It is often a good idea in endgames to advance your pawns. How else are you going to turn one of them into a queen? A menacing pawn storm in the middle game can worry your opponent. and a menacing pawn storm in the endgame can also worry your opponent. If your pawns are advanced […]

The Croatian Individual Women’s Chess Championship was held from 9th to 15th March, 2015, in Djakovo, a city in Croatia. The event was a 10-player round-robin tournament with tempo of play 90′/ 40 + 30′ + 30″. WIM Borka Franciskovic (2325) emerged a clear winner scoring 7/9 points and leaving the nearest followers half a point behind. [...]

The Women’s World Chess Championship takes place on March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Krasnaya Polyana, Estosadok, CS Galactica, Achipsinskaya street 12. The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the...

The 2015 edition of the traditional chess tournament Reykjavik Open is taking place from 10-18th March at the Harpa Conference Hall. A total of 274 players from 37 countries, including 42 Grandmasters and 30 International Masters, are taking part in the event. GM Fier Alexandr BRA 2601, GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE 2756 and GM L’ami [...]

The 9th Tashkent Open – Memorial of Georgy Agzamov is held from 10th to 20th March, 2015, in hotel “Shodlik Palace”, Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The tournament is a 9-round Swiss with the time control 90 min + 30 sec increment from move one. The total prize fund is 20,000 US dollars. The organization of the competition is carried out [...]

Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? This has its basis in a paper published in 1999 by David Dunning and Justin Kruger of the Department of Psychology, Cornell University. I came across it the other day and considered how it might apply to chess. From Wikipedia: “The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias […]

Την Κυριακή 15/3 το πρωί συνεχίζονται οι ομαδικοί αγώνες της ΕΣΣΝΑ σε μερικές κατηγορίες, ενώ σε άλλες κατηγορίες οι αγώνες έχουν ολοκληρωθεί. Συγκεκριμένα: Στον ΠΟΑ οι αγώνες ολοκληρώθηκαν την περασμένη Κυριακή...

The Yessentuki Open is scheduled to take place from 20-30th March, 2015, at the hotel Solnechnaya in Yessentuki, Stavropol Krai, Russia. The tournament format will be 9-round Swiss with the time control 90′+30”. The tournament will consist of four sections: - Group A, FIDE rated and open to all players - Group B, open for [...]

The 2015 edition of the traditional chess tournament Reykjavik Open is taking place from 10-18th March at the Harpa Conference Hall. A total of 274 players from 37 countries, including 42 Grandmasters and 30 International Masters, are taking part in the event. Live games with analysis Video courtesy of Vijay Kumar Official website

10 days ago, I turned 24. I was in a way dreading it but I’m so happy with my life. I kind of felt like now I will be heading into “proper” adulthood, that now I wouldn’t be able to do childish thing not that I’m so immature or anything. I guess most people would […]

Montenegro Chess Federation and “Vile Oliva” are organizing the International Open Chess Tournament “Petrovac 2015″ from 8-14th May. The 9-round Swiss open with the time control 90′+30” will be held at the hotel “Vile Oliva” in Petrovac, Budva Riviera, Montenegro. The tournament is offering prize fund of 6350 EUR and is valid for FIDE norms. [...]

64 seconds with Amy Lee, the woman behind Millionaire Chess Wesley So is champion of the first Millionaire Open in Las Vegas

Students often ask me which is more important, strategy or tactics? It’s a good question, one worth exploring. It’s been said that chess is 99% tactics and the beginner might agree with this since many beginner’s games are won through the deployment of accidental tactics, such as a fork or pin. I say accidental because […]

The Tajikistan Chess Federation has the honor to invite all National Chess Federations of Zone 3.4 affiliated with FIDE to participate in the Zone 3.4 Championships which will be held from 3rd-12th June, 2015, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Entitled to participate are players from Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Top two finishers in the [...]

The Chess Championship of Russian Northwestern Federal District (Severo-Zapadny Federalny Okrug) was held from 2-10th March at the hotel “Saint Petersburg”. Grandmaster Aleksandr Rakhmanov (Vologda region) emerged clear winner of the men’s championship with 7,5/9 points. Sharing the second place are Grandmasters Daniil Linchevski, Evgeniy Solozhenkin (both Leningrad region) and...