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.