The Official NATO-Chess-Webpage

At 20 July, the NATO Chess FIDE 100 Years Online Blitz tournament was played in lichess. Due to the holiday period, there were not many players available. Finally 10 players managed to play the online tournament with 9 rounds, so the Swiss Format of the tournament had automatically been changed to a Round Robin. 1st: FM Patrick Emilio Aizpurua, 2nd: Ionel Luca, 3rd: Sławomir Kędzierski. Congratulations!
Results NATO Chess FIDE 100 Years Online Blitz

16 May 2024:
Jan Cheung

Solution of the exercises - part 1

Here are the solutions of the previous 6 exercises. I have also updated the intro article, with more review at endgame publications.

1 May 2024:
Jan Cheung

Some Endgame exercises - part 1

26 December 2023:
By the webmaster

Robert Stein wins 3rd EU-NATO Blitz Tournament

At 21 December 2023, The 3rd EU-NATO Blitz Tournament was played. Robert Stein finished 1st, Dariusz Sycz finished 2nd, Andreas Keil (EuropChess) 3rd.
Results.

14 November 2023:
By the webmaster

Alexander Flaata gains FM title

One month after the 33th NATO Chess tournament, the European Chess Team competition was held in Durres, Albania. In ChessBase, there was much coverage of that tournament because Magnus Carlsen took part with his club Offerspil. There was much publication because a high ranked player like Magnus normally will not take part in these open tournaments because he could lose many rating points if he draws games. But he didn't. He led his team and Offerspil finally won the tournament.

But there was more Norwegian news...

We have been all grown up how to get a FM title, by having a rating of at least of 2300 points at the monthly FIDE rating list. Since 2017, according to the FIDE Handbook there are extra opportunities to get that title, such as a minimum score of 65% in a minimum of 7 games in a Continental Team (or Club) Championship. That is good news for many senior chess players, who have aspirations to gain an on the board chess title. We all know that gaining the FM title with a low K factor in the rating is very difficult. Alexander played for the Norwegian team SOSS, played 7 games, scoring 5 points, and a rating performance around 2250. The performance was sufficient to earn the FM title immediately.

Here is his report.

NATO Chess congratulates Alexander Flaata! Hope that this will inspirate players that is still possible to achieve titles after many tens of years of struggling behind the chess board!

9 September 2023:
By the webmaster

The 33rd NATO Chess Championship has been ended. Final team ranking: 1) Germany, 2) Greece, 3) USA. Gratulations to all winners! Thanks for all participants, their supporters, the staff of the Slovenian Armed Forces, the staff of Grand Hotel Bernardin, Hote Histrion, Hotel Vile Park, and the Slovenian Chess Federation to make this event happen!

2 September 2023:
By the webmaster

The 33rd NATO Chess Championship is about to start
Results
Livegames
33rd NCC page

2 September 2023:
By the webmaster

A new article about chess education - with examples from NCC 2022

11 June 2023:
By the webmaster

UK Armed Forces Chess Championship 14th-17th April Thanks, Ben Woolf.

1 May 2023:
By the Chairman

Polish Armed Forces shone at the XXII Uniformed Services Chess Championship

21 April 2023:
By the webmaster

Last month, The 13th Canadian Military Chess Championship has been held. Media coverage could be found at the Facebook site of Military Chess. Here are some links to articles of this championship.

Article of Canadian Armed Forces: RMC Cadet going to the NATO Chess Championship in Slovenia
Article of CTV News Ottawa: Canadian soldiers land in Kingston, Ont. for national chess championship
Pictures of the 13th Canadian Military Chess Championship

01 January 2023:
By the webmaster

Happy new year! Wishing that tournaments can be organized this year!

30 December 2022:
By the Chairman

XXXII NATO Chess Championship, Tartu EST, June 26 - July 1, 2022

Silver medals of the Polish Army!
Read more...
Original article in Szachista (Polish)

Polish Armed Forces at NATO Chess

To start with, I shall stress that I am extremely honoured to write these words on NATO Chess from Polish perspective following good examples of Germany, Norway, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Read more...

15 August 2022:
By the Chairman

Two decades of the Polish Armed Forces in the NATO Championship

Chess is a popular sport discipline in the military environment of the NATO member states. This is evidenced primarily by the competitions organized at the allied level: the 12th NATO Tournaments (1978-1988 and 1993) and the 31st NATO Championships (1989-2021).
Read more...
Original article in Szachista (Polish)

15 August 2022:
By the Chairman

Lt. Col. Sławomir Kędzierski: the most important thing is the team's success

Three gold medals, 11 silver and four bronze were won by the Polish Army representation in 20 competitions in the championship chess competitions at the NATO level. The last championship in Estonia and the results obtained by our chess players in previous competitions are summarized by Lt. Col. Sławomir Kędzierski, chairman of the International Military Chess Committee.

