From North Star Monthly Here are the final standings:
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LIX Capablanca International Memorial, Havana, Cuba If memory of Roman numerals serves me correctly, this is the 59th edition of this tournament begun in 1962 in remembrance of Jose Capablanca, the third World Chess Champion who was born in Havana in 1888. The tournament has a storied history birthed in the midst of the Cold War and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. Due to the ongoing US trade embargo on Cuba begun in 1960, participation by US chess players has been severely limited, the exception being Bobby Fischer's now legendary participation in 1965 via telex from the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Fischer shared second place with Borislav Ivkov (Yugoslavia), and Efim Geller (USSR). The winner was former World Champion Vasily Smyslov (USSR). Other winners over the years have included Viktor Korchnoi (Soviet Union), Bent Larsen (Denmark), Ulf Andersson (Sweden) and Tony Miles (England). Though present participation is limited for economic/political re...
Photo Chessbase Pragg Wins Norway 2026 Gukesh Last, Carlsen in the Middle It was Carlsen's worst result in Oslo since 2015. Is he slipping at longer games? He is reported to have had some difficulty with the time control used in Oslo. A similar time control issue at Tata Steel this year was discussed with Loek van Wely in New In Chess podcast #86 this past January. If nothing else, his future "classical" games will be followed with increased interest. Given Hans Niemann's recent tie in his "grudge" match with Nepo in Serbia, it would be interesting to see a similar short match between Carlsen and Niemann. While I think Carsen would win, it might well be a close match with some good fighting chess. Perhaps classical timing with no bonus at all. A time-warp match...analogue clocks anyone? ️ Here are the final Norway 2026 standings:
Photo: Chessbase World Senior Team Championships Underway in Albania At the halfway point in the Age 55+ section the US and Italian teams are tied for first place. In the Age 65+ section France 1 and Iceland are tied for first place. Due to the small number of women's teams, all teams are playing in the same, age based sections. The tournament is taking place in Durrës, Albania. Back in the early 1960's I was an avid listener to shortwave radio broadcasts from nations around the world. Albania was then a communist nation with its capital in Tirana. I listened in on Radio Tirana broadcasts regularly. At that time, around 1965, Albania had broken with Moscow and aligned itself with China. As such, Albania was the only overtly Maoist communist nation in Eastern Europe with Radio Tirana regularly parroting the Radio Beijing position on world affairs. Midpoint Tournament Standings 50+ (top 20) after completing five rou...
Cobleigh Slow Final Round Battle Expected Round five, the final round, of the Spring 2026 Cobleigh Slow, one game per month tournament is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 21st. Mike Chadburn of Lyndonville is leading with four victories in four rounds. Two others, Russell DesJardins and Joe Wray, are tied one point behind him with one round to go. Chadburn can be caught and tied should he falter in the final round. Here are the pairings for the fifth and final round scheduled for May 21st:
Vermont Scholastic Championship Vermont State Scholastic Championship Results: The 39th Annual John Balch Memorial Vermont State Scholastic Chess Championships were held on Saturday, March 29th at the Lemoille Union High School in Hyde Park. Two scholastic players we know from Lyndonville Cobleigh Library Chess were there. St. Johnsbury Academy's Misha Cherkov won two games finishing tied with others in 5th place in the 9th-12th Grade Section. Riverside School 6th Grader, and new Cobleigh chess player, Devin Albritton won three of her games finishing tied for fourth place in the Sixth Grade section. Congratulations to both of them!! Full results can be found here: https://vermontchess.org/events/39th-annual-state-scholastic-chess-championships/
Passing of the Dutch "Hippie" Grandmaster Jan Timman One of the late 20th Century greats of international chess, GM Jan Timman, passed away Wednesday, February 18th at the age of 74. At one point he was ranked third behind Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov. He edited and wrote for New In Chess magazine and was a guest on the New In Chess podcast last November discussing endgame studies. For those not yet of a certain age, I highly recommend this short documentary from 1979 that features a quite youthful Timman along with fellow Durch players Hans Ree and Hein Donner. How many empty packs of cigarettes does Donner collect from the chess table after drawing a tournament game with Timman? I counted four... The Love for Wood (1979) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E48r-JTSAVM&t=304s More on Timman's career and passing can be found at the following links. https://en.chessbase.com/post/jan-timman-1951-2026 https://www.newinchess.com/blog/post/in-...