Carlsen's Undefeated Streak May 17, 2013 - April 22, 2014 R.I.P. If round 3 was a bit irksome for Magnus Carlsen, failing as he did to convert a clearly superior position against Sergey Karjakin, round 4 of the Gashimov Memorial was a flat-out disaster for the world champion. He essayed the Berlin Defense against Fabiano Caruana (come back!!), which in itself may not be foolhardy but is at...

Over two months ago, I wrote an article here, “9 lessons to learn from Bill Gates’ 9-move loss to Magnus Carlsen”, which generated a lot of discussion among my friends. I was also notified of something I hadn’t known when I wrote the article, which was that Magnus Carlsen only had 30 seconds for the […]

The Sydney International Open is taking place from 22st to 27th April, 2014 at Parramatta Town Hall, in Sydney, the most populous city of Australia. The event is a 9 round Open tournament with cash prizes totaling 14,200 $. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for [...]

Mitropa Cup 2014 is organized by the Slovak Chess Federation from 22nd to 31st May at the City Hotel Kultura Ruzomberok, A. Bernolaka 1, Slovakia. The following chess federations are entitled to take part in the Mitropa Cup 2014 competition: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. Mitropa Cup is [...]

The World Chess Federation (FIDE) and the Singapore Chess Federation are organizing the FIDE World Amateur Chess Championships 2014 from 25th April to 4th May in Singapore. The tournament will be played according to Swiss System in 9 Rounds. The Playing Hall is the Pasir Ris Sports Hall (situated within Pasir Ris Sports and Recreation [...]

The 18th edition of Neckar Open took place from 17th to 21st April, 2014 in Deizisau, Germany. It was divided into three independent tournaments (A-Open > 1800; B-Open < 2000; C-Open < 1400). The format of the master section was 9 rounds Swiss with prize fund in the amount of 12,050 €. GM Viktor Laznicka [...]

Live games with analysis

The 13th Asian Continental Individual Open and Women’s Chess Championships are taking place 16th to 26th April 2014 in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The top five from the 2014 Asian Open Championship qualify for the 2015 World Cup. The 2014 Asian Women’s champion qualifies for the 2015 Women’s World Championship. After six rounds of play [...]

GM Normunds Miezis (Latvia) takes the top prize of 12 000 SEK in Norrkoeping Easter Tournament 2014. He is the sole winner with 7.5/8 points. The local Grandmaster Daniel Semcesen is second with 7/8, while FM Jonathan Westerberg (Sweeden) surprises with a clear third place. The latter collected 6.5/8, leaving many GMs behind. The Norrköping [...]

Players often start out their careers by playing really sharp openings but switch to more solid lines over time. There are good reasons for this, not least of which is the improved positional understanding borne of experience. Once that’s in place the need for memory diminishes. A lot of players give the sharp Gruenfeld Defence […]

Grandmaster Vladimir Burmakin (Russia) is the convincing winner of the 41st Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez La Roda (Albacete) 2014. He grabbed the top prize of 2000 € by collecting 8/9 points, half a point ahead of the nearest followers. IM Daniel Forcen Esteban (Spain) and IM Angel Arribas share second place with 7.5/9. The tournament [...]

IM Marcos Collados Camacho (Spain) claims the 1st Festival de Ajedrez Nazari “Hotel Corona” with 6.5/9 points. He fulfilled his last IM norm less than a month ago and now he wins a Grandmaster tournament with the impressive performance of 2607, gaining 23 ELO points to his rating. IM Lawrence Trent (England) and GM Jose Carlos Ibarra [...]

The FIDE Women Grand Prix in Khanty Mansiysk came to an end, delivering two big announcements: it is official – the Chinese chess wall remained intact, as even the former women world champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, didn’t succeed to discover its weak spot. After a fierce struggle, Hou Yifan held her position and triumphed in the [...]

Ο Μιγκέλ ντε Θερβάντες το 1615 εκδίδει τον δεύτερο τόμο του Δον Κιχώτη. Δέκα χρόνια μετά την έκδοση του πρώτου τόμου, ο Θερβάντες νιώθει την ανάγκη να μας διηγηθεί την τρίτη ιπποτική έξοδο του ιππότη, ο οποίος πάντα μαζί...

Από 4-5 έως 1-6 κάθε Τετάρτη στις 18:00 και Κυριακή στις 10:30 στο Επιστημονικό Πάρκο Πατρών θα διεξαχθεί το Ατομικό Πρωτάθλημα Ανδρών – Γυναικών ΕΣΣΠ 2014