One question that occurred to me during recent controversies about the ‘female brain’ was whether chess required intelligence in the first place. There is a widespread assumption that it does and there are many players who are very smart. Yet on the other hand I’ve met many excellent players who are not particularly clever at […]

India’s biggest television network Doordarshan will telecast four exclusive Highlights of the 2nd Kolkata International Grandmasters Chess Tournament on its DD Sports Channel from 5-8th May. Filmed and Produced by Vijay Kumar the 30 minutes highlights of each episode will be telecast as under: 1st Episode on 5st May 2015 from 11 to 11.30 pm [...]

The Honduras Chess Federation is going to organize an Internet Based FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar, from 21 to 26 July 2015, under the auspices of FIDE. The Lecturer will be IA Santiago Garcia Ramos (MEX), FIDE Lecturer. The technical Organizer and Assistant Lecturer will be IA Hector Mejia Espinal (HON) The lectures will be in Spanish [...]

Τα αποτελέσματα από τους αγώνες λύσης XI ECSC Ιάσιο, 02-03 Μάη 2015 είναι εδώ ατομικά και ομαδικά.1 Evseev, Georgy RUS 74.1/902 Mukoseev, Anatoly RUS 70.5/903 Piorun, Kacper POL 66.5/904 Solovchuk, Oleksiy UKR 66.5/905 Murdzia, Piotr POL 66.3/906 Podinic, Vladimir SRB 64.6/90...22 Μενδρινός, Νίκος GRE 45.7/9040...

From 20 to 23 April 2015 the 41st Internet based FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was held, organized by the ARAB CHESS FEDERATION and under the auspices of FIDE. The lecturer of the Seminar was IA Mahdi Abdulrahim (UAE), Councilor of the FIDE Arbiters’ Commission and FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer was IA/IO Mohamed El Husseiny (EGY), [...]

From 16 to 19 April 2015 a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar was organized in Al Khobar (Eastern Region), Saudi Arabia, by the Saudi Chess Association and under auspices of FIDE. The lecturer was IA Shaker Alafoo (BRN), FIDE Lecturer and Assistant Lecturer was FA Al Otaibi, Yaser Motlaq (KSA). The venue of the Seminar was the [...]

The FIDE Zone 2.5 Championship was held from 27th April to 3rd May in Asuncion, Paraguay. There were 40 participants from Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay, and among them 9 Grandmasters and 6 International Masters. After nine rounds of play GM Sandro Mareco from Argentina qualified for the 2015 World Chess Cup in Baku as [...]

Grandmaster Julio Granda Zuniga (Peru) walked through the 2015 Open Internacional Ciudad de Móstoles to take a clear first place with the convincing 8,5/9 score. Granda Zuniga won the top prize of 1000 EUR. The 9-round rapid tournament with the time control 15′+5” was held on 1st May at the Polideportivo Rafa Martinez in Móstoles, [...]

In this position, White has to use Zugzwang to win. Zugzwang is often used in endgames to break down a fortress. In this week’s problem. Black has constructed a fortress. There is no way through for the White King. But White can still win, provided he finds a way to use Zugzwang. The solution to […]

The 11th Copenhagen Chess Challenge took place from 29th April to 3rd May, 2015, in Ballerup, a Danish town, seat of the Ballerup Municipality, in the Region Hovedstaden. The event was a 9-round Swiss tournament, organized by Chess Club BMS Skak, in collaboration with the Copenhagen Chess Federation (KSU), the Danish Chess Federation (DSU), the Support Federation of [...]

The African Individual Chess Championship is taking place from 2-10th May, 2015, in Cairo, the capital of Egypt and the second-largest city in Africa. The event is a 9-round Swiss tournament with the participation of 32 players from 11 different countries, including 5 GMs. Top seed is the highest rated African player GM Bassem Amin [...]

Well, there’s been a lot of chess in the mainstream press recently, hasn’t there? As usual, it hasn’t presented the chess world in a good light, but they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. First we had Wesley So and his motivational notes to himself. A rather heavy-handed decision by the arbiter, I […]

If you follow chess news around the world, you may have read a recent article about whether or not men are better at chess than women. Of course, the article created a bit of an uproar. The article’s author, a person I respect highly as a chess player, failed to provide any scientific evidence to […]

The International Chess Festival Nakhchivan Open 2015, dedicated to the memory of Heydar Aliyev, is taking place from 1-10th May at the Nakhchivan Chess Center in Nakhchivan, Azerbaijan. The Festival is organized in a 9-round Swiss format by the Azerbaijan Youth & Sport Ministry, Azerbaijan Chess Federation and Nakhchivan AR Chess Federation. The former World champion [...]

Οι παρτίδες του Πρωταθλήματος Ανδρών Γυναικών ΕΣΣΠ 2015 θα δημοσιεύονται μετά από κάθε γύρο σε αυτή την ανάρτηση...