Romanian Chess Federation, “Mind Games & Events” Sports Association and the European Chess Union have the honour to invite all European Chess Federations affiliated members of ECU to participate in the European Youth Chess Championship, organised in Mamaia, Romania from 4-15 September 2017. The Official Venue of the Championship is Mamaia Expo Center, where all [...]

The following press-release was issued by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov today. Dear chess friends! We have done a great job together: united the chess world, increased the number of national federations and official tournaments, attracted new technologies and increased interest in the ancient game. We set an ambitious task to bring the number of chess players to [...]

The 19th Dubai Open Chess Tournament–Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup got off to an explosive start with Monday’s actioned-packed, first-round games producing two stunning upsets at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. Archive: Dubai Open 2016/ Dubai Open 2015 A new record number of 216 players from 43 countries are taking part in the [...]

It is well known that differences emerged at the last meeting of the Presidential Board held in Athens in March. Firstly, and in order to clarify, I should like to inform you that the subject of Mr. Ilyumzhinov’s resignation as President of FIDE was never on the agenda or proposed by any member of the [...]

After our time in Sharjah we were glad to have a change of scenery as we moved to the next hotel, the JW Marriot in Deira. It’s in a different part of Dubai to where I stayed last time and there are definitely more people living around here.We also had the weekend off from playing […]

“We raise Champions!” Past reviews can be accessed here ChessEssentials, level 1 ChessEssentials, level 2 App link at the iTunes store ChessEssentials Level 3 (reference ratings 800-1100) costs $1.99 and it is useful to any club player wishing to move up through the ranks. It is the first level with 30 lessons, 30 puzzle sets […]

Η Ε.Σ.Σ.Π. προκηρύσσει τα προκριματικά του ανοιχτού ατομικού πρωταθλήματος ανδρών-γυναικών για το 2017. Οι αγώνες θα πραγματοποιηθούν το διάστημα 18 - 23 Απριλίου στο Επιμελητήριο Αχαΐας στην οδό Μιχαλακοπούλου 58 στην...

I thought this was an interesting endgame which came from an Exchange Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. A key moment came when Black played 42…Kf6 because after 43.g4 he had a weak h-pawn. He might have been able to draw with 42…h5 instead. Sam Davies

Οι Αιγαιοπελαγίτικοι Σκακιστικοί Αγώνες 2017 θα λάβουν χώρα στην Αντίπαρο Κυκλάδων, 18 με 22 Απριλίου. Η φετινή συμμετοχή φαίνεται να ξεπερνά κάθε προηγούμενο και ο στόχος της διεξαγωγής των αρτιότερων και μαζικότερων...

I’ve often been asked to recommend an opening book for kids, and my answer, for the past 40 years or so, has always been “I haven’t written it yet”. Now is my chance. There are not many opening books written for players at this level, and the few that do exist tend to fall into […]

In Round 4 the two separated pairing groups joined and that meant the top boards had players from my group that were between 2100-2220. Gawain had a very long game against a 10-11 year old Mittal Aditya. A very sweet looking boy. His game was 87 moves and his young opponent defended exceptionally well and only […]

In the final round of the Sharjah Open Chess Championship all top players drew their respective games. The two leaders Wang Hao and Yury Kryvoruchko made a solid draw against each other, while both Adhiban and Kravtsiv had more complicated games against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Arkadij Naiditsch, but eventually all finished peacefully as well. It [...]

The Cuban Chess Federation is going to organize a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar in Varadero, Matanzas, Cuba, from 29 May to 4 June 2017, under the auspices of FIDE. The Seminar will be in Hotel Barceló Arenas Blancas, in Varadero. The Lecturer will be IA Bárbara López Chávez Meriño (CUB), FIDE Lecturer, and Assistant Lecturers will [...]

Chess is a game of give and take. If you take the initiative, sometimes you have to give a pawn or some other positional concession. If you take material, often you have to give your opponent counterplay. If you take a square with a pawn, you give your opponent the square next to the pawn. […]

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