The 44th Biel Chess Festival will take place from 18th to 29th July in Biel, Switzerland. The main event is the Accentus Grandmaster Tournament which will be a six-player double round robin. Magnus Carlsen (NOR), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA), Alexei Shirov (ESP), Fabiano Caruana (ITA), Alexander Morozevich (RUS) and Yannick Pelletier (SUI) will participate.

In this recent post I mentioned Jeremy Silman's reminiscence of Mikhail Tal's trip to the Los Angeles area back in 1988, during which time Tal gave a simul there. I played in that simul, so I was curious to see if I made it into the picture near the top of the article. At first I thought I was, then talked myself out of it, but now think that my initial suspicion was correct. I'm not 100% sure...

Άρθρο του αμερικανικού περιοδικού Time της 27ης Ιουνίου 1969, για το ματς Πετροσιάν-Σπάσκι. Κάποια σημεία περιγράφονται εξιδανικευμένα και υπερβολικά γλαφυρά, όμως δεν πρέπει να μας διαφεύγει πως η ανταπόκριση αφορούσε το...

The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) is pleased to announce the winners of the third FIDE Trainer Awards. The awarding ceremony will take place during the FIDE Congress in Krakow 15-22.10.2011. A 'Tree of Chess' sculpture and a diploma will be given to each of the five (5) winners.

It's not enough that Biel and the World Team Championship are underway, now we have Dortmund, too! It starts tomorrow with the following pairings: Vladimir Kramnik (many-time winner, former world champion) - Ruslan Ponomariov (defending champ and former FIDE world champ) Georg Meier (top German player) - Le Quang Liem (qualified by winning Aeroflot) Anish Giri (one of the youngest 2700s in...

Alexander Morozevich and Magnus Carlsen drew a fascinating and difficult Gruenfeld in the ACCENTUS GM section of the 44th Biel Chess Festival. Alexei Shirov ground down Caruana and Vachier gave perpetual check against Pelletier. There is a rest day Thursday. Round 4 July 22nd 1 pm UK time Shirov-Vachier-Lagrave, Morozevich-Pelletier, Carlsen-Caruana.

In round 2, the main story was against Magnus Carlsen, who won impressively against Alexei Shirov on the White side of a Meran. The Semi-Slav has long been one of Shirov's favorite openings, while Carlsen - except when he was working with Kasparov - has typically avoided the sharpest, most theoretical lines when possible. On this occasion he didn't, and the result was success. An odd game, a...

(Yesterday was busy, so now we'll try to catch up.) Round 3: Russia entered round 2 in first place, and they left it that way too, but things stopped being so smooth for them. After a pair of undefeated 3-1 victories, they encountered more resistance from Armenia. Alexander "White to play and draw" Grischuk got nothing against Sergei Movsesian on board 2 while on board 3 Vladimir Akopian likewise...

The Kasparov material is familiar and Adams' is brief, but you might enjoy reading it all the same.

The 1st International Tournament Isthmia 2011 is set to take place from 18th to 25th August at the "Alkyon" Hotel in Vrachati, Korinthia, Greece. The tournament will be 9-rounds Swiss event, divided in two rating groups. The organizers are Pnevmatiki Stegi Peristeriou, Korinthia Chess Academy "Argonaftis", Prefecture of Peloponnisos and Municipality of Velo Vocha.

After a day where three of the top four teams lost Armenia retook lead after the 4th round of the 8th World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. Azerbaijan comfortably beat Russia 3-1 with wins for Gashimov against Grischuk and Guseinov against Svidler. The Ukraine haven't look that convincing so far and lost to Hungary thanks to a win on the black side of a Marshall by Leko against Ivanchuk...

In the third round of the Biel Chess Festival Alexei Shirov scored his first victory, against Fabiano Caruana in a Bishop’s Opening. Alexander Morozevich and Magnus Carlsen drew after a good Grünfeld 4.Bg5 fight while Yannick Pelletier and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave split the point in a King’s Indian. Later more. General info The 44th Biel Chess [...]

In a very interesting 4th round Armenia regained the lead at the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China. On Wednesday they defeated Egypt 3.5-0.5 while Russia lost 1-3 to Azerbaijan. Ukraine also lost, to Hungary, as Peter Leko defeated Vassily Ivanchuk at the black side of a Marshall Gambit. Leko beats Ivanchuk in round 4 [...]

In 1988, Mikhail Tal made something of a tour of North America, winning the first World Blitz Championship in St. John's in Canada before visiting various cities in the United States. When it was time for the Los Angeles area leg of his journey, International Master Jeremy Silman hosted him for several hours, and you can read his report on their adventures here. Incidentally, I played in that...

Ο GM Θανάσης Μαστροβασίλης με επτά βαθμούς μοιράστηκε την πρώτη θέση μαζί με τους Athanasios GM Azer Mirzoev και IM Adam Hunt και πήρε το τρόπαιο έχοντας καλύτερο tiebreak.Το 3ο Διεθνές Τουρνουά "Artemis Cup" Λέρος 2011 έλαβε χώρα από τις 12 εως και...