The rapid match between the chess legends Viktor Korchnoi and Wolfgang Uhlmann concluded today in Zurich. After the first batch of games on Sunday the result was 1-1. On Monday Korchnoi won the third game with black pieces, but Uhlmann equalised in the next game for the final score 2-2. The match was one of [...]

Η ΝΕΠ πρωταθλήτρια στον ΠΟΑ. Η ΑΣΟΝ υποβιβάζεται στην Β τοπική Η ΕΑΠ πρωταθλήτρια της Β τοπικής

The Elite Hotels Open and Lilla Elite Hotels Open took place from 13-15th February, 2015, in Vaxjo, a city in Sweden. The events were played in an 8-round Swiss format with tempo of play 15′ + 5″ for the first 4 rounds and 90′ + 30″ for the second half of the tournament. German Olympic player GM Georg Meier won The [...]

This is a follow up to last Monday’s post about the necessity of calculating so-called ‘elementary’ endgames. In that posting, the winning move was Kg4, while , on the contrary, a6 lost. It is very easy to throw away a half-point or even a whole point in an endgame by a bad move. It is […]

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand defeated Levon Aronian in the 2nd round of the 2015 Zurich Chess Challenge, after the Armenian player run into deeply prepared line of the Gruenfeld Indian defence. Vladimir Kramnik created some pressure from the white side of Reti Opening in the game with Hikaru Nakamura. However, the American solved the [...]

The Aarhus Chess House GM Tournament 2015 took place from 7th to 14th February, 2015, in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark. The event was a 10-player round-robin tournament with tempo of play 90′/ 40 + 30′ + 30″. German player IM Alexander Donchenko emerged a clear winner with 7/9 points and earned a GM norm, [...]

The 18th International Lienz Open took place from 7th to 14th February, 2015, at the RGO-Arena Julius-Durst-Straße 6, 9900 Lienz, a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. The event was a 9-round Swiss tournament with first prize in the amount of 1900 EUR in cash. Ukrainian GM Alexander Nosenko edged IM Roland Loetscher from Switzerland [...]

Returning to my series of articles on introducing kids to the Ruy Lopez, let’s start with the moves 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4. What could be more natural or logical than playing 4… b5, driving the bishop back again and negating the potential pin on the a4-e8 diagonal? Children […]

Hikaru Nakamura started the classical section of the 2015 Zurich Chess Challenge with a win over Fabiano Caruana. The game opened as h3-Naidorf Sicilian, where soon Nakamura sacrificed a pawn for positional pressure. It looked liked white started to consolidate small material advantage, but then he went astray and black launched a devastating attack that [...]

The 3rd tournament of the FIDE Grand Prix was opened tonight at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel in Tbilisi, Georgia. After the drawing of lots the first round pairings are known: Dominguez – Radjabov Svidler – Giri Vachier-Lagrave – Mamedyarov Kasimdzhanov – Grischuk Andreikin – Jakovenko Tomashevsky – Jobava The games are starting at 15:00 local [...]

The third stage of the FIDE Grand Prix series 2014-2015 is taking place from 14-28th February in Tbilisi, the capital and largest city of Georgia. The event is a twelve-player round-robin tournament, part of the FIDE World Chess Championship cycle. The winner and second placed player overall of the GP Series will qualify for the next Candidates Tournament. [...]

Σήμερα, όπως και κάθε μέρα θα έλεγα, γιορτάζουν οι ερωτευμένοι. Τα καταστήματα προσφέρουν δώρα σε σχήμα καρδιάς. Όσοι αγαπάτε τα προβλήματα δεχθείτε μια σύνθεση με τέτοια μορφή. Είναι ένα εύκολο δυάρι και είναι το...

The Kuwait Chess Federation organized Kuwait Men’s and Women’s Individual Chess Championships, together with Under 16 Individual Championship from 27th January to 7th February 7, 2015. The men’s event was a 9-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. CM Khaled Hashem and Bader Alkhaldi  shared the first place with 7.5 /9 points each, but [...]

Τελειώνει σιγά σιγά το καλοκαίρι στο νότιο ημισφαίριο. Εδώ, δυο αγόρια παίζουν σκάκι σε πεζόδρομο του Μπουένος Άιρες, στην Αργεντινή. Στο μεταξύ, νέα τροπή πήρε το «θρίλερ Νίσμαν» στη χώρα της λατινικής Αμερικής, καθώς...

I am often asked about starting chess clubs outside of my own chess classes by parents and teachers. I also receive frantic emails from teachers and parents who have started chess clubs and are having trouble maintaining them. Therefore, I thought I’d offer some advice on how to start a chess club for parents and […]