I stopped by the Pittsburgh Chess Club recently, met someone new, and played a couple of quick casual games with him. I felt that one of the games we played was instructive, illustrating the theme of king safety in the middlegame (and by extension, thinking about this straight from the opening). King safety and Pawn […]

Dortmund: This is the Fabiano Caruana show. He was the only winner in today's round, defeating Georg Meier on the white side of a Steinitz French. Meier was under serious pressure, but the trouble only came near the end. First, his 34...gxf6 gave Caruana the upper hand, and only his last move, 37...Rcc8, gave up the game; 37...Rg6 instead would have allowed him to put up plenty of resistance...

A controversy is cooking at the Olympiad, and it (the event) hasn't even started yet. The Russian women are the defending Olympic champions, but as of this writing they are excluded from the competition. Why? Because they failed to register in time. Pretty stupid on their part, but it would seem to be an open and shut case. However, it's possible that FIDE has the jurisdiction to overrule the...

Recently I went through a book on the middle game where a nice explanation was given on material imbalance. I have distilled these down to a few of points which might be useful to readers. When you give up some material what should be the compensation? 1. Strong attack on opponent’s king: This is well […]

The Canadian Youth Chess Championships is the most prestigious annual national youth chess tournament in Canada. The tournament is being held from July 15 to 18, 2014 at the renowned five stars hotel, the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth. The CYCC determines by sections, based on age and gender, the 12 Champions who will qualify to be [...]

The 2014 Dutch Individual Chess Championships for men and women took place on 6-13th July 2014 at the Manor Hotel in Amsterdam, the capital and most populous city in the Netherlands. Both events were played in 8-player round-robin format. The Women Section was won by WIM Anne Haast, who collected 5,5/7 points, leaving the runner-up half [...]

Two of the three elite tournaments saw action today, though some might deem that verb a stretch when applied to the chess in Dortmund. Two Berlins achieved their aim, and Georg Meier's exquisitely dull French was equally effective in securing a draw. (I'm not objecting to the procedure; it's just not a lot of fun for the spectators.) Vladimir Kramnik's game against Baramidze was genuinely...

Gideon Japhet Memorial Open Chess Tournament 2014 is taking place on 16-24th July 2014 in Jerusalem, Israeli capital and one of the oldest cities in the world. The event is a 9-round Swiss with a time control 90′/ 40 + 30′ + 30″. 48 players from 5 different countries will compete, including 4 GMs, 6 IMs [...]

The International Chess Tournament Minsk Open 2014 is taking place on 15-24th July 2014 in Minsk, the capital and largest city of Belarus. The event is a 9-round Swiss Open with a time control 90′ + 30″ and hefty prize fund in the amount of 100.000.000 BYR (approximately 7150 €). 120 players, including 10 GMs, [...]

The 20th International Chess Festival Jean-Claude Loubatiere took part on 5-13th July 2014, at the Salle Jules Pagezy in Montpellier, a city in southern France, located on the Mediterranean Sea. The event was organized by the Echecs Club Montpellier in a 9-round Swiss format with a time control 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 [...]

Three high-level tournaments are underway, in Dortmund (Caruana leads with a 2-0 score), Bergamo (the ACP Golden Classic; So leads with 2.5/3) and in Biel (Wojtaszek and Hou Yifan were first-day winners). More importantly, the chess has been good and entertaining, so rather than offering tournament summaries I'll present some of the games that have caught my eye, with my brief comments - here.

The 3rd International Chess Festival AcquiScacchi 2014 was held on 6-13th July at the Hotel Nuove Terme in Acqui Terme, Italy. The Festival consisted of three events: Open A for players rated over 1800, Open B for players rated U1900, and Open C for U16 Juniors. The main Open A had 46 participants from eight [...]

To "Σκακιστικό Καφενείο" απείχε γιά μεγάλο διάστημα από το "σύμπαν" του διδικτύου.Επιστρέφει και πάλι από σήμερα ελπίζοντας να είναι πιό τακτικό στις αναρτήσεις του.Μία παλαιά φωτογραφία από παρτίδα μεταξύ του Dr. Emanuel...

Άποψη από το Αθλητικό Κέντρο του Αγίου Κηρύκου, το οποίο φέτος φιλοξενεί 130 σκακιστές από 14 χώρες - A view of the Sports Center of Aghios Kirykos that this year hosts 130 participants from 14 countries.(* Non-greek speaking visitors, please scroll below)Ο Ούγγρος Προχάσκα (2585) και ο Τσέχος...

The 2014 Pacific Southwest Open was held on 4-6th July at the Radisson LAX, 6225 West Century Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045, USA. The tournament format was 6-round Swiss with time control 40/2, SD/1, d/5, in four sections – Open, Premier (under 2000), Amateur (Under 1800) and Reserve-Booster (Under 1600/unrated). The Open section had 46 [...]