The 89th Saint Petersburg Men’s Chess Championship is taking place from March 20-30, 2016, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The event is a 12-player single round-robin tournament with the participation of: GM Goganov Aleksey 2575, IM Chigaev Maksim 2543, GM Levin Evgeny A. 2511, IM Bodnaruk Anastasia 2461, Lobanov Sergei 2457, IM Smirnov Artem 2429, IM Usmanov Vasily [...]

The 84th Saint Petersburg Women’s Chess Championship is taking place from March 20-28, 2016, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The event is a 9-round Swiss open tournament with the participation of 24 representatives of the second largest Russian city. Top seed is WFM Dina Belenkaya (2287). Official website/ Standings and statistics/ 89th St. Petersburg Championship 2016 [...]

The 17th European Women’s Individual Chess Championship will take place from 26th May to 8th June at the complex Comandor-Amiral in Mamaia, Romania. The Championship is organized by the Romanian Chess Federation, “Mind Games & Events” Sports Association, under the auspices of European Chess Union. The Championship is open to all players representing the Chess [...]

One of my chess regrets is that I’ve played so few games on either side of the Nimzo-Indian Defence. I haven’t taught it very much either. It always seems to me to be hard to teach as there are so many possible pawn formations that could arise depending on which pawn moves Black chooses to […]

Photo exhibition “The Moscow Gambit” opened on Thursday at the history museum Gorky Park as part of the Candidates Tournament program. The exhibition is presenting the 100-years of chess culture in the Russian capital. The well-known Moscow veteran 90-years old Ivan Slyusarenko and top grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi opened the event. Photos courtesy of Moscow Chess [...]

Most novice games conclude well before the endgame. Teaching chess in the schools, I’m faced with the difficult task of teaching the rules of the game, basic tactics as well as simple opening, middle and endgame principles in an eight month period. Anyone who has studied this fantastic game knows all too well that it […]

India’s biggest television network Doordarshan will telecast four exclusive Highlights of the 14th Delhi International Chess Festival 2016 on its DD Sports Channel prime time slot from 28-31st March. Filmed and Produced by Vijay Kumar the 30 minutes highlights of each episode will be telecast as under: 1st Episode on 28th March 2016 from 20:00hrs [...]

First Mongolian Nations Chess Tournament takes place from 13 to 20 March 2016 in Chinggiz Khan Hotel Ulan Bator, Mongolia. It is a round robin tournament (Men’s and women’s sections) having 4 chess players from Mongolia and one representatives from each region of Inner Mongolia, Republics Buryatia, Tyva and Kalmykia (Russia). Prize fund of each [...]

The 2016 Azerbaijani Men’s Chess Championship is taking place from March 15-23, in Baku. The event is a  9-round Swiss tournament with time control 90′/ 40 moves + 30′ + 30″. Top seed is GM Eltaj Safarli (2663). Official website/ Standings and statistics/ Azerbaijan Women’s Individual Championship 2016

The 2016 Azerbaijani Women’s Chess Championship is taking place from March 15-23, in Baku. The event is a  9-round Swiss tournament with time control 90′/ 40 moves + 30′ + 30″. Top seed is WGM Gulnar Mammadova. Official website/ Standings and statistics/ Azerbaijan Men’s Individual Championship 2016

The New Zealand Chess Federation is pleased to announce the following teams in board order for the 2016 Chess Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan: Open Team 1. FM Alexei Kulashko 2. FM Scott Wastney 3. FM Luke Li 4. IM Russell Dive 5. FM Ben Hague Women’s Team 1. CM Helen Milligan 2. WCM Jasmine Zhang [...]

For this week’s article I decided to pick on Benson Walent again. In this OTB chess game Benson played fairly well but he still lost in under 30 moves. The time control for this event was Game in 40 minutes with a 5 second delay. When Benson resigned he was down to about three and […]

The Reykjavik Open 2016 took play for the 31st time from 8-16th March, 2016, in Harpa, the 28.000 sqm. concert hall, in Reykjavik, Iceland. The tournament format was 10-round Swiss with the time control 90 min/40 moves+30 min+30 sec/move 1. A total of 246 players competed the first prize is in the amount of 5,000 EUR. Indian GM [...]

The 42nd World Chess Olympiad 2016 will take place at the Crystal Hall in Baku, Azerbaijan from September 1-14, 2016. Chess Scotland International Director Andy Burnett announced the teams that will represent his federation. Open: GM John Shaw, IM Andrew Greet, GM Colin McNab, FM Iain Gourlay and FM Neil Berry Women: GM Ketevan Arakhamia [...]

The Romanian International Open 2016 has just started in Alba Iulia, one of the most beautiful cities of Transylvania, famous for its Vauban citadel Alba Carolina, the largest one from Eastern Europe. There are 34 players at the start from 8 countries, with an average rating of 2352, 11 of them being holders of GM [...]