Armenia has garnered great success in the past several years in team play and hope to continue the trend today as the 2011 World Team tournament goes into its final four rounds. The Olympiad champions from 2006 and 2008, Armenia has always had tremendous team chemistry which helps when trust is needed in crucial moments. [...]

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The bienniel World Team Championships will commence with round one on Sunday, July 17th. The ten teams are comprised of host China, Russia (defending champion), Ukraine, Israel Hungary (2010 Olympiad finishers), Azerbaijan, Egypt, India, USA (the continental champions) and Armenia (nomination from FIDE President). The field will prove to be very challenging and represent some [...]

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GM Hou YifanWomen’s World Champion Since becoming one of the youngest Grandmasters in history (14 years, 6 months), the chess community knew that good things were to come for the diminutive girl from China. GM Hou Yifan, 16, would compete for the Women’s World Championship in 2008 losing to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in the finals, [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipRound #5 Pairings # Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag 1 Ruan 2480 CHN Zhao 2474 CHN 2 Koneru 2600 IND Hou 2591 CHN Preview: As if on cue, China has made a statement on the world stage once again. They will boast three of the last four players [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipRound #4 Pairings # Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag 1 Harika 2525 IND Ruan 2480 CHN 2 Zhao 2474 CHN Skripchenko 2460 FRA 3 Koneru 2600 IND Ju 2524 CHN 4 Hou 2591 CHN Lahno 2522 UKR Preview: Looking at the quarterfinals, you have Koneru Humpy and Hou [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipRound #3 Pairings # Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag 1 Kosteniuk 2507 RUS Ruan 2480 CHN 2 Muzychuk,M 2462 UKR Harika 2525 IND 3 Dembo 2454 GRE Zhao 2474 CHN 4 Skripchenko 2460 FRA Cmilyte 2514 LTU 5 Koneru 2600 IND Zatonskih 2478 USA 6 Muzychuk,A 2462 SLO [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipRound #2 Pairings # Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag 1 Kosteniuk 2507 RUS Khukhashvili, 2430 GEO 2 Koneru 2600 IND Houska 2421 ENG 3 Hou 2591 CHN Romanko 2414 RUS 4 Kosintseva 2581 RUS Dembo 2454 GRE 5 Dzagnidze 2551 GEO Skripchenko 2460 FRA 6 Stefanova 2548 BUL [...]

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Round #1 – Game #1 Saturday, 4 December 2010 Top Seeds maul Challengers GM Koneru Humpy got off to a promising start.Photo by wwcxc2010.tsf.org.tr. In the first round of a two-game match, upsets are likely to occur. However, in the Women’s World Chess Championship, there were no major upsets and the top seeds rolled to [...]

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Today starts the Women’s World Championship with most of the top players in the world. Of course, Judit Polgar has eschewed playing in the gender-based tournament, but as the gap closes, there may be more entrants into the upper echelon of chess. Two possibilities are from the Asian continent in India’s Humpy Koneru and China’s [...]

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Top Boards (Open) The Ukraine wins gold! Russia 1 gets silver on strength of Karjakin. Israel 2-2 Ukraine Russia 1 2-2 Spain Poland 1½-2½ Hungary France 2-2 Armenia Russia 2 2½-1½ Greece China 3-1 Italy Medal Standings (Open) GOLD-Ukraine SILVER-Russia 1 BRONZE-Israel Round #11 Analysis: The Ukraine only needed a draw in round #11 to [...]

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Dubai is a place of intrigue and marvel. A place of hopes and dreams… a chess paradise. It is the home of the world’s only seven-star hotel (pictured right) and the home of the opulent Dubai Chess & Culture Club. In the first week of April the club here hosted its 12th Dubai Open, an [...]

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Many of the world’s top chess federations will assemble in the Bursa province of Turkey for the World Team Championships. Some of the notable teams represent perennial powers Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel and USA. Also included in the field is India, the world’s #6 team Despite the fact that World Champion Viswanathan Anand is busy [...]

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International Master Oladapo Adu nixed plans to compete in Tripoli, Libya in the African Championship, but has a busy schedule which includes competing in the Caribbean Chess Carnival in Port of Spain, Trinidad from August 4th-9th. This event is hosted by the Trinidad Chess Foundation and organized by Edison Raphael. Adu will then compete in [...]

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The Chess Drum’s Dr. Daaim Shabazz will be in Doha, Qatar next week to visit local universities and will certainly seek out the chess venues. The small nation on the Arabian penisula is home to GM Mohamed al-Modiahki and his wife GM Zhu Chen. Zhu now plays under the Qatari flag. Qatar is one of [...]

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2009 Arcapita Open (Manama, Bahrain) There was an interesting story on ChessBase about the Arcapita International Open in Bahrain. It appears many parts of the world are moving forth with their development plans in chess. I actually traveled to Bahrain in 2002 before Kramnik’s match with Deep Fritz. There was a club there on the [...]

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This new feature will provide briefs on some of the latest chess news around the world. Feel free to post comments and/or add chess news that would be of interest to the general audience on current events. World Junior Championship (August 2nd-August 16th) – A strong field is assembled in Turkey for the Open and [...]

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There is a very nice photo-report of the Asian Youth Championships held in Tehran, Iran. FM Arash Akbarinia is a frequent contributor to ChessBase and has filed a brief report with some very nice pictures. Focusing heavily on European events, these reports are always a welcome sight. It is the only way the universality of [...]

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