The 20th Hit Open 2015 took place from 30th January to 5th February, 2015, at the Hotel Casino Perla, in Nova Gorica, a town and a municipality in western Slovenia. The event was a 9-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″ and prize fund in the amount of 6.300 €. GM Alexander Beliavsky (Slovenia) took [...]

The Paul Morphy Chess Club, under the Auspices of the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka, is organizing an International Women’s Open to coincide with the International Women’s Day in Colombo, the Capital of Sri Lanka from the 3rd to 9th March. This is the first Women’s only FIDE Open to be held in Sri Lanka. [...]

The FIDE Presidential Board decided to open a bidding procedure for the FIDE World Women’s Championship Match 2015.

The 135th MGU Open 2015 is scheduled to take place on 7-8th February, 2015, at Chess Club MGU, in Sofia, capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The event will be organized by FA Dimitar Iliev under the auspices of the University of mining and geology “St Ivan Rilski” Sofia,  Chess Club “An Pasan” and “Zora” Trading Company in a 6-round Swiss FIDE [...]

The 134th MGU Open 2015 was held from 31st January to 1st February, 2015, at the Chess Club MGU, in Sofia, capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The event was organized by FA Dimitar Iliev under the auspices of the University of mining and geology “St Ivan Rilski” Sofia,  Chess Club “An Pasan” and “Zora” Trading Company in a 6-round Swiss FIDE format, [...]

FIDE’s recent announcement about the introduction of new titles brought back memories about enquiries I’ve had for lessons in which the stated goal was to ‘get a FIDE title’. I guess those people will be happy that their goal has been placed within easier reach but I wonder whether it is aimed at benefiting chess […]

The prestigious software award is in the "Entertainment category"

American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has won the 13th Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, which concluded at the Caleta Hotel on Thursday 5 February 2015. Nakamura drew his last round game against Pentala Harikrishna (India) after a long struggle where white tried to convert an extra pawn in a theoretically hot rook ending. Nakamura concluded the event with [...]

So in my last post I mentioned my new sport, rugby. It all started last year while watching the London 7s at Twickenham. We went as a big group and me and my friend thought we could out do our husbands – we were not so confident in our rugby skills so decided to try […]

Daily news broadcast featuring Founder of the Gibraltar Chess Festival Brian Callaghan, Chess Festival Director Stuart Conquest and some of the elite chess players including Oluwafemi Balogun, Lolomari George, Kenneth Odeh and Nnamdi Nwoye. Hosted by Tania Sachdev at the 2015 Tradewise Gibraltar Open Chess Tournament. Presented by: Tania Sachdev (IM) Special guest: Stuart Conquest [...]

Top German player Arkadij Naiditsch defeated the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the GRENKE Chess Classic, that is currently ongoing in Baden-Baden. Carlsen stunned his opponent with a bold piece sacrifice on move 10. He got two pawns and compact structure in return. But Naiditsch reacted brilliantly, seizing the initiative with [...]

The main tournaments of the Moscow Open – RSSU Cup entered their second half today. Only two participants of the competitions scored a perfect 100% result so far. Russian Ernesto Inarkiev won five times in a row in the Men’s Cup of Russia Stage. He defeated Anton Korobov (Ukraine) in the last round and is [...]

Breyer has been misquoted more often than quoted, but 1. e4 is more or less of a pawn sac seeking to exploit the unfortunate position of Black’s king in the opening array. If Black replies 1. e5 the drawing lines are legion. Alternatively, 1. e4 can reasonably be answered by 1. … c5. So White […]

The 53rd Annual Baltimore Open is set to take place from 6-8th February at the Sheraton BWI, 1110 Old Elkridge Landing Road in Linthicum, Maryland, USA. The tournament will have seven sections: Championship (FIDE rated), U2100, U1900, U1700, U1500, U1250 and U1000. All sections to be completed over 5 rounds of Swiss system with the [...]