Five of the six games in round 3 of the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki were drawn, and of the five four of them were logical; that is, neither side ever had a serious advantage. Kamsky-Grischuk was another story, as Kamsky had a huge time advantage an…

Tomorrow, from 9am to 10am, I will give a free chess lesson on “Piece Values” at the eprof.com website of Columbia Academy.

Aside from a 19-move draw between Dominguez and Ponomariov, the action in round 2 of the FIDE Grand Prix event in Thessaloniki was plentiful once more. The other two draws had more life: Bacrot-Kasimdzhanov tested the suddenly resurgent Exchange Gruenf…

United States Chess Federation members with ratings below 2355 may be interested to know that their “K-factor” has changed. Now their ratings will be more volatile, which is good news if their ratings are going up; not so good if they’re taking a plung…

Watch this video from last month’s Christopher M. Blozen chess tournament in Lanoka Harbor NJ.

Chess Informant (CI) – the publisher – doesn’t just publish the Informant - the book. Case in point: the fourth edition of the Encyclopedia of Chess Combinations. This is an old-style CI book: there’s no English (or any other natural language) in …

As I’ve already reviewed Informants 113, 114 and 115 when they come out in book form, I won’t repeat here what I said though you can find the reviews of each by clicking on the links above. My conclusion about those volumes, and with the Informant…

The Grand Prix tournament in Thessaloniki got off to a good and lively start today, with three decisive games out of six and only one draw that so much as remotely resembled a non-event.
In fact, the quickest game was Peter Svidler’s 27-move win over l…

Lothar Schmid is largely unknown to contemporary chess fans, and indeed was never among the world’s elite. Nevertheless, he was a notable figure in the game, as in addition to achieving the grandmaster title in over-the-board play, he achieved it in co…

A good, short essay here.