Most of the time, we consider ourselves in relation to “chess improvement”; me, myself and I, what opening am I going to play, what should I study, am I an “attacking player” or a “positional player,” should I be doing more tactics? Etc., etc., ad infinitum. This is quite natural, but it does a player [...]

The 6th Paleohora Open Chess Tournament is set to take place on 19-26th June at the Municipality of Kandanos – Selino Community Centre, in Paleohora, Crete, Greece. The tournament is organized by the Municipality of Kandanos – Selino and Chania Chess Academy, with support from the Region of Crete and Greek Chess Federation. The 9-round [...]

Swedish Grandmaster Nils Grandelius won the 2nd Golden Sands open tournament that was held on 10-18th June in the Bulgarian sea resort Golden Sands. Grandelius defeated Indian GM Arun Prasad in the last round to complete the tournament with 7,5/9 points. Vladislav Nevednichy and MR Venkatesh were also victorious to catch Zbynek Hracek and Vladimir [...]

Nobody is safe on top of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship. After a third round that saw two perfect-score frontrunners fall with the white pieces, Monday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis was more of the same for the leader. FM Luke Harmon-Vellotti entered atop the standings with 2.5/3 points, [...]

Magnus Carlsen had the white pieces and beat world champion Viswanathan Anand in just 29 moves

When offering some thoughts on the Tal Memorial blitz I expressed my admiration for both sides' play in the rook ending of the Carlsen - Kramnik game and a desire to present it for your perusal. Here it is. (I know, I don't want to use that software, but there hasn't been time to learn something new just yet.)

The 12th Premier League of Bosnia & Herzegovina is taking place from 15th to 23rd June at the Hotel Saraj in Sarajevo. Ten teams compete in the round robin tournament. Each team is lining six players and maximum four reserves. Official website has photos and games. Team Compositions: 1. ŠK Glasinac, Sokolac 1 GM Bogosavljevic [...]

The correct answer will vary from person to person, depending on your particular learning style and non-chess factors. For example, if you are married or in a relationship or have young children, it may not be easy for you to get away to play chess, especially on weekends. Three players I have known personally—two of [...]

Nakamura got his third straight victory to get sole first place

For the first time ever, World Championship challenger GM Magnus Carlsen will play a high-profile tournament in the United States. The World’s No. 1 ranked player will take on three other top-ten players in Saint Louis this September when he joins GMs Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky for the Sinquefield Cup, a four-player, [...]

FIDE Zone 3.4 Championships 2013 were held from 7th to 16th June in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan. A total of 35 players from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan competed in Open and Women’s section. Grandmaster Anton Filippov from Uzbekistan won the Open section with 7,0/9 points. Local player Mikhail Markov finished second [...]

Οι φωτογραφίες είναι της προηγούμενης εβδομάδας, πριν την αστυνομική καταστολή,  και προέρχονται από άρθρο της Chessbase. Η τουρκική αστυνομία εισέβαλε το βράδυ του Σαββάτου στην πλατεία Ταξίμ και το πάρκο Γκεζί της...

Αυτό το σαββατοκύριακο ξεκίνησε το ατομικό πρωτάθλημα Δυτικής Ελλάδας. Μπορείτε να δείτε αναλυτικές πληροφορίες του τουρνουά, πατώντας εδώ.  Δυστυχώς η συμμετοχή από περιοχές εκτός Κέρκυρας ήταν ελάχιστη...

My first martial arts teacher has the following words at the top of his lineage page: When learning anything, it is very important to consider from whom you will be learning. This is an especially big thing with the internal martial arts as learning to move with relaxed internal power is very difficult to achieve. [...]

Slovakian IM Stefan Mazur convincingly won the 2013 Pula Open after finishing the competition with 8,0/9 points in the field of 244 players. Norwegian IM Frode Urkedal and Serbian GM Sinisa Drazic shared the second place half a point behind the winner. The 27th International Open Tournament Pula was organized by the Chess Club Pula [...]