2/28/2017 – Without taking anything away from his last-minute wresting of the gold from the two previous leaders, Alexander Grischuk's win of the FIDE Grand Prix in Sharjah was a bit of a disappointment, not for the result, much less the player, but because of the extremely modest 5.5/9 score required to do so. In many ways, it reflected the very sedate event and its astonishingly high draw rate. Here is the final report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

2/27/2017 – Good news or bad news first? The good news is that only one game ended in a short draw, while almost all games were played out to a proper end. The bad news is that only two ended in a decisive result, and it could have been just one. The unquestionable win was that of Pavel Eljanov over Jon Hammer, while the most important was Grischuk's victory over Mamedyarov. Mamedyarov had an equal endgame, but blundered fatally on move 49, and resigned soon after. Full report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

2/25/2017 – One interesting aspect of the FIDE Grand Prix in Sharjah has been some of the extreme opening preparation battles in which neither player shirked the opportunity to test the other. In round seven, two such examples that led to fascinating battles were Ding Liren vs Nakamura, as well as Salem vs Riazantsev. The latter saw Salem win that battle as he emerged with the lead and converted. The top standings are unchanged with two rounds to go. Full report with analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

2/24/2017 – It was the closest of affairs, and Nakamura had to think it was in the bag as he pressed forth with a won endgame against Grischuk, but a late misstep was all it took, and the chance to join the leaders slipped away. Nepomniachtchi made no such mistakes and took down Li Chao to enter the group a half point behind the leaders, while Rapport is back at 50% after defeating Riazantsev. Full report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

2/22/2017 – Although the games were harder fought this round compared to the previous anemic one, only three games out of nine ended in a decisive result. Nakamura seemed to have excellent chances against co-leader Mamedyarov, but in the end drew. Adams bounced back from his bad loss to Mamedyarov yesterday, and overpowered Hammer, while Grischuk and Jakovenko both broke their four draw streaks with wins over Eljanov and Riazantsev respectively. Full report with fascinating analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

2/22/2017 – With breathtaking verve, Mamedyarov went all out against Adams, and scored a powerful win to join MVL in the lead. Most games drew, some with little or no effort to fight, though not all such as Eljanov vs Hou Yifan that went the distance. Li Chao was the other winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky. Enjoy the illustrated report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

2/20/2017 – Although round three saw the vast majority of the games end in draws, the wild battle between Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport left few doubts any such thing would happen to their game. After a QGD Chigorin, Rapport castled queenside, and the gloves were off! MVL continues sole leader. Illustrated report with analysis by Alex Yermolinsky.

2/20/2017 – The Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave showed superb form as he completely outclassed Rapport with black to score a second win. Yesterday's loser Ding Liren bounced back with a win over Saleh Salem, while Mamedyarov was the third winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky in 37 moves. Full report with analysis by Tiger Hillarp-Persson.

2/19/2017 – Six out of eight games drawn, mostly in a peaceful manner. Among these draws, there were two that actually went very well in black’s favor until the players on the black side decided to call it a day and conceded a draw. All said and done, four players qualified for the Quarterfinals while the remaining eight will fight in the tiebreakers. Illustrated report.

2/19/2017 – It promised to bring levels of excitement and dynamism, and the new format did not disappoint. Three games ended in decisive results, with one hardly a surprise: Ding Liren - Rapport. The game was a mess as expected, and both players sopught to show who was the wilder of the bunch. Adams defeated Salem after he produced super piece centralization, and strangled his rival. Finally, MVL outplayed Li Chao in an endgame to score. Full report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

2/18/2017 – The new FIDE Grand Prix cycle is about to start, and the first event will take place in Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates at the Sharjah Cultural and Chess Club, the world’s largest chess club. There are four events in all, but innovating on the previous system of a series of round-robins, this time 24 players in all will participate with 18 in each event playing a nine-round Swiss. Here is all the Opening Ceremony report with all the info.