The Candidates Tournament is approaching, and fans of the recently deposed world chess champion, Viswanathan Anand, are wondering if he will finally put an end to his long run of bad form. In this recent interview he suggests that some strong changes are underway: "I am going through a phase of changing my game." I don't know if he can make the changes fast enough or if they are what he needs...

Με μεγάλα σκορ προχώρησαν οι δύο πρωτοπόροι ΝΕ ΠΑΤΡΩΝ και ΕΣ ΑΙΓΙΑΛΕΙΑΣ. Τα αποτελέσματα αναλυτικά

The Armenian Chess Federation is organizing an international open chess tournament, dedicated to the memory of Karen Asrian, which will take place on June 15-25, 2014, in the prominent resort town of Jermuk. All interested chess players can participate in the 9-round Swiss tournament. GM Robert Hovhannisyan was the winner of the 6th Asrian Memorial. [...]

Alekhine Chess Club, Kolkata, India organises the 19th edition of the prestigious International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament, carrying a prize money of Rs.14,00,000/- (approximately 22500 USD) from 18th to 27th March 2014. First prize of the tournament will be Rs.400,000 and only players with a rating of 2200 and above may be allowed to participate. [...]

If you know any Annoying Small Children, or if you were once an Annoying Small Child yourself, you’ll be familiar with the Why Game. You know how it works. Annoying Small Child asks you a question. You answer, then they ask “Why?”. Every time you give an answer they ask “Why?” again. When I was […]

Tbilisi Chess Academy organized a 10-player round robin tournament from 6th to 11th February. Georgian IM Davit Maghalashvili convincingly won the competition with 6,5/9 points, leaving the nearest followers point and a half behind. He also succeeded in earning a Grandmaster norm. Final standings: 1. IM Maghalashvili Davit GEO 2502 – 6.5 2-3. IM Mammadov [...]

Ο ένατος Παγκόσμιος Διαγωνισμός Σκακιστικών Συνθέσεων (ninth World Tourney of Chess Compositions, WTCC-9) είχε βραβεύσεις που έχουμε δημοσιεύσει, αλλά υπήρξαν και πολλά προβλήματα που δεν πήραν θέση μέσα στα 20 πρώτα της κάθε κατηγορίας.Τα...

Ivan Cheparinov, the winner of Gibraltar Open 2014, gave an extensive interview for the Bulgarian version of Chessdom just a few days after the important victory he achieved. We publish a shortened version of the interview, the full text is here Hello Ivan, congratulations for your victory! What is the feeling after winning against so [...]

Houdini 4 continues rolling through Stage 1a of the strongest computer chess championship TCEC. In the key moment of the qualification group, Houdini managed to defeat with black one of the surprises of Season 6 – Cheng4 – and later continued to take a full point against it’s direct competitor for the top position Critter [...]

Beginners are taught that the middle game in chess is the realm of tactics. Playing through the games of the masters, we often see amazing tactical fireworks erupting on the board during this phase of the game. However, when the beginner tries to produce their own tactical fireworks, they often fizzle out. This happens because […]

Azerbaijan will hold two round robin tournaments in memory of Vugar Gashimov from 19 to 30 April in Shamkir, Teymur Tushiev of ExtraTime.az confirmed for Chessdom. The A Tournament will be a six-player double round robin with Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and local stars Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and [...]

Oslo Metropolitan Area (OMA) is preparing to participate in MIPIM real estate exhibition on 11-14 March at Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France. Law firm “Simonsen Vogt Wiig”, one of Magnus Carlsen’s personal sponsors, is member of OMA. For this reason Carlsen will come to the Oslo stand of the congress. On Tuesday 11 March there [...]

Last year I was unable to play Bunratty as it clashed with my time in Iceland but with the dates moved to earlier in February this year Sue and I were able to return to Ireland’s premier weekend tournament. I had been over at my parents’ and took the long, slow bus down the west […]

I played a rapid game bright and early this AM. I was up by 6:30 AM and playing before 7AM. My opponent and I were pretty much equally rated. I’ve been watching Nigel’s ChessBase video on the QGD Exchange Variation all week. It’s an excellent video for chess improvers, since Nigel focuses on plans and […]

The selection of “The Study of the Year” is organized by the World Federation for Chess Composition and aimed at introducing a single friendly endgame study to the general public. The study should appeal to chess players of various levels and encourage them to pay more attention to endgame studies. Composers were invited to submit [...]