Here’s a nice video in which Magnus Carlsen explains his thinking process, he intuitively ‘knows’ which move he wants to plan and then spends some time checking. Other GMs are doing the same of course, though not quite as well as him at the moment! Nigel Davies

In the game we presented yesterday, Baadur Jobava was the hero, defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with some brilliant attacking play. Today we see Jobava in the opposite role, in the role of attacking victim. The game was played in the very next round of the World Rapid Championship, which ended last week, and the winner of the game was tournament runner-up and #1 rated (in rapid) Fabiano Caruana...

In addition to providing data on the classical ratings of all players over 2700 FIDE, the Live Chess Ratings site now includes rapid and blitz ratings for those top players as well. (In case you're wondering, Fabiano Caruana is #1 in rapid with a 2857.6 figure, ahead of Magnus Carlsen's 2855.4; in blitz, Carlsen has a preposterous Elo of 2948, more than 42 points ahead of second-placed Hikaru...

A wonderful tournament on the Italian Adriatic coast will take place from 28th July to 3rd August. The Summer Chess Festival ‘Mare di Fano’ will run for a third time, bringing together amateur and professional players. In the middle of the summer, chess aficionados will have an opportunity to enjoy sea, delicious Italian food and [...]

The National Greek Chess Festival is scheduled to take place from 28th June to 10th July, 2014, at the Porto Rio Hotel, situated near Patras, a historical city in northern Peloponnese, Greece. For a fifteen day period the Greek Chess Elite of all ages will be gathered to participate in the event. Apart from the leading [...]

The XXII Montcada International Chess Tournament is taking place from 25th June to 3rd July Espacio Cultural Kursaal, in Montcada i Reixac, Spain. The event is split into three groups. Group A – open to all, Group B - for players rated less than 2000 FIDE ELO or less than 2100 Catalan rating and Open C – for [...]

The XXII Montcada International Chess Tournament is taking place from 25th June to 3rd July at Espacio Cultural Kursaal, in Montcada i Reixac, Spain. The event is a 9 round Swiss Open with a time control 90′ + 30″ with the strong participationf of 17 GMs. Top seed is Chinese GM Hua Ni. More information here

The 5th tournament of the FIDE Women’s Grand-Prix 2013-2014 is taking place from 18th June to 2nd July in Lopota, Georgia. Twelve players compete in the round robin tournament. The event is organized by the Georgian Ministry of Sport and Youth, FIDE and Georgian Chess Federation, and sponsored by SOCAR. The decisive game rate remains [...]

Continuing in my series of posts covering the first chess tournament in my life as a new unrated player and member of USCF, here I present my 5th round game in the 1980 Michigan Open (Reserve Section). It was a very short game, lasting only 12 moves, and only a couple of minutes. This was […]

Every now and then the past few days I've been browsing some of the many games from last week's World Rapid Championship, and some have caught my eye. One exceptionally impressive game was the round 4 battle between Baadur Jobava and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, won in brilliant style by the creative young Georgian grandmaster. As usual, he punted a slightly offbeat opening (the Veresov with 3.Bf4)...

The 7th Annual Karen Asrian Memorial took place from 16th to 25th June, 2014, in the prominent SPA resort of Jermuk, Armenia. GM Karen Grigoryan emerged clear winner with 7,5/9 points leaving the runner-up half a point behind. Grigoryan took the lead after the seventh round defeating GM Arman Pashikian with Black pieces. Full point versus [...]

The 42nd Annual World Chess Open will be held from June 30-July 6, 2014 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia. The event has 10 sections: Open, Under 2400/Unrated, Under 2200, Under 2000, Under 1800, Under 1600, Under 1400, Under 1200, Under 900/Unrated and Unrated/Provisional. The Open Section will be [...]

The 2nd D.C. International will be held from June 26-30, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, 2799 Jefferson Davis Highway, Arlington, Virginia. The event has one Open section, which will be 9 rounds. FIDE norms are possible. The guaranteed prize fund is $10,000. Prizes: $3000-1500-1000-700-600-500-400-300-200, top FIDE under 2300 or unrated $1200-600. Minimum prize [...]

The Visma Chess Tournament 2014 is held from 25th to 29th June, 2014 at Vaxjo Konserthus in the city of Vaxjo, Sweden. The format of the event is 10-player round robin with three groups – one GM-group and two IM-groups with a time control 90′ + 30″. Top seed in the GM-group is GM Tiger Hillarp [...]

The 5th tournament of the FIDE Women’s Grand-Prix 2013-2014 is taking place from 18th June to 2nd July in Lopota, Georgia. Twelve players compete in the round robin tournament. The event is organized by the Georgian Ministry of Sport and Youth, FIDE and Georgian Chess Federation, and sponsored by SOCAR. With her new win against [...]