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The Chess Drum
2019 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands)
The first super tournament will kick off in 2019 with the ever-popular Tata Steel Chess festival featuring some of the world’s top players. World Champion Magnus Carlsen will defend his title against 11 other aspirants including five others in the top 10. Santosh Vidit of India graduated into the Masters…
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The Chess Drum
Burkina Faso making moves in chess!
We have not written on Burkina Faso since 2014 shortly after they joined the community of chess-playing nations in FIDE. Comité National Burkinabé des Echecs has been very active since 2014 and held national championships in the past three years with Oumar Briba winning in 2016 and Clément Guissou winning…
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The Chess Drum
Webster University rolls to 7th Pan-Am title!
Webster University (2018 Pan-Am Champions) from left to right: FM Justus Williams (Team C), FM Josh Colas (Team C), Shawn Swindell (Team C), GM Peter Prohaszka (Team B), GM Emilio Cordova (Team B), NM Aaron Grabinsky (Team C), GM Susan Polgar (coach), GM Vasif Durarbayli (Team B), GM Yuniesky Quesada…
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The Chess Drum
The Chess Drum’s Highlights of 2018!
Each year we give the highlights, and in the even-numbered years of chess, the Olympiad tournament holds top billing along with the World Championships (determined in tiebreaks after 12 consecutive draws). Defending champion Magnus Carlsen won in tiebreaks over challenger Fabiano Caruana to invoke the question of “Who’s next?” That…
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The Chess Drum
2018 World Rapid & Blitz (St. Petersburg, RUS)
Only a month after the World Championship (classical) was decided, the 2018 Rapid & Blitz was held in St. Petersburg to determine the world championship in the two disciplines. Indeed the raging debate on how to determine a classical World Champion to include rapid and blitz tiebreakers has its merits,…
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Drum Majors
Carlsson battling in World Rapid/Blitz!
GM Pontus Carlsson has been a regular on the Drum during the latter part of 2018 after launching his “ChessBiz” initiative and appearing on the Perpetual Podcast recently. He closes out the year competing in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships currently being held in St. Petersburg, Russia. This event…
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Cote d'Ivoire
Grand Chess Tour coming to Africa in 2019!
Dr. Essoh Essis, President of the Ivorian Chess Federation will host one of the rapid and blitz events as part of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. It will be the first elite event held in Africa since the 2004 FIDE Knockout in Tripoli, Libya. Photo by Alina L’Ami Hikaru Nakamura…
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The Chess Drum
Carlsson to tout “ChessBiz” during U.S. tour in January
According to his latest podcast interview at Perpetual Chess, Pontus Carlsson has been busy lately. You may have seen him in a photo with Magnus Carlsen during the World Championship in London, but he has been promoting his “Business meets Chess & Kids” tour for the past year. GM Pontus…
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Scholastic
Tallahassee attempts to reignite chess
Tallahassee is a smallish college town of nearly 200,000 and doubles as a capitol of the odd-shaped state. With its “panhandle” the northern part of Florida is not well-known for its tourist attractions and struggle with its identity apart from being the home of the Florida State Seminoles (FSU) and…
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Africa
Simutowe reflects on 2018 World Championship… format
When I was at the Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, GM Amon Simutowe was part of many conversations about the future of African chess, particularly Zambia. While the country seeks to raise another GM, the comparisons with the Zambian Grandmaster are unavoidable. He is indeed an iconic figure on the landscape…
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