Σκακιστικά νέα

GM Petar Drenchev leads the Bulgarian National Championship Semifinal. After four rounds GM Drenchev is with 3,5/4, after defeating IM Pavel Dimitrov, Daniil Danov, and Kiril Terzijski, and drawing with IM Marholev.

Botswana is located in Southern Africa and if one can imagine a map of African Continent like chess board it’s easy to find Botswana on the second rank near to South Africa.

The population of the country is about 2 millions but the territory is so huge that the density is 3.4 people/km2 (in comparison density in India is 376 people/km2), which makes Botswana one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world.

The 1st International Chess Open Casino Graz 2014 is set to take place from 14th to 21st February at the Casino Graz and Joanneum Quarter in Graz, Austria.

The tournament will be held in two groups: Open A for all players and Open B for players rated under 2000. Both groups will be played over 9 rounds of Swiss system.

The total prize fund is 6,750 EUR. The top prize in Open A is 1400 EUR and in Open B 450 EUR.

Dansk Skoleskak and Capital of Children are hosting this year’s Nordic Championships in School Chess in Denmark for the first time in 6 years on February 13-16, 2014. Young people from Iceland, Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark will spend this year’s winter holidays in Billund and fight to become Nordic School Chess Champion.

The chess engine Critter, created by the Slovakian software developer Richard Vida, leads Stage 1a of the top world computer chess championship TCEC.

Andrey Filatov, recently elected President of Russian Chess Federation, gave a long interview for the popular newspaper “Sport-Express”.

FIDE has announced round by round pairings for the Candidates Chess Tournament 2014 which is starting on 13th March in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

Round 1:
GM Andreikin Dmitry RUS – GM Kramnik Vladimir RUS
GM Karjakin Sergey RUS – GM Svidler Peter RUS
GM Mamedyarov Shakhriyar AZE – GM Topalov Veselin BUL
GM Anand Viswanathan IND – GM Aronian Levon ARM

Candidates Tournament 2014 Pairings (pdf)

The European Chess Union (E.C.U), the International School Chess Union (I.S.C.U.) and the Olympic Sports Academy of Thessaloniki have the honour of inviting all National Chess Federations of the European Chess Union and eligible players to the European School Chess Championships 2014 organised in Kavala, Greece from 16 June (arrivals) to 27 June (departures).

European Team Champions in 2011 and European Team Vice-Champions in 2013, Germany and France, will play a friendly match some time during 2014 to mark the 51st anniversary of the Élysée Treaty.