The French Championships in Rapid and Blitz for 2015 were held on 21-22nd February in Nancy, France. The Championship was marked by record participation – 156 in Blitz and 220 in Rapid. The Blitz tournament took place on Saturday, and after 11 rounds Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov, and two French Grandmasters Vladislav Tkachiev and Christian [...]

In a scenario repeating from the previous day, all games of the 11th round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi were drawn. The longest game of the round was Giri – Dominguez, where each player tried to win and reach shared third place. After more than six hours of play, nearly causing the delay [...]

Grandmaster Igor Efimov (ELO 2390) has won the 2015 Monaco Chess Championship, which was held at the Monaco Chess Club, from 20-25th February. Efimov scored 5,5 points, the same as Karl Ribbegren (ELO 2202), but thanks to better tie-break, Efimov took the title. GM Algimantas Butnorius (ELO 2377) came clear third with 5 points. Svetlana [...]

The 14th Rochefort International Chess Festival was held on 21-27th February, 2015, at the Congress Palace, in Rochefort, France. Just days before the huge 31st Cappelle-la-Grande Open, the Rochefort Open was an excellent occasion for the players to test their preparation and use the perfect training opportunity. The event was a 9-round Swiss open with time control [...]

In the 10th round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi all games were drawn. This worked perfectly fine for Evgeny Tomashevsky who secured the first place in the tournament with one round to spare. Tomashevsky has 7,5/10 points, keeping the unbeaten distance of 1,5 points ahead of the nearest follower Dmitry Jakovenko. Today Tomashevsky [...]

Grandmaster Evgeny Tomashevsky is on the brink of winning the FIDE Grand Prix in Tbilisi after scoring against Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the 9th round of the tournament. It was the fourth King’s Indian defence that the Russian faced in this event, but he remained principled and responded with Makagonov h3-variation. Of these four he won [...]

The 15th Liberec Open 2015 was held from 14th to 21st February 2015 in Liberec, a city in the Czech Republic located on the Lusatian Neisse and surrounded by the Jizera Mountains and Ještěd-Kozákov Ridge. The event is a 9-round Swiss open with time control 90′ + 30″. 94 players from 14 different federations took part in [...]

The 34th International Chess Open Clermont-Ferrand took place on 19-22nd February, 2015, in Clermont-Ferrand, a city in the Auvergne region of France. The event was a 7-round Swiss tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. French GM Jean-Pierre Le Roux emerged a clear winner with 6/7 points and took the first prize in the [...]

The Chess Association of “West Azerbaijan” province on behalf of I.R. Iran Chess Federation organized the 23rd Fajr International Open Chess Tournament from 18th to 23rd February, 2015 in Urmia, the capital of of West Azerbaijan Province in Iran. The event was a 9-round Swiss open tournament with tempo of play 90′ + 30″. 157 players from [...]

Evgeny Tomashevsky defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the 8th round of the Tbilisi FIDE Grand Prix to increase his lead to full point ahead of the second-placed Dmitry Jakovenko. Tomashevsky won in an extremely rare ending of 2 bishops + knight vs rook + 4 pawns. Baadur Jobava scored against Peter Svidler, his second consecutive and [...]