Shen, Shetty Lead after 2 at U.S. Junior Closed

Pairings for Round 2 of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship looked more like those from a Swiss system than the actual round robin in place. After a completely decisive first round on Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, four out of five games on Saturday featured identical-score matchups, ensuring some early separation in the rankings.

By Brian Jerauld

A poisoned pawn

White offers the poisoned pawn, but soon regrets the present.

Nouri Makes Chess History, Becomes the Youngest Filipino Player to Achieve the Fide Master Title at Age of 7

Manila -- While chess fans were celebrating the victorious Philippine age group chess team, the chess community also noted that a 7-year-old whiz kid became the youngest player to achieve the Fide Master title. 
Alekhine Nouri of Taguig City has won an outright Fide Master title by virtue of his excellent showing at the recent 14th ASEAN + Age Group Chess Championships 2013 Standard competition at the Imperial Mae Ping Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Thursday. 

Kh Anou open chess: Yaisana wins U-11 category

 In the U-11 yrs category of the ongoing 23rd Kh Anou Singh Memorial State Level Open Chess Tournament 2013 played today at Kwakeithel, Yaisana managed to get 5 points out of 5 and was declared winner. Kh Alex, who earned 4 points stood second position while with 3 points and progressive 12 scores Herokumar stood 3rd position.

Hastings and St Leonards Chess Club

ALL three divisions of the club’s principal tournament have now been decided and youth is coming to the fore.

But the main honour, the Club Championship, contested for 130 years, nonetheless goes to Francis Rayner, a several times past winner.

The former Welsh international, a professional pianist now living in St Leonards, took an early lead and finished with 8 points from his 11 games. Although finishing only half a point ahead of the doyen of the club, Bernard Cafferty of Hastings, Rayner never really looked in difficulty and did what was necessary to coast home. Rasa Norinkeviciute of Eastbourne was third with 6½ points, finishing strongly after a poor start.

The bishops, the complete guide

I have seen many articles and books that talk about the bishop pair. We all know the basic rules "knights are better in closed games, and bishops are better in open games", but why are bishops generally preffered? First, it is easier to open a position that it is to completely blockade it. Even in semi-closed positions, bishops can do well.

In this series of articles I will try to explain the following topics

Tal Memorial: Caruana World's #3 After Beating Carlsen

The first two rounds of the Tal Memorial were great, and the third round was not bad either! Hikaru Nakamura impressed once more with a smooth win over Sergey Karjakin in a Grünfeld,  World Champion Viswanathan Anand won his first game in a Ruy Lopez against Alexander Morozevich, and the story of the day was Fabiano Caruana beating Magnus Carlsenwith Black, leapfrogging Vladimir Kramnik in the live ratings. For the first time in his career, the 20-year-old Italian occupies the #3 spot.

No Draws in Round 1 of U.S. Junior Closed Championship

There were just 15 minutes of focus at the opening ceremony of the 2013 U.S. Junior Closed Championship – when the players selected numbers to determine who would control the majority of the white or black pieces. But the impact of those selections were omnipresent through all of Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, when a decisive round 1 saw four of the five players playing white emerge victorious.

By Brian Jerauld

Wesley So Claims Edmondson Cup in Las Vegas

Wesley So won the National Open, part of the Las Vegas International Chess Festival held 6-9 June at the Riviera Casino & Hotel in Las Vegas. The Philippine grandmaster tied for first place with Jaan Ehlvest, Varuzhan Akobian, Alejandro Ramirez, Manuel Leon Hoyos and Enrico Sevillano, but claimed the Edmondson Cup on tiebreak.

The National Open was a 6-round Swiss event with 2-day and 3-day playing schedules, and half-point byes available for all rounds. The US $80,000 total prize fund attracted over a dozen grandmasters, including Webster students GM Wesley So and GM Ray Robson, Texas Tech student GM Elshan Moradiabadi and last year's National Open champ GM Aleksander Lenderman.

