Heinrich Basson is a chess enthusiast from South Africa. He is an avid club player with a current FIDE rating of 1899. He follows world chess events closely and analyzing the matches and writing about chess are some of his hobbies.

There were two world-class tournaments which recently took place and finished within the past week, Grenke Chess Classic and Moscow Open. Let us take a quick look at what happened in both tournaments.

The Grenke Chess Classic had some brilliant chess and after the 7 round round-robin event it was GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Arkadij Naiditsch who both finished on 4.5 out of 7 and in the lead. GM Michael Adams and GM Fabiano Caruana finished on 4 out of 7, only trailing the leaders by half a point. A very close tournament it was indeed. GM Carlsen and GM Naiditsch were tied for first, and a tie-break had to be played. After 4 rounds of the tie-break it was 2 points all, which lead to a final armageddon game which was won by GM Carlsen, giving him a 3-2 win on tie-break. Another great title for the world champion.

The Moscow Open was also a very strong tournament. It had an Open A event, which was the main open event. There was an Open B event, which was the female open event. There were also other open events for rating classes and a male and female student round-robin event. Definitely a world-class tournament! The main event was super strong with plenty of GM’s participating. It was won by GM Ernesto Inarkiev with 8 out of 9, gaining him 23.5 rating points. In 2nd place we had a tie between 4 players, namely GM Anton Korobov, GM Francisco Vallejo Pons, GM Tigran Petrosian and GM Vladislav Artemiev. They all had 7 points. The Open B event was won by WGM Tingjie Lei, also with 8 out of 9 and gaining 14.6 rating points. In 2nd place we also saw 4 players on 7 out of 9. This was definitely a brilliant tournament and definitely one to follow each year.

As I am writing this the Zurich Chess Challenge is on the go and the FIDE Grand Prix series in Tbilisi is also starting today. The Zurich Chess Challenge really will be a close tournament, GM Nakamura has been in some great form lately and GM Anand and GM Kramnik will be solid as always, it will be a tough tournament and everyone has their chances. In the latest FIDE Grand Prix series GM Anish Giri, GM Alexander Grischuk and GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave might be in with good chances of a podium spot, although any of the 12 participants can take the title and points. GM Baadur Jobava will also be fighting to increase his rating to above 2700 again.

Enjoy the chess in the coming two weeks and be sure to check out Chessbet each day!

Heinrich Basson is a chess enthusiast from South Africa. He is an avid club player with a current FIDE rating of 1899. He follows world chess events closely and analyzing the matches and writing about chess are some of his hobbies.

So 2015 is well under way now and the new year kicked off with plenty of chess action all around. Let us look at some events and the relevant results.

The annual Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands was held in January. The Masters and Challengers events were both 14-player round robin events. In the Masters event we saw GM Magnus Carlsen take the title with a score of 9 out of 13, he was followed by four players on 8.5 out of 13. GM Baadur Jobava had a tough tournament, finishing on 3 out of 13 and losing 31 rating points, but I am sure he will bounce back and regain the lost rating points in future tournaments. The Challengers event was won by GM Yi Wei with a brilliant score of 10.5 out of 13. He now has the opportunity to play in next years’ Masters event, which will be very interesting indeed.

The Rilton Cup in Sweden ended on 5 January and was won by GM Jon Ludvig Hammer with a score of 7 out of 9. Second place went to GM Tiger Hillarp Persson also on 7 points, with 5 players finishing on 6.5 points.

We also saw the Hastings International Chess Congress in England taking place and GM Jun Zhao of China won the event with a score of 8 out of 9 and a 2852 performance rating. He was a whole point ahead of 2nd place, as 3 players ended on 7 out of 9, still a brilliant score.

The Gibraltar Masters event which finished on 05 February was one of the strongest open events in the world and saw many titled players participate. The event was won by GM Hikaru Nakamura with a brilliant score of 8.5 out of 10. GM David Howell finished 2nd with 8 out of 10, followed by 9 players on 7.5 points tied for third. It was a great event with many world-class games, so be sure to replay some of the games in your chess studies.

There is also plenty of chess action in February. Currently we have the Grenke Chess Classic and Moscow Open on the go. We also have the next FIDE Grand Prix event taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia from 14 February until 28 February. The European Individual Championships will take place in Jerusalem, Israel from 23 February until 09 March. The Zurich Chess Challenge takes place in Switzerland from 14 February until 19 February. The World Senior Team Championships will take place in Dresden, Germany from 24 February until 04 March.

