Chess Tutoring, Chess Coaching, Chess Classes with NM Will Stewart

The 54th “Torneo di Capodanno” chess tournament is being held in Reggio Emilia, Italy and starts on December 27th 2011, ending on January 6, 2012. The organizers of the Reggio Emilia 2011 chess tournament have done an incredible job of putting together an all-star line up of 2700+ FIDE players: Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Morozevich, Hikaru Nakamura, Nikita Vitiugov, Fabiano Caruana, and Anish Giri. Just one week before the tournament began, last year’s winner Vugar Gashimov [...]

The 2011 London Chess Classic is producing the highest amount of decisive games among super-grandmasters than has been seen in a long time.  The Sofia Rules are working better than imagined (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 for a loss) – forcing the best chess players in the world to take more risks in light of the bigger incentive for winning.  While Magnus Carlsen (2826 FIDE) at the top of [...]

The London Chess Classic 2011 is guaranteed to be a shoot-out this year as all the players are coming in hungry for blood and glory.  Maybe I’ve been watching too many “Dirty Harry” movies lately, but I think these guys mean business.  And they better, because the Sofia rules will be applied at the 2011 London Chess Classic, meaning 3 points for a win and 1 point for a draw.  I’m a huge fan of [...]

The 2011 Tal Memorial was an exceptionally strong event with many of the world’s very best chess players in attendance. This was one of the closest tournaments I have ever witnessed at any level, as no one was able to break away from the pack until the very end. Magnus Carlsen continues to dominate the chess world with another solid victory at a top tier event. Carlsen tied for first at the 2011 Tal Memorial [...]

he 2011 Tal Memorial is starting today, featuring 10 of the world’s most elite chess players at an average FIDE rating of 2773!  This star-studded round robin is one of the strongest tournaments ever conceived, and I am legitimately excited about the fascinatingly creative chess to come in the next 10 days.  And what better place to host such an incredible tournament than the Motherland – Moscow, Russia.  The 2010 Tal Memorial ended in a 3-way [...]

Levon Aronian vs Viswanathan Anand: 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final, Round 9: Aronian started slow at the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final, however he began to score some nice wins in the second half of the tournament in Spain to attempt to catch up to Ivancuk, Carlsen and Nakamura. While Aronian finished tied for 3-5th, he still put a nice victory in this game. He opened with the Queen’s Gambit as white, and Anand quickly [...]

Magnus Carlsen won the 2011 Bilbao Chess Masters Final, beating Ivanchuk in the 2nd game of their rapid tiebreaker to claim 1st place honors. This was one of the strongest and most exciting tournaments I have ever seen, as the Sofia rules point system encouraged 6 of the world’s best players (average FIDE 2780!) to really fight for the win in every game. As the disparity in playing strength has continued to decrease at the [...]