Read more...
Original article in Armed Poland (Polish)

3 July 2022:
By the Webmaster

Last week, the 32th NATO Chess Championship has been played. Despite 30 degrees Celcius (86F) the whole week which was very unusual in Estonia this time, the chess event and the cultural events were wonderful organized!

Results NCC 2022: 1) Greece, 2) Poland, 3) USA.

More information can be found at the NCC 2022 Championship web site and the NCC 2022 Championship event page.

4 June 2022:
By Jan Cheung

I have written a new article about chess education. Does this lead to the same position

13 April 2022:
By the Webmaster

Open File (Magazine UK Armed Forces Chess Association) - Edition Spring 2022

1 April 2022:
By Jan Cheung

I have written a new article about chess education. A New Rate of Play

24 January 2022: 1st EU and NATO Online Blitz Tournament

The winner of the 1st Joint EU and NATO online blitz tournament is Cpt. Dariusz SYCZ. The participation of almost 30 players on Lichess, 29 Dec 2021, gives hope to continue the project. The main goal to get started has been successfully achieved. :-) Moreover, the competition offered a good chance to Albanian and Czech soldiers to show up. All veterans are welcome, too.

The trophy King Canute has attracted the attention of the Museum of Sports and Tourism in Warsaw.

The nearby trophy belongs to GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda who won the World Cup 2021 and thus qualified for the 2022 Candidates tournament.

Presentation Friends of Chess medal to Director MSiT
Presentation of the Friends of Chess medal to the Director of MSiT Mr Sławomir Majcher

Read more...

1 January 2022:
By the Webmaster

Happy new year! The world situation is still unclear. We hope that the NCC tournament in Estonia can be organized this year. In the mean time, the web site is being updated with old pictures that were a) stored in Google+ in the past or b) couldn't be stored in Google+ due to space problems. The news section at the countries pages are being updated from collections over the web sites in the world. There is much written about the NCC tournaments and it is a pity that some material is being lost due to space problems at the servers. Recovered news material will be summarized at the countries pages.
In the mean time, an online blitz tournament was played at 29 Dec 2021. The games can be viewed and downloaded from

View (and download) the games of NATO Online Blitz 29 Dec 2021

18 October 2021:
The NATO Chess 2021 Tournament has ended.
Link to the tournament site for results
Link to URLs for the onofficial pictures

11 October 2021:
The NATO Chess 2021 Tournament has begun.
Link to the tournament site
Link to live games

02 October 2021:
Announcement NATO Chess 2021 Tournament
Link to the tournament site
Link to Belgian Military Chess

01 October 2021:
A short history of NATO Chess (1989-2020)
Une brève histoire du jeu d´échecs à l´OTAN (1989-2020)

11 July 2021:
An education article about a game between a lower and higher rated player in the 1st Round of NATO Chess 2019
Some exercises of the 1st Round of NATO Chess 2019

1 April 2021:
Open File (Magazine UK Armed Forces Chess Association) - Edition Spring 2021

6 December 2020:
Remembering Ben De Cat - and his irregular openings

9 Oct 2020:
Open File (Magazine UK Armed Forces Chess Association) - Edition Autumn 2020

28 June 2020:
Due to the uncertainty of the world situation, the 31th NATO Chess Championship has been postphoned to 2021. Details will be followed later.

30 April 2020:
Armed Services invites you to read their articles. They can be found at a tab called 'download'. You need to click on this and then the password all in uppercase is OFREADERS and this will take you to the magazines including the latest one which is Spring 2020. You are most welcome to download what you wish, but all we ask is that you keep the password to yourself.

26 April 2020:
With sadness we have to inform you that our Belgian NCC player Ben de Cat unexpectedly passed away on 21st April 2020. Ben will be forever remembered by the NCC community with his love for life and for his unconventional chess playing style. More details about Bens funeral

10 March 2020:
US Chess Ethics Committee member David Hater elected to the FIDE Ethics Commission

01 December 2019:
The 2019th Nato Chess Website is updated! Please checkout for some nice photos. Link to the tournament site

08 November 2019:
Wolfgang Berger - the "face" of the catholic working group for soldiers (KAS) - is no longer with us. For details click here

24 September 2019:
The 30th NATO Championship has been finished last Friday. Final Team Ranking: 1) Germany 2) Poland 3) Greece. Thanks to all the players, home front, organizers, sponsors and supporters for making this event possible!
Pictures are included at the news pages of the Championship page.
The web master is currently checking the PGN files.

16 to 20 September 2019:

Link to the tournament site

The Official NATO Chess Webpage