Enjoy all the February chess action and be sure to visit the Chessbet website each day.

Heinrich Basson is a chess enthusiast from South Africa. He is an avid club player with a current FIDE rating of 1899. He follows world chess events closely and analyzing the matches and writing about chess are some of his hobbies.

So December is done and it was a month with some interesting chess tournaments throughout. Let us take a look back at some of the action and also see what tournaments are being held in January 2015.

The Qatar Masters Open which finished early in December was won by GM Yu Yangyi from China, with GM Anish Giri and GM Vladimir Kramnik finishing 2nd and 3rd. A very strong tournament and definitely one which should be closely followed each year. We also saw the London Chess Classic tournament with a 6 player round-robin and a strong FIDE Open being played in December. The round-robin event was won by GM Viswanathan Anand with GM Vladimir Kramnik and GM Anish Giri in 2nd and 3rd places. The FIDE Open was won by GM Kamil Dragun and IM Jinshi Bai with 7.5 out of 9. We also saw the World Mind Games held in China, which focused mostly on rapid and blitz chess, and the European Rapid and Blitz championships being held in December. The Al-Ain Chess Classic was also held during December, another very strong open event. It was won by GM Gaioz Nigalidze from Georgia with 7 out of 9. The Groningen Chess Festival finished on 30 December, and the winner there was IM Alexander Donchenko from Germany with a score of 8 out of 9, a full point ahead of 2nd place. During this time of the year there are numerous other tournaments on the go, I just mentioned a few.

There is also some interesting chess action during January 2015. The 90th Hastings International Chess Congress is currently on the go until 6 January. We also have the Chennai Open in India currently on the go until 6 January. The New Zealand Open Championship will be held from 01 January until 09 January. We also have the Australian Open from 02 January until 11 January. In Czech Republic the Prague Open will be held from 09 January until 16 January. Another interesting open event you can look forward to is the Gibraltar Chess Festival which will be from 27 January until 05 February. I again just named a few interesting tournaments for you to keep an eye on.

All the best wishes for 2015 and be sure to check out the Chessbet website every day for new chess matches and to make your predictions.

Heinrich Basson is a chess enthusiast from South Africa. He is an avid club player with a current FIDE rating of 1899. He follows world chess events closely and analyzing the matches and writing about chess are some of his hobbies.

We are at the beginning of November and we have seen some exciting chess events taking place in the last few weeks of October. The Tashkent FIDE Grand Prix tournament showed very solid chess, while the World Senior Championships in Greece showed lots of fighting chess being played. The action does not stop here, as the Tigran Petrosian Memorial tournament in Moscow has started on 04 November and the World Championship match will start on 08 November.

Let us first have a round-up of the Tashkent FIDE Grand Prix held from 21 October until 02 November, this was the 2^nd Grand Prix tournament in the series of 4. With 3 wins and 8 draws GM Dmitry Andreikin (RUS) showed his class and took the overall win with 7 out of 11, gaining 20 rating points in the process. GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA) and GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) shared 2^nd place with 6.5 out of 11, both with a 2815 rating performance. GM Boris Gelfand (ISR) went from winning the Baku Grand Prix event to finishing in last place in the Tashkent Grand Prix event. This just shows how tough these top events are. GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA) still leads the overall Grand Prix standings with 230 points, followed by GM Hikaru Nakamura (USA) on 207 points. The two remaining Grand Prix events are definitely going to be very exciting.

The World Senior Championships also finished on 05 November with some good chess being played over the 11 rounds. In the senior 50+ age category tournament it was GM Zurab Sturua (GEO) and GM Keith Arkell (ENG) finishing top with 8.5 out of 11, in 3^rd place was GM John Nunn (ENG) with 8 out of 11. In the senior 65+ age category there were 4 players on 8 out of 11. They were GM Anatoly Vaisser (FRA), GM Yuri Balashov (RUS), GM Viktor Kupreichik (BLR) and IM Herman van Riemsdijk (BRA).  There were also 6 players who finished on 7.5 out of 11, just showing how tough this tournament was. In the women section it was WIM Svetlana Metnikova (RUS) who took first in the tournament with 8.5 points, in 2^nd was GM Nona Gaprindashvili (GEO) with 8 points. Some good results and fighting chess, with the favourites performing quite well in the overall tournament.

