The 2016 Paracin Open is taking place from 19-24 January, in the Serbian city of Paracin. The event is a 9-round Swiss FIDE open tournament, valid for international rating and norms. A total of 78 players from 4 different countries take part, including 1 GM, 1 IM and 7 FMs. Top seed is Bulgarian player [...]

Chennai based Ram S Krishnan (BSNL) held top seed Grandmaster Boris Grachev of Russia to a draw in the second round of the 8th Chennai Open 2016 for Sakthi Group Dr. N. Mahalingam Trophy, held at Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. In an interesting English game that lasted 29 moves, [...]

I didn’t want to write any posts before he actually finished his game so here is a delayed post a few days later. Gawain drew his final round against Brazilian GM Alexandr Fier and since all other results were already played it meant that he won the NZ Chess Championship with a score of 7.5/9. […]

This is one of the key endgame patterns that you must know by heart. Silman called this position as “Cat N Mouse” position. I called it “Tom and Jerry” when explaining it to my students so they can remember it easily. In this position whoever has the move will lose. The pawns could be at […]

The 2016 Croatian Men’s Chess Championship is taking place from 19-29 January, at Valamar Diamant Hotel, in Porec, Croatia. The event is a 10-player single round robin tournament with the participation of: GM Šarić Ivan 2650, GM Kožul Zdenko 2607, GM Šarić Ante 2600, GM Stević Hrvoje 2600, GM Brkić Ante 2593, GM Palac Mladen 2574, [...]

Fabiano Caruana is the sole leader of the 2016 Tata Steel tournament. After four rounds, the Italian / US grandmaster has collected 3,0/4. This is half a point more than the chasing pack – Wesley So, Sergey Karjakin, Yifan Hou, Ding Liren, and Pavel Eljanov. Caruana was close to scoring his third victory in Tata [...]

Round 5 of the  Australian Women’s Masters saw things continue as they have for the previous few rounds, with both Gu & Daulyte winning their games to move further clear of the rest of the field with all other games drawn. Both players have a 2300 opponent next round, before they meet each other in round [...]

The 39th International Open San Sebastian will take place from March 19th to March 26th 2016.

The Marcel Duchamp Memorial took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil till January 17th.The top seed GM Alonso Salvador from Argentina accumulated 7.5 points, 1.5 more than any other competitor and won in a dominating fashion.

Another example of the strategy seen in Bobotsov-Petrosian can be seen below, but with an added twist. As well as exchanging light-squared bishops and getting his knight to d6, Black also plays the prophylactic advance b7-b5, preventing the Minority Attack from proceeding. This is an excellent strategy, if Black can then occupy c4 with a […]

Από τον σκηνοθέτη και ερασιτέχνη σκακιστή Γιώργου Λουριδά που συμμετείχε στο 1ο Διεθνές Τουρνουά "Βαρδάρης".Ο Σ.Ο. ΣΑΧ Θεσσαλονίκης τον ευχαριστεί για τη φιλική συμμετοχή του.

The 2016 Peru Grand Prix Final is taking place from January 18-24, in Peruvian capital Lima. The event is a 12-player single round robin tournament, organized by the Peruvian Chess Federation, with an average Elo rating of 2388. The first three players will qualify for the Peruvian Olympic team. Participants: GM Cori Jorge PER 2596, [...]

In this week’s problem, White has to try to save the game. King and Pawn endgames are very good for improving your powers of calculation. White has to play precise moves to draw this position. The solution to last Monday’s problem is that Black wins with 1… Kd5 2. Kb4 Kd4 3. Ka5 f5 or […]

Ισπανικός τίτλος: Juego de Amor Prohibido. Η ταινία κυκλοφόρησε τον Σεπτέμβριο του 1975 λίγο μετά την πτώση της δικτατορίας του Φράνκο, από όπου και η σκακιστική σκηνή της φωτογραφίας. Φυσικά η κατάρα του κάτω δεξιού μαύρου...