Ο πρωταθλητής ηθοποιών στο σκάκι Τάκης Παπαματθαίου αγωνίζεται κι εφέτος στην Ικαρία -  A good friend of Ikaria and chess champion among Greek actors, Takis Papamatthaiou plays at Ikaros 2014.(* Non-greek speaking visitors, please scroll below) Ευχάριστο ξάφνιασμα από τους φίλους των...

Ο διεθνής μαιτρ Ηλίας Κουρκουνάκης κατά τη διάρκεια της επίδειξης μπλάιντ στην Πλατεία του Αγίου Κηρύκου. Η εκδήλωση συγκέντρωσε το ενδιαφέρον πολλών παρισταμένων, ιδιαίτερα των πιο νεαρών!Με πολλές φιλικές παρτίδες...

The 2014 edition of Schack-SM is hosted by the town of Borlange, situated in Dalarna County, Sweden from 11-20 July, 2014. The event is a 10 player round robin, including: GM Nils Grandelius 2588, GM Tiger Hillarp Persson 2564,  GM Emanuel Berg 2557, IM Michael Wiedenkeller 2479, GM Erik Blomqvist 2496, GM Pia Cramling 2491, GM Pontus Carlsson [...]

Perhaps you know about the Sally-Anne test, a test used by developmental psychologists to determine whether or not young children understand that other people may not have the same beliefs that they do. The experimenter introduces the subject to two dolls, Sally and Anne. Sally is playing with a marble. She puts it in her […]

The 16th Obert Internacional Sant Martí is scheduled to take place from 13th to 21st July at the Centre Civic Sant Marti: c/ Selva de Mar, Barcelona, Spain. There will be two competitions: Group A, for players with FCE, FEDA, FIDE elo bigger than 2000 and Group B for players with FCE, FEDA and FIDE [...]

The 34th edition of Benasque International Chess Tournament took place from 4th to 12th July 2014 in Benasque, a town in the heart of the Spanish Pyrenees. 395 players from 36 countries competed in the 9-round Swiss event. Among them were 37 Grandmasters and 33 International Masters. Seven players shared the first place with 7,5 [...]

The Norway National Tournament 2014 is taking place on 12-20th July, 2014, in the city of Trondheim, Norway. Official website

Dortmund I already mentioned, but another strong event also began today - the ACP Golden Classic in Bergamo, Italy. What makes it a "classic"? It's not the tournament's age, but (I think) their choice to bring back to the good old days - or maybe it's the bad old days - and have adjournments. It's a round-robin with seven players, meaning someone always has a day off from playing. From playing...

I've been taking my sweet time going through and presenting some games from the World Rapid Championship, but it isn't yet time for the 2015 edition - it hasn't been that long. Anyway, with Dortmund upon us and the Olympiad coming soon, it's time to put the Rapid Championship to bed with a final installment. A few posts ago we highlighted some of Viswanathan Anand's best and most important games...

Beginners of all ages tend to have two very big positional problems when they’re honing their chess skills, piece activity and piece vulnerability. These two problems, if not addressed, will lead to loss after loss until the beginner simply gives up on this fantastic game. However, if the beginner puts some effort into both the […]

Women’s World Rapid Champion Kateryna Lagno has completed the transfer from Ukrainian to Russian Chess Federation. The process that started back in March was concluded on 11th July. The RCF has paid the 2000 EUR transfer fee to FIDE and 20,000 EUR compensation to the Ukrainian CF. Lagno is already on the Russian list and [...]

Vladimir Kramnik's favorite annual super-tournament, the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany, kicks off today. The eight player round-robin headlines Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana, and begins at 3 p.m. local time with the following pairings: David Baramidze - Fabiano Caruana Arkadij Naiditsch - Michael Adams Vladimir Kramnik - Georg Meier Peter Leko - Ruslan Ponomariov The tournament...

World Champions Viswanathan Anand and Ruslan Ponomariov, Olympic cup holder Levon Aronian, and best-rated Spanish player Paco Vallejo are the stars of the 7th Grand Slam Masters Final in Bilbao, which will be held this year at the Euskalduna Conference Centre from 14 to 20 September, the organizers announced today at the capital of Biscay. [...]

World N2 Junior and European Rapid Champion GM Richard Rapport and American hope IM Akshat Chandra shared the first place in Paracin Open A with 7,5/9 points each. Rapport took the winner’s trophy on better tie-break, while Chandra earned 22 elo points. The 7th International Chess Festival “Sport Summer 2014″ took place on 4-11th July [...]

After the conclusion of the FIDE Women Grand Prix in Lopota, Alina l’Ami interviewed Georgia’s Deputy Sports Minister, ECU presidential candidate, GM and a family man: Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Alina l’Ami: Now that the 5th stage of the FIDE Women Grand Prix 2013-2014 series came to an end, how would you asses the overall organization? Zurab [...]