After our two tournament reports from the U.S.A. by IM Robert Ris, we now have GM Dejan Bojkov writing for us about American tournaments. In January the Bulgarian played in both the Golden State Open in Concord, California and a round-robin GM norm event in Los Angeles. Report with video. Downtown L.A. | Photo © [...]

Vassily Ivanchuk is still on top at the Masters tournament of the 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival. The Ukrainian grandmaster scored 7 points out of 8 games, and is followed by Nigel Short (England) and Viktor Mikhalevski (Israel) who have 6.5 points. Ana Cramling Bellon, 8-year-old daughter of GMs Pia Cramling and Juan-Manuel Bellon Lopez [...]

Μινιατούρα από το βιβλίο Haft Awrang (Οι εφτά θρόνοι), γραμμένο κάπου ανάμεσα στο 1468 και στο 1485, και που θεωρείται το σημαντικότερο έργο του Πέρση ποιητή Nur ad-Din Abd ar-Rahman Jami, γνωστού απλά ως Jami (1414-1492).Εικονογράφηση από το ποίημα Ο...

γράφει ο Λουκάς Ζαχείλας Ο χθεσινός (Δευτέρα 31 Ιανουαρίου 2011) 7ος γύρος του τουρνουά του Γιβραλτάρ συνοδεύτηκε από διακοπή ρεύματος που είχε σαν αποτέλεσμα την διακοπή των παρτίδων επί μία περίπου ώρα. Οι παίκτες...

Malcolm Pein takes a look at a great game from round 6 of the Gibraltar Masters where Victor Mikhalevski beat Varuzhan Akobian.

Malcolm Pein takes a look at a great game from round 6 of the Gibraltar Masters where Victor Mikhalevski beat Varuzhan Akobian.

Charles Slade is a friendly acquaintance of mine from my days out west, and in the comments to my short notice on Jimmy Quon's passing he offered a nice remembrance meriting its own post: This is a terrible shame. I just heard about Jimmy's untimely passing myself, and found this link. (Apparently he was better known as "Jim Quon," so many of my google searches were in vain.) Although this...

The great old material from Mikhail Tal just keeps on coming, thanks to "Spektrowski". (Have a look here.) Between this site and especially Chess in Translation, these are great times for those of us curious about Russian chess writings past and present, but are unable to read them in the original language. HT: Brian Karen

Normally the next big event on the tournament calendar is Linares, but I've heard various rumors the past few days that it would be delayed or even cancelled this year. Can anyone shed some further light on this? Incidentally, if Linares doesn't occur at the usual time, then the Amber rapid & blindfold tournament will be the next super-GM event, and to compound the misfortunate it's in its...

For whatever reason the Gibraltar results page hasn't updated yet for round 8 (more problems with the power?), even though the round has been over for many hours now, so I don't know all the day's results. What can be reported is that Ivanchuk is in clear first with 7 out of 8, Short and Mikhalevski are tied for 2nd-3rd half a point behind, and at the very least Fridman, Melia and Caruana have 6...

I thought the French only cheated on their spouses, ha ha! Can someone explain this whole kerfuffle to me in a few short sentences using small words? Has anyone actually provided any evidence yet? You don't go public so big with something this explosive without showing the evidence if you have any, otherwise you create the overwhelming impression you are simply trying to slander someone. (Memo to...

Serzh Sargsyan is the third President of Armenia. He won the February 2008 presidential election with the backing of the conservative Republican Party of Armenia. He is the main chess motor of the country and one of the reasons for growth and success of chess in the country.

The current World Champion Viswanathan Anand and the ex World Champion Anatoly Karpov played promotional chess in the high speed velocity train AVE Madrid - Valencia. Photos and details of the event, as well as a live chat from Karpov for the online edition of the biggest sports newspaper.

St Michael's Cave has interested visitors to Gibraltar ever since the Romans. The Cathedral Cave was long believed to be bottomless, probably giving birth to the story that Gibraltar was linked to Africa by a subterranean passage over 15 miles (24 Km) long under the Straits of Gibraltar.

I'm not going to pretend to have time to cover anything, but at least I can put up some more thread for the faithful. Ivanchuk in action in Gibraltar and now in clear first place after beating Nigel Short the other day. Chucky won again today and leads the 10-round event with 7/8. This event keeps getting stronger and though it can't match the big Moscow events for depth, it's an impressive cast...