The Top Chess Engine Championship Season 12 is going to start in the second half of April 2018, a few hours after the last game of the Stockfish – Houdini S11 match. It will once again be a division system with 32 engines of relative strength 3000+ ELO, all taking place on a high end [...]

Important in the initial seeding of Season 12

TCEC (Top Chess Engine Championship) is a top computer chess tournament that aims at very high quality chess, using long time controls, played strictly between between chess engines created by different developers/programmers. TCEC is broadcast live and has a large regular audience. There have been already 11 past seasons of TCEC and the 12th one [...]

This position is taken from a game played in Round 5 of the Grenke Chess Classic. White, the German GM Georg Meier, is about to play his 39th move against Magnus Carlsen. After 1 minute 28 seconds, and with just five seconds remaining on the clock he decides to play safe: 39. Ra1. The pieces […]

The International Rapid Chess Tournament “Memorial tournament in honour of Viktor Kupreichik” will take place from 20-24th June 2018 in the Palace of Sports at the address: Minsk, pr. Pobediteley 4. General organisation of the tournament is carried out by Belarus Chess Federation. Direct staging of the tournament is under the responsibility of the panel [...]

“Remember boys, chess can’t be taught, Chess can only be learned,” So said Mikhail Botvinnik, father of the Russian School of Chess. What he meant was that most progress occurs when the student is alone, working through his or her studies. In chess, we often learn best what we learn independently. My fellow chess teachers […]

Μια σκακιστική συνάντηση διασήμων το 1941 στις Ηνωμένες Πολιτείες, λίγους μήνες πριν η χώρα μπει στον δεύτερο παγκόσμιο πόλεμο, γεγονός που όταν συνέβη μετά το Περλ Χάρμπορ τον Δεκέμβριο, δεν επέδρασε σημαντικά στην...

Stockfish jumps from 3rd last year to convincing 1st position

Ο φίλος Παναγιώτης Κονιδάρης που πάντα συνεισφέρει στο σάιτ με πολύ αξιόλογες συνεργασίες έχει στείλει εδώ και αρκετό καιρό ένα εκτενές άρθρο το οποίο, μετά από αμοιβαία συνενόηση, το κρατάγαμε λίγο πίσω μιας και δεν...

Σκάκι στην Πασέο ντελ Πράδο, πολυσύχναστο πεζόδρμο της Αβάνας που βρίσκεται ανάμεσα στο κέντρο και την παλιά αποικιακή πόλη. Στη φωτογραφία του National Geographic ο λήπτης βρήκε ένα σχολείο σε μεσημεριανή μίνι εκδρομή και...

Here is a game that highlights my lack of structural understanding! It was helpful to go through it with Nigel. Below is the game with Nigel’s notes. Nigel explained the big problem of my 10.dxe5 was that it gave Black the c5 square. 10. b5 would have been better. He showed me two games of […]

For the tenth consecutive year, the Saint Louis Chess Club will host the U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. The fields have now been confirmed and fans are sure to see great battles April 17-30, 2018. The 2018 U.S. Women’s Championship is an elite national championship event, featuring 12 of the strongest female [...]

The 20th Dubai Open Chess Tournament was held in the Dubai Chess & Culture Club from 2-10 April. 158 players took part in the tournament. After 7 rounds GM Ganguly was leading with 6,5, points clear from the rest. But in round 8 he lost against GM Iturrizaga. In the last round GM Diego Flores [...]

This is really an instructive position. Play was focused on restricting the activity of one of Black’s minor pieces, a key middle game strategy that is often seen at grandmaster level. We have following position after Black’s last move 19…Rd8: Q: How would you continue from here with white pieces? Solution: 20. b5! Ne5?! Other […]

The 2nd Hersonissos International Chess Tournament is scheduled to take place from 17-24th June at the Lyttos Beach Hotel in Hersonissos, Crete, Greece. The event is organized by the Heraklion Chess Club, Heraklio OAA, Hersonissos Chess Academy, Candia Chess Club, and supported by the Municipality of Hersonissos and Administration of Crete. Situated next to a [...]