Europe
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2021 FIDE World Cup (Sochi, Russia)
Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President Photo by Eric Rosen Today is a big day for the chess world as 309 players (206 open, 103 women) from 93 federations have assembled in Sochi, Russia to compete in the World Cup tournament. This will be the first event involving all federations since the…
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Pontus Carlsson wins 2021 Prague Blitz!
GM Pontus CarlssonGM Pontus Carlsson has told The Chess Drum that he was at a tournament in Spain where the others did not believe he was a chess player. After not taking him seriously, he promptly won all of the games. He overheard one of the players saying “The Black…
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Levon Aronian to play for U.S. after emigrating
Levon Aronian has completely started a new chapter in life. He is with his new love, Ani Ayvazyan and dog “Ponchik“. Photo by Armenian Aravot Shocking report out of Armenia today as the chess world is grappling with news that Levon Aronian, the country’s top player will emigrate to the…
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2021 Tata Steel Chess (Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands)
? | Less than a month to go until the start of the #TataSteelChess Tournament 2021! The world greatest’s masterminds return to Wijk aan Zee. Follow our 83rd edition of the tournament online only! pic.twitter.com/uUa9rsyOUC — Tata Steel Chess (@tatasteelchess) December 17, 2020 The 2021 Tata Steel Chess Tournament is…
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Carlsson continues fight for social justice
Colombian-Swedish Grandmaster Pontus Carlsson continues to fight the good fight as far as social issues are concerned. Bringing light to these issues years ago, he became front and center of a discussion about racism in Sweden. The Chess Drum ran an interview about his challenges four years ago. In that…
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Is Chess Inherently Racist?
One of the most intriguing questions of late pertains to the chess rule of white moving first. With the introduction of this convention in the mid-1800s, was there some type of insidious plot to reinforce white’s superiority and black’s inferiority?
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Arianne Caoili, a sweet soul who gave a chess king his lucky stars
The chess world is still mourning the loss of Arianne Bo Caoili (pronounced kay-OH-lee) who sadly died March 31st. Her death came two weeks after a horrific single-vehicle accident that shocked the chess world. Arianne was intelligent, articulate and certainly statuesque in appearance. She had an engaging personality and was…
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Candidates 2020 postponed halfway through
The players competing for the berth to challenge Magnus Carlsen will be playing the “COVID Gambit” during the second-half of the 2020 Candidates tournament. A decision was made by Russian organizers to hold the event since the government was still allowing mass gathering. Less than a month later, the organizers…
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2020 World Candidates Tournament (Yekaterinburg, Russia)
For the past couple of months, the world has been facing a global pandemic dubbed as the “coronavirus.” It has resulted in scores of tournaments being canceled and rendering travel difficult and even impractical. There was a discussion about the fate of the Candidates tournament after the eight…
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As Candidates 2020 approaches, Coronavirus rocks chess world
The chess world gasped as Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov suddenly withdrew from the Candidates tournament with less than two weeks remaining before the opening round. Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who had barely missed out qualifying, will replace him (per FIDE regulations… articles 2.2 and article 2.1.E). While this will certainly shake things…
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