Tal Memorial R2: Kramnik Loses Again as Nakamura Bounces Back

In the second round of the Tal Memorial, Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from his quick loss. And how! With the black pieces the American grandmaster defeated Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, who thus started with two consecutive losses. Fabiano Caruana, who began his tournament with an splendid win against the World Champion, was on the losing side the next day. In a very theoretical game, the Italian was outplayed by Boris Gelfand of Israel. The other three games ended in draws.

Spectactular Start 8th Tal Memorial

The first round of the 8th Tal Memorial lived up to its expectations, with three decisive games and lots of excitement. The top encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Kramnik, the two players who tied for first at the London Candidates Tournament in March, ended in the Norwegian's favour. Fabiano Caruana, who finished last in the blitz tournament on Wednesday, defeated none other than Viswanathan Anand with the black pieces. And Hikaru Nakamura, the convincing winner of the blitz, lost very quickly against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov!

Tal Memorial Opened; Nakamura Wins the Blitz

The 8th Tal Memorial was opened officially on Wednesday with a brief opening ceremony and a spectacular blitz tournament, won by Hikaru Nakamura (USA). Reigning World ChampionViswanathan Anand (India) and 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) came second and third, while world number one Magnus Carlsen only managed to score 4.5/9.

Giri-Ivanchuk: Triple Format in Leon

It was a match full of contrasts: the 26th Ciudad de Leon, between Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri. In this experience versus rising star battle, chess was played at three different time controls. Adding to the confusion, Ivanchuk scored the most points, but Giri won the match! Spanish journalist and commentator Leontxo García reports.

Gold for Le Quang Liem at World Blitz

Le Quang Liem won the gold medal at the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia and took home the first prize of US $40,000. Not bad at all for two days of blitz! But it was far from easy: the players had to go through thirty gruelling rounds and in the end the Vietnamese managed to score just half a point more than three players: Alexander Grischuk(Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia).

Bobby Fischer, Backwards For Spite

Sousse, 1967, Interzonal Toumament for the World Chess Championship: Fischer is out; Fischer continues playing; Fisher is definitely leaving; Fischer is back; Fiscer is packing; the judge is packing, too; Reshevsky is packing; the Russians are packing to go...

When one day Grandmaster Kavalek strolled into the hotel lounge in the company of an attractive blonde, this is how he explained his conquest to his inquisitive colleagues : “You have to go here and go there. Here in this hotel, there is no one but Fischer.”

Thessaloniki Grand Prix Round 9

Leinier Dominguez was a convincing winner of his clash with Fabiano Caruana in round 9 of the Thessaloniki Grand Prix, earning a share of the lead once more with just two rounds remaining.

The Cuban and his Italian foe had been sharing second place, but despite having the black pieces Dominguez scored a crucial win to pull level with Gata Kamsky who drew with Etienne Bacrot.

June 2013 Fide Rating List

FIDE have published the official rating list for June 2013.
Magnus Carlsen, Lev Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik are still the top 3 ranked players, all in the 2800 Elo+ club.
World champion Vishy Anand climbs back to #4 in the world after some improved form in recent tournaments.
Sergey Karjakin's memorable victory in the Norway Chess tournament pushes him up 3 places to #7, while Peter Svidler's poor form since his excellent showing in the Candidates tournament drops him out of the top 10 at #11.

Ding Liren Wins 4th Danzhou Masters

The 4th Danzhou Tournament was won by Ding Liren with an undefeated score of 7/9 points.
The 10-player single round-robin competition was held from from 20-29 May in Hainan Danzhou and featured an impressive line-up of Chinese Grandmasters.
Bu Xiangzhi finished in second place on tie-breaks from Ni Hua after both scored 6/9 points.

Thessaloniki Grand Prix Round 8

Gata Kamsky grabbed the sole lead of the Thessaloniki Grand Prix by beating his compatriot Hikaru Nakamura in a thrilling eighth round.
The all-American clash was virtually decided as early as move 15 when Nakamura blundered with Qa3?? The game continued until move 50, but there was no miracle escape from Nakamura this time. He tweeted, "When you start missing 1-2 move combinations in every game, it is time to take a long break from chess".