Perhaps the best way to improve combinative skill in practice is to focus on checks, captures and threats on each move whether it’s your move or the opponent’s. This is very easy to read but very hard to put into practice. The reasons can be different, either poor training or just being too involved with […]

The 11th International Chess Tournament Vandoeuvre 2014 is taking place on 26-30th December 2014 in the Hall of sports, Str. Gembloux, in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France. The strongest Christmas chess tournament in France will be valid for FIDE and national Elo. The 2013 edition of the tournament gathered 164 players from 10 different countries, including 9 GMs [...]

Το ερχόμενο Σάββατο 13 Δεκεμβρίου στις 8.30 το βράδυ ο πρωταθλητής Ελλάδας στη λύση σκακιστικών προβλημάτων Νίκος Μενδρινός θα κάνει στον "Ζήνωνα" μία μικρή παρουσίαση του Καλλιτεχνικού Σκακιού: Εν...

The 13th International Chess Festival Benidorm 2014 took place from 28th November to 8th December 2014 in Benidorm, Spain. The traditional festival was split into many chess events: Open “A” for players U2300, Open “B” for players U2000, Champions Cup, Champions Cup U18, Champions Cup U16, Champions Cup U14, Champions Cup U12, Champions Cup U10, Champions Cup U8...

The 128th MGU Open 2014 took place on 6-7th December, 2014, at Chess Club MGU, in Sofia, capital and largest city of Bulgaria. The event was organized in honor of Captain Petko Voyvoda (born 6th December 1844) and Nikola Vaptsarov (born 7th December 1909), in a 6-round Swiss format, open to all players rated below 2200. More information here [...]

The 6th Penang Heritage City International Chess Open 2014 is taking place on 8-12th December 2014 at the Red Rock Hotel in Penang, a state in Malaysia, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The event is split into two 9-round Swiss tournaments: - Open Tournament - open to all players - Challenger Tournament - open to [...]

The 2nd Cup “Svetozar Gligoric” is taking place on 6-12th December 2014 at Hotel Sumarice*** in Kragujevac, Serbia. The event is a 7-round Team chess championship with tempo of play 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds increment starting from move one. Top seeded are [...]

The Al Ain Chess Club is organizing the 3rd Al Ain Chess Classic, a 9-round Swiss open tournament, from 18-27th December 2014 at the Al Ain Rotana Hili Hotel. The top prizes are 1st $11,000 / $8,500 / $6,000 / $4,500 / $3,000 / $2,000 etc (20 regular prizes). There are also special prizes for [...]

The 24th Torneo de Navidad Liga de Ajedrez de Bogotá took place on 4-8th December at the Bogotá Centro Comercial Americas Outlet Factory in Bogotá, Colombia. The event was organized by the Liga Ajedrez Bogotá, Club Sicoopweb and AF Orlando Ruiz Jasbon. There were four playing sections: ITT Millonario, U2000, U1800 and U10 Youth. The [...]

The SIB – CMS 52nd National Premier Championship 2014 is taking place on 5-18th December 2014 in CMS College, Kottayam, a city in the Indian state of Kerala. The event is a 12-player round-robin tournament with an average ELO 2487, sponsored by the South Indian Bank (SIB) and the CMS College. The participants are: GM Vidit [...]

Just as Magnus Carlsen was retaining his World title in Russia, the 13th World Chess Champion, Garry Kasparov, was in rare chess action in Japan. It was an exhibition event, against the shogi champion and chess FM Yoshiharu Habu. The time control was 25 minutes per game plus 10 seconds a move. Kasparov won both […]

Chess was once again on TV in the European Union, in a central show on Bulgarian television viewed by more than 2 million people. However, this time the news is not positive for the community, as the topic of the report was a scandal concerning election manipulation by the Bulgarian Chess Federation highest officials. One [...]

Torneo Internacional Centro Goya Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2014 – Memorial Rafael Fuentes Gonzalez was held on 1-8th December at the Club de Ajedrez de la Fundación La Caja de Canarias in Las Palmas, Spain. The 9-round Swiss open, organized by the Federación Insular de Ajedrez de Gran Canaria and Club de Ajedrez Centro Goya, consisted of 78 [...]

The Russian Chess Championship Super Final, the 67th for men and the 64th for women, took place from 27 November till 8 December in the city of Kazan, in a branch of the State Museum of Fine Arts of the Republic of Tatarstan (the Khazine Gallery). The Super Final is the main individual competition in [...]

The field is complete, headed by Carlsen