With two round remaining the 2nd edition of Gurgaon International Grandmasters Chess Tournament heading for a close finish as at the end of eighth round matches seven players including top seed Kravtsiv Martyn of Ukraine and Indian hope Sahaj Grover leading the point table with six and half points. In the eighth round, most of [...]

Last weekend I was a coach at the National Junior Squad Coaching Weekend in Knowsley. One of the sessions was not for the kids but for parents instead, and an interesting topic came up. Chess is now very popular at primary school level (up to age 11) but on moving to secondary school most of […]

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament starts on Saturday, so the preparations in the playing venue are in full swing. In just 8 days’ time, the Moriaan sports centre is transformed into one of the leading chess temples in the world. Last Friday, Lennart Ootes of newsaboutchess.com had an exclusive look behind the scenes of the [...]

The 25th International Open Roquetas de Mar took place on 2-6th January at the Hotel Bahia Serena in Roquetas de Mar, Almeria, Spain. The event consisted of the 9-round General Open with 126 participants and the 7-round U2150 Open with 93 participants. In the General Open four players shared the first place with 7,0/9 points [...]

On Wednesday, 29 of January 2014, the Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 will commence at the Hotel Savoy. With six participants it is the first tournament in the history of chess to reach category 23 with an amazing average rating of 2801! The star of the Zurich Chess Challenge 2014 will be the newly crowned world-champion [...]

Venue: Hilton Garden Inn, 1001 South Peters Street, New Orleans, LA 70130. 6 Round Swiss G/45 d5 USCF Rated Up to 8 sections: grades K- 2, 3-5, 6-8 & 9-12, separate for Girls & Boys (T.D. may combine any sec.w/ < 10players) Side events: 3 hour chess camp (max.30) GM Susan Polgar Simul (limited to [...]

The 27th Open du Mans was held on 27-30th December 2013 at the Palais des Congres et de la Culture, rue d’Arcole, 72000 le Mans, France. The 9-round Swiss event attracted 217 participants. The total prize fund was 3200 EUR. The tournament was organized by Comité départemental du jeu d’échecs de la Sarthe. FFE President [...]

The 2nd Annual Boston Chess Congress will be held from January 10-12, 2014, at the Hyatt Harborside at Logan Airport, 101 Harborside Dr, Boston, Massachusetts. The event has 6 sections: Premier, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1300. All sections have either 3-day (January 10-12) or 2-day (January 11-12) schedules to [...]

Παρακαλούνται τα σωματεία των Εθνικών Κατηγοριών να ελέγξουν τις λίστες των διεθνών Έλο http://www.essnachess.gr/files/ratings2014.htm

Παρακαλούνται τα σωματεία των Εθνικών Κατηγοριών να ελέγξουν τις λίστες των διεθνών Έλο http://www.essnachess.gr/files/ratings2014.xls

First of all I’d like to wish Chess Improver readers a happy and successful New Year! Although I don’t think this time has any ‘real’ significance, it is a time at which many of us want to draw a line beneath the past and start again. What are suitable New Year Resolutions for someone who […]

The 36th Bulgarian International Open Chess Championship – Georgi Tringov Memorial – will take place from 2nd to 9th February at the Moscow Hall of Hotel Novotel in Plovdiv. The tournament will be played over nine rounds of Swiss system and for the prize fund of 10.000 EUR. The winner will earn 2000 EUR. This [...]

The 89th Hastings International Chess Congress took place from 28th December 2013 to 5th January 2014 at Horntye Park Sports Complex, Bohemia Road, Hastings, United Kingdom. The main event was the Masters Tournament with 94 participants from 24 federations. The event was completed over nine rounds of Swiss system with accelerated pairings. GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil [...]

Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek continued his fantastic run in the Switzerland chess tour by convincingly winning the Hilton Basel Chess Festival with 6,5/7 points. Last week Wojtaszek won another very strong tournament – the Zurich Christmas Open. In the final round Wojtaszek used white pieces to beat Maxim Rodstein and escape the nearest followers by [...]

Top Austrian female player IM Eva Moser won the 4th Senator Max Gutmann Memorial that was held from 27th December 2013 to 4th January 2014 in Augsburg, Germany. Moser also claimed a Grandmaster norm. The tournament was organized by the Schachklub 1908 Goeggingen as a 10-player round robin with the average elo 2408. Final standings: [...]