11/1/2019 – With one round to go at the European Team Championships in Batumi, Russia and Ukraine are sharing the lead on 13 match points in the open section. The deciding final day of action will see Ukraine facing Croatia and Russia playing against the third seeds from Poland. Meanwhile, among the women, Russia did manage to reach the final round in the sole lead, which means a victory over Turkey will be enough to secure the gold. The final round starts four hours earlier than usual. | Photo: Official site

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

9/14/2019 – Round two of the 2019 World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk saw 11 out of 32 match-ups starting with a decisive result. The upsets of the day were achieved by David Anton and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who defeated Wei Yi and Hikaru Nakamura respectively. Meanwhile, the youngest player in the field, Nihal Sarin, won a third classical game in a row, this time showing great positional feel to take down Eltaj Safarli. Round-up show by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: FIDE

7/17/2019 – Leinier Dominguez seems to be in good shape at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. In round three he won against defending champion Ian Nepomniachtchi with a nice, tactical combination and is now in sole first place with 2½/3. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu scored the second win of the round, with black against Daniel Fridman. Kaido Kulaots and Radoslaw Wojtaszek drew, as did Teimour Radjabov and Richard Rapport. Live games of round four from 13:15 UTC (15:15 CEST, 9:15 EDT). | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

7/14/2019 – It's that time again: From July 13th to 21st, the traditional Sparkassen Chess Meeting takes place in Dortmund. Always one of the strongest tournaments in the chess calendar, this year eight top players (I. Nepomniachtchi, T. Radjabov, L. Dominguez, R. Rapport, R. Wojtaszek, L. ​​Nisipeanu, D. Fridman and K. Kulaots) compete in the Grandmaster Tournament. Three of the four games were decided in round one. Mayor Birgit Joerder made the first move for Rapport vs Nepomniachtchi. | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

3/29/2019 – Top seed Vladislav Artemiev has moved into the sole lead for the first time, as the only player with 8 points after ten rounds. He beat fellow Russian Andrey Esipenko on board one in Skopje on Thursday. Nine players trail by half a point, including Maxim Rodshtein, who will have White against Artemiev in the last round, which starts two hours earlier on Friday. A score of at least 7½ will be needed to qualify for the World Cup. | Photo: Patricia Claros

11/28/2018 – In honour of the Centenary of Romania's Unification Day, the ROMGAZ Kings Tournament organised an event that included some of the strongest players from the country and the country's diaspora. Viorel Iordachescu and Alina l'Ami won the men's and women's tournaments, respectively. Each event combined rapid and blitz formats with four players in each category. In both cases, there was a close fight for first place. | Photos: Official site

11/7/2018 – The annual Kings Tournament which, since last year, is held "in memoriam Elisabeta Polihroniade" is now in its 12th Edition. This time the tournament takes place solely in Bucharest from November 19th-21st. It will be an all-Romanian tournament — including players from the Romanian diaspora — in celebration of the country's centenary — December 1st marks 100 years after Unification Day, a holiday born in 1990 but referring to the unification of the provinces which occurred in 1918 in the aftermath of the First World War.

7/23/2018 – The 2018 Sparkassen Chess Meeting finished on Sunday. Ian Nepomniachtchi took clear first place after beating Georg Meier with a dazzling attack. Vladislav Kovalev could have finished in clear second place had he been able to defeat Vladimir Kramnik in a winning but difficult endgame — the former world champion defended until a draw was agreed on move 104. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/22/2018 – With one round to go, no less than four players are half a point behind sole leader Ian Nepomniachtchi at the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. Giri and Meier beat Kramnik and Nisipeanu, respectively, to join Kovalev and Duda on 3½/6. LAWRENCE TRENT analysed both decisive games and the final stage of Duda-Nepomniachtchi, where the young Polish star missed his chance to defeat the leader. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/21/2018 – The fifth round of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund had only one decisive result, but it was a big one: Ian Nepomniachtchi took down Vladimir Kramnik in the only match-up that faced two of the previous co-leaders. Nepo is now in front on 3½/5, half a point ahead of Vladislav Kovalev and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The final two rounds of the tournament will be played this weekend. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/19/2018 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda had a great start at the Sparkassen ChessMeeting in Dortmund, but fell victim to Vladimir Kramnik in the fourth round. Anish Giri also got a full point on Wednesday, as he beat Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. These results left four players tied in first place. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/18/2018 – All four games in Dortmund's third round could have easily finished with decisive results. Ian Nepomniacthchi and Vladislav Kovalev obtained their first victories, while Jan-Krzysztof Duda beat his compatriot Radek Wojtaszek to stay at the top of the standings. Vladimir Kramnik pushed for a win once again, but was stopped by Georg Meier's solid defence. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/16/2018 – Seven out of eight games finished drawn in the first two rounds of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. The only player who managed to win was Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who beat Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in Sunday's round and now is the sole leader of the tournament. Despite the big number of draws, we saw a lot of fighting spirit and some very long battles. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

7/15/2018 – At the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund the four games of the first round ended drawn. However, if you think about symmetrical structures and a lot of early exchanges, you are completely wrong, because all boards were struggling hard for the full point. The only player with significant chances to win probably was the birthday boy Ian Nepomniachtchi (against Giri), but the position was pretty tricky. There was also a draw between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Vladislav Kovalev that went almost the full seven hours possible. The ceremonial first move was made by the mayor of Dortmund, Birgit Jörder. | Photo: sparkassen-chess-meeting.de

7/13/2018 – Starting Saturday, Vladimir Kramnik and Anish Giri top the field of players providing a nice mix of old and new this year. Since 1984, the tournament has been made possible by the commitment of the Dortmund Sparkasse regional bank. | Pictured (L to R): Gerd Kolbe, Klaus Steenweg, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vladislav Kovalev, Georg Meier, Andreas Jagodzinsky, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Stefan Koth, Vladimir Kramnik, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, Anish Giri, | Photos: Macauley Peterson

11/8/2016 – 475 players started in the 20. Open International Bavarian Championchips that took place from 29th October to 6th November in Bad Wiessee, Germany. After nine rounds seven players shared first place with 7.5/9 and the Ukrainian GM Alexander Areshchenko won on tie-break. But the decision was close. Very close.