The Magistral Memorial Jorge Szmetan was held from 16-27th April at the Néstor Kirchner Cultural Centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 12-player round robin tournament had the average elo of 2516, for the 11th FIDE category. The event was organized by Dr. Ricardo Costianosky and the tournament director was legendary GM Oscar Panno. Grandmaster Diego [...]

Live games with analysis

Live games with analysis

Here’s an interesting pawn endgame. In spite of White’s passed pawn Black won this game with a shocking breakthrough on the queenside, creating his own passed pawn. Although both sides queen Black wins because he has some mating nets: Sam Davies

Azeri star Shakhriyar Mamedyarov repeated the last year’s success and took another trophy at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir. The ten-player round robin event was held from 20-30th April in Shamkir, Azerbaijan. In the final round Vladimir Kramnik defeated Pavel Eljanov, while the remaining games were drawn. Final standings: 1. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 5,5 [...]

The 32nd Reykjavik Open 2017 took place from 19-27th April, 2017, in Harpa concert hall in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Live games with analysis

Ακόμη μια φορά λέω πως τα παιδιά πρέπει να μαθαίνουν σκάκι, σαν κανονικό μάθημα στο σχολείο.Το σκάκι είναι χρήσιμο μάθημα για τη ζωή...... Στηρίζεσαι σιωπηλά στη δύναμη του μυαλού σου.... Δεν περιμένεις κάτι από την τύχη...

Here’s a puzzle for you, taken from a game I played the other day. It’s White’s move. What would you play? While you’re thinking about your answer, here’s what was happening three boards away. My teammate, a new club member who, until a few weeks ago, had never played competitive chess, never recorded his moves […]

Beginners tend to lose games before they really get started because they randomly move pieces out onto the board with little thought being put into the moves they make. Often, you’ll see beginners making pawn move after pawn move during the opening, the first ten to fifteen moves of the game, while their more experienced […]

Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I’ve understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a […]

From 20 to 25 April 2017 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Kremenchuk, Poltava Region, Ukraine, by the Ukrainian Chess Federation, under auspices of FIDE. The lecturer was IA Oleg Tovchyga (UKR), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer was IA Yuriy Gnyp (UKR). The lectures were in Russian language. 15 National Arbiters from Ukraine and [...]

A FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar is going to be organized from 23 to 27 May 2017 in Moscow, Russia, by the Moscow Chess Federation, in cooperation with the Russian Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The venue of the Seminar will be the Russian State Social University in Moscow. The Lecturer will be IA [...]

In previous articles in this series I’ve discussed different opening choices and judging their suitability. Assuming one has made some prospective choices what is the next stage? There’s certainly a temptation to rush out (or perhaps rush online) to buy a specialist opening book on the opening in question. But instead of this I’d recommend […]

First of all, let me congratulate Levon Aronian for winning Grenke chess classic 2017. Secondly I would like to be clear that this article is aimed to beginners and pre-intermediate players only. Here I will discuss a couple of positions which might help you improve your endgame technique. Here is the first one: Aronian vs […]