Because Nigel has a “no offense” policy for this blog I will not use the names of the people that are involved in my stories. However, the guilty parties know who they are! On ICC (the Internet Chess Club) I had numerous occasions in which my opponents exceeded the time controls and got off with […]

The 2015 Australian Open Chess Championship is taking place on 2-11th January 2015 at The Lyceum, in Castle Hill, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The event is split into two main tournaments – Open and Minor (U1600). Both tournament will be played in an 11-round Swiss format. The prize fund in the amount [...]

The 122nd New Zealand Chess Congress organizes the 2015 edition of New Zealand Open Chess Championship on 1-9th January 2015 in Devonport, Auckland, New Zealand. The event is a 9-round Swiss tournament with time control 90 minutes for first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with the addition of 30 [...]

The Lisbon Christmas International Chess Open was organized by the Portugal Chess Academy from 26-30th December at the Hotel Real Palácio in Lisbon, Portugal. A total of 239 players from 32 federations competed in the 9-round Swiss tournament. Among them were 11 Grandmasters and 20 International Masters. Guest Grandmasters Bartosz Socko, Vladimir Burmakin, Kevin Spraggett, [...]

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The 2015 edition of Basel Chess Festival is taking place on 1-5th January 2015 at Hotel Hilton in Basel, Switzerland. The Master Section is a 7-round Swiss FIDE tournament with tempo of play 100 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds increment starting from move one. 80 players are competing for the [...]

Indian International Masters Ramnath Bhuvanesh and Rathnakaran stunned higher rated Grandmasters, moving into shared lead with 3.0 points after the third round of the 7th Chennai International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. Top seed Grandmaster Ivan Popov of Russia (2.5) was held to a draw by GM Norm hold Siddharth [...]

At the turn of the twentieth century 8×8 American and English Draughts (“Checkers”) players realized the game was being exhausted. Given their choice, most players with Black (first player) would open with one or two of the seven legal moves and their opponents would respond in similar narrow veins. At the top level the game […]

Cuban Grandmaster Lazaro Bruzon walked through the Copa Latinoamericana de Ajedrez 2014 to convincingly win the main tournament and the top prize of 3000 USD. The Copa Latinoamericana de Ajedrez 2014 took place on 26-31st December at CEAR (Duran) in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The organizers were Ecuador Chess Federation, FIDE America and FIDE Commission for Women’s [...]

The 26th International Open Roquetas de Mar will take place on 2-6th January, 2015, at the Hotel Bahia Serena in Roquetas de Mar, Almeria, Spain. The event is organized by the Club Ajedrez Roquetas and consists of the 9-round General Open with the top prize of 1000 EUR and the 7-round U2150 Open with the [...]

The 3rd International Tournament Ciudad de Lorca was held from 26-30th December at the Auditorium of the University of Lorca, 30800-Lorca (Murcia), Spain. The 9-round Swiss tournament gathered 110 participants from 15 countries, including 10 Grandmasters and 8 International Masters. Grandmasters Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez and Zenon Franco Ocampos shared the first place with 7,5/9 [...]

The 11th International Chess Tournament Vandoeuvre 2014 was held on 26-30th December 2014 in the Hall of sports, Str. Gembloux, in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. The strongest Christmas chess tournament gathered players from 12 different countries. The Master Section was a 9-round Swiss tournament with first prize in the amount of 1.500 €. IM Dennis Wagner and GM Sergey Fedorchuk [...]

The reigning world chess champion Magnus Carlsen is still the highest rated player in FIDE Rating list for the record forty-third time. His ELO rating is 2862 (unchanged since December FIDE Rating List). Fabiano Caruana (2820 ELO) is clear second with 42 points gap, Alexander Grischuk remains third with 2810 ELO, while Veselin Topalov with 2800 ELO occupies the forth position for the...

Grandmaster Wesley So has won another strong tournament in Las Vegas, by claiming the top section of the 24th Annual North American Open that was held from 26-30th December at Bally’s Casino Resort. Wesley So competed the race with 8,0/9 points to earn 9700 USD top prize. In October he won the inaugural Millionaire Chess [...]

The Tbilisi Open Blitz Championship was organized by the Tbilisi Chess Federation on 30th December. 78 players took part in the 9-round Swiss tournament with the time control 3′+2”. Top-seeded GM Merab Gagunashvili took a clear first place with 7,5 points, half a point ahead of the chasing pack. Final standings: 1 GM Gagunashvili Merab [...]