Top seed Sergey Tiviakov, European champion of 2008, won the main group of the Open Norwegian Championship 2011 in the charming small town of Fagernes. The tournament was part of the first edition of the new "Norsk Sjakkfestival" which was held during the Easter week.

Malcolm Pein looks at SHSM-64 of Moscow's win in the Russian Team Championship and a Fabiano Caruana win from this event.

Malcolm Pein looks at SHSM-64 of Moscow's win in the Russian Team Championship and a Fabiano Caruana win from this event.

The FIDE Candidates take place in Kazan 3rd-27th May 2011. 8 players compete to produce one world championship candidate to face Viswanathan Anand. The first and second round matches are four games plus rapid and blitz playoffs if required. The final is of six games. Round 1 Pairings: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) - Gata Kamsky (USA) Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) - Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan)...

The classical games in the 3rd-4th places matches are over, and both were drawn. Hess-Shankland was drawn quickly, and it's possible that Shankland never even got out of his preparation in Alekhine's Gambit in the Panov/Botvinnik Attack against the Caro-Kann. That means they'll being moving on to playoffs tonight, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. St. Louis time. Krush-Baginskaite was a bit more conventional...

The 2011 U.S. Chess Championship and 2011 U.S. Women's Championship are taking place April 13-28 at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL). Daily live games with computer analysis are available on the Chessbomb platform.

Gata Kamsky was content to head for a technical position with little or no advantage against Yuri Shulman. This kind of play is precisely the kind of thing Kamsky enjoys and continued probing was rewarded by several errors which eventually amounted to a loss. It is hard to believe Kamsky will lose as black in game 2. Tatev Abrahamyan and Anna Zatonskih were shocked to have an easy win for black...

Gata Kamsky was content to head for a technical position with little or no advantage against Yuri Shulman. This kind of play is precisely the kind of thing Kamsky enjoys and continued probing was rewarded by several errors which eventually amounted to a loss. It is hard to believe Kamsky will lose as black in game 2. Tatev Abrahamyan and Anna Zatonskih were shocked to have an easy win for black...

So as not to have the sideshow become the main event, the organizers of the US Championships have staggered the second games of the concluding matches. The final matches (Kamsky-Shulman and Zatonskih-Abrahamyan) will go on as scheduled at their regular time (3 p.m. ET), but the matches for third place (Shankland-Hess, Krush-Baginskaite) started a couple of hours early (at 1 p.m. ET), and if...

Afterward, Zatonskih learned that GM Daniel Friedman, her husband who was watching the game online, found the winning tactic 23…fxe5 24. Nxe5 d4! The discovered attack on her opponent's centralized knight would have netted Zatonskih an extra piece. "Oh my god!" Zatonskih said as she learned of the opportunity. "Unbelievable."

The schedule of the Kazan 2011 Candidates Matches is posted right below.

Gm...

In exactly one week from today, the first games of the FIDE Candidates matches will be played. In Kazan, Russia the first round will have Veselin Topalov vs Gata Kamsky, Vladimir Kramnik vs Teimour Radjabov, Levon Aronian vs Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Who do you think will qualify for a match [...]

Apologies (once again!) for the long break between postings, I will endeavour to ensure at least one blog post a month from now on. My first tournament of the year was Gibraltar (I had won a couple of 4NCL games beforehand). The event was even more formidable with the usual very strong selection of female [...]

The 1st Chinese Women Chess Masters Tournament was held from 16th April to 26th April 2011 in Wuxi, Jiangsu, China. Ten players competed in the round robin tournament. This competition concludes a strenuous row of five events that were played in China within month and a half.