A sample letter to schools. What do you think? Dear Headteacher We’re thrilled that you’re thinking of running a chess club at your school. We believe that chess is the greatest game in the world, as well as being an enormously powerful learning tool which, correctly taught, will enhance both cognitive and non-cognitive skills. We [...]

NTG Quick Grand Prix was organized by the NTG Chess Club on 15th December. The 15-min rapid tournament was played in two groups and over seven rounds of Swiss system. Top Norwegian Grandmasters Magnus Carlsen and Jon Ludvig Hammer shared the first place with 6,0/7 points each. Hammer defeated Carlsen but lost to the third-placed [...]

Chess Federation of FYR Macedonia held the open rapid tournament Makedonija 2012 on 15th December to mark the 40th anniversary of the 1972 Skopje Chess Olympiad. 87 players took part in the 9-round Swiss event with the time control 15′+5”. The tournament is rated for FIDE Rapid elo. Grandmaster Trajko Nedev won the tournament in [...]

The team of Paris, France is top seed in the World Cities Chess Team Championship starting 21st December in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. Twenty four strong teams shall vie for the Sheikh Zayed Cup and a total of $150,000 in cash prizes at stake in the knock out competition, a first for team tournaments [...]

The 2012 Pan American Intercollegiate Chess Championship will take place on 27-30th December at the Frick Chemistry Laboratory, Princeton University, NJ 08540. Team Format: 4 Player Teams, up to 2 Alternates, Traditional 6 round Fix Roster Swiss Tournament. Open to College and University teams from North and South America including the Caribbean. Teams must supply [...]

New Delhi (15 December 2012): 8th Asian Schools Chess Championship 2012 got off to a rousing start here at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on Saturday. 415 players from 11 different countries are participating in this prestigious championship, which have three formats of Rapid, Standard and Blitz events. In the Rapid event, Indians once again proved [...]

The rapid sections of the SportAccord Mind Games came to a dramatic end in Beijing, China. The men section winner of 2012 is Laurent Fressinet who edged out Hikaru Nakamura on better tiebreak score. Nakamura entered the day as sole leader, but right in the first game Fressinet defeated him with black and took the [...]

Παραλία του Τελ Αβίβ, 1948. Δυο άνδρες παίζουν σκάκι και μια κοπέλα παρακολουθεί την παρτίδα. Στο βάθος το κουφάρι του περιώνυμου πλοίου “Altalena”, το οποίο μετέφερε εβραίους μετανάστες που είχαν διασωθεί από τα...

Σήμερα είναι μια μεγάλη μέρα. Έπειτα από δύο χρόνια ενασχόλησης με το ίντερνετ κατάφερα επιτέλους να δημιουργήσω τι δική μου ιστοσελίδα. Καλό είναι και το blog, αλλά είναι εντελώς διαφορετικό να είσαι σε ένα χώρο που σου...

From time to time I like to go back to the old classic books. These are mostly game collections of the world champions, annotated by those champions, as well as several players who came close to becoming world champion, or  were known as outstanding teachers and writers – notably David Bronstein, Victor Korchnoi, Paul Keres, [...]

SPNO Boys & Girls Championships will take place on 1-3 March, 2013, at Holiday Inn Downtown/Superdome, New Orleans, LA. 6 Rd. SS G/45 d/5 scholastic up to 9 sections: USCF Rated Secs. grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8 & 9-12, sep. for Girls & Boys; 1 Unrated K-12 Reserve sec. Information and online registration here Side events: [...]

The 22nd Annual North American Open will be held at Bally’s Casino Resort, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, Nevada. The event has a $120,000 projected prize fund (based on 600 entries) with $90,000 guaranteed. The event has 7 sections: Open, Under 2200, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1250. [...]

Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the European Blitz Chess Championship 2012 that was held on 14th December at The Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland. 435 players from European federations (FIDE Zones 1.1 to 1.10) competed in the 11 double-round Swiss event with the time control G-3′+2”. Vachier-Lagrave finished clear first with 18,5/22 points, [...]

Regular readers know that I strongly prefer that comments to my posts bear some relevance to what I've actually written. That's unlikely to change any time soon, but let's experiment a bit. Readers, you are welcome to start threads here in the comments on just about any chess-related topic you like. A few restrictions are in order, but they shouldn't prove terribly onerous: 1. Nothing defamatory...

Hikaru Nakamura is well known to be one of the strongest fast chess players in history. Today he started the defense of his reputation at the SportAccord Mind Games. The first four rounds of the rapid competition were played, and Nakamura already sits at the top of the table with 3,5/4. He started with victories [...]