The World Chess Championship Challenger Magnus Carlsen checked into Hyatt Regency Chennai tonight after spending a couple of days at the nearby spa resort. The defending Champion Viswanathan Anand arrived to the hotel on weekend and settled in on the 10th floor. Final preparation for the FIDE World Chess Championship Match Photos by FIDE Press [...]

Του Παναγιώτη Κονιδάρη Εδώ και κάμποσο καιρό, εκείνα τα υποχθόνια πλάσματα που αναπνέουν στο περιθώριο του σκακιού, και που μερικές φορές τα συναντάτε να σκύβουν τις σκεβρωμένες πλάτες τους και να χώνουν την...

Αρκάς :xkcd : http://xkcd.com/1287/Daryl Cagle : http://www.nbcnews.com/slideshow/usnews/cartoons-daryl-cagle-looks-back-at-the-decade-34481082/36/Jan Tomaschoff : http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Chess_50401ericallie : https://www.ijreview.com/2013/09/78874-cartoon-obama-winning-bingo-checker-playing-chess-putin/

FIDE, All India Chess Federation and Hyatt Regency Chennai are conducting final preparation for the FIDE World Chess Championship Match between Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. The playing room and spectators area are being arranged. The soundproof glass has been installed and indeed one can not hear the workers’ noise from the other side. The [...]

Η ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗ ΣΚΑΚΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΟΜΟΣΠΟΝΔΙΑ ανακοίνωσε το αγωνιστικό πρόγραμμα για το έτος 2014. Περισσότερες πληροφορίες στον σύνδεσμο www.chessfed.gr/archives/3205

Στο πλαίσιο αναβάθμισης του http://kesaris.blogspot.gr/  λόγω της ευρείας αποδοχής που έχει τύχει τα τελευταία χρόνια που βρίσκεται On-line και σας ευχαριστούμε θερμά γι’ αυτό, αναζητούμε συντάκτες που θα μπορούσαν να στελεχώσουν...

and she enters in style!

A few people have written asking if I will cover the upcoming Magnus Carlsen-Viswanathan Anand match in a way similar to what I did last year with the match between Anand and Boris Gelfand. I covered the match on the blog to some extent, but worked up some deep analysis and videos for subscribers, sending both to them by email. After spending some time thinking about it, here's what I think I'll...

It's here, up and running. We're about a day away from the opening ceremony, and play begins on Saturday. We're almost there!

Not so much that's new here in this piece by Nigel Short on the upcoming world championship match between Magnus Carlsen and titleholder Viswanathan Anand. Not much, but something. In particular, it settled a discussion I was having with a friend as to whether Garry Kasparov was in fact helping Magnus Carlsen beyond offering a bit of advice. It seems from this interview that he is in on Carlsen's...

This is a very pleasant documentary on Magnus Carlsen, suitable for chess player and non-chess player alike. Worth a look. HT: Glenn Snow

That's what Matt Gaffney writes in Slate Magazine. (HT: Robert Davis) He's not the first person to argue thusly, but I do think he has chosen a poor moment in history to make that argument. Part of his case is that title matches often fail to pair the world's best players, but if Magnus Carlsen takes the throne the matches will at least feature the world's #1 player for some time to come. There...

Some of my students are keen to learn different kinds of openings. I follow Nigel’s model while teaching openings to my students; I select openings which produce different kind of pawn structures. I have already written an article on this but this time I would like to be more productive. Normally we advise our students […]

Peter Svidler is a great player, but I'm still surprised that he was chosen by the Russian organizers of the 2014 Candidates' tournament as their wildcard selection. (HT to Daniel Parmet for alerting me to this.) Svidler just won his 7th Russian Championship, but rated #13 in the world compared to his fellow Russian and world #5 Alexander Grischuk, he seemed the less likely choice. Apparently...

It isn't really a chess story, but news about Garry Kasparov is generally interesting to chess fans - at least to those of us who have been in the game since before 2005, when he retired from professional play. So the news is that Kasparov is looking to obtain Latvian citizenship (without giving up his Russian citizenship) to have a safe base for his political activities. Why Latvia in...