The 34th International Chess Open Clermont-Ferrand took place on 19-22nd February, 2015, in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the Auvergne region of France. The event was a 7-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. French GM Jean-Pierre Le Roux emerged a clear winner with 6/7 points and took the first prize in the [...]

The splendid city of Lviv, situated in western Ukraine, will be hosting numerous chess events, part of the “Lviv Tradition 2015″ series. The first stage took place from 27th January to 1st February, 2015. Replay the games here Six new round-robin chess tournaments “Lviv tradition”, valid for IM, WGM and WIM norms will be organized in Hotel Nton  (Shevchenka [...]

Σε μερικούς σκακιστές το καλλιτεχνικό σκάκι είναι άγνωστο ή απλά μια παραδοξότητα. Όμως, με βάση το σκάκι, υπάρχουν δύο κόσμοι(α) το αγωνιστικό σκάκι, όπου η καινοτομία στις κινήσεις είναι επιθυμητή αλλά σπάνια γιατί...

Opening and Round One Report  (By Yochanan Afek) As expected, the highest rated players in such a field already met fairly strong opposition as early as in the first round. While the first four favourites in the initial rating list (Navara, Vitiugov, Eljanov and Nepomniatchi) managed to score a first full point, the remaining two [...]

Του Νικόλα Σφήκα Το 1994 στο Βαφοπούλειο Πνευματικό Κέντρο Θεσσαλονίκης είχα παρουσιάσει την πρώτη ατομική μου έκθεση με θέμα το σκάκι και συγκεκριμένα το “Ρέτρο-σαχ”. Μια δική μου θεωρία για τη μεταφυσική...

I have always had a keen interest in computer chess from the very beginning and, although I would not consider myself as a collector, I was surprised to find that I own over twenty different dedicated chess computers from the past thirty years or so! I started with the Chess Challenger 10 in the late […]

Η Ακαδημία των Σπορ διοργανώνει στο café meli την Κυριακή 01/03/2015 και ώρα 17.00, τουρνουα θεματικού rapid 5 γύρων, με θέμα την βαριάντα Βινάβερ της Γαλλικής Άμυνας (1. ε4 ε6 2. δ4 δ5 3. Ιγ3 Αβ4)

The Chess Association of “West Azerbaijan” province on behalf of I.R. Iran Chess Federation organized the 23rd Fajr International Open Chess Tournament from 18th to 23rd February, 2015 in Urmia, the capital of of West Azerbaijan Province in Iran. The event was a 9-round Swiss open tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. 157 players from [...]

Here’s a nice documentary about the chess at Washington Square Garden. It’s now a shadow of its former self, but you can still get a game there: Nigel Davies

Evgeny Tomashevsky defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 8th round of the Tbilisi FIDE Grand Prix to increase his lead to full point ahead of the second-placed Dmitry Jakovenko. Tomashevsky won in an extremely rare ending of 2 bishops + knight vs rook + 4 pawns. Baadur Jobava scored against Peter Svidler, his second consecutive and [...]

The Final Four of College Chess for 2015, also known as The President’s Cup, is set to take place on 27-29th March at the New York Athletic Club. The event is open to the top four U.S. schools from the most recent Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Chess Championship (Pan-Am). It is run as a fixed-roster team [...]

The 2nd International Chess Tournament Memory of “Nebesna sotnya” is taking place on 21-22nd February, 2015, in Lutsk, a city in northwestern Ukraine. The event was split into two separate tournaments – 11-round Swiss rapid open with time control 20′ + 5″ and 22-round blitz tournament with tempo of play 3′ + 2″. 195 players from [...]

The 3rd FIDE World Senior Team Chess Championship is taking place from 24th February to 4th March 2015 in Dresden, Germany. The list of 44 teams is headed by England I (ELO average: 2570), Germany I (ELO average: 2482), Slovakia (ELO average: 2462). Top players are GM Nigel Short (ENG 2664), GM John Nunn (ENG 2601), GM Ljubomir [...]

Σκάκι δρόμου στο κέντρο της Αβάνας, στην Κούβα. Τις ημέρες αυτές δημοσιεύτηκε στο ίντερνετ ένα ωραίο βίντεο με τον κύριο Δημήτρη, έναν Έλληνα κομμουνιστή που μεταγκαταστάθηκε στην Κούβα. Μπορείτε να το δείτε εδώ...

Here is another endgame study showing the importance of resourcefulness and accurate calculation in the endgame. The path between drawing and losing can be very narrow sometimes. The following endgame study is very much the sort of thing that can happen in practical play. Perhaps White has just won a Rook (say) by promoting on […]