12/15/2019 – The first classical games of the quarter-finals at the FIDE Grand Prix in Jerusalem all ended in short draws. The longest game of the day lasted 23 moves and a little over an hour and a half. In the key encounter between Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi, it was the American who conceded a draw with the white pieces. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/14/2019 – The pairings for the quarter-finals of the Jerusalem Grand Prix are now set, after seven round-one match-ups were decided in Friday's tiebreaks. Out of those with serious chances to get the remaining spot in the Candidates, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was the one leaving the race early on. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is still ahead in the overall standings, but Ian Nepomniachtchi or even Wesley So could overtake him in the coming rounds. | Photo: Niki Riga

12/12/2019 – The fourth and final stage of the 2019 FIDE Grand Prix kicked off in Jerusalem. The first classical games of all eight single-elimination matches finished peacefully. The Israeli city sees the race to the Candidates coming to an end, with two spots still in contention at the series — theoretically, Alexander Grischuk can still be eliminated, although he is a clear favourite to get one of the two tickets. | Photo: Niki Riga

9/15/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ernesto Inarkiev were knocked out by nominally weaker players — Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and Xu Xiangyu respectively — after game two of the second round at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. Besides these two underdogs, fifteen other participants secured their place in round three. Meanwhile, Wei Yi and Eltaj Safarli bounced back with wins after having lost on Friday to reach the tiebreaks. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

8/8/2019 – He was rated 2630, he was the 15th seed, and yet he went on to win the Belt and Road Hunan Open 2019 with a clear half point margin. How did Surya Sekhar Ganguly manage to do it? It is said that a chess tournament has a life of its own. In order to understand a success story, you have to study it from all angles. In this article, IM SAGAR SHAH tells you about Surya's frame of mind during the event, the games that he played, the opponents he faced and how he managed to come out strong and win the first prize of US$50,000. | Photos: Ganguly's Facebook page

7/3/2019 – With so many concurrent events, one thing's for sure: Chess fans around the world are not going to get bored! A strong tournament started in China on Sunday, the 10th Hainan Danzhou Tournament runs through July 7th with both top Chinese players and elite international guests. The Chinese are leading alongside Richard Rapport after four rounds. | Photo: sunnyhainan.com

5/22/2019 – Peter Svidler was the first player to be eliminated from the Moscow Grand Prix quarter-finals, after Radoslaw Wojtaszek defeated him with the white pieces on Tuesday. Alexander Grischuk and Wei Yi had difficult positions against Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi, respectively, but they ended up getting a second draw in their match-ups after all. GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ analyses the games. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

5/21/2019 – The quarter-finals of the Moscow Grand Prix (Watch LIVE) kicked off on Monday with draws on all four boards, here annotated by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ. Alexander Grischuk and Wesley So were the last ones to leave the playing hall, after signing a 28-move draw — Wei Yi and Ian Nepomniachtchi drew in 31 moves, but signed the score sheets earlier. The highlight of the day was Daniil Dubov's unorthodox plan with Black against Hikaru Nakamura. | Photo: World Chess

5/19/2019 – A day full of exciting chess at the Moscow Grand Prix ended up with six players qualifying to the second round without needing rapid and blitz tie-breaks. Daniil Dubov, Wei Yi, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Radoslaw Wojtaszek secured their spots in the quarter-finals, while Wesley So defeated Jan-Krzysztof Duda to tie the score, and Teimour Radjabov signed another quick draw with Hikaru Nakamura. | Photo: World Chess

5/12/2019 – Despite confessing at the end of the day that his play was below his expectations, Magnus Carlsen still leads the Côte d'Ivoire leg of the Grand Chess Tour by two and a half points. His closest chaser is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who started the blitz section with five straight wins and is currently the number one player in the live blitz ratings list. The Frenchman took down Carlsen in what was the world champion's first loss since December. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/11/2019 – Magnus Carlsen finished all three days of rapid chess in Abidjan with the same result — two wins and a draw. Now he goes into the blitz section with a three-point advantage over Hikaru Nakamura, although each game will now be worth only a point. Besides Naka, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So threaten to take down the Norwegian, as both had a great run on Friday — MVL won all three games, while So got two wins and drew Nakamura. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/10/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader of the Côte d'Ivoire Rapid tournament after scoring two wins and a draw for a second day in a row. Hikaru Nakamura could be sharing first place with Carlsen had he managed to convert a winning advantage against Bassem Amin — 'Naka' even lost that game and now stands two points behind the leader. Plenty of exciting chess and missed opportunities were seen on Thursday in Abidjan. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/9/2019 – Three rounds of Rapid were played on Wednesday at the Pullman Hotel in Abidjan to kick off the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Chinese prodigy Wei Yi are leading the ten-player field after getting two wins and a draw during the first day of action. GCT defending champion Hikaru Nakamura is the closest chaser and the only player to avoid a defeat against Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

4/2/2019 – Age was not on his side, but he made it up for it with his experience. In part II of our interview with Aeroflot Open winner Kaido Kulaots, we check two wins — the first one against Chinese phenomenon Wei Yi and the second one against Denis Khismatullin. Kaido speaks in great detail about his games, going over not just brute chess analysis but also subtle psychological points. His journey towards winning one of the strongest open tournaments in the world the Aeroflot Open 2019 is highly inspiring. Photo: | Kaido Kulaots' Facebook page.

