My opponent in the correspondence chess game is from France and I do not know his or her real name. I opened this chess game with 1.a3 so that I could avoid most prepared lines, prevent Black from putting a Knight or Bishop on b4 and to transpose into a reversed opening. I got an […]

Vaibhav Suri from India, a Grandmaster since the age of 15, convincingly won the 6th Qualifier tournament of the FIDE World Online Blitz Championship 2015 that was held on 2nd July on the official FIDE Online platform. The playing format was 11-round Swiss with the time control 3′+2”. In the field of 32 players Vaibhav [...]

The 42nd Ram Ratna Women Challengers is taking place from July 2-11, 2015, in Keshav Shrusti, India. The event is an 11-round Swiss tournament with the participation of 104 players. Top seed players are: IM Tania Sachdev (2413), WGM Soumya Swaminathan (2363) and WGM Gomes Mary Ann (2353). Tournament website

A tournament dedicated to the memory of Grandmaster Lev Polugaevsky is taking place from 3-11th July at the Polugaevsky Chess Club in Samara, Russia. The tournament is the 7th stage of this year’s Cup of Russia. 132 players are signed to take part in the 9-round Swiss open. Top seeded is last year’s joint winner GM Aleksey Goganov. [...]

A tournament dedicated to the memory of Grandmaster Lev Polugaevsky is set to take place from 3-11th July at the Polugaevsky Chess Club in Samara, Russia. The tournament is the 7th stage of this year’s Cup of Russia. 132 players are signed to take part in the 9-round Swiss open. The prize fund amounts to [...]

The 3rd D.C. International was held from June 25-30, 2015, at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Hwy, Arlington, Virginia. The 9-round Swiss event with one Open section attracted 122 participants. Grandmasters Luke McShane, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, Magesh Panchanathan and IM Andrey Gorovets shared the first place on 7,0/9 points to earn $1550 [...]

The U.S. top young chess players are back in Saint Louis, the nation’s Chess Capital, this summer as the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) will again host the U.S. Junior Closed Championship from July 7-15, 2015. IM Jeffery Xiong (2606), IM Akshat Chandra (2589), FM Michael Bodek (2527), IM Luke Harmon-Vellotti [...]

FIDE delegation led by President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov visited Lviv to accept the application from the Ukrainian Chess Federation to hold the Women’s World Championship Match. The World Championship Match between Mariya Muzychuk and challenger, former World Champion, winner of FIDE Grand Prix, Hou Yifan is supposed to start on 8th March, 2016, in Lviv. FIDE [...]

Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis selected again to host U.S. Junior Closed Championship The country’s top young chess players are back in Saint Louis, the nation’s Chess Capital, this summer as the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) will again host the U.S. Junior Closed Championship from July 7-15, [...]

The London Classic switched formats again, one considerable upside was the new large open rapidplay event. Despite some uneven play and some lucky escapes I began with 5.5/6 but got confused about the round times and arrived late for my next rather tough assignment with Hikaru Nakamura, and didn’t put up much resistance. I also... Continue Reading

The Russian Higher League, the 4th stage of the 68th Russian Men’s Chess Championship and the 65th Women’s Championship, took place from June 21 till July 2 in Kaliningrad as part of the international program Chess in Museums held by the Russian Chess Federation jointly with Elena and Gennady Timchenko Charitable Foundation. The event became [...]

The 2015 Ukrainian Blitz and Rapid Individual Chess Championships for men and women took place on June 29-30, in the splendid city of Lviv, situated in western Ukraine. GM Vladimir Onischuk emerged a double champion, winning the rapid tournament with 9/11 points and finishing with perfect 11/11 score at the blitz tournament. WGM Olga Kalinina won [...]

The 6th Nongxin Cup Danzhou Masters 2015 takes place from July 2-11, in Danzhou, China. The event is a 10-player round robin tournament with the participation of: GM Ding, Liren CHN 2749, GM Yu, Yangyi CHN 2736, GM Wei, Yi CHN 2724, GM Wang, Yue CHN 2716, GM Ni, Hua CHN 2703, GM Bu, Xiangzhi [...]

Χωρίς μετάλλια αλλά με ικανοποιητική εμφάνιση και αποτελέσματα για τους σκακιστές της ΕΣΣΠ ολοκληρώθηκαν τα Νεανικά πρωταθλήματα για το 2015.

Chess players easily remember ideas and patterns taken from millions of games. — Vishwanathan Anand, lecturing on the role of memory in Chess at Accenture, June 12, 2012 The way we chessplayers generally teach openings is rather strange. The need for the beginner to  be aware of move-order traps leads us to present the openings […]