Με την επίσημη ολοκλήρωση των αγωνιστικών υποχρεώσεων για ΠΟΑ και ΠΟΒ ανακηρύχθηκαν και τυπικά πρωταθλητές η ΝΕΠ και η ΓΕΑ. Αποτελέσματα τελική βαθμολογία …..

This week’s example of exchanging key defensive pieces is a classic. In the diagram, Botvinnik realised that the black queen is a key defender, covering e5 and the dark squares generally. After its exchange, White has pressure against e5 and f7, plus the open d-file, and went on to win easily. Steve Giddins

The Silver Lake Chess Festival 2016 is set to take place from 19-26th June in Danubia Park Hotel on Silver Lake, Serbia. The Festival is organized by the Branicevo Chess Union, Chess Club VGSK, municipality Veliko Gradište and Danubia Hotels. The Organizing Committee is preparing a rich programme for all ages and playing levels: – [...]

The Reykjavik Open 2016 is held for the 31st time from 8-16th March, 2016, in Harpa, the 28.000 sqm. concert hall, in Reykjavik, Iceland. The tournament format is 10-round Swiss with the time control 90 min/40 moves+30 min+30 sec/move 1. A total of 246 players are registered to take part, among them being four members of the 2700-club, full [...]

The Latvian Chess Federation held the 5th Vladimir Petrov Memorial on 5-6th March, 2016, at the Jurmala City museum in Jurmala, Latvia. The main Tournament A was a 12-round Swiss with the time control 15′+5” and 129 players in the field. Grandmasters Loek Van Wely, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Shabalov and Arturs Neiksans shared the first [...]

The Reykjavik Open 2016 will be held for the 31st time from 8-16th March, 2016, in Harpa, the 28.000 sqm. concert hall, in Reykjavik, Iceland. The tournament format is 10-round Swiss with the time control 90 min/40 moves+30 min+30 sec/move 1. Draw offers are not allowed before move 30. 246 players are registered to take [...]

The first European Chess Union Board meeting for 2016 was organized in Lviv, Ukraine on 1st and 2nd March, after the kind invitation of the Ukrainian and Lviv Regional Chess Federations. The meeting took place under excellent conditions in the hotel Leopolis in the center of Lviv. The President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation Mr. [...]

In this week’s position, White has to play and save the game. He has a passed pawn on the seventh rank, but normally the Queen wins when the pawn is not on the Bishop or Rook files. Nevertheless White can save the game. Of course, if he promotes the pawn immediately, it is taken very […]

The 14th Chess Festival Sagaalgan 2016 was held on 4-6th March at the Buddhist University in Ivolginsky datsan, near Ulan-Ude in the Russian Republic of Buryatia. The 13-round rapid tournament with the time control 15′+10” was a stage of the Rapid Grand Prix of Russia. An impressive number of 568 players participated in the single [...]

The Norway Chess 2016, sponsored by Altibox, is scheduled to take place in Stavanger from April 18-30. It is going to be a ten player single round robin event. Six of the names have been released in January: the World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), the ex world champions Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), [...]

Live games with analysis from Candidates 2016

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The 16th International Chess Tournament “Mediterranean Flower” is taking place from March 6-12, 2016, in the city of Rijeka, Croatia. The event is a 10-player single round-robin tournament with the participation of: WGM Nikolova Adriana BUL 2337, WIM Unuk Laura SLO 2276, WGM Ambartsumova Karina RUS 2272, WFM Deur Saric Zrinka CRO 2187, WGM Medic [...]

One way in which doubled pawns can be weak is when they cripple a pawn majority in the ending. The typical pawn formation where Black has doubled pawns on the c-file following a trade of bishop for knight in the Ruy Lopez will be familiar to most of my readers. White’s dream when playing the […]

The 2016 Vladimir Petrov Memorial started yesterday with a blitz tournament in the Amber Beach resort (Jaunkemeri), Latvia. 119 players competed in the 11-round tournament with time control 3′+3”. Ukrainian junior Olexandr Bortnyk took a clear first place with 9 points, half a point ahead of the local star Igor Kovalenko. Full standings below. The [...]