8/21/2018 – Live games and commentary from Saint Louis! We've seen the top class rapid and blitz action with Aronian, Caruana, Nakamura, Anand, Karjakin, MVL, So, Mamedyarov, Grischuk and wildcard Dominguez. Nakamura won the combined tournament. Now, the Sinquefield Cup kicks off, where the regular players from the Grand Chess Tour will be joined by World Champion Magnus Carlsen. | Graphic: Saint Louis Chess Club

8/21/2018 – Three rounds have already been played at this year’s Sinquefield Cup. Four different players have achieved a single win to share the lead on 2/3 — the last one to join this group was Alexander Grischuk, who defeated Hikaru Nakamura with the black pieces on Monday. V. SARAVANAN tells us about yet another day in the United States’ capital of chess. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

8/21/2018 – The state of Kerala in India is in disarray right now. The flooding has reached catastrophic levels, 350 people have died and more than 200,000 are displaced after losing their houses. In such a situation, the third GM of Kerala, 14-year-old Nihal Sarin, has decided to do his bit to support the people affected by the floods. The young boy will feature on the ChessBase India live show on the 22nd of August 2018 at 8 p.m. to raise funds for the flood victims. It's a call to the chess community to help our brethren in distress.

8/21/2018 – Being well connected helps - a truism that is particularly true for passed pawns in the endgame. But you have to know how to use these connections.

8/21/2018 – Australian Grandmaster DAVID SMERDON is semi-retired from chess after getting married, returning to his hometown of Brisbane to take up a professorship in the School of Economics at the University of Queensland. He still blogs occasionally and recently published a fascinating two-part story about a trip to Kenya, which we bring you with kind permission of the author. | Pictured: Chess players from Alliance Girls’ High School, Nairobi, who sometimes play against their brother school, and they enjoy playing — and beating — the boys. | Photos: DavidSmerdon.com

8/20/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon will take a look at what makes Magnus Magnus. We can all learn a lot from his style and best games. Enjoy!

8/20/2018 – Four out of five games finished drawn in the Sinquefield Cup’s second round. The only winner was Magnus Carlsen, who defeated his former World Championship challenger Sergey Karjakin after enterprisingly sacrificing an exchange in what seemed to be a balanced position. Thus, the Norwegian joined Mamedyarov and Aronian in the lead. V. SARAVANAN reports from the Saint Louis Chess Club. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Spectrum Studios

8/20/2018 – When I spotted a tournament in Gold Coast, I was only too happy to tick my 3rd continent out of 7. With a population of mere 6,00,000 and an Air Quality score of 18, Gold Coast is one of those ideal escapes. It’s a unique place where one can spot Kangaroos hopping about in the midst of one’s games. In an exciting tournament with just 37 players, 17-year old Teymur Kuybokarov came out on top with 7.5/9. GM Anton Smirnov finished 2nd with 7/9. Former World Under 12 Champion IM Bobby Cheng, who’ll soon be a GM was the first among equals in a group of players sharing the 3rd place. | Photo: Kgbo [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

8/19/2018 – A "moment of madness" and a "snappy win" from an English chess coach. Want to join in the fun? Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

8/19/2018 – After the hard-fought St. Louis Rapid & Blitz event, the already traditional Sinquefield Cup started on Saturday. Two players achieved clean wins to reach the top of the standings right from the get-go — Levon Aronian and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Sergey Karjakin and Wesley So, respectively. V. SARAVANAN recapped the action and included some behind-the-scenes curiosities. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

8/18/2018 – Everyone knows — and some even love — chess problems. But apart from straightforward "mate in x tasks" there are also other very interesting types: helpmates, selfmates, and retrograde analysis, a genre where the legality of a position or a move is what we are looking for. Sound boring? Well, take a look at some examples and decide for yourself. You may find it fascinating.

8/18/2018 – The Riga Tech University Open from August 6th to 12th was won by a pair of Armenian grandmasters: Robert Hovhannisyan and Manuel Petrosyan, each scoring 7½ / 9. Hovhannisyan was undefeated with six wins; Petrosyan scored a whopping seven wins, one loss and a draw. Among the trailing pack on 7 / 9 were the young and talented Russian GM Andrey Esipenko, and the German GM Rasmus Svane. | Photos: Tournament page