In this and subsequent posts I intend to look more closely at my book Move Two! and explain more about what was in my mind when I wrote it. It was originally written in 1992 as a follow-up to Move One! which Faber & Faber had published in 1990 and was originally intended to be [...]

The 12th Rochefort Open tournament was held on 16th-22th February 2013 at the Congres Palais, in Rochefort, France. Just days before the huge Cappelle-la-Grande Open, the Rochefort Open was an excellent occasion for the players to test their preparation. The Open A, which was reserved for players rated 1900 or higher, had 55 participants. Georgian [...]

Round 1 of the Zurich Chess Challenge is history, and not the sort of history that will be studied years later. As expected, Vladimir Kramnik played something a little offbeat with White (1.Nf3 c5 2.b3), undoubtedly saving his real preparation for when it counts - next month's Candidates' tournament. Boris Gelfand didn't have much trouble with this, and were it not for the tournament rule that if...

Yaacov Norowitz, Aman Hambleton, and Amin Bassem medalists at Even Steven

Many Grandmasters stopped at the start

Η σκληρή δουλειά ανταμείβεται. Να δώσουμε τα συγχαρητήρια μας στο νεαρό Λευτέρη για την πρώτη θέση, με 5,5 βαθμούς σε 6 αγώνες, που κατέκτησε στο σχολικό πρωτάθλημα Δυτικής Αττικής!

The 2013 Guam International Open Chess Tournament was held on 15-21st February, 2013, at the Bayview Hotel, Tumon, Guam. The 9-round Swiss event was $5000 worth in prizes and rated with FIDE. 26 players from seven federations competed. IM Jacek Stopa from Poland was by far the top rated player and he demonstrated the superiority [...]

The players are hiding preparation in view of the Candidates

Only four players are involved in the Zurich Chess Challenge, but it's a very impressive field! There's world champion Viswanathan Anand, fresh from his come from behind win at the Grenke Chess Classic; there's world #2 and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who has been playing very well lately and will participate in the Candidates tournament next month in London; there's Boris Gelfand...

Live games with analysis

Live games with analysis

Interview with the man behind the surprise of TCEC stage 1

Live games from TCEC

Beginners have an uncanny way of complicating a position rather than simplifying it. While chess can be a difficult game that leads to complex board positions, the solutions to these positions are often quite simple. I was going through some annotated master level games and was surprised at how often the simplest solution was the [...]

Seven players share the lead with 4.5/5