Alexander Morozevich has been out of the picture for a while, but with his impressive win in the just-completed Karpov Poikovsky tournament he may yet return to play with the big boys. Morozevich drew a sharp King's Indian in the last round against Pavel Eljanov while co-leader Dmitry Jakovenko lost against Ian Nepomniachtchi's King's Indian Attack. (Was "Nepo" inspired by Gata Kamsky's success...

After the author of Chess Insider WGM Videnova won the national championship of Bulgaria, today another Chessdom.com commentator conquered a gold medal. GM Vidit is the winner of the 52nd National Championship of India. The championship was held from 9th to 19th May, 2014 in Dharmasala – a city in the Indian State of Himachal [...]

Stage 4 of the strongest computer competition TCEC Season 6 is over and the top two engine Stockfish, modification 300414, and Komodo, variation 1223, qualify to play the Superfinal. Stockfish topped Stage 4 with 30/48 points, leaving the runner-up full 2 points behind. Komodo proved its supremacy over Houdini, defeating the latter in the forty-sixth [...]

The third edition of Llucmajor Open was held from 11th to 18th May, 2014 at Club Nautico S’arenal, part of the Balearic Island Palma de Mallorca, Spain. GM Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR) and GM Alexander Delchev (BUL) shared first place with 7.5/9 points each, but the Ukrainian national representative emerged winner on superior tie-break score. Third [...]

The city of Fredericia, located in the eastern part of Jutland peninsula in Denmark, will host Glenco Chess Tournament 2014 from 21st to 25th May, 2014. Official website The event is an IM round-robin group, including 10 players: 1. IM Nikolas Lubbe 2428 GER 2. IM Jens Ove Fries Nielsen 2384 DEN 3. IM Igor [...]

Το απόσπασμα περιλαμβάνεται στο βιβλίο του Γιάννη Αντωνιάδη “Σκάκι και Λογοτεχνία”: Ο Αργεντινός Γκιγιέμο Μαρτίνεθ (1962) στο πρώτο του μυθιστόρημα Σχετικά με τον Ροδερέρ το οποίο κυκλοφόρησε στην Ελλάδα μετά την...

The 22nd Sigeman Chess Tournament was organized by the Limhamn Chess Club on 15-19th May, 2014 at the classical Hipp Theater in Malmo, Sweden. French Grandmaster Laurent Fressinet took a clear first place with 3,5/5 points after his earlier co-leader IM Axel Smith lost in the last round to fellow Swede GM Nils Grandelius. Replay [...]

Today's U.S. Championship action ought to be lots of fun for the fans, as there will be two-stage playoffs in both the open and the women's tournaments. When we left off the open (men's) event, Varuzhan Akobian and Alex Lenderman led with two rounds to go, half a point ahead of Gata Kamsky and Josh Friedel. In round 10 Sam Shankland served as a spoiler yet again, beating Friedel with Black to...

Last year Komodo beat Stockfish in the TCEC final, but so far this year Stockfish has been the engine to beat. In the semi-final stage Stockfish won by a decent margin, with Komodo coming in clear second. Critter was the whipping boy, finishing with only 14 points out of 48, but the surprise was Houdini's distant third place, struggling to reach 50%. The final will be a 64-game monster; for now...

The 10th Copenhagen Chess Challenge 2014 was organized by the “BMS Skak” chess club from 14th to 18th May at the Tapeten, Magleparken 5, DK-2750 Ballerup, Denmark. 68 players from nine federations competed in the 9-round Swiss event. IM Jens Ove Fries-Nielsen emerged clear winner with 7,0/9 points to earn his second GM norm and [...]

Defence skills are just as important as attacking skills. At a basic level, that means noticing when, for example, an undefended piece is attacked and threatened with capture. Usually, defending it or moving it is required – unless there is something more important going on elsewhere on the board, like a checkmate threat. In chess clubs at […]

By contrast with the Capablanca Memorial, the Karpov Poikovsky tournament in Russia has been a far more entertaining and bloodthirsty battle of the elites. Of the 40 games played so far the wins-to-draws figure has been pretty good: 17 wins to 23 draws. There have been seven draws of fewer than 30 moves, but three of them came in the penultimate round. Hopefully today's last round will have some...

The short Sigeman & Co. tournament was won by top seed Laurent Fressinet, but ironically it seemed almost until the very end that it was the bottom seed who would come in first. IM Axel Smith was the co-leader coming into the last round with 3/4, but after defeating Jan Timman and Erik Blomqvist in earlier rounds lost to his friend Nils Grandelius in the last round (with White) and came up...

The worst elite super-tournament of recent times (at least that I can remember) has finished, and good riddance. Wesley So won with an undefeated 6.5/10, a point ahead of Lazaro Bruzon. Bruzon was also undefeated and the only other player with a plus score. Leinier Dominguez finished with 5, Zoltan Almasi and Franscisco Vallejo had 4.5, and Vassily Ivanchuk came in last with 4 points, and was the...

The first edition of Iasi Open 2014 was held from 10th to 18th May, 2014 at Palas Mall, in the city of Iasi, known as the cultural capital of Romania. The organizers provided prize fund in the amount of  25 000€, split into three separate tournaments:  - Open “A”, open to all participants, regardless of [...]