Interviews from the airport... and a chess beer in Tromso

With three world titles in his pocket, Magnus Carlsen will confidently lead the Norwegian team in the Olympiad. Is he invincible? No, says Loek van Wely in his report about  the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Championship in Dubai​ in ​the latest issue of New In Chess. “Magnus does have a few weaknesses. First of [...]

Here is a recent win in Team League Chess. I played on Board 4 in all five of the games in which I was paired by the team captain of HappyFun. I won all five of those games and I had White in four of them. Most of my opponents blundered in the openings or […]

The 5th Iberoamerican Individual Chess Championship took place on 22-30rd July 2014 in Linares, a city located in the Andalusian Province of Jaen, Spain. The 9-round Swiss event was topped by the first seeded player GM Axel Bachmann (Paraguay). The winner collected 7,5 points, leaving the runner-up GM Jorge Cori (Peru) half a point behind. GM Oleg Korneev (Spain) and [...]

Early June I played in the Swiss Rapid Chess Masters, a well organised one day tournament in Pfaffikon on Lake Zurich. I received a pleasant surprise on arrival with a gift of a bag of Swiss chocolates waiting for me in my room. The weather was really good and I decided to take a walk […]

With only two days to go before the Chess Olympiad Tromsø begins, Susan Polgar reports from the scene on last-minute preparations, taking a look at the venue and artwork by the official Olympiad artist Chris Reddy. Chess Olympiad Tromsø YouTube channel

The Georgian Chess Federation is bidding to hold the Chess Olympiad 2018 and the World Cup 2017 in Batumi, a popular resort on the Black Sea. The proposed budget for both events is exceeding 20 million USD. 1,6 million USD is allocated for the travel fund for 80 Nations, while around 2 millions USD will [...]

Everything is finishing up just in time for the Olympiad, which begins August 1. In particular, the British Championship concluded in a tie between Jonathan Hawkins and David Howell, and apparently there was no playoff. They finished with 8.5/11, a point ahead of six other players (including both of the Pert brothers). As for the Politiken Cup, there was no doubt about the winner there. Bu...

My student Eric (currently rated USCF 15xx) showed me a recent tournament game of his in which a rather fascinating ending came up. As Black, he had a Bishop and four Pawns versus White’s five Pawns. At first it seemed obvious that this ending should clearly be a win, but actually, it is not so […]

The British Individual Chess Championship 2014 took place from 19-30th July at the Aberystwyth University, Penglais Campus, in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion. The event was an 11-round Swiss Open, including 59 participants. GM David Howell and IM Jonathan Hawkins share first place on 8,5 points each. Third place was shared in a six-way tie by GM Nicholas Pert, GM Mark Hebden, [...]

The organizing committee of the Tromso Chess Olympiad has issued a brochure with the basic information that visitors need to know before and on arrival. Money We strongly recommend exchange of Euro and U.S. dollars to Norwegian currency (NOK) prior to departure – or at Norway’s international airport, Gardermoen. On arrival in Tromsø there will [...]

[ The Chess Talk message board where I posted this reply to Canadian Federation president Vladimir Drkulec yesterday mysteriously shut down hours later. I'm not a suspicious guy, so I'm guessing it was caused by aliens. I'm just posting this in the long-dead Dirt (RIP) so I can send the link to a few people who wanted to read and/or share it. Sorry it's out of context, but it's clear enough. I...

Chess South Africa is organizing the 1st Durban Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament to be held in Durban, South Africa from 20 to 29 September 2014. The event will take place at the International Convention Centre, Durban, concurrently with the FIDE World Youth Chess Championships. The tournament will be conducted as per FIDE Laws of Chess [...]

The 23rd edition of the traditional chess tournament Martigny Open was held on 25-28th July 2014 in Martigny, Switzerland. The event was a 7-round Swiss with a time control 90′ + 30″. GM Sergei Ovsejevitsch (UKR) emerged a clear winner with 6/7 points and grabbed the top prize of 1.500 CHF. Second place was shared [...]

Once a student is familiar with piece movements, attacks, check and checkmate, my next topic is to teach him or her elementary mates. This was explained by Capablanca in his book Chess Fundamentals. “The first thing a student should do, is to familiarise himself with the power of pieces. This can best be done by […]