Archive for Reports
Friday, February 03, 2012 21:11
Iceland celebrated its first "Chess Day" on January 26th, the country's first GM and ex-FIDE president Fridrik Olafsson's birthday. GM Olafsson, who turned 77 that day, was honored at a reception at Bessastadir, the Presidential Residence. The day featured many events across all of Iceland, including simuls and blitzes in schools, shopping malls,...
Friday, February 03, 2012 16:28
As a life-long King's Indian player (not counting the occasional flirt with the Grünfeld), I've never been very enthusiastic about answering the move 1.d4 with putting my pawns on d5 and e6. In Queen's Gambits White always has a small but very annoying edge, the Nimzo & Queen's Indian complex somehow doesn't seem to suit my style and without...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 19:05
English grandmaster Nigel Short won the 10th Tradewise Chess Festival in Gibraltar on Thursday after beating Hou Yifan of China in a blitz playoff. Both players had finished on 8/10.
Event
Tradewise Chess Festival | PGN via TWIC
Dates
January 24th-February 2nd, 2012
Location
Gibraltar, UK
System
10-round Swiss, different groups
Players
Top...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 17:37
In an official statement, Levon Aronian has repeated what he expressed before: that he cannot play a 'high ranked tournament' in Azerbaijan. The Armenian grandmaster made this statement today and it was published at the website of the Armenian Chess Federation. With this message, Aronian reacts to bids for the 2012 FIDE Candidates Tournament...
Thursday, February 02, 2012 13:24
Invisible Chess Moves won the 2011 ChessCafe Book of the Year award. After several weeks of voting, the book by Yochanan Afek and Emmanuel Neiman beat Jeremy Silman's How to Reassess Your Chess and Boris Gulko & Dr Joel R. Sneed's Lessons with a Grandmaster. It was the 12th time that the prize was awarded by chess website ChessCafe.
In the...
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 23:00
Reigning Women's World Champion Hou Yifan is showing very impressive chess in Gibraltar. After beating Judit Polgar and earlier Zoltan Almasi, in the last two rounds the Chinese grandmaster added two more 2700 scalps: Le Quang Liem and Alexei Shirov. With one round to go, she is in sole first position with 7.5/9.
Hou Yifan grabbed the lead in...
Wednesday, February 01, 2012 10:18
FIDE has started a new inititive to support chess federations and chess in schools projects. The major goals are to increase on the one hand the number of members, and on the other hand the actual income, for individual federations. In the press release, which you can read in full below, an important novelty is introduced: student membership.
The...
Tuesday, January 31, 2012 8:32
Hou Yifan, reigning World Champion, defeated Judit Polgar, the best female chess player ever, in their first over-the-board encounter on Monday in Gibraltar. The two ladies faced each other in the 7th round of the Tradewise Chess Festival's Masters tournament and the Chinese grandmaster won an endgame that started from a Sicilian, Taimanov...
Monday, January 30, 2012 22:19
The Grand Slam Chess Association announced on Sunday that the world famous tournament in Linares, Spain will be held again this year, after it was cancelled in 2011. The Association also communicated the dates for the 5th Grand Slam Masters Final, and requested FIDE to "avoid any conflicts with our schedules".
The following press release was...
Monday, January 30, 2012 13:14
Today is the 75th birthday of 10th World Champion Boris Vasilievich Spassky. Taking over the title from Tigran Petrosian in 1969, Spassky lost his title in the famous "Match of the Century" against Bobby Fischer in 1972. Spassky is the oldest living former World Champion.
Spassky at the 1984 Thessaloniki Olympiad | Photo Gerhard Hund
Spassky was...