The main upcoming event which everyone is looking forward to is the World Championship match between GM Viswanathan Anand (IND) and GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR). The first game will take place on 08 November and the last game will be on 25 November, with a rest day after every two games played, except for game 11 and 12. It will definitely be a very interesting battle and we will see a lot of fighting chess, maybe the first few rounds the players will play it safe and we might see a couple of draws, as we did with the first 4 rounds last year. (Although it was not boring draws) The build-up to this tournament has been slightly less than last year in India, which might help the players a bit. Last year the event lasted 10 matches, but I think that maybe this year it could go all the way to 12 matches, as GM Carlsen has not been playing such fluent chess this year, although he might be so inspired to defend his World Champion title that he plays very inspired chess the match. We will have to wait and see what happens on 08 November for match 1.All the World Championship action will be covered on Chessbet, so be sure to visit each day!

Heinrich Basson is a chess enthusiast from South Africa. He is an avid club player with a current FIDE rating of 1899. He follows world chess events closely and analyzing the matches and writing about chess are some of his hobbies.

So the month of October 2014 is already more than halfway and we have seen a lot of great chess action indeed. There was the Baku Grand Prix, Millionaire Chess Tournament in Las Vegas, Pokerstars Isle of Man Chess Tournament, 18^th Univé Hoogeveen tournament in the Netherlands, and the World Junior Chess Championships in India. Definitely a lot of great chess to keep every chess enthusiast in the world very busy if they want to follow all the results and matches.

In the Baku Grand Prix held from 01 October until 15 October it was GM Fabiano Caruana (ITA) and GM Boris Gelfand (ISR) who took shared first place with 6.5 out of 11. They both picked up 155 points in the FIDE Grand Prix standings. There was a lot of drawn matches in this tournament, but that is to be expected taking into account the strength of the field. Showing just how tough the tournament was, is the fact that 5 players finished on 6 out of 11, just half-a-point off first place, they each picked up 82 points in the FIDE Grand Prix standings. GM Leinier Dominguez (CUB) had a tournament which he would like to forget quite quickly, as he only scored 3 out of 11, lost 25 rating points, and fell out of the top 20 in the world live chess ratings standings. However, with him still playing in two of the upcoming Grand Prix events, I am sure he will bounce back with some solid results.

In the Pokerstars Isle of Man tournament held from 04 October to 12 October it was GM Nigel Short (ENG) who won the tournament with 7.5 out of 9, a full point ahead of second place.  Tied for second on 6.5 out of 9 was GM Laurent Fressinet (FRA), GM Sergei Tiviakov (NED), GM David Howell (ENG) and GM Gil Popilski (ISR).

The 18^th Univé chess tournament in Hoogeveen, Netherlands took place from 11^th to 18^th October 2014. There were two 6 game matches between GM Anish Giri (NED) vs GM Alexei Shirov (LAT), and GM Jan Timman (NED) vs GM Baadur Jobava (GEO). There was also the open event which attracted a lot of strong grandmasters. In the end GM Anish Giri, with a 2884 performance beat GM Alexei Shirov by 4.5 to 1.5. In the other match GM Baadur Jobava with a 2794 performance beat GM Jan Timman by the same scoreline. For GM Anish Giri and GM Baadur Jobava, this was definitely solid performances just before going to participate in the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (20 October until 03 November).The Open tournament was won by GM Victor Mikhalevski (ISR) with 7 out of 9.

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS AND EVENTS

Some of the upcoming tournaments in the next month is the second FIDE Grand Pix tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. (20 October to 03 November)

There is also the World Senior Championships in Katerini, Greece which will be held from 23 October to 05 November. Some of the top ranked players are GM John Nunn (ENG), GM Mark Hebden (ENG), GM Anatoly Vaisser (FRA), GM Zurab Sturua (GEO), GM Evgeny Sveshnikov (LAT) and GM Klaus Bischoff (GER).

Another big round-robin tournament is the Tigran Petrosian Memorial, which will be held in Moscow from 03 November to 11 November. It is an 8 player round robin tournament and includes GM Levon Aronian (ARM), GM Vladimir Kramnik (RUS), GM Alexander Grischuk (RUS) and 5 other 2700 plus rated players.

Then there is the match everybody is waiting for, the World Championship match 2014 between GM Magnus Carlsen (NOR) and GM Viswanathan Anand (IND) in Sochi, Russia. It will be held from 07 November until 28 November. There will be 12 matches played, first player to reach 6.5 points will be crowned world champion. I think it will be very close indeed, both players have been preparing very well and we will see some very good chess in November.

There are many other tournaments in November, I just named a few. Therefore, with all this chess action in November there are plenty of matches to follow and results to study. Enjoy your chess in November and remember to make your own predictions!