Al Ain Classic is firmly establishing itself among the strongest and best organised international tournaments. Many factors make that possible: an amazing geographic destination, a city with a tremendous cultural, nature and historic heritage, an excellent organisation, an attractive prize fund, a superb accommodation and a huge number of strong grandmasters and even more titled [...]

The 4th Lorca Open 2015 was held from December 26-30, in Lorca, a city in southeastern Spain. Official website/ Standings and statistics The event was a 9-round Swiss FIDE tournament with first prize in the amount of 1,500 EUR, which gathered 128 players from 10 different countries. Top seed is Armenian player GM Karen Grigoryan won convincingly with 8/9 points, a [...]

The Internet based FIDE Seminar for International Organizers for American Continent was held from 10-13th December, 2015. The objective of the Seminar was to educate and certify Organizers on an international basis. Successful Seminar attendees receive a FIDE IO Norm necessary for the FIDE IO title application. The Lecturer was IO Jorge Vega, FIDE America [...]

The TV2 Chess International Fagernes 2015 was held from December 27th, 2015, to January 3rd, 2016, at Quality Hotel & Resort Fagernes, in Fagernes, Norway. Official website The highlight of the event was a 9-round Swiss FIDE tournament GM-Group, which was open to all FIDE titled players. GM Andrey Vovk from Ukraine finished on top [...]

GM Robert Hess won the Empire City Open after concluding the competition with 5,5/6 points to take the top prize of 1250 USD. The 34th Annual Empire City Open was held from December 26-28, 2015, at the Hotel Pennsylvania, 401 Seventh Ave, New York. The event had 6 sections: Open, Under 2200, Under 1900, Under [...]

The 53rd Chess Festival Groningen brought hundreds of chess players of all levels to the city of Groningen from December 21-30, 2015. The Master event was a 9-round Swiss FIDE tournament open to all players rated above 2000 Elo. The playing venue was Sportcentrum Rijksuniversiteit & Hanzehogeschool, while the prize fund was in the amount of 6,000 [...]

The 39th Zurich Christmas Open took place on 26-30th December, 2015, at the Crowne Plaza in Zurich, Switzerland. The 7-round Master Tournament, for players rated over 2000, had 105 participants from 18 countries, including 16 Grandmasters and 9 International Masters. Grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch repeated the success from the previous tournament and defended the trophy by [...]

The jubilee edition of the traditional 25th Erfurt Chess Festival was held December 26-30, 2015 at the splendid area of Radisson Blu Hotel. Official website The event in the Thuringian capital Erfurt, Germany, attracted 428 players from 18 countries, thus making it one of the biggest chess tournaments  in Europe and the world! Suffice to [...]

The 32nd Boeblingen International Chess Open took place from December 26-30, 2015, at Hotel Mercure in the city of Boeblingen, Germany. The event was a 9-round Swiss event and 158 players competed for the first prize of 1,000 EUR. The first place was shared in a five-way tie by GM Alexander Zubarev from Ukraine, his [...]

With the trophy ensured a round to spare, GM Wang Hao of China agreed to a draw with top seed Yuriy Kryvoruchko of Ukraine in the last round of the 4th Al Ain Classic Chess Championship at the Hili Reyhaan Rotana Hotel in Al Ain, UAE. The victory earned Wang the top prize of $13,000 [...]