Every week we present you an endgame study selected by IM Yochanan Afek: player, trainer, endgame study composer and writer. A week later the solution is published. Good luck solving! –> IM Yochanan Afek’s Official Website Y. Afek 2009 White to play and draw Next week the solution. Solution last week V. Kalandadze 1982 new [...]

Καλή χρονιά σε όλους...Σήμερα το πρωί, είδα λιγάκι ένα site (εδώ) με διάφορους  γραφικούς  τύπους που είχε κατά καιρούς  ο Πειραιάς. Από τους τελευταίους: ==   Ο Λάμπρος ο…. Κατάσκοπος. Που αν τυχόν  τον...

Το πρωτοσέλιδο από το "Ποντίκι" εκφράζει με τον καλύτερο τρόπο, αυτό που όλοι αισθανόμαστε και θέλουμε......και του χρόνου όλοι στα σπίτια σας....

The round 1 game Morozevich-Navara was played off in what was a rest day for the other competitors, and Morozevich won. The complete standings after round 4 look like this: 1. Vallejo Pons 3.5 2-8. Short, Caruana, Onischuk, Movsesian, Ivanchuk, Gashimov, Morozevich 2 9. Navara 1.5 10. Godena 1

Since many of us check the Live Top Lists on a somewhat regular basis, the official lists generally hold few surprises. Still, as they are the official lists, they're worth noting when they come out, and besides that, they're the best source of information about non-2700s. Here's the place to start your searches, or if you just want to look up one particular player, go here.

It's about time! - which is an odd thing to say about someone who has achieved the title at the age of 14 years, three months and two days old. Still, when I first learned about Ilya Nyzhnyk more than two years ago I thought he could even challenge Sergey Karjakin's record for the youngest-ever GM (at 12 years and seven months); from that point of view he seems to have taken his sweet time about...

 Χρόνια πολλά και καλη χρονιά !!!

Ο Ουκρανός Ίλια Νίζνικ (εδώ εικονίζεται σε σκακιστικούς αγώνες στην πατρίδα του, προ διετίας), 3 μήνες μετά τα 14α γενέθλιά του, πέτυχε στο διεθνές τουρνουά του Γκρόνιγκεν, στην Ολλανδία, την τρίτη και τελευταία νόρμα για...

Ο Νορβηγός Μάγκνους Κάρλσεν (δεξ.) ξεπέρασε και πάλι τον παγκόσμιο πρωταθλητή Βισβανάθαν Ανάντ (αριστ.) στους πίνακες έλο που ισχύουν για το δίμηνο Ιανουαρίου-Φεβρουαρίου 2011. Στην τρίτη θέση, πάνω από το 2800 κι αυτός, ο...

Well, here we are. I'm back home to the piles of snow and slush at last. My latest family health crisis seems to have had a happy ending (father, cancer, not a good year) with surgery last week and I'm feeling somewhat revitalized. Now to finish this damn book and get back to enjoying life. What were the biggest and best stories of 2010? The most overhyped? The most overlooked? Best and/or most...

Best wishes for good health, first and foremost, and of course for good chess in 2011. (And if I can help with the latter, please let me know via the "Contact Me" form in the lower right sidebar, as I'm available for lessons and a variety of other chess-related services.)

And so Notre Dame finishes the first year of the Brian Kelly era with an 8-5 score and bright (or at least brightening) hopes for next year. Look out, fans of other teams!

The ChessVibes team thanks you for your support and your comments, and we wish everyone a healthy 2011 with happy chess and good vibes!

Every year there's a chess "Oscar" given to the person voted as the player of the year by various chess journalists (not including me, so far), but we can draw our own conclusions here. Who would you pick as the player of the year for 2010? The obvious candidates are those atop the Live Top List: Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and maybe Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin...