Σκακιστικά νέα

The 13th Khazar International Open Chess Tournament is organized by Chess Association of “Gilan” province on behalf of I.R. Iran Chess Federation from 11th to 18th February, 2015, in Rasht, the largest city on Iran’s Caspian Sea coast.

The tournament is taking place at Yadegar Imam Sport Complex located in Golsar St, Rasht.

88 players from 12 different countries are vying for the first place of 1,500 USD, including 9 GMs, 1 WGM, 8 IMs, 2 WIMs, 8 FMs and 1 WFM.

The 40th Peoples Tournament is set to take place from 14-16th February, 2015, at the Santa Clara Convention Center, 5001 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, California, USA.

The event consists of five elo sections. The tournament format is 6-round Swiss with the time control 40/120, sd30, d5.

The total prize fund is $20,000 based on 273 entries, with 60% of the prizes guaranteed.

The Southwest Class Championships will be held from February 13-16, 2015, at the DFW Airport Marriott South, 4151 Centreport Blvd., Fort Worth, Texas.

The event has 7 sections: Master (FIDE rated), Expert, Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D and Class E.

The Master Section has either 4-day (February 13-16) or 3-day (February 14-16) schedules to play in while all other sections have either 4-day (February 13-16), 3-day (February 14-16) or 2-day (February 15-16) schedules to play in.

FIDE Events Commission (EVE) conducted a preparation meeting for the coming 86th FIDE Congress in Moscow, Russia from 6-8th February 2015.

The meeting started with a very interesting presentation from the Commission member Adam Dzwonkowski (POL) about chess branding and chess events marketing.

The Commission evaluated the preparations for the World Chess Championships 2015 and decided on a program of supported actions and inspections. It was decided also that Commission will support chess programs related with the World Expo 2015 in Milan.

The Aarhus Chess House GM Tournament 2015 is taking place from 7th to 14th February, 2015, in Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark.

The event is a 10-player round-robin tournament with tempo of play 90′/ 40 + 30′ + 30″.

The Bunratty Chess Festival 2015 is scheduled to take place from 18th to 22nd February, 2015, at the luxurious Bunratty Castle Hotel & Spa, Ireland.

The 29th Cannes Winter Open – Festival des Jeux 2015 is scheduled to take place from 22nd February to 1st March at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, France.

The chess festival consists of three sections:
- Tournament A for players with a 2200+ Elo rating
- Tournament B for players with a rating lower than 2100 (The players with a rating between 2100 and 2200 can choose to participate on Tournament A or B)
- Tournament C for players with a rating lower than 1600

USSR Honored Trainer IM Aleksander Nikitin donated two large boxes of “debut kartoteka” – openings card index to the Chess Museum in Moscow.

In the pre-computer era masters and grandmasters carried huge cases of books and magazines to the chess tournaments. As trainer of the Soviet national teams in the 70s, Nikitin was in charge of establishing a system for collection and processing of theoretical information.

He created a card index based on idea of Estonian IM Iivo Nei. The system was in use for over two decades.

Photo credit: Georgios Souleidis

The reigning World champion Magnus Carlsen is the 2015 winner of Grenke Chess Classic!

The Zurich Chess Challenge 2015 is taking place from 13th to 19th February, 2015, at the Hotel Savoy Baur en Ville, in Zurich, Switzerland.

The super-tournament is a 5-round event with the classic tempo of play 120′/ 40 + 60′/ 20 + 15′ + 30″. The games will be daily live on Chessdom.com with TCEC engines analysis