Added on 06.01.2020
The Internet Chess Club is proud to announce the World Stars Sharjah Online International Chess Championship 2020! The tournament will be played on ICC - LIVE - on June 12 and 13. Games start at 21:00 UAE (GST - Gulf Standard Time - GMT +3) - 1PM EDT (New York) - 19:00 Europe (Paris, Madrid, Rome) - 6PM London. The Tournament is a six-players Double Round Robin, with Time Control 10+3. ICC will provide LIVE commentary on its YouTube Channel, with GM Efstratios Grivas. To watch the games...Full StoryAdded on 05.25.2020
He's back! So many of you have sent in inquiries about why the ICC stopped publishing GM Benjamin's popular show "Chess Week Recap.". Well, the reasons are mainly two: the pandemic that spread at the beginning of March put a halt to all live tournaments, even interrupting the FIDE Candidates' after only seven rounds; with no games being played, keeping up with a show based on the most exciting games of the week wasn't exactly easy; the second, and most important reason, is that we thought...Full StoryAdded on 05.12.2020
Covid19 Fundraiser for India by Grandmaster INIYAN P. This weekend, 15th May 2020 to 17th May 2020 Grandmaster Iniyan P. will be playing blitz games to help raise funds for the fight against Covid19. Join us and play against young India Grandmaster Iniyan P. and get one of your games analysed too! Open to all. No restriction on location, age, rating & title! Join the blitz battle along with hundreds of participants. Minimum donation of Rs 150 (INR) is required to participate. But donate as...Full StoryAdded on 04.22.2020
GM Miguel Illescas - Photo by Przemysław Jahr / Wikimedia Commons GM Miguel Illescas doesn't need presentation, but just to put things in the right perspective, we're talking about one of the most influential chess players in the last decades, especially in Spain. Miguel, so far, has won the Spanish national championship of 1995, 1998, 1999, 2001, 2004, 2005, 2007, and 2010. In team competitions, he has represented his country at many Olympiads, from 1986 onwards, and won an individual bronze...Full StoryAdded on 04.09.2020
NEW VIDEO SERIES for ICC members by GM Misa Pap! The gambit with two names: Volga and Benko. This gambit is a very dynamic and active opening. From the very beginning of the game, black strives for a counterattack and plays for the initiative, and of course, for the win, rather than "just" trying to equalize, and then maybe slowly outplay his opponent. Of course, all this activity comes with a price - a pawn - in the typical gambit tradition. But, really, only one pawn, for all that...Full StoryAdded on 04.04.2020
New video-series and Learning Center course for ICC members! The Sicilian defense is one of the most famous and played openings in chess. A quarter of all chess games start with 1.e4 c5, which is the first move that configures the opening. The Sicilian comes from a remote era, the late 16th century when the Italian players Giulio Polerio and Giachino Greco started playing the Sicilian and left notes about it. One of the most intriguing and played variants of the Sicilian defense is the Dragon....Full StoryAdded on 03.30.2020
The pandemic is spreading more and more all over the World, and until the situation gets back to normality, we're asked to stay home. Social distancing seems to be the panacea to stop this invisible menace. This microscopic, yet lethal, virus is changing, at least temporarily, our life. Now, since we're good citizens, we are staying home. Right? And, in the majority of the cases, we need something to help us kill time. Luckily, we live in a time of accessible communication. The Internet allows...Full StoryAdded on 03.26.2020
Russia, which seemed to be miraculously almost immune from the global pandemic, has suddenly had to face reality, with people getting the COVID-19 infection and illness at a frightening rate. Vladimir Putin announced that starting March, 27th, 2020, all the flights to foreign countries will be stopped. This has left no choice to FIDE, which stopped the tournament to allow people to get back home. Here is FIDE's announcement: Today, the government of the Russian Federation announced that...Full StoryAdded on 03.16.2020
This is a report written by GM Joel Benjamin. Shabalov, Kaidanov, Benjamin, and Yermolinsky (Photo from http://www.wstcc2020.net/) This week I am reporting from one of the most surreal tournament experiences I have ever had, the World Senior Team Championship in Prague, Czech Republic. The US team successfully “three-peated” in the 50+ category, but it was not an entirely pleasant excursion. Chaos enveloped us before the trip began, as Larry Christiansen, who was to join the team for the...Full StoryAdded on 03.08.2020
UPDATE (03/12 - 11:03 AM EDT) It seems like FIDE wants the Candidates' to take place. Caruana will make it, according to this tweet: UPDATE: The spreading of the virus is forcing countries to lock down, and airlines to cancel flights all over the world. Today Fabiano Caruana used Twitter to let people know he probably won't make it to Yekaterinburg. CoronaVirus. This is what everyone is talking about. In the media, on every social, everywhere. And such a pandemic has already affected...Full StoryAdded on 02.18.2020
