Hot Off The Chess Blog

The final day’s play had arrived at the 2016 Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament. It would begin with the tenth round – the final scheduled round of play. Should it be needed, there would be play off games, and for this reason the action started at an earlier time of […check it out!]

Round Nine would see the leaders doubled from four to eight. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot had a bit of a tame draw with each other. The Queen’s Pawn game never really looked like amounting to anything, White was comfortable but so was Black. The position became very quickly simplified, […check it out!]

In round eight, the sole leader, David Anton Guijjaro had a draw against Li Chao. The game was a Petroff, so was never really looking hopeful as of move two, to be perfectly honest. It was not a feeble affair, the players did show willing, but there was just nothing […check it out!]

When Benjamin Gledura of Hungary sat down to play his round-seven game against Viswanathan Anand of India, all the confidence in the world will probably not have removed all the nerves and slight trepidation with regard to his task. However, for the second time in the tournament, it would be […check it out!]

Round 6 of the Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament 2016, took place on Sunday 31st of January. It would see the number of leaders raised from four to ten. One of the four, Etienne Bacrot of France, would opt for a day off and take a half-point bye. The other […check it out!]

A date for your diary: Saturday 30th of January 2016. Round five of the Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament. Much to the shock of many, (most infact, if not all), Former World Champion, Viswanathan Anand would lose. Not only would he lose, but he would lose with the white pieces. […check it out!]

Round four of the Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament 2016, was played on Friday the 29th of January. A rather quiet affair by comparison of the earlier rounds, (which is not surprising now that ratings and scores are beginning to balance out), it would see a mere two decisive games […check it out!]

The Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament 2016, continued with round three being played on Thursday 28th January. The round would see Viswanathan Anand continue his winning ways, notching up a point against Xiangyu Xu. Actually, the former World Champion made extremely light work of it. The problem with Black’s game […check it out!]

Round Two of the Tradewise Gibraltar International Chess Tournament 2016, was played on Wednesday January 27th. Obviously, because of the nature of the Swiss format, some pairings saw some players vastly out-rated and this made for another bloody round. Viswanathan Anand notched up his first full point in round 2, […check it out!]

The Tradewise Gibraltar Interational Chess Tournament 2016, got underway on Tuesday, January 26th. At 3pm, at the Caleta Hotel, on its famous rock, James Humphreys (Chairman of Tradewise Insurance Limited, the event’s main sponsor) made the first move of 1.d4 in the game of top seed, Hikaru Nakamura. And with […check it out!]