The 5th Hainan Danzhou GM Chess Tournament is taking place from 25th June to 4th July 2014 in Danzhou, a city in the northwest of the Chinese island province of Hainan. The tournament format is a 10 player round-robin with a time control 90′/ 40 moves plus 30′ for the rest of the game plus [...]

After winning the FIDE Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships to claim three titles in three formats, World Champion Magnus Carlsen continued to Armenia for a three-day visit where his host was World N2 Levon Aronian. Carlsen visited the famous Tatev Monastery in Syunik province and participated in a number of promotional activities, that included a [...]

In chess & business you usually have to consider alternatives. How should one analyze them? Are there any methods? Well Alexander Kotov has already given one method with his tree of analysis, but this only works well when you can easily differentiate the outcomes. When there are similar kinds of outcomes this method doesn’t work. […]

Watching the video coverage of round 2 of last week's World Rapid Championship, I found myself especially curious about the following position, which arose after Gadir Guseinov played 16.c3 against Magnus Carlsen: Black has a pretty fair amount of force pointed at White's king, so it wouldn't be too surprising if Carlsen had something here. Does he? Have a look, take your time, and when you...

International Open tournament, a world-class Grandmaster Invitational, the Hawaii State Scholastic Chess Championships, a speed chess tournament, and a "Chess Day at Magic Island."

The Asian Chess Clubs Champions League is organized by the Al Ain Chess Club under the auspices of the UAE Chess Federation from 20th to 28th June, 2014 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. The Championship will be played as a single round robin among 8 teams, one from each of the 7 zones plus the host [...]

The FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2014 recently concluded with Magnus Carlsen winning, followed by Fabiano Caruana in 2nd place and Viswanathan Anand in 3rd. There was an interesting endgame between the FIDE World Champion, Carlsen, and former World Champion, Anand. Carlsen uncharacteristically went wrong in an ending. In taking a pawn with his knight he […]

The 18th International Chess Festival Alekhine Memorial took place from 12th to 21st June, 2014 in the city of Voronezh, Russia. First place was shared in a three-way tie by GM Pavel Ponkratov (RUS), GM Alexei Fedorov (BLR) and the former World champion GM Alexander Khalifman (RUS) on 7/9 points. However, Ponkratov emerged a winner [...]

Oι πρωταθλητές Ελλάδος για το 2014 , Μαλικέντζος Σωτήρης και Παυλίδου Αικατερίνη θα δώσουν αγώνα σιμουλτανέ την Παρασκευή 27 Ιουνίου και ώρα 18:30 στην Πλατεία Γεωργίου...

SAINT LOUIS (June 23, 2014) — The U.S. Junior Closed is playing into its familiar theme: Guess what happens next. (Report by Brian Jerauld) The 2014 national championship for players under 21, which began Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, kicked off with several shocker upsets and has since proven [...]

The Ellivuori International Chess Tournament is taking place from 23rd to 29th June, 2014 at the Ellivuori Hotel in the town of Ellivuori, Finland. Time control is 90 min / 40 moves + 30 min + 30 sec for every move starting from move 1. The top 3 players will be granted 1200 €, 1000 [...]

The Asians Club Champions League is taking place from 20th to 28th June, 2014 in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. The list of participants includes: 1. India: PSPB – Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (2586) – GM Krishna Sasikiran 2669, GM Lalith Babu 2561, GM S.P.Sethuraman 2576, GM Deep Sengupta 2536, GM Abhijit Kunte 2482 2. [...]

The HSG Open 2014 was held from 20th to 22nd June, 2014 at the Amrâth Hotel Lapershoek in the city of Hilversum, situated in the province of North Holland, in the Netherlands. The top seeded player GM Robin Van Kampen (NED) deservedly took the gold with 5,5/6 points. The runner-up FM Francesco Rambaldi (ITA) was the only player who [...]

Το 13ο Πρωτάθλημα Ελλάδος στην Λύση Σκακιστικών Προβλημάτων έγινε στην Πάτρα, πρώτη φορά εκτός Αθηνών.Διοργανώθηκε από την Σκακιστικό Όμιλο Πάτρας (ΣΟΠ) σε μια πολύ ωραία αίθουσα που διέθεσε το επιμελητήριο Αχαΐας, και...

This week, we continue our discussion of the topic of transforming one type of positional advantage into another. In the diagram below, I suspect 99% of players would play 30.f5, leaving Black with his backward d6-pawn. However, Black’s position would be extremely hard to break down in that case, as he has only one weakness. […]