The final round of the White Rook School Chess Tournament was played on June 8 in Dagomys. School #55 named after Anton Chekhov (Yerevan, Armenia) defeated School #17 from Yakutsk (Sakha Republic) 3-1, and took the first place with a total of 25 points. 2nd Gymnasium of St. Petersburg that was in the lead after [...]

ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili and chess legend GM Judit Polgar visited Brussels on 2-3rd June for important meetings with the European Commission (Education, Culture & Sports) and the European Parliament Committee on Culture and Education. ECU Deputy President Ion Dobronauteanu, ECU Treasurer Martin Huba and the Delegate of the Hungarian Chess Federation Gusztav Font also [...]

The 2015 “Kadyrov Memorial” Rapid Chess Tournament, Stage of the Russian Rapid Cup, took place from 6-7th June, in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic in Russia. The event was organized by the Chess Federation SKFO and the Russian Chess Federation in an 11-round rapid format, with tempo of play 15′ + 10″. 128 [...]

The 2nd International Tournament “Vercelli Cup” took place from June 5 through June 27, 2015, in the Vercelli Palace Hotel, in Vercelli, a city in northern Itali, situated between Milan and Turin. The event was a 5-round Swiss open tournament with tempo of play 90′/ 40 + 15′ + 30″. Ukrainian GM Andrey Sumets won the event with 4,5/5 [...]

The 11th Asian Schools Chess Championships ended with the team last to arrive managing to still finish the overall champions. Perennial champions India had to be satisfied with the largest number of medals as the much smaller Philippine contingent managed to haul in six Gold, four Silver and one Bronze for a total of 11 [...]

Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov had the honour to be one of the torchbearers for the 1st European Games that are set to take place 12-28th June in Baku, Azerbaijan. The Baku 2015 European Games will be the inaugural edition of the European Games, an international multi-sport event for athletes representing the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) of [...]

Being a piece up in and endgame does not guarantee a win. You cannot checkmate with just a Bishop and King against a King. Sometimes you can’t even win with King, Bishop and Pawn against a bare King. In this week’s problem, White is a piece up. But he still has some work to do […]

The 2015 edition of Portuguese Honor Tournament is taking place from 7-13th June, in Matosinhos, a city in northern Portugal. The event is a 10-player single round-robin tournament with the participation of: Novais, Carlos 2060, Silva, Lucas 1976, Leao, Luís 1895, Sousa, Hugo C 1866, Antao, Jorge 1835, SAantos, António 1718, Saraiva, Rafael 1655, Pinto, [...]

The 2015 edition of Portuguese Masters is taking place from 7-13th June, in Matosinhos, a city in northern Portugal. The event is a 10-player single round-robin tournament with the participation of: IM Ferreira, Jorge 2440, FM Silva, Luís 2318, FM Padeiro, José 2317, CM Gomes, Bruno 2236, NM Viela, André 2188, NM Dantas, Carlos 2187, [...]

The 7th International Open Tournament “Capo d’Orso” is taking place from 6-9th June, 2015, at the Porto Mannu resort near Palau, in one of the most beautiful locations in Sardinia, Italy. The event is a 9-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′/ 40 + 30′ + 30″. Top seed is GM Jan Gustafsson (2640). Tournament [...]

Venues for the EuroCup are often off the beaten track, so it was good to have the event in the spectacular city of Bilbao; the playing hall was very decent and as a bonus also hosted the four player Bilbao Masters alongside. However the other organization was surprisingly haphazard, with problems announcing pairings, and entering... Read More

The 6th ShakkiNet International Grandmaster Tournament is taking place from 8-16th June, 2015, in Helsinki, the capital and largest city of Finland. The event is a 10-player single round-robin tournament with the participation of: GM Kulaots, Kaido EST 2574, GM Yemelin, Vasily RUS 2573, GM Kanep, Meelis EST 2521, IM Agopov, Mikael FIN 2465, IM Ebeling, [...]

Regular readers of my posts might be wondering what had happened to my attempts at playing 1… e5 in reply to 1.e4 this season. Since my last article in the series I’ve faced 1. f4 followed by four consecutive 1. d4s. My last two games, though, saw me facing 1. e4 again, both times against […]

The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) is pleased to announce, the 2nd Annual WOM Chess for Girls event, to take place June 28 through July 4 in Vienna at Webster University’s campus in Vienna, Austria. Ten of the top young talents from around the world (from 10 different countries!) were invited based on the [...]

The 2nd International Chess Festival Iasi Open was held from 29th May to 6th June at the Polyvalent Hall in Iasi, Romania. The tournament has attracted 129 players from 14 countries, and among them 22 Grandmasters and 15 International Masters. Latvian Grandmaster Igor Kovalenko took the winner’s trophy after the last-round victory with black pieces [...]