Την πρωταθλήτρια ομάδα του ΣΟΠ αντιμετώπισε η ομάδα μας (Σιρινιάν-Πρίντζιος-Ζαφειρόπουλος-Διαμαντόπουλος-Κορδού-Μπομποτσιάρη) χάνοντας με 6-0. Ο αγώνας έγινε στην έδρα μας μετά απο πρόταση της Προέδρου. Την παράσταση...

In a previous post on chess blindness I mentioned the “chicken bone thing”. I have found my game against Michael J. Hoffer in which he explains this tactic in quite a bit of detail. Mike has a tendency to be obsessive – compulsive and his analysis of my game with him shows that trait. Mike […]

Chess Club Lebane hosted a blitz tournament on 2-3rd November. 24 players, including six Grandmasters, played in a double round robin format with 46 rounds. However, unlike the Saverne Marathon where games take place 24 hours non-stop, this event allowed overnight sleep. Grandmaster Milos Perunovic took the top prize after finishing the race with 39 [...]

Ο χρόνος μετρά αντίστροφα για τις 23 Νοεμβρίου, στην οποία θα πραγματοποιηθεί ένα από τα μεγαλύτερα, εάν όχι το μεγαλύτερο, διαδικτυακό πρωτάθλημα πολύ γρήγορου σκακιού (Blitz). Σε λίγες μέρες θα γίνει η επίσημη ανακοίνωση...

I enjoyed my first visit to Bilbao, a beautiful city with excellent views and great food. We took the opportunity to check out the Guggenheim Museum before catching our flight home. The tournament was intense with six games in a row at the challenging time limit of 40 moves in 90 minutes with no increment. [...]

There's a neat, short autobiographical essay by Sergey Shipov (which doubles in passing as an ad for his outstanding books on the Hedgehog) that can be obtained from Mongoose Press. He discusses his career as a player, then as Garry Kasparov's sparring partner in blitz, and then in a non-playing capacity. He concludes with some highlights from his career, focusing on a 2006 win over Magnus...

Bulgarian Grandmaster Kiril Georgiev emerged convincing winner of the Alkaloid Rapid Open Tournament that was held on 2nd November at Hotel Kontinental in Skopje. Georgiev completed the event with 8 points from nine games, leaving the second placed IM Filip Pancevski half a point behind. 135 players participated in the 9-round Swiss open with the [...]

Με νίκες για τους ΣΟΠ, ΑΣΟΝ και ΠΡΟΜΗΘΕΑ ολοκληρώθηκε ο τέταρτος γύρος του ομαδικού πρωταθλήματος παίδων κορασίδων της ΕΣΣΠ. Παρά το ότι απομένει ένας ακόμα γύρος, ο ΣΟΠ έχει αναδειχθεί ήδη πρωταθλητής. Τα αποτελέσματα...

Κάθε Κυριακή η αίθουσα του Συλλόγου μας θα είναι ανοιχτή για όλους! Μπορείτε να έρχεστε για να παίζεται παρτίδες σκάκι και να συμμετέχετε στα πρωταθλήματα του συλλόγου.

A look at the chess career of Magnus Carlsen

Anatoly Karpov as you've never seen him before:

Here’s another junior game, this time featuring two players with little practical experience, but who have both studied the game and learnt some openings. White has a passion for gambits, so punted the Milner-Barry Gambit against his opponent’s French Defence. But instead of the usual Nc3 on move 10, he opted for Be3, dubious in […]

As intriguing as many find the upcoming world championship match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, there is as yet no rivalry in chess history that compares with that between Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. They played five world championship matches in a six-year period, comprising 144 games in total (no wimpy 12-game matches for those two), and in all of them the outcome was...

In my summary post on Cap d'Agde, I mentioned a long and fascinating ending between Anatoly Karpov and Mariya Muzychuk from their semi-final match. Here it is, with my annotations.

Did I just mention interviews? Go here (HT: Brian Karen), and you'll find interviews to keep you busy for days. It's far from comprehensive, and it doesn't look as if has been kept up to date, but it's a fun browse all the same.