Beginners who want to improve their game work very hard, especially when it comes to embracing the game’s principles. To improve their opening play, beginners study and employ the opening principles. The same holds true for the middle and endgames. However, these same beginners often treat these principles as steadfast rules. There is a difference […]

Stockfish deservedly won this year’s edition of the world strongest computer chess championship TCEC. The Superfinal of Thoresen Computer Engine Competition made us witnesses of another great battle between the giants Komodo and Stockfish. This time the latter didn’t give a chance, leaving the former TCEC champion Komodo full 7 points behind. With a final score 35,5:28,5...

Το Final 4 του Κυπέλλου Αττικής στο οποίο συμμετέχει η ΣΚΑΚΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΑΝΟΙΞΗ , και οι παράλληλες εκδηλώσεις που ετοιμάζει ο ΑΣΟΠ ΔΙΑΣ στην Πετρούπολη ( Σιμουλτανέ Α.Μ. Μπότσαρη και Γιάννη Νικολαίδη , τουρνουά γρήγορου σκακιου...

The 44th International Chess Tournament “Bosna 2014″ will be held in Sarajevo from 30th May to 6th June 2014. The playing venue will be in Hotel Radon Plaza, Sarajevo. The total prize fund is 35,700 KM (national currency in Bosnia and Herzegovina) or cca 18,225 EUR. The top prize in A tournament (for players rated [...]

This is a recently completed game that was played on the ICCF server. My opponent is from England and is one of two 2300 rated players that I drew in this section. He is also the highest rated player in this section. This draw has temporarily moved me back into second place out of 13. […]

The Asian Nations Cup for men and women took place from 20th to 30th May, 2014 in the city of Tabriz, Iran. The event was open to all chess federations in FIDE zones 3.1 to 3.7. The Asian Nations Cup for men was a 10 team round-robin Team Championship, where each team consisted of 4 [...]

The 11th Deltalift Open – Inbjudan 2014 is taking place from 29th to 31st May, 2014 at the Tylosand Hotel in the city of Halmstad, situated on the Swedish west coast. 143 participants will compete in the 8 round Swiss event, including 6 GMs, 4 IMs and 6 FMs. The best player will be awarded [...]

The Nezhmetdinov Rapid Cup 2014 is taking place from 29th to 30th May, 2014 in Kazan, Russia. The event is a 9 round Swiss with a time control 15 minutes per player plus 6 seconds increment starting from move 1. Top seed is GM Artyom Timofeev. A total prize fund in the amount of 186 [...]

The 36th edition of the traditional chess festival Rashid Gibiatovich Nezhmetdinov Cup is starting today in Kazan, Russia, with a 2-day Rapid Cup.The event will be a 9 round Swiss with a time control 15 minutes per player plus 6 seconds increment starting from move 1. Top seed is GM Artyom Timofeev. A total of 186 [...]

The 8th Wunsiedel Chess Festival is held from 29th May to 1st June, 2014 in the town of Wunsiedel, situated in the Free State of Bavaria, in Germany. The event is a 7 round Swiss with first prize of 1200 €. Top seed is the former European champion for men GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who has [...]

I am firmly convinced that the single best thing one can to do improve one’s chess is to analyze one’s actual games. For this reason, I make game analysis the cornerstone of my work with a student; from going over his games, and asking him why he played certain moves or what thoughts he was […]

The 23rd Annual Chicago Open was held on 22-26th May at the Westin Chicago North Shore Hotel, 601 North Milwaukee Ave, Wheeling, Illinois. The event had 9 sections: Open, Under 2300/Unrated, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500, Under 1300, Under 1000/Unrated and Unrated/Provisional. The strongest Open Section with 94 participants was completed over [...]

First, the correction. In the previous post I presented a false dilemma: either buy a Chess24 membership or do without Peter Svidler's video series on Mikhail Tal. As several people have reminded me (and as I already knew, but had forgotten) this is not so: one can purchase their video series a la carte. Second, the comment editing program isn't working properly at the moment, so those of you who...

The 11th edition of Deltalift Open – Inbjudan 2014 will be held from 29th to 31st May, 2014 at the Tylosand Hotel in the city of Halmstad, situated on the Swedish west coast. The event will be an 8 round Swiss First four rounds will be played with 30 minutes per player plus 12 seconds per [...]

The 8th Wunsiedel Chess Festival is scheduled to take place from 29th May to 1st June, 2014 in the town of Wunsiedel, situated in the Free State of Bavaria, in Germany. The event will be a 7 round Swiss with first prize of 1200 € and will gather 141 players from 14 different federations, including 12 [...]