonder what to play against the French Defence? In this book GM Denis Yevseev suggests a new concept of combating it. White plays 3.Nd2 and then deploys his pieces according to the scheme Ngf3, Bd3, c3, 0-0, against almost anything that Black may play. [...]

Το κορυφαίο ματς, η κορυφαία στιγμή του σκακιού, η σύγκρουση μεταξύ δύο προσωπικοτήτων, ένας αγώνας που μπορεί να έχει μόνο έναν νικητή…Στην φωτογραφία βλέπετε αριστερά τον Ανάντ και δεξιά των Γκέλφαντ. Έχουν...

Late last week I simultaneously received copies of the latest issues of Chess Life (August 2011) and New In Chess (2011/5). Oddly, both had articles discussing chess psychology. In Chess Life, it comes in Andy Soltis's Chess to Enjoy column, "Blunders Happen". Soltis claims that most players suffer over past blunders, but masters just accept them as part of life and move on. Masters, however...

Malcolm Pein takes a look at fine performances from Jovanka Houska and Susan Lalic at the British Chess Championships.

Πρωτάθλημα Ρωσίας 2011Με το δεξί ξεκίνησε ο Κράμνικ το Πρωτάθλημα Ρωσίας. Πριν λίγες μέρες είχε φάει μια δεξιόστροφη σφαλιάρα από τον Νακαμούρα στον τελευταίο γύρο του Ντόρτμουντ. Τώρα ήρθε ο Σβίλντερ να του ρίξει μια...

In the girls section, the lead remained unchanged with Woman Grandmaster Olga Girya holding Woman International Master Bulmaga Irina to a draw. The marathon game lasted five hours and 69 moves, but Olga hung on gamely, and snatched a crucial half point. The draw keeps the Russian on the top of the table together with Woman Grandmaster Cori T Deysi from Peru at 6.0 points.

After beating Alexander Grischuk on Tuesday, Alexander Morozevich joined Peter Svidler in the lead at the Russian Championship Super Final. Vladimir Kramnik recovered from his first round loss and defeated Artyom Timofeev. More later. General info The Super Final of the 64th Russian Championship for men takes place August 7-15 (rest day on August 12) [...]