The European Chess Club Cup is usually held in one of the European countries. This year was an exception – it took place in the Middle East, between Asia and Africa. The leading clubs travelled to Eilat, Israel, to determine the best of the ...
Analyzing your games is one of the main ways of improving in chess. During this procedure you will be able to pinpoint your typical mistakes, as well as weaknesses & strengths. Your games are your business card in the world of chess. Each per...
In Part II I described a rather tough period for our team: we made three draws. This allowed China to take the lead by one match point. What could we hope for? Win all our matches, while China loses at least a point? This scenario was not very lik...
Round 5 was the last one before the first rest day. We were paired with the co-leader, France (8 match points). I had a free day. When everyone left the hotel, the Internet finally started working fine. I managed to watch a movie online and then w...
The World Chess Olympiad is one of the most exciting and classical tournaments. Its importance is overshadowed only by the individual World Chess Championship. It is both a fantastic festival and a place where serious confrontations take place, wh...
Part I of this story dealt with the first five rounds of the championship. I was the leader with 4/5, and among my pursuers were Olga Girya and Alisa Galliamova, whom I was to face in the rounds to come. During the rest day I decided to take a f...
The main Russian chess event of the year started on August 2nd in Radisson Slavyanskaya Hotel in Moscow. 10 male and 10 female chess players were to compete for the title of the Russian Chess Champion. In each section, the contestants were: three ...
If you have read Part I of the article, you already know that China prevailed in the classical games over Russia: 26-24. Now even more points were at stake: 100 instead of 50; contested in rapid chess. This offered us good chances to overcome our ...
From July 1-9 St. Petersburg, the cultural capital of Russia, hosted the 8th unofficial match between Russia and China. The format of the event has usually been different each year. This time the participants had to play 5 classical games and 10 r...
After the first six rounds we had a rest day. The Top League is a rather tense tournament, so playing 11 rounds non-stop would have been way too much. How does one spend the rest day? It depends. Some do sports, others go sightseeing, and some jus...
Early summer was a very busy period for me in terms of tournament play. I took a short break after the World Women’s Blitz & Rapid Chess Championships and then headed to the Russian Top League in Tyumen, followed by a trip to St. Petersburg fo...
My previous report was dedicated to the World Women’s Rapid Chess Championship, and now it is the time for blitz. The participants were the same, but not the results. The time control was rather unusual: 4m+2s/move. The typical one nowadays is 3m+...
This year both the Women’s Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships were announced – thanks to the Association of Chess Professionals and Batumi, Georgia, the city which agreed to host it. This news came as a pleasant surprise for many players, because...
In chess, like in any other sports, psychology plays a critical role. One doesn’t become a world champion having a weak character. However, even the bravest and most self-confident player isn’t guaranteed anything. The higher the stakes, the more ...
The title of "World Champion" is the most coveted award in chess. It is desired by millions, but reached by only the chosen few. Behind each champion there is a story of years of hard work. Some great chess players never became world champions for...
When referring to general chess principles, approaches and structures in my articles I always add a disclaimer warning that a lot depends on the particular situation. A certain method might work in 9 cases out of 9, only to fail in the 10th. A gen...
In Part I and Part II we were discussing the first four rounds of the Russian Team Chess Championship ’12. A few important clashes have happened already, but the most critical rounds are usually the final ones. The teams were competing not only fo...
Part I was published last week. The third round became the duel of heavyweights. SHSM-64 vs Tomsk-400, St. Petersburg vs Ugra. Saratov was facing a solid team Nagivator (Moscow) with Sutovsky and Sasikiran on the top boards. Given the short dista...
The traditional Russian Team Chess Championship (both men’s and women’s divisions) was held from April 8th to 16th in the Loo district of the resort city Sochi on the coast of the Black sea. From 2005 to 2011 I have been playing in the women’s tou...
Just like last year in Tbilisi, in 2012 in Gaziantep I had to score 2/2 in the final two games to qualify for the World Championship. In round 10 of the European Championship I won a nerve-racking game against Voinovich, and in the final round I w...
Castling is a move performed simultaneously by a king and a rook with the aims of ensuring the king’s safety and connecting the rooks. There are three ways you can castle: long, short and 'artificial.' The latter is when your king and rook eventua...
Trading pieces is a typical technique in chess. While at the start of the game both you and your opponent have an equal chess army, later in the game your forces are starting to perish. Naturally, like Saviely Tartakover used to say, “It’s better ...
From March 1st to 19th most of the strongest European female chess players gathered at Gaziantep, Turkey to compete for the classical, rapid and blitz titles. I don’t want to dwell too much on the statistics and peculiarities of the tournament str...
Any strong chess player must know when to take a deep think, and when to make a move quickly. Time management is critical: you can’t be too fast, you can’t be too slow. Here are the three typical situations when you might want to take your time: ...
Life is about defining priorities and making choices. Sometimes we tend to overestimate or underestimate certain factors. Chess is not an exception. First of all, sometimes we misevaluate what’s happening on the board itself. Secondly, quite ofte...
