Because I spend the majority of my time teaching chess, I often forget that I’m a musician. I play guitar as well as other instruments. How good am I? Well, my professional guitar playing peers consider me an excellent guitarist, although I always think I need improvement. I have a fairly large fan base for […]

Although my first tournaments back were fairly successful (first place in the Rhyl and South Lakes Open sections) I was back as a spectator for the Heywood Congress. I’m going through a busy patch with non chess commitments that started just after the South Lakes event. It’s good to sense if you are taking too […]

The second day of the rapid tournament brought another series of games full of excitement, brilliancies and heartbreaks. The leaderboard completely changed, as Magnus Carlsen reminded everyone why he is considered the most dominant chess player in the world. He is now leading the tournament with 10/12. Wesley So’s luck seemed to have ran out [...]

On June 21, the games of the 5th round of the World Chess Team Championships were played in Khanty-Mansiysk. In the men’s championship team Russia defeated Norway 3:1 (winners were Nikita Vitiugov and Vladimir Fedoseev). Polish team beat Ukraine by the same score. Winning points were supplied by Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Grzegorz Gajewski. India won [...]

The first leg of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour kicked off in Paris with the rapid portion of the event. After three games, the 2016 Grand Chess Tour winner Wesley So and World Champion Magnus Carlsen are tied for first place with Hikaru Nakamura and Veselin Topalov trailing by a point. The faster time controls [...]

Από τις 21 έως τις 25 Ιουνίου διεξάγεται το πρώτο σκέλος του Grand Chess Tour 2017 στο Παρίσι με συνολικά έπαθλα 150.000 δολάρια. Συμμετέχουν σε παρτίδες ράπιντ και μπλιτς οι: Carlsen Nakamura So Vachier-Lagrave Karjakin Caruana Grischuk Mamedyarov Topalov Bacrot Επίσημο...

I talked to teachers at a Yorkshire Pupil Referral Unit (PRU) today about ways of teaching their students. Part of my role for Chess in Schools and Communities is to reconnect with schools we’ve taught in previously. We taught at this PRU a few years ago. I was really pleased to learn that chess is […]

Η επιβεβαίωση των συμμετοχών για τα Πανελλήνια Ατομικά Πρωταθλήματα Παίδων-Κορασίδων, Εφήβων- Νεανίδων 2017 θα γίνεται με φυσική παρουσία των αθλητών στο χώρο αγώνων στο ξενοδοχείο Porto Rio τη Κυριάκη 25/06 και ώρα 17.00′-21.00′...

Live games with video and analysis

This article aims at beginners only. Here are some positions on a typical theme. You are advised to find the solutions first and then look at the theme name and the solutions: 1. Bill Wall vs Robert Gantt 1978 White to Play 2. Eduard Hamlisch vs NN 1899 White to Play 3. Shmatkov vs Eidlin […]

On June 20, the games of the 4th Round of the World Chess Team Championships were played in Khanty-Mansiysk. In the men’s event Russia beat Belarus 3:1 (the winners were Ian Nepomniachtchi and Maksim Matlakov). China blew out Egypt 3.5 to 0.5; Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi and Li Chao scored. Team Turkey created another sensation: [...]

On June 19, the matches of the 3rd round of the World Team Championships were played in Khanty-Mansiysk. In the men’s tournament the leaders, team Poland, defeated Egypt three to one (the winners were Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Jan Krzisztof Duda, the other two games were drawn). Russia won the match against Ukraine by a slim [...]

“We raise Champions!” Past reviews can be accessed here ChessEssentials, level 1 ChessEssentials, level 2 ChessEssentials, level 3 ChessEssentials, level 4 App link at the iTunes store ChessEssentials https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/chessessentials/id593013634?mt=8 The latest release of our app offers now level 5 (reference ratings 1400-1700). It costs $3.99 and it maintains the same...

The European Amateur Chess Championship was held in excellent conditions from 9-17th June at the Tami Residence in Nis, Serbia. The Championship, organized by the Chess Federation of City of Nis and under the auspices of European Chess Union, consisted of three different rating categories: 0-1699, 1700-1999 and 2000-2300. The champion of the strongest category [...]

The second round of the Team World Championships took place in Khanty-Mansiysk on June 18. The guest of honor of this round was the Governor of the Khanty-Mansiysk Autonomous Okrug – Ugra Natalya Komarova who, together with FIDE Vice-President Javier Ochoa, gave a start to the women’s match between Russia and Vietnam. After that the [...]