The Chess Drum
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Shane Matthews win 2.3.5 Sub-Zonal… and IM title
Shane “The Magician” Matthews earned his moniker by his resilience in pulling out sparkling victories. Over his career, Matthews has represented Jamaica in a number of Olympiad teams and is a 7-time national champion. He is one of the many legends from a small nation who has a story to…
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NM Emmanuel Carter in the news!
Four years ago, Emmanuel Carter accomplished a feat that relatively few chess players are able to do. He earned his National Master’s title at the age of 14. Nowadays, the age threshold continues to be lowered as the youngest master has accomplished it at age 9. However, earning the Master’s…
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Rodney Thomas awarded UT-Dallas Fellow!
Chess tournaments probably have the greatest diversity of competitors than any activity. In many large events you can find people from various nationalities, ethnicities, educational levels and professions. It is interesting that tournaments tend to be an elitist arena where we judge people by their rating. It may be the…
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Kassa Korley earns first GM norm!
Duke alumnus Kassa Korley went back to his stomping grounds to take a shot at a GM norm. Since his graduation the the Raleigh-Durham campus a few years ago, Korley has been seeking invitationals, both at home and in Europe. The New York native currently plays under the Danish flag,…
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Chicago Open starts today!
One of the marquee tournaments starts today in Wheeling, Illinois a quiet town just outside of Chicago. The Chicago Open is in its 27th year and once drew the likes of Hikaru Nakamura and top tier players from overseas. These days the tournament is a hot ticket for hungry norm…
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Amin wins 5th African Championship!
GM Bassem Amin, 2018 African Champion Egyptians GM Bassem Amin and WGM Shahenda Wafa are 2018 African Champions. The event was held May 12-22 and organized by African Chess Confederation (ACC) and the Chess Federation of Zambia (CZF). It is Amin’s 5th continental championship (2009, 2013, 2015 and 2017, 2018)…
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Ju Wenjun wins Women’s Championship!
Ju Wenjun, the long-standing salutatorian of Chinese women players won the world championship 5.5-4.5 on yesterday. Drawing the tenth game, she held off Tan Zhongyi who was the reigning champion. Ju makes the sixth Chinese player to win the title after Xie Jun, Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua, Hou Yifan and…
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Nigel Short to stand for FIDE President
GM Nigel Short (England) This year is an Olympiad year, but more importantly, it is a FIDE election year. So far there has not been much in the way of campaigning, but in the past several months, there have been several announcements made. Earlier in the year we saw Kirsan…
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Homegoing for Herminio Baez Jr. (1954-2018)
Herminio Baez On yesterday I received the unfortunate news that Herminio Baez, Jr. passed away on Wednesday morning May 2nd. He was 63. The proud chess-playing father left was survived by his loving soul mate of 38 years Daniella Baez, four children including his three sons Antonio, Steven, Chris and…
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Chicago tops Detroit in the “City Showdown”
Chicago Chess Blitzers heading to Detroit You knew it was going to be a “Thriller” in Motown. Chicago Chess Blitzers (CCB) drove four hours to take on sibling city in a blitz battle. The match had seen a buildup of trash-talking with Detroiters posting choice words in social media. On…
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