The Pacific Northwest Chess Center is a new fully-functioning club in the Seattle area. Located some 10 miles north of Microsoft Headquarters in Kirkland, WA, this club is supported by generous efforts of Xuhao He, the dad of one of the most promising young players of the area, Anthony He. I can almost see the readers rolling their eyes, thinking, “yet another chess patron for a day. Wait till the kid grows up and quits chess... “ Yeah, of course, it's impossible to tell what the future might...Full StoryAdded on 02.10.2020
In his acclaimed weekly recap show, today GM Joel presents us with a magnificent collection of great games recently played by women chess players around the world. The Gibraltar Masters attracts a lot of big names every year, but it is particularly strong in the participation of the world’s strongest female players. Gibraltar offers huge prizes for the fairer sex, and with so many evenly matched players, it stands to reason that the winner will be decided in the last round. That makes it...Full StoryAdded on 01.29.2020
With this new feat, GM Davorin Kuljasevic decided to do something slightly different. In his previous courses, Davorin explained how to play in Closed Positions and how to improve one's Calculation skills. Both courses, which had great success, were based on the "canonic" way of thinking. Our GM explained ideas and principles on how to play certain types of positions. In this innovative course, GM Kuljasevic will look at the exceptions to the rules. He is going to show you solutions to problems...Full StoryAdded on 01.26.2020
What a ride! GM Fabiano Caruana from the US, with an almost unbelievable score of 7 wins, 6 draws, and zero losses, won the prestigious Tata Steel Master 2020. In the last round, despite having already conquered the title, Fabiano went all out with Black and defeated a stunned Artemiev. Artemiev's resilience allowed him to play on, trying to calculate all the possible continuations. Still, Fabiano had all of it worked out, and the Black King's walk finished when eventually Caruana was able to...Full StoryAdded on 01.22.2020
The King smirks in the background, as Alireza and Jeffery Xiong play - Photo by Alina L'Ami It looks like the lion came out of his den. Magnus ET Carlsen, after drawing too many games - seven for the record - decided it was time to show once again his colleagues who's the boss. In round 9, Magnus had Black against the wonder of the event, Iran Alireza Firouzja. Socials were taken away by expectancy for this game. Still, the champ destroyed his young opponent with apparent ease, and his...Full StoryAdded on 01.10.2020
It's a tradition: January is the month of one of the most awaited and strong tournaments of the year: The Tata Steel Masters. And, traditionally, it takes place in the small town in the north of the Netherlands Wijk aan Zee. This otherwise godforsaken village is situated north-west of Amsterdam, on the North sea. In this season, it's likely to be freezing up there, despite the climate change. But starting tomorrow, for two weeks, this remote small town will be the center of the action, with...Full StoryAdded on 01.09.2020
GM Misa Pap GM Misa Pap is a new contributor to the Internet Chess Club. Grandmaster since 2011, Misa has been a chess coach for 20+ years, and now he's decided to put all his invaluable experience into a brand new exciting video series! Make the right Decisions in Critical Positions! What does that mean? Isn't every move in chess a "decision"? Yes, of course! But some moves in certain positions are more critical. Typically, these vital moments happen in the middle game, which is one of...Full StoryAdded on 12.30.2019
Happy New Year, Chess Fans! He did it again. If we don't consider the "fake chess," with the pieces randomly placed over the first two ranks, Magnus Carlsen owns all the titles a chessplayer can win. In the last five days, Magnus added to his already fantastic showcase two more World titles: Rapid and Blitz. Now he's again the owner of all the titles and the highest-rated player in the three categories. Most people, when it comes to the end of a year, wish that the new one will be better...Full StoryAdded on 12.22.2019
Ian Nepomnaichtchi of Russia is the winner of the last leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series, played in Jerusalem, Israel, from December 12 to 22. Besides raising his earning to $29,000 in the series, and much more importantly, with this result Ian secured his seat at the Candidates' Tournament. In the semi-finals, Ian defeated his closest rival for a place in the Candidates'; Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave now is the favorite to get the wild-card, but he can't be 100% sure about his participation in the...Full StoryAdded on 12.14.2019
GM Marian Petrov, from Bulgaria, is a new ICC contributor. He's not new at making video courses for people who want to learn and improve the game. His first video course for the Internet Chess club is "Attacking Chess" or "Attack the King!". In the video lessons, you'll see a lot of different ways to attack the enemy's King: combinations, checkmates, sacrifices, and in general, you'll learn how to attack your opponent's forces in different circumstances. Studying the different patterns that...Full Story
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