In the spirit of the rules?

Yesterday, Peter wrote an interesting article about the Turkish club competition. I was especially fascinated by the team-setup. full story »

Ural Ekaterinenburg the strongest

Leading throughout the tournament, and clearly the best team: Ural Ekaterinenburg has won the Russian Team Championship. full story »

Baden-Baden prolongs title - again

Last weekend, for the third time in a row the Ooser Schachclub Baden-Baden has won the German team championships. We have videos again. full story »

Good start for Ural & Economist1

Karpov, Korchnoi, Svidler, Morozevich, Alekseev, Gelfand, Rublevsky, Bareev, Kamsky, Khalifman, Radjabov, Shirov, Grischuk, Mamedyarov, Ponomariov, Karjakin and many other players are together in Sochi, Russia. At the Russian Team Championship, two teams started with two victories: Ural from Ekaterinenburg and Economist1 from Saratov. full story »

HSG wins 1st Dutch Championship

Last Saturday, in the penultimate round of the Dutch club competition, HSG from Hilversum has won the national team championship for the first time since it was founded in 1887. They only needed one match point, but the players from HSG could open the champagne bottles after another big victory: 1½-8½ against Homburg Apeldoorn. full story »

ChessVibes at topmatch Bundesliga

This weekend will be already the third Bundesliga weekend of this season. In the strong German club competition an absolute top match is scheduled: leader SV Werder Bremen will receive national champion OSC Baden Baden at the Weser Stadium (the home of football club Werder Bremen). The Bundesliga has invited ChessVibes to be present and of course we didn’t reject. This afternoon I will jump into the train and with a bit of luck I will be able to provide some live reporting from Bremen this weekend. full story »

An important improvement?

An opening that is currently not very popular at the highest level, is the Tarrasch Defence. You mainly see Slavs, Queen’s Indians and thanks to Radjabov many King’s Indians as well these days. Although Grischuk uses the Tarrasch occasionally, no top player seems to have seriously studied the opening since Kasparov in the eighties. The reason might be that Black players unconsciously associate it with boring positions and a draw as the best possible result. This is a misconception. full story »

De sterkste interne van Nederland

Toen het viertal cracks van HSG vorige maand bij het nietige De Eenhoorn op bezoek kwam voor de KNSB-bekerwedstrijd, hoorde ik De Vreugt, Nijboer, Stellwagen en Vedder praten over hun interne competitie. Ik dacht: huh? Interne? Spelen jullie mee in een interne?

Natuurlijk heeft HSG ook een interne, om de binding met de club te versterken. Zoals elke club in Nederland dat doet. Niets om je over te verbazen. Behalve als daar spelers als l’Ami, Douven, Janssen, Nijboer, Pieterse, Smeets, Stellwagen, Vedder, De Vreugt en Wiersma aan meedoen! full story »