All teams allowed to participate

With the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings only recently having passed, it seems an appropriate time to to look at the second front in action on the chessboard. It is a basic rule of thumb of positional play that a single weakness is rarely enough to lose by itself. The key to the winning […]

Two of the major ongoing tournaments ended today, but in both cases the identity of the winner had been known well in advance. In Dortmund, Fabiano Caruana had already clinched clear first the day before, and for him today was a mere formality. He drew comfortably with Peter Leko, and his final score of 5.5/7 added up to victory by a point and a half, a TPR of 2934 and a soon-to-be-official...

The 7th International Chess Tournament of Paleochora is taking place on 21-28th July 2014 at the Municipality of Kandanos – Selino Community Centre in the Cretan town of Paleochora, Greece. The event will be a 9-round Swiss Open, valid for FIDE rating and title norms. Top seed is Bulgarian GM Alexander Delchev, while the first [...]

The Norway National Tournament 2014 took place on 12-20th July, 2014, in Trondheim, the third most populous city in Norway. The 21-year-old IM Frode Olav Olsen Urkedal emerged a clear winner with 7/9 points, leaving the runner-up IM Aryan Tari half a point behind. Third place was shared by IM Erik Fossan and GM Einar [...]

Open letter by Andrey Filatov to Marit Wiig

GM Ruben Felgaer won his 5th title of Argentinian Chess Champion after defeating GM Federico Perez Ponsa 3-1 in blitz tiebreak. In the regular 14-player round robin competition the two Grandmasters shared the first place with 9,5 points each, leaving the nearest follower point and a half behind. The 89th Argentina Chess Championship was held [...]

The 37th Ikaros Aegean Open Championship 2014 was concluded on 20th July with the 22-year-old Hungarian GM Peter Prohazska dominating the field and finishing first, as expected, with the remarkable 9/9 score and an astonishing rating performance of 2905! The second place was shared by the Czech GM Petr Velicka and the Lebanese FM Faisal Khairallah on 7 points [...]

Μια ακόμη άποψη από το ευρύχωρο Αθλητικό Κέντρο του Αγίου Κηρύκου που φιλοξένησε και φέτος το τουρνουά Ίκαρος - Another view of the spacious Sports Center of Aghios Kirykos that once more hosted the games of Ikaros.(* Non-greek speaking visitors, please scroll below)Με την αναμενόμενη...

The 2nd Gideon Japhet Memorial – Gelfand vs. Svidler rapid match is taking place on 20-24th July 2014 in Jerusalem, Israeli capital and one of the oldest cities in the world. The fascinating Rapid Chess duel between the chess legends GM Boris Gelfand (Vice World Champion 2012, rated 2725) and GM Peter Svidler (seven times [...]

The 6th Rethymno International Chess Tournament was held on 12-19th July at the Municipal House of Culture, in the city of Rethymno on island Crete, Greece. The event was a 9-round Swiss, valid for FIDE title norms. 149 players from 26 countries took part in the tournament, including 16 Grandmasters and 14 International Masters. Polish [...]

I wonder if you’re aware of the concept of Flip Teaching. Flip Teaching reverses the traditional classroom – children learn their subject at home and practise at school. If you’re teaching maths in this way you’ll get your students to watch an online lesson introducing a maths skill at home and then practise that skill […]

1. Dortmund: With one round to go, Fabiano Caruana (come home!!) clinched clear first with a white win in a Berlin ending over Michael Adams. His brilliant score of 5/6 gives him a 2972 TPR and a 2801.7 rating on the Live List. Unless he loses against Peter Leko in the last round, he will finally achieve an official 2800 rating, making him the 7th player in history to reach that remarkable...

The 2nd Gideon Japhet Memorial Open Chess Tournament 2014 has a surprising leader. After 3 rounds Omer Reshef (ELO 2275) is sole leader with 3,0/3, leaving behind multiple GMs and titled players. See the full standings below. The tournament is part of a large festival, where one of the headliner events is the match Gelfand [...]

Emotional letter from London