The Fagernes Chess International is taking place from 9-16th April at the Scandic Valdres Hotel in Fagernes, Norway. The festival consists of five events: - GM-group, which is also Norwegian Open Championship, is a 9-round Swiss event for title holder and players rated above 2150 (above 2000 for women). Top prize is 1500 EUR. - [...]

From 25 to 29 March 2017 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Sharjah, UAE, by the UAE Chess Federation, in cooperation with Dubai Leader Qualification Centre, and under the auspices of FIDE. The seminar was held in the Sharjah Chess Club. The Lecturer was IA/IO Mahdi Abdulrahim (UAE), FIDE Arbiters’ Commission Councilor and FIDE [...]

A FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar is going to be organized from 12 to 14 May 2017 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, by the Malaysian Chess Federation, in cooperation with the Asian Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The Lecturer will be IA Bunawan Bong (INA), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer will be IA Madhavan, Collin [...]

Taking a break from describing my Chess for Heroes books, I must thank my cyberfriend Paul Swaney for drawing my attention to the Perpetual Chess Podcast for 28 March, in which US chess player and teacher Ben Johnson interviews Spanish IM and teacher Michael Rahal. You’ll find the podcast here, and the whole interview is […]

In chess, one player takes his or her turn moving a single or pawn or piece. The the opposition moves one pawn or piece in this cycle, turn after turn being repeated until the game ends. The only exception to this rule is castling (when the King and one Rook move at the same time). […]

The permanent mission of the Russian Federation to the United Nations organized a simultaneous exhibition with former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov. The simul was held in the General Assembly building in front of a huge crowd. Karpov reminded that he had held a simul at the UN headquarters 46 years ago. Diplomats from Azerbaijan, [...]

Ανακοίνωση για προθεσμία συμμετοχήςhttp://www.wfcc.ch/13ecsc-deadlines-registration/

“If your looking for a solid defence to d4 which doesn’t require too much learning then this book is for you.” I recently saw this comment on Amazon about a particular opening book. I then did some research and noted that once you play this opening there are something like 14 possible lines for White […]

An unheralded young Spanish player, who is not even a grandmaster, grabbed the solo leadership after Thursday’s fourth round of the 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament–Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. International Master (IM) Jaime Santos Latasa remained the tournament’s only player with an immaculate record of [...]

Grandmaster Axel Bachmann from Paraguay convincingly won the “Copa Norberto La Porta” open tournament which was held from 25-31st March at the Salon Dorado de la Legislatura de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Bachmann completed the event with 8,0/9 points leaving the local GM Alejandro Hoffman half a point behind. 298 players from fourteen countries [...]

The race for the US$13,000 top prize has intensified as a large chunk of the highest-rated seeds dropped out of the leaderboard, but it was a suspected cheating incident by one of the tournament’s lowest-rated players that stole the limelight in Wednesday night’s third round of the 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament–Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan [...]

With the United States being the Olympic Champions their national championship is one of the most interesting events on the calendar. And it’s especially fun to follow it using the internet commentary. Here’s the latest edition: Nigel Davies

The tournament’s big guns avoided the catastrophic results of the first round as 38 players remained unscathed, including 10 of the 12 highest-rated seeds, after Tuesday’s second round of the 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament–Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. Second-seed Grandmaster (GM) Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine [...]

The 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament – Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup is taking place from 3-12 April, 2017, in Dubai Chess & Culture Club. The event is a 9-round Swiss tournament that gathers 216 players from 43 different countries. The prize fund is $50,000 with $13,000 reserved for the winner. Top seed [...]

The Chessbase web site has a tradition of April fools articles but this one looks like a pretty good idea. It seems that someone tried to resign on behalf of the incumbent President last week whilst the FIDE President’s travel expenses presumably include some one way tickets back from Andromeda Galaxy. Aliens must be taking […]