2/26/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran, who had led the Aeroflot Open confidently after six rounds, lost in the seventh round to strong Armenian youth GM Haik Martirosyan and was overtaken by GM Kaido Kulaots. The trio now has a half point lead over four other grandmasters with two rounds left to play. | Photo: Mohammad Kheirkhah / ruchess.ru

2/16/2019 – The Cosmos Hotel, located in north-central Moscow, will host the 17th edition of the Aeroflot Open. Group A currently counts 39 registered players rated 2600 or above, with 19-year-old Wei Yi as the top seed. The event is a great chance for players that are vying to get a place in the elite to prove themselves against formidable opposition. Nine rounds will be played starting Monday, with no rest days in between. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (archive)

12/19/2018 – The Asian Continental Championship remained wide open until the very end. At the conclusion of the final round, all of the top three finishers — Wei Yi, Amin Tabatabaei and Le Quang Liem — were tied for first and it wasn't until the application of the tiebreaks that Wei Yi was declared the winner. In the women's group, too, Padmini Rout was caught in the lead after the final round by Gong Qianyun but clinched the title nonetheless as she had won the direct encounter against Gong in round 6. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Surya Shekhar Ganguly took the fourth and the fifth spots respectively to book their berth into the 2019 FIDE World Cup. | Photo: Peter Long

12/16/2018 – Recovering from their early upsets, Wang Hao, Vidit Gujrathi and Le Quang Liem made their way back to the top of the leaderboard at the 17th Asian Continental Championship in Manila, Philippines. Surya Ganguly and M. Amin Tabatabei are tied for first with 5½ after seven rounds. Six grandmasters including Vidit Gujrathi, Wei Yi and Le Quang Liem are a half point behind at 5/7. With two rounds to go, it's still wide open.

12/13/2018 – The 17th edition of the Asian Continental Championship did not begin on the right note. A night before the start of the event, GM Vidit Gujrathi took to Facebook to express his dissatisfaction about the conditions provided. He further revealed that he and his colleagues MR Lalith Babu and Abhijit Kunte were attacked by a group of goons, just a few hundred metres away from their hotel! In our first report, we talk about the incident, FIDE's reaction and the happenings of the first three rounds. No photos or video are currently available in the "gallery" of the official site: philchesstournaments.com

8/23/2018 – A twelve-game match between Wei Yi and Ernesto Inarkiev was played in Magas, the capital town of the Republic of Ingushetia. The Chinese defeated the 2016 European Champion 4:2 in the classical section and achieved a 3½:2½ victory in the rapid. Wei Yi demonstrated his tactical talent more than once. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (archive)

7/28/2018 – A brilliant win and an amazing miss were the highlights of the opening round of the 9th Danzhou Super Grandmaster Tournament. Continuing his great form from the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda registered an emphatic win over Vidit Gujrathi of India to take an early lead in the tournament. Bu Xiangzhi also had good winning chances against Samuel Shankland but messed up quite remarkably and had to settle for a draw in the end. An illustrated report with games.

4/10/2018 – The final day of China versus the world match featured some amazing miniatures, inspiring comebacks and also a few incredible blunders! While the World team failed to overcome their two-point deficit on the final day, they came close and made sure the Chinese did not declare victory without breaking a sweat. Day 2 report and games.

4/8/2018 – From April 7th to 9th, China's National team is taking on five representatives of the 'Rest of the World' in a ten round match with a rapid time control of 10 mins + 10 seconds. At the conclusion of Day 1, Team China finished with a two-point lead over the World scoring three wins, a draw and two losses. There were plenty of interesting games and we bring you a report on all the action from Liaocheng, China.

1/29/2018 – Magnus Carlsen scored his record sixth Tata Steel Chess tournament win, on the same day tennis legend Roger Federer won his sixth Australian Open title. Draws from the tournament leaders in the Masters forced a playoff blitz match, which Magnus won with seeming ease. Challengers leader Vidit made a solid draw which secured him the top spot and automatic invitation to next year's Masters. And there will be a next year; at the conclusion of the round, it was announced that the tournament was guaranteed for January 11-27, 2019. Analysis and commentary by GM Daniel Fernandez | Photo: Alina l'Ami Tata Steel Chess on Facebook