The İzmir Chess Training Center (ISEM) is holding two Scheveningen chess tournaments where a group of foreign Grandmasters is pitted against the local talent. The tournaments are taking place from 8-12th March at Iyonya Hotel in Izmir, Turkey. The organizer is IO Nese Kahmazalp, tournament director is IO Enis Bilyap and chief arbiter is IA [...]

This week, we’re going to look at pins involving the Rook and Queen as well as go over some key concepts regarding this tactical tool. We’ll start with a review of a few key concepts. Why review what we already know? Let me tell you a little story about my past. I’ve always had a […]

The new online teaching platform – Elite Chess Training is offering free group lessons by top trainers by the end of March. The teachers are world top Grandmasters and FIDE Senior Trainers. Scheduled lessons in English: GM Adrian Mikhalchishin FIDE Sernior Trainer Date: 10.03.2017 at 18.00 CET Duration: 90 minutes GM Efstatios Grivas FIDE Senior [...]

The Grand Chess Tour is pleased to announce the event level wildcards for the 2017 Grand Chess Tour events in Paris and Leuven. The GCT Advisory Board considered both the players URS™ standings as well as recent exceptional performances to finalise the selection of these 8 wildcards. The board also considered local sponsor preferences while [...]

The 2017 FIDE Arbiters’ Commission Councilors’ Meeting will be held in Reykjavik, Iceland, in the period 21 to 24 April 2017. The Icelandic Chess Federation is hosting the Meeting. Federations and individuals who are interested to send proposals to be discussed in the Meeting and in the next FIDE Congress Arbiters’ Commission Meeting are kindly [...]

After a lovely week in Malaysia we headed with my aunt and cousins to Yogyakarta on the island of Java. I was slightly nervous about flying there as I remember seeing in the news the Air Asia crash but my fears were unfounded. Occasionally I think about plane crashes when we are flying but I […]

Οι πρώτες λίστες συμμετοχών κάθε τάξης για τον προκριματικό όμιλο του Σαββάτου 11 Μαρτίου έχουν αναρτηθεί στο Chess Results. Για οποιαδήποτε παρατήρηση μπορείτε να στέλνετε email στο esspchess@gmail.com

In The Comeback Trail, Part 9, I discussed how it can be a good idea to create databases for prospective rivals. Let’s now look at this in another way, what if they create a database on you? This thought should be enough to discourage us from playing dubious gambits, especially if we play our chess […]

As explained in the first part of this series it is only necessary to calculate in positions where there are forced variations and the possibilities are limited. It is impossible to calculate when the possibilities are unlimited. In these situations the first logical step is to select a series of candidate moves, so we can […]

The 16th Rochefort Chess Festival was held from 18h to 24th February at the Congres Palais, in Rochefort, France. The event was a big success with 222 participants, 50 more than the former record. 71 players competed in the Masters section which was reserved for the players rated above 1900. Grandmaster Kirill Stupak (Belarus) won [...]

On the eve of the International Women’s Day, a traditional match between “Blondes” and “Brunettes” took place in the Moscow restaurant “Carlson”. The playing format was 8-rounds Scheveningen system with the time control 3′+2″. Blondes: Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Olga Girya, Natalia Zhukova, Alina Bivol, Maria Fominykh (founder of the event)...

Regardless of one’s political persuasion this makes for interesting viewing. The leader of the Lib Dems, Tim Farron, plays a game on live television and loses in just 36 seconds. In his defence I should point out that his opponent, UKIP MEP Jonathan Arnott, is a pretty good player with a current ECF grade of […]

Russian Chess Federation has the honour to invite young and ambitious players from all over the world to take part in the final stage of prestigious chess competition among secondary school teams Belaya Ladya, also known as White Rook, which will be held in Hotel Dagomys 4* (Sochi, Krasnodar Region) on June 1-9, 2017. Belaya [...]

I met Marius for the first time back in 1990. It was my first selection into the lineup of “Portelanul Alba-Iulia”, the team I just joined after University and he was playing for at the time. We were playing in the second division of the Romanian National Team Chess Championship. He was the top junior […]

Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Committee has the honor of inviting the players to take part in a distinguished chess annual event, which consists of numerous FIDE registered tournaments. It will be held in Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the UAE from 13th until 23rd of August, 2017. Abu Dhabi Chess & Culture Club is [...]