After the elite events that have kept us glued to the screen in the last few months - Tal Memorial, London and Tata Steel - it's now Open season!

We all are waiting for the crucial match that will take place in May, and will give us the new World Chess Champion. Here is info about it (http://www.chessclub.com/finger/WorldChamp12).

Anand and Gelfand will fight over the board in a 12-game match in Moscow, starting May the 10th.
Some say that it's not a real World Championship without Carlsen and Aronian, but these are the rules, for now.

And we will celebrate the event by having the Chess.FM team of talents bring to you the usual amazing live commentary. While we're waiting for the Big One, in Europe there are some nice Open Tournaments going on.

Aeroflot Open just finished, and it was quite an interesting tournament. Fabiano Caruana (ICC: Adaptation), despite his up-and-down results, was able to climb the live rating list http://www.2700chess.com/ up to #7, only 4 points short of American hero Hikaru Nakamura (ICC: CapilanoBridge).

And the American-Italian young GM is restless! He's already played 32 games in 2012, with no match in the top list. Now, he's going to play the 27th Reykjavik Open, starting on March the 6th. It is an interesting event, with Caruana and Navara along with some strong "over 2600" GMs, such as GM Yuriy Kuzubov(2627) (ICC: Syringe)  - winner of the last edition - GM Ivan Cheparinov(2659), GM Gawain Jones(2653) (ICC: Verdenotte) , GM Ivan Sokolov(2641) and GM Robert Hess(2625) (ICC: RLH2).

The tournament will be held in Harpa, Reykjavik's spectacular new music hall on the harbor. ICC will have live coverage of this event (http://www.chessclub.com/finger/Reykjavik12).

There is another strong Open that Europe (France) is hosting in March: The 28th Cappelle La Grande International Chess Open http://www.cappelle-chess.fr/en2/default.php. While there are no elite players (2700+), the tournament presents an interesting prize fund (30,000 Euros), and 100 GMs playing! The Open will take place from March the 3rd to March the 10th, and ICC will relay the top games, to keep its members always on the spot.

We all know it: chess players want to get good results immediately, cutting short the learning process of chess basics and proceeding on to study opening theory.

Unfortunately, this violates the most important and significant study principle: go from the simple to the complicated. One does not start building a house from the roof: it is the foundation that is laid first.
Any battles, including chess battles over the board, are not won by the army that can just and only array itself on the battlefield according to earlier developed plans, but by the army that can also prove its skill and professional worth during the battle.

The first manual on chess basics is important. GM Boris Alterman's new classical course helps you get more familiar with the  most important tactical & positional elements of the game, and answers many questions on how to think in attack and defense situations.

There are interesting and essential topics through which GM Boris will guide you to improve and understand the subtleties of the game. Don't miss it! First release on Thursday, February the 23rd.

2012 is the year of the great ICC giveaway, with FREE ICC apps for download! Everyone will be looking to play at the best online chess club with new holiday gifts of iPhones, iPads and Android phones. And here at ICC, such was the large response to our original free holiday offer we're extending it by making ALL of our mobile apps free for the time being.

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