The world's #1 and the world champion - not the same person, unfortunately for chess - both got their first win of the tournament. Magnus Carlsen won easily against Loek van Wely (easy for him, that is) when van Wely goofed something up in the opening, while champ Viswanathan Anand kept creating little problems for Fabiano Caruana until the latter went astray near the time control. Their wins...

Russian Rapid Grand Prix – Cup of Russia for rapid chess “Volgograd 2013″, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the victory at Stalingrad, was held on 11-14th January at the Sports Palace in hero-city Volgograd, Russia. The playing format was 11 rounds of Swiss system with the time control 15 minutes + 10 seconds per [...]

Παρακαλούνται όσοι διαιτητές ενδιαφέρονται να διαιτητεύσουν στα Ομαδικά Πρωταθλήματα της ΕΣΣΝΑ (Κυριακές πρωί) να στείλουν mail στην ΤΕΔ tedessna@yahoo.gr με τα στοιχεία τους (ονοματεπώνυμο, e-mail, τηλέφωνο) και τις ημερομηνίες...

Ένα ενδιαφέρον θέμα στο καλλιτεχνικό σκάκι λέγεται "Όλες οι προαγωγές" ή "Allumwandlung" (AUW, από τα Γερμανικά). Έχουμε δείξει αρκετές φορές αυτό το θέμα.Οι προαγωγές ενός πιονιού είναι τεσσάρων ειδών στο αγωνιστικό σκάκι (σε...

Live game with GM Christian Bauer

Hikaru Nakamura started with a draw against the World Champion Vishwanathan Anand in a game from round 1 of Tata Steel Chess 2013, and then had a narrow escape against Ivan Sokolov in round 2. Peter Leko is stable as usual and also has 1,0/2 after two draws. GM Christian Bauer, IM Aman Hambleton, and [...]

Gawain’s heading over to Gib for this year’s Tradewise Gibraltar Festival from the 21st-31st of January. Entries for the Masters are now closed as it has reach it’s capacity. If you haven’t heard of this tournament it’s one of the Must Do Tournaments (along with Reykjavik, Queenstown,Bangkok e.t.c).Gib is at the Southern tip of Spain but [...]

Λογική και συναίσθημα στη σκακιστική προπόνηση του Ηλία Κουρκουνάκη  Το σκάκι συχνά παρουσιάζεται ως παιχνίδι λογικής ή άθλημα του μυαλού, ιδιαίτερα από και σε όσους δεν έχουν τόσο μεγάλη σχέση μαζί του. Όσοι όμως...

As beginners, we learned the “static” values of the pieces: Knight equals three pawns, Bishop equals Knight, Rook equals five pawns and so on. Based on these values, we knew whether we were about to make a good trade or a bad trade just by counting. Later, we learned more sophisticated evaluations: bishops are usually [...]

Today was a busy day for me (including tournament victory in an unrated local event), so the update will have to be a quick one. In brief, all seven games Group A games in the Tata Steel tournament were drawn, though this was not for want of either effort or opportunity. You can get the quick report on the tournament site; I'll just note that Ivan Sokolov's failure to finish a won game against...

About a week and a half ago, I mentioned on these cyberpages the remarkable play of one Borislav Ivanov in the Zadar Open. Despite a rating of 2227, Ivanov's managed a spectacular tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2697, and this occasioned a partial search of his person and his pen (both were negative) and a long list of accusers on the web ready to proclaim his guilt. My preference was to...

Ξεκίνησαν την Κυριακή το πρωί τα ομαδικά πρωταθλήματα Αττικής σε όλες τις κατηγορίες. Το μεγαλύτερο ενδιαφέρον παρουσιάζει ο ισχυρός και αμφίρροπος ΠΟΑ, με τις τρεις πρώτες ομάδες της κατάταξης να εξασφαλίζουν απ’...

The 2013 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival starts on Sunday 20 January at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar with simultaneous displays at 20:00 hours (CET). The opening ceremony is at 20:30 hours (CET) on Monday 21 January. Play in the main event, the 11th Gibraltar Masters, begins at 15:00 hours (CET) on Tuesday 22 January. The [...]

Ηλιόλουστη ήταν η σημερινή Κυριακή στην Ηγουμενίτσα και οι αγώνες για το διασυλλογικό πρωτάθλημα διεξήχθησαν ομαλά.Χωρίς εκπλήξεις κύλησε ο δεύτερος και ο τρίτος γύρος. Οι μόνες αήττητες ομάδες είναι της Κέρκυρας και...

Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus won the premier section of Parsvnath International Chess Festival after drawing with Grandmaster Henrik Teske of Germany in the tenth and final round that concluded here. Aleksandrov finished with eight points out of a possible ten and finished clear first ahead of Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan who finished second with [...]