This week’s example sees an impressive grind against the master of such things, Anatoly Karpov. White emerges from the opening with the better endgame, thanks to the weakness on d5. Gelfand’s note to move 23 reads “White needs to create a second weakness, as in Nimzowitsch’s book”. The plan behind 23.a4 is to advance the […]

Six players finished the 9th and final round of the U.S. Open with 7.5 points: Conrad Holt, Michael Mulyar, Giorgi Margvelashvili, Fidel Corrales Jimenez, Ilya Nyzhnyk, and Alexander Shabalov. The first two had the best tiebreak scores and had a playoff game, and as Holt won he is the U.S. Open champ for 2014. There was a big tie for 7th-15th place with 7 points apiece, and James Tarjan was one...

The favorites all rolled in round 1, but in round 2 both individuals and whole teams suffered their first upsets. The top two Norwegian teams were notably involved in a couple of big stories. The Norwegian A team failed to defeat the Finns despite outrating them on every board, and by heavy margins on the first two boards. Nevertheless all four games were drawn, including the top board contest...

Last year's inaugural edition of the Sinquefield Cup had four players: Magnus Carlsen (not yet the world champion), Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky. This year the tournament will expand to six players and will actually have a higher average rating than last year. Kamsky won't be back this time, but in his place Fabiano Caruana (please stay!), Veselin Topalov and Maxime...

Including interviews with Caruana, Bachmann, Van Kampen, etc

As promised last week, here’s your handy cut-out-and-keep guide to how children of different ages learn and play chess. Piaget Classification: Pre-Operational Stage Approximate ages: 2-7 (Infant School) UK school system: up to Year 2 US school system: up to 1st Grade Logical ability: only very simple egocentric logic What children can learn: the moves […]

Or more precisely, no upsets of any significance at the team level; in particular games the (much) stronger player was occasionally nicked for a draw and even the odd loss or so. But the top 14 teams all won 4-0, and one must go all the way down to the 20th seed to find a team that "only" won by a 3-1 margin. Oddly, the strongest team by far to have a lousy result - though still a victorious one...

The 4th edition of Mohamed Slama Memorial is scheduled to take place from 31st August to 14th September 2014, at the hotel Monastir Center in the beautiful touristic city of Monastir, Tunisia. The Festival is organized by Chess Club La Tour Blanche – Ksibet El Mediounisplit and is split into 6 groups. The highlight of the event is [...]

The 20th Hogeschool Zeeland Chess Tournament is taking place on 2-9th August at the University of Applied Sciences in Vlissingen, Netherlands. The 9-round Swiss Open is organized by Stichting Schaak Walcheren. The FIDE Laws will apply, except article 6.6a. Top prizes are EUR 2000 / 1300 / 800 / 500 / 400. Last year winner [...]

Αρχίζει σήμερα η Σκακιστική Ολυμπιάδα στο Τρόμσο της Νορβηγίας. Συμμετέχουν πάνω από 180 χώρες. Επίσημο σάιτ με ζωντανή αναμετάδοση παρτίδων: https://chess24.com/en/olympiad2014

A solid opening help during the Olympiad

I’m surprised that I don’t see more chess players carrying around journals to chronicle their progress and personal chess history. Keeping a chess journal is mandatory for my students once they reach a certain point in their studies. I was looking through one of my first chess journals the other day and was surprised at […]

The 2014 Dutch Open Chess Championship was held on 21-31st July 2014 at the Sports Hall at Grand Café-theater halls center Theo Thorne in the Netherlands. The event was a 9-round Swiss, open to players rated more than 2100. GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov and GM Deep Sengupta share first place on 7/9 points each. Third place was shared by [...]

Photos from the opening ceremony and day 1 of the Olympiad

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