Σκακιστικά νέα

The 5th Annual Golden State Open was held over the Martin Luther King weekend from January 17-20, 2013, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 45 John Glenn Dr., Concord, California.

The event had 6 sections: Open, Under 2200, Under 1900, Under 1600, Under 1300 and Under 1000. The tournament format was 7-round Swiss, 40/110, SD/30, d10.

This year, as well as last year, we are focusing on the young people before and during the tournament. We have now started with chess lessons for young pupils in our region.

Chessity.com, the online community of chess training, has announced that they will cover game analysis of Tatasteel Chess Tournament 2014. Renowned grand master Erwin I’ami will analyze the best game of that day daily during the event. http://chessity.com/blog The 76th edition of this tournament began on January 10 and it will end on January 26, 2014.

FIDE Announcement / 23-1-2014

After the article of the New York Times, concerning ethical questions regarding the contract between Gary Kasparov and Ignatius Leong, it came to our attention a statement by Morten Sand, the lawyer assisting Garry Kasparov's campaign, that a leaked contract between Gary Kasparov and Ignatius Leong was possible "through the administrator of the mail account in FIDE".

Ignatius Leong, member of Kirsan Ilyumzhinov’s team for many years, made a surprise move by switching to Garry Kasparov’s camp for the upcoming 2014 FIDE elections.

The move was announced at the 84th FIDE congress in Tallinn and despite the large surprise of the switch, no light has been shed on the details or the motifs for such a major change of Leong’s position.

Eirik T. Gullaksen of Bergensjakk.no stated for Chessdom that six players have been confirmed for the super-tournament Norway Chess 2014.

The 2014 Armenian Chess Championships were held on 11-21st January in Yerevan. Both men’s and women’s events were 10-player round robins.

Grandmaster Tigran Kotanjian emerged surprising winner of the 74th Armenian Championship for men after edging the 2011-Champion Robert Hovhannisyan on tie-break.

The 46th Annual Liberty Bell Open was held over the Martin Luther King weekend from January 17-20, 2014, at the Sonesta Hotel, 1800 Market St, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

GM Alexander Fishbein finished in sole 1st place thanks to a last round victory over FM Trung Nguyen. Fishbein concluded the event with 6/7, collecting $2,092 for his long weekend’s efforts.

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras received the World U14 Girls Champion Stavroula Tsolakidou in the presidential residence Maximos Mansion on Tuesday.

The Prime Minister praised Tsolakidou and said that she symbolises the best virtues of Greek people. He added that the young girl made the whole Greece proud of her achievements.

Narciso Rabell Mendez In Memoriam Open was held on 17-20th January at the Biblioteca Pública, San Sebastián de Las Vegas del Pepino, in Puerto Rico.

The event was organized by the San Sebastian Chess Club in two sections – Open and U2000.