Russian Grandmaster Alexander Motylev convincingly won the 2014 European Chess Championship in the competition of 257 players from 27 countries, including 128 Grandmasters. In the final round Motylev split the point with David Navara to finish on 9,0/11 points, leaving the nearest followers a full point behind. In a quick interview with News.am Motylev said [...]

Beginners tend to play chess without a real plan which leads to disaster. The novice player often thrusts pawns and pieces out onto the board, hoping for the best while more experienced players make moves that build up to something. That something is the culmination of their overall plan which hopefully leads to checkmate. While […]

Today's round at the Candidates was very exciting, with three wins from the four games. Vladimir Kramnik's win was especially good. The ex-champ found a remarkable new idea in a very well-known position, and his sustained initiative eventually proved too much for Sergei Karjakin. The game was such an achievement that Karjakin himself said this after the game: "This is one of those rare cases when...

This blog isn't meant to be an echo chamber, but I do have a strange preference that comments bear a pretty close relationship to the content of the posts. Or as a cartoonist recently expressed the matter:

Η ΕΣΣΠ προκηρύσει το ατομικό πρωτάθλημα ΠΑΙΔΩΝ-ΚΟΡΑΣΙΔΩΝ 2014 (κάτω των 16). Ενημερωθείτε για την προκήρυξη και τις δηλώσεις συμμετοχής.

Στο Δ.Σ. της Ε.Σ.Σ.Π. στην συνάντησή του για τον μήνα Μάρτιοι έλαβε τις παρακάτω αποφάσεις…

Aronian, Svidler, and Kramnik win in round 2

Η ανακοίνωση υπάρχει στον ιστοχώρο της Παγκόσμιας Συνομοσπονδίας για Σκακιστική Σύνθεση (World Federation for Chess Compositions, WFCC) και ο 10ος Ευρωπαϊκός Διαγωνισμός Λύσης (European Chess Solving Contest, ECSC) θα γίνει στο Igalo Μαυροβουνίου 16-18 Μαΐου...

One more GM addition to the team

The second season of Division One of the British ICCF Webserver Team Tournaments is now about three quarters finished with the leading team, ‘ICCF Warriors’, on 66% with their nearest rivals and last year’s winner, ‘Pawn Stars’, close behind on 65% with the next team, ‘Scheming Mind ‘A”, on 55%. ‘ICCF Warriors’ consists of GM […]

It's only one round into the 2014 Candidates, but maybe the recently deposed world champion is back! Viswanathan Anand smoothly dispatched top seed and frequent bete noire Levon Aronian on the white side of an Anti-Marshall, bringing hope to his fans and fear to Aronian's. It was Aronian who produced the first new move in a position both players had tested before (though not against each other)...

Φωτογραφίες από το πρωτάθλημα που ολοκληρώθηκε το Σαββατοκύριακο 8-9 Μαρτίου

Report, games, photos

Veselin Topalov defended with Slav against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who already on the 4th move employed the rare 4.Nbd2. Topalov proceeded to develop in Gruenfeld-like fashion and quickly struck in the center with c6-c5. The queens went off as early as on move 9, but the game nevertheless remained very interesting. Black established the knight on [...]

In the other Russian derby, Sergey Karjakin and Peter Svidler fought in the Taimanov Sicilian. White quickly expanded in the center, while black looked for his chances on the queenside. The black knight remained strained on the edge of the board, but it still performed an important function of defending the f5-square. Apparently neither of [...]