Emirati Grandmaster Saleh A.R. Salem (left) won the Asian Continental Chess Championships 2015 that took place from August 2-10, 2015 at the Hilton Hotel in Al Ain, UAE.  He ensured his crown with a last round draw with GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India. Tournament website/ Men’s games with analysis/ Women’s games with analysis/ Youtube/ Facebook/ Instagram Salem, who was...

The GRENKE Chess Classic began directly after the first February Bundesliga weekend, so after halving out two games, including missing a nice chance against Anish Giri, Jan Gustafsson who was commentator in chief caught a train with me for the five and a half hour trip from Emsdetten to Baden. I played well in parts,... Continue Reading

On August 11, games of round 3 of the 68th Men’s and 65th Women’s Russian Championships were played in Chita. Vladislav Artemiev, the Superfinal’s youngest participant, scored his first win at the Superfinal. The Omsk player was in a very combative mood from the very outset: in a position with an isolani, White sacrificed a [...]

World Champion Magnus Carlsen posted on his Facebook page an interesting proposal for the changes in the World Chess Championship cycle. In essence, he advocates return to the annual knock-out Championship, similar to the current World Chess Cup, and to the cycle that was empoyed in the period 1999-2004. Full text below, and you can [...]

A great way to improve your chess is to try inventing your own lines. Unlike the ‘monkey see, monkey do’ approach to openings that many adopt, trying to find new ideas engages and helps develop chess skills. You need to understand typical plans and then find ways to implement them on the board. Is it […]

On August 10, games of round 2 of the 68th Men’s and 65th Women’s Russian Championships were played in Chita. Nikita Vitiugov, playing White versus Ivan Bukavshin, went for a calm and not too ambitious line, provoking his opponent to make an immediate breakthrough in the center. As Vitiugov admitted at the press conference, he [...]

The Asian Youth Chess Championships featuring FIDE Standard chess and incorporating the World Youth Mind Sports Fair Rapid chess, Bughouse and Blitz chess events, came to an end today in Suwon, Korea after 7 days of intense competition from 3-11 August 2015 involving 320 participants from 15 countries. Before the final round Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov [...]

From 3 to 8 August 2015 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in St. Petersburg, Russia, by the Russian Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The lecturer was IA Tkachev, Alexander (RUS), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer was IA Drugov, Pavel (RUS). Eleven (11) National Arbiters from Russia and Ukraine participated in the [...]

A FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar is going to be organized from 24 to 28 August 2015 in Gaborone, Botswana, by the Botswana Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The venue of the Seminar will be the OASIS Hotel in Gaborone. The Lecturer will be IA David Sedgwick (ENG), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer will [...]

Five-time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand played a friendly blind blitz game with totally blind champion player turned pioneer Charudatta Jadhav, to launch the preview of Algorithms by film maker Ian McDonald. Charudatta is a key protagonist of the documentary on young blind chess players of India. Viswanathan Anand’s moves were made by Sai Krishna [...]

The first round of the 68th Russian Men’s Chess Championship and the 65th Women’s Championship was held in Chita on August 9. The Governor of the Zabaykalsky Krai, President of the regional chess federation Konstantin Ilkovsky made the symbolical first move in the game between the 12th World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk (Moscow) and Grandmaster Anastasia [...]

Another way to develop visualisation skills is to try to solve some chess mazes. These puzzles were created by Bruce Albertson and they are good fun. In each position, White has only one piece apart from his King and Black is not allowed to move. White’s task is to check the Black King in as […]

The Armenian Chess Federation graciously hosted in Yerevan, Armenia the FIDE Rules & Tournament Regulations Commission Councillors meeting from 19-21st June 2015. Multiple topics were addressed such as proposed revisions to the Laws of Chess, questions from the global chess community and other matters. All decisions can be reviewed in RTRC Councillors 6.2015 Meeting Minutes [...]

Emirati Grandmaster GM Saleh A.R. Salem beat second seed GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam in the penultimate round to grab solo lead of the $87,000 Asian Continental Chess Championships 2015 at the Hilton Hotel in Al Ain, UAE. as erstwhile co-leaders GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Abhijeet Gupta of India played it safe with a draw. Tournament website/ LIVE [...]

The 4th Mare di Fano International Chess Festival took place from August 1-8, 2015, on the Italian Adriatic coast. The event was a 9-round Swiss tournament with prize fund in total of 10,000 EUR. Hungarian GM Peter Prohaszka emerged a solo winner with 7/9 points, leaving the nearest followers half a point behind. IM Daniel Sadzikowski [...]