For the first time, Suwon, Korea, hosted the World Mind Sports Fair 2015. The venue – none other than the Gymnasium of the Suwon Sports Complex which also includes the famous Suwon Football Club Stadium and is a National Sports Training Centre. Previously the World Mind Sports Fair was held in Gangneung, Korea as an [...]

As I’ve said in previous articles about the endgame, beginners seldom know what to do when in this game phase. Of course, most beginner’s games end well before a proper endgame so I can’t fault them for lacking practical experience. However, one problem beginner’s face when they do end up in an endgame, in which […]

GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India and IM Lin Chen of China beat their respective opponents to share the lead with 4.5 points each after 5 rounds of the Asian Continental Chess Championships 2015 at the Hilton Hotel**** in Al Ain, UAE. The stage is set for the showdown between two leaders. Tournament website/ LIVE games (men)/ LIVE [...]

The 6th International Terre degli Elimi Tournament was organized this summer by Alessandro Monaco and his chess club “Amici della Scacchiera” (Chessboard Friends) on the west side of the Sicily island in Erice, a tourist pearl of Sicily. The 9-round Swiss tournament was convincingly won by IM Sergei Matsenko of Russia, who scored 7.5/9 points. GM Imre Hera [...]

I thought I’d do something a little different in this post. Obviously, as a contributor here, I do quite a lot of thinking on how best to improve one’s chess. The problem is, that there is not one piece of advice that will be of great benefit on its own. The game is just not […]

I’m writing this from Lund, in Sweden, where this evening I’ll be playing in the first Cellavision Chess Cup. The schedule is slightly strange, four rapid games this evening, followed by four standard games over the weekend. Apparently this is quite popular in Sweden and I’m looking forward to trying it. The list of players […]

The Superfinals of the 68th Men’s Russian Chess Championship and the 65th Women’s Russian Chess Championship will take place between 8 and 21 August in the city of Chita. The competition will be held by the Russian Chess Federation, the Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation and the Zabaykalsky Krai Chess Federation, with support from [...]

The Asian Youth Chess Championships being held in Suwon, Korea from 3-11 August 2015 has now passed the halfway mark, with Open and Girls U-16, U14, U-12, U-10 and U-10 categories all reaching the sixth from nine rounds and Open and Girls U-18 reaching the fifth from seven rounds. At the top categories, it is [...]

The Asian Continental Chess Championships 2015 are currently in progress in Al Ain, UAE. Tournament website/ Men’s Tournament LIVE games/ Women’s Tournament LIVE games Co-leaders GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of India and compatriot GM Prasanna Vishnu drew with each other in the fourth round to maintain a share of the lead with 3.5 points each in the $87,000 Asian [...]

A FIDE Seminar for International Organizers will be held from 2-4 November, 2015, in Porto Carras, Halkidiki, Greece. Objective: To educate and certify Organizers on an international basis. The seminar is organized by the FIDE Event’s Commission (EVE). Subject: Successful Seminar attendees will grant a FIDE IO Norm necessary for the FIDE IO title application. [...]

From 23 to 26 July, 2015, a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Larnaca, Cyprus, by the Cyprus Chess Federation, under auspices of FIDE. The venue of the Seminar was the Culture Center of St. Lazarus Church, in Larnaca. The lecturer was IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos (GRE), Chairman of the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission and FIDE Lecturer [...]

When I started blogging hereabouts, I thought I would be writing about game theory, but most of my game theory observations are either briefly stated or inaccessible to most readers. The more generally interesting and perhaps useful observations I can offer are about the struggle with one’s self to achieve excellence in chess, excellence long […]

The Asian Continental Chess Championships 2015 are currently in progress in Al Ain, UAE. Tournament website/ Men’s Tournament LIVE games/ Women’s Tournament LIVE games Indian GMs Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Vishnu Prasanna beat their respective opponents to share the lead with perfect 3 point slates after as many rounds of the $87,000 Asian Continental Championship at the [...]

The 8th Arad International Chess Festival 2015 (Arad Open) is scheduled to take part from August 6 – 12, in Arad, a city in western Romania, situated near Hungarian border, 250 KM from Budapest. The event is a 9-round Swiss open with prize fund of over 9,000 Euro and first prize in the amount of nearly 2,400 Euro. [...]

The 8th Arad International Chess Festival 2015 (Arad Open) is taking place from August 6 – 12, in Arad, a city in western Romania, situated near Hungarian border, 250 KM from Budapest. The event is a 9-round Swiss open with prize fund of over 9,000 Euro and first prize in the amount of nearly 2,400 [...]