The Reykjavik Open is halfway through, and it's proving to be an interesting tournament. Fabiano Caruana - Adaptation in ICC (currently #6 in the unofficial rating list), David Navara, Robert Hess - RLH2 in ICC, Gawain Jones - VerdeNotte in ICC, Ivan Cheparinov - Inch in ICC, Ivan Sokolov - VegaSicilia in ICC, and the reigning Women World Champion Hou Yifan - Fanny in ICC  make this strong Open an intriguing event to follow.

ICC is broadcasting the games, with many GMs and IMs commenting and kibitzing (Hikaru Nakamura - CapilanoBridge in ICC and Ronen Har-Zvi - Indiana-Jones in ICC - among others)!
Click here  for information . The tournament is  being held in Harpa,   Reykjavik's spectacular new music hall on the harbor.

After Round 4, the 6 top seeds led the pack, with a nice 4/4. In Swiss tournaments this is usual though: in the first rounds the top seeds play much weaker players. In the 5th round, the first "real" round for the strongest ones, Caruana and Jones drew a closed Ruy Lopez in 29 moves, after some wood skirmish on white kingside;
Navara lost to Sokolov - again a Ruy Lopez - and Cheparinov beat Robert Hess in a Catalan.

So, with 4 rounds to go, the two Ivan's - Sokolov and Cheparinov - lead the Open, with Jones and Caruana half a point behind. Hou Yifan beat GM Bartholomew,  after a couple of draws in the first rounds - yet again a Ruy Lopez! - to get back into the fight,  with a good 4.0/5, sharing third with Navara and Hess.

Don't miss the rest of this interesting event! ICC will broadcast the games every day.

And now, some news from the chess world:

FIDE has set dates and venue for the Chess Candidates Tournament 2012.

The super tournament, to decide the challenger to the World Champion in 2013, is going to take place in London, from October 24 - November 12. It will be an amazing event, that will see the participation of:

• The loser of the 2012 World Championship match: Boris Gelfand or Viswanathan Anand
• The top three finishers in the world Cup 2011: Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk and Vassily Ivanchuk
• The next three highest rated players in the world (average from July 2011 and January 2012 FIDE rating lists): Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik
• A selection from the organizing committee of the Candidates Tournament (minimum rating of 2700 on the January 2012 FIDE rating list): Tiemour Radjabov

The Tal Memorial this year will take place in June!

The 7th Mikhail Tal Memorial will take place from 7th to 19th June, 2012, in Moscow, Russia. Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Radjabov Teimour, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana have confirmed the participation. It may well be the strongest tournament ever.  The previous edition was held in November 2011, but this year the tournament is moved to June, most probably to avoid clashes with FIDE events and other important tournaments.

Chess.FM fans will have a lot to sink their teeth into, with all the great events in 2012! The superb Chess.FM Team of commentators will bring ICC's members the best live commentary for each of these elite tournaments!

2012 is the Year of the Dragon in China. We could not miss the opportunity to get into this popular and widely debated Opening Defense.

Belgian Fide Master Luc Henris, who was living in China with his Chinese wife, christened the variation "Chinese Dragon" (e4 c5 Nf3 d6 d4 cxd4 Nxd4 Nf6 Nc3 g6 Be3 Bg7 f3 Nc6 Qd2 0-0 Bc4 Bd7 0-0-0 Rb8) when he wrote a ground-breaking article about it for Yearbook 62, and that is when the name Chinese Dragon came to the world.

If you like aggressive action, then you are in for a treat. The Chinese Dragon is a new way to look at the Sicilian Dragon Defense, and allows Black to strike first in the pawn race. Many strong GMs play this variation, such as Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov and Vassily Ivanchuk.

Usually in the Sicilian Defense, and especially the Dragon variation, Black will put his rook on c8, to get maximum pressure down the c-file. However, in the Chinese Dragon, Black puts his rook on b8 to allow a quick push of his b-pawn. The pawn is immune from capture due to the quick and deadly attack Black gets on both the b and c files. However, many opponents fall for the trap and eat the pawn. After putting his rook on b8 on move 10, Black's goal is simple. Play b5, Na5-Nc4, and force white to capture the knight, opening the b-file to attack down. After the b file is open, play Qb6 to double up on the b file, bring the other rook to c8 for maximum pressure, and if needed push the a pawn as well. It is a simple formula that can be played almost automatically.

In his new series of the always interesting "Opening Survey" show, GM Ronen shows you all the "nip 'n 'tips" of this intriguing variation of the Sicilian Defense.

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.

Whether you want to hashtag us on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, YouTube our Chess.FM videos, catch our RSS feed, or just simply want to drop us a note by email, then there are many ways for you to stay in touch with all the latest developments and happenings on ICC - for news, views, videos and reviews, keep in touch with ICC by clicking one of our networking icons.