The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) announced a new world class initiative to promote and further women’s chess. It is co-sponsored by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, WOM, Webster University, and the Susan Polgar Foundation. As part of this “Chess for Girls” project, there will be two events this summer. The first one will take [...]

Stockfish 4, modification 080414 wins another Stage of the strongest computer competition TCEC – Season 6.  Top seeded engine has 21/27 points after the penultimate round of Thoresen Chess Engines Competition Season 6 – Stage 3, leaving the next contender Komodo 1217 full 3 points behind. Komodo 1217 is second with 18/27, while Houdini 4 is third with 17.5/27 and [...]

The FIDE World Senior Team Chess Championship 2014 is scheduled to take place on 12-22nd July at the Vilnius Town Hall, Didžioji g. 31, LT-01128 Vilnius, Lithuania. The Championship will consist of three sections: - Section 1: Open tournament for teams with players 50+ (no restriction); - Section 2: Open tournament for teams with players [...]

The 4th Dhamso International Chess Festival is taking place from 29th April to 5th May, 2014 in Ambalandoga, Sri Lanka.

The 4th edition of Dhamso International Chess Festival is taking place from 29th April to 5th May, 2014 at Thomas De Silva Memorial Auditorium, Dharmasoka College, in Ambalandoga, a coastal town of Sri Lanka, famous for its ancient devil masks and devil dancers. The tournament is organized by The Old Boys’ Chess Association of Dharmasoka [...]

The 46th Italian Team Chess Championship for Men is taking place from 30th April to 4th May, 2014 in Condino, Italy. The tournament format will be a 7 round Swiss with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per player starting [...]

Imagination in Chess: How to Think Creatively and Avoid Foolish Mistakes του Paata Gaprindashvili, Batsford 2004. Το βιβλίο περιέχει 756 θέσεις, με τη μορφή ασκήσεων, όπου ο αναγνώστης πρέπει να βρει την καλύτερη συνέχεια και τις κύριες βαριάντες. Το επίπεδο κυμαίνεται...

Επιμέλεια: Ηλίας Κουρκουνάκης 3.1 Άννα-Μαρία Στεφανίδη – Μαρίνα Μακροπούλου Μαρούσι, 1 Απριλίου 2014 (4ος γύρος) παίζουν τα λευκά Πώς αποδείχθηκε λανθασμένο το λαίμαργο πάρσιμο 20.Αxα5; 3.2 Σωτήρης Μαλικέντζος – Κώστας...

Chess is all about pattern recognition and today I am going to talk about a typical attacking method on the castled king with the bishop sacrifice on h7 or h2. Yes, that’s the Greek gift sacrifice. In the following discussion what I will try to explain is when there are more chances that you will […]

While Magnus Carlsen has done most of the running in this tournament, it's Fabiano Caruana who has been stealing the show of late. Not only did he defeat Carlsen in the first cycle, he has won back-to-back games the past two rounds to catch up to Carlsen going into their head-to-head in the last round. Carlsen will have White, and if they draw then, unfortunately, Caruana will only come in second...

The runner-up in the European Individual Chess Championship 2014 GM Anton Guijarro from Complutensa de Madrid University is 2014 Spanish University Chess Champion with the impressive score of 7.5/9 points. The most promising Spaniard, currently №3 in the Spanish TOP rating list for men gains two more points to his rating. Second place is shared [...]

The 60th edition of the traditional Maryland Open took place from 25th to 27th April, 2014 at Rockville Hilton, in Maryland, the United States. The tournament was split into 7 sections: Championship, U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400, U1100. The Championship Section gathered 31 players, including 4 GMs, 4 IMs, 1 WGM and 6 FMs. The [...]

A FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar is going to be organized from 4 to 8 May 2014 in Musrata, Libya, by the Libyan Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The venue of the Seminar will be the Libyan Iron and Steel Company offices in Musrata. The Lecturer will be IA Hassan Khaled (EGY), member of [...]

A FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar is going to be organized from 30 June to 2 July 2014 in New Delhi, India, by the All India Chess Federation and under the auspices of FIDE. The Seminar follows immediately after the Asian workshop for the International Arbiters. The Lecturer will be IA Casto Abundo (PHI), Asian Chess Federation [...]

The last double round in the tournament schedule, right before the finishing straight, was widely expected to help clarify things at the top of the standings in the inaugural European Individual Championship for Small Nations, but instead only served to complicate the situation further. As the clash of the leaders ended without a winner, and [...]