The European University Sports Association (EUSA) recognized chess as an official sport and included it in the European Universities Championships and Games. The 1st European Chess Universities Championship will be held in Yerevan, Armenia from 6th to 11th October 2015. The main organizer is Armenian Student Sports Federation (ARMSSF), with the support of the Armenian [...]

The traditional way to develop visualisation skills is to take the book ‘1000 Best Short Games of Chess’ by Irving Chernev and play through each game in your head. I guarantee it will improve your visualisation skills. Here is game number 1. Can you visualise the final position? 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nd2 e5 3. […]

The SDS-Narzan Tournament is taking place from August 2-10, 2015, in Kislovodsk, is a spa city in Stavropol Krai, Russia. The events is a 9-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. Top seed is Oleg Diviakov (2142). Tournament website/ Standings and statistics

The 10th and last player to join the incredible line-up of the 7th London Chess Classic is none other than England’s number 1, Michael Adams. It is no surprise the Englishman is the recipient of the organisers’ wildcard, seeing as he has been the English number one since 1999 and was once ranked number 4 [...]

The 4th “Lviv Tradition” chess tournament was held from July 27, through August 1, 2015, at the Hotel Nton, in the splendid city of Lviv, situated in western Ukraine. The event was a 10-player round-robin tournament with an average Elo rating of 2230. Top seed IM Dmitry Mischuk emerged a convincing winner with 6,5/9 points, leaving the nearest followers a full points behind. [...]

The 2015 Asian Women Continental is taking place from August 2-10, in Al Ain, UAE. The event is a 9-round Swiss tournament with cash prizes for the top 30 places. The women’s champion will be awarded $6,000 and will represent Asia in the FIDE Women’s World Championship. Top seed is Chinese player WGM Tan Zhongyi (2512). Standings [...]

The Asian Continental Chess Championship has started in Al Ain today with a strong field. Top seeded are the Vietnam GMs Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, followed by the Indian stars Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Sasikiran Krishnan, Sethuraman S.P., and Ganguly Surya Shekhar. There are a total of 36 GMs and 11 IMs [...]

Live games with analysis

Here’s another Chess Games for Heroes offering in which students are shown a game, asked to find the best move in certain situations, and are rewarded with points for making good choices. Game 2 Howard Staunton – Alfred Brodie London 1851 This game was played in the first ever international chess tournament, held in London […]

The prestigious FIDE World Online Women Blitz Championship 2015 continued on Thursday with the third qualifier tournament being played on the official FIDE Online platform. The 20-years old WGM Enkhtuul Altan-Ulzii from Mongolia won the event with 8,5/11 points, leaving the nearest followers a full point behind. On the shared second place are WIM Pratyusha [...]

The 19th Hogeschool Zeeland Tournament is taking place from August 1-8, at the University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen, the Netherlands. The 9-round Swiss Open is organized by Stichting Schaak Walcheren. The FIDE Laws will apply, except article 6.6a. Top prizes are EUR 2000 / 1300 / 800 / 500 / 400. 242 players from [...]

Youth chess tournament “Jednaki u svemu” was held from 27-29th July at the Hotel Zeleni Vir in Niš, Serbia. 40 kids competed in 7-round tournament with the standard time control. Tijana Petrovic from Požarevac is the overall winner with 6,5/7 points. Winner of all age groups are awarded with trophies and medals. Standings below. Final [...]

The International Open Chess Tournament Nona Gaprindashvili Cup is scheduled to take place from 8-17th September at the Chess Palace in Tbilisi, Georgia. The tournament is organized by the Ministry of Sport and Youth of Georgia and Georgian chess federation. There will be two sections: - A Open tournament for any player (Fide rating 2001 [...]

Live games with computer analysis

A student at last week’s summer chess camp asked me when he should start preparing for the endgame. He was a bit shocked when I suggested he start his endgame preparation at the start of the game, during the opening. “Isn’t a game of chess divided into three phases, with the endgame coming last?” he […]