The 2016 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will take place in Doha, Qatar, from 25th of December (arrival) to 31st of December (departure). The Rapid event will be held over three days (26-28th December) at a time control of 15min+10s and the Blitz Championships will continue during next two days (29-30th [...]

The elections for the new Board of the Greek Chess Federation with the participation of 3 candidate teams were held on 18th December. Mr. Georgios Makropoulos and his team won the elections with 68,8 % (119 votes), electing all the councillors to the Greek Chess Federation Board. The second ticket received 19% and the third [...]

Kings and Princes drew 32-32 at the Nutcracker. Queens defeated Princesses 36-28. Grigoriy Oparin won the first men’s prize and will be invited to the supertournament Kortchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge. The traditional Christmas event – Nutcracker generation tournament – ended at the Central House of Chess Player in Moscow on December 22. There were played [...]

Chess Engines: Tool or Trap? Using chess engines for chess analysis and practice has become very commonplace. Whether you are on an online chess server, internet forum, or even at the tournament hall, discussion of which chess engine one uses or what the latest version of Stockfish is seems to pop up frequently. However, I […]

I do not have too many wins these days in correspondence chess, so my two wins against the French Defence in 2016 for my Hertfordshire County team in England were very welcome. The first game was played in the BCCL Championship Division against a member of the Mensa Team. My opponent is an experienced French […]

Στα Χανιά από 2 έως 8 Ιανουαρίου 2017 θα γίνουν τα πανελλήνια πρωταθλήματα Κ20. Η Σκακιστική Ακαδημία Χανίων, η Περιφέρεια Κρήτης, ο Δήμος Χανίων, και η Κοινωφελής Επιχείρηση Πολιτισμού & Περιβάλλοντος Δήμου Χανίων –...

Perhaps the best way to improve your chess is to study masters’ games. I am biased towards older games for their instructional value as with modern masters’ games you often feel they are playing like computers. But I believe Magnus Carlsen is an exception here as he plays almost any playable position and gets something […]

The European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2016 were held from 14-18th December in Tallinn, Estonia, with a fast and very attractive chess formats. GM Alexander Riazantsev from Russia became the winner of the Rapid competition with 9.5 points after 11 rounds of play. His compatriot GM Maxim Matlakov made the same score, but his [...]

Our second to last class for 2016 at the chess club was very exciting. The level 5 group I am coaching this school year explored with enthusiasm more tricks from the QGD Cambridge Springs and followed it with a number of combative games from our club tournament. We play a loose 30+ minutes time control […]

The tournament leader utilized the same strategy he employed during the Sinquefield Cup by drawing his last three games and putting the pressure on the competition to win and catch him. Once again, this strategy worked,  as Caruana failed to win against Giri with the black pieces. Wesley So went on to convincingly and deservingly [...]

This was my best game of 2016, played against a strong club player and the father of GM Stewart Haslinger. My Dad joked that this was family revenge as he had lost a couple of games against Stewart some years ago! Sam Davies

The 7th HDBank Cup International Chess Open 2017 is set to take place from 11-18th March at the First Hotel, 18 Hoang Viet Str, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam. The 9-round Swiss event organized by the Vietnam Chess Federation will have two sections: - Masters Category for players rated above 2100 and women rated above [...]

From 5 to 9 December 2016 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Marrakech, Morocco, by the Royal Morocco Chess Federation, in cooperation with the Arab Chess Federation and under auspices of FIDE. The venue of the Seminar was the Zalagh Kasbah Hotel & SPA Hotel in Marrakech. The lecturer was IA Mahdi Abdulrahim (UAE), [...]

Last week I introduced the first four questions in my second Thinking Skills Quiz. This week I’ll take a look at how children answered the last four questions Question 5 is another standard tactical idea which comes up in many openings, and where the correct move is often overlooked. The complex thought processes which enable […]

In a fascinating turn of events, the winner of the 2016 Grand Chess Tour has been crowned, while it is still unclear who will win the London Chess Classic! Going into the last leg of the tour, Nakamura needed to win clear first in London in order to catch Wesley So. After both players drew [...]