The 34th European Club Cup and the 23rd European Women Club Cup will be simultaneously held from 11th-19th October 2018 in Porto Carras, famous Greek seaside resort in Halkidiki. The playing venue of the Championships will be the Congress Center of the Porto Carras Grand Resort and the official hotel of the event will be 5 [...]

Madrid Chess Conference 2018, organized by Madrid Chess Academy under the auspices of European Chess Union, will take place from 23rd-25th March in Madrid, Spain. The Conference is conceptualized as the Educational Conference with main themes Scholastic chess and Educational chess, as well as resources how to improve Chess in Schools project. The Conference will [...]

57th Brazilian Women’s Chess Championship was heldfrom 17-23 February 2018 at Guanabara Club, Rio de Janeiro. The tournament was a 10-player round-robin in which each player has 90 minutes for all moves, with a 30-second per move increment from move one. The winner with 8 out of 9 points is FM Sayumi Juliana Terao, followed [...]

17th International Chess Festival Rochefort was held from 17th to 23th February at Palais des Congrès. The tournament was divided in 2 sections. 7 players have finished with 6.5 points. The winner with best tie-break is GM Andrey Sumets, followed by IM Radoslav Dimitrov, GM Juri Solodovnichenko, IM Ivajlo Enchev etc…

The Paraguayan Women’s Championship is a 7-round Swiss tournament taking place from 23-26 February 2018 in Luque. Players receive 60 minutes for the entire game, plus a 10-second increment starting from move one. Live games with analysis will be provided daily with the best chess software competing in the Top Chess Engines Championship- Komodo, Houdni [...]

The pawn has the lowest relative value and because of this, it can keep a piece off of any square the pawn controls. Pawns also have the ability to promote into a piece when reaching the other side of the board. These two factors make the pawn a valuable asset. However, pawns cannot move backwards, […]

LCLA Mukubulo Open Chess Championships will be held from 23 to 25 February at Henry Courtyard Executive Lodge – Mansa, Zambia. The tournament is divided in 3 sections, Second Phase Trials Men’s Section, Second Phase Trials Women’s Section and Open Section. 250 players are expected to play. starting list open section 1 IM Kayonde Andrew [...]

The CXC Brazil Open is a 6-round Swiss tournament taking place from 23-25 February 2018 in Curibita. Players receive 90 minutes for the entire game, plus a 30-second increment starting from move one. 98 players are expected. The top seeded are GM Rafael Di Berandino, GM Everaldo Matsuura etc… Live games with analysis will be [...]

The international Chess Open Graz was held from 17 to 23 February. The tournament was divided in 3 sections. In group A 135 players took part. The winner is GM Batuhan Muhammed Dastan with 7,5 points out of 9, followed by GM Matej Sebenik and GM Daniel-Bogdan Deaf with 7 out of 9. final standings [...]

Tunisian championship for women was held in Hammamet from 16 to 22 February. It was 12 players round-Robin. The winner is WFM Amira Marzouk with 7,5 points out of 11, followed by WFM Amen Miladi with 7 points and Malik Chili with 6 points.

Από τις 20 έως τις 28 Φεβρουαρίου διεξάγεται στο ξενοδοχείο  Cosmos της Μόσχας το 16ο Aeroflot Open που οργανώνεται από τη Ρωσική Σκακιστική Ομοσπονδία και ο βασικός χορηγός είναι η κρατική αεροπορική εταιρεία. Το ισχυρότερο Α’...

This happens to me regularly. I’m on a bus working on tactics puzzles on my phone or I’m in the bookstore browsing a book on endgames, and some stranger will see me and ask: “So…are you good at chess?” I never know how to answer that question. First, I’m not sure what the person is […]

Tunisia Individual Championship 2017 was held from 14 to 22 February 20018 in Hammamet. It was 12 people round-robin tournament. The winner is IM Amir Zaibi with 9 out of 11. He had better tie-break from IM Ali Med Boudriga. FM Zoubaier Amdouni was third with 7.5 points. final standings Tunisia Championship 1 IM Zaibi [...]

Stockfish is the sole leader of the Premier Division of the Top Chess Engines Championship. After 18 rounds Stockfish has collected 13 points – nine wins, one loss, and eight draws. This is a point more than last year’s champion Houdini – six wins and twelve draws – and two points more than Komodo. Fire [...]

While I enjoyed this game Nigel has advised me to move on from these stonewall openings. Which I understand I need to do, however, finding the time is a problem. Although, writing that I was reminded of something I read recently about removing the phrase “finding the time” from your vocabulary because we can never […]