8/9/2018 – In Sweden there is currently "Extremadura" (it's been a hot dry summer) and so the T-shirt of Aleyey Shirov was very suitable for the Cellavision Cup in Lund. The recently re-Spaniard played all eight decisive games and won the tournament thanks to better tiebreak score over tied Jonny Hector. Both scored 7.0 / 8. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund

7/3/2018 – On Saturday, the Swedish Championship started in Ronneby, embedded in a big chess festival. Hans Tikkanen leads after three rounds with 2½ points and showed himself as a virtuoso of the defence yesterday in his game against Nils Grandelius. The tournament has a long history going back over a century to 1917! | Photo: Lars O. Hedlund

6/22/2018 – Pia Cramling was born in 1963, the same year as Garry Kasparov, and she is also a chess legend. 40 years ago, when she was 15, she played in her first Olympiad. But this year she won't in play the Olympiad in Batumi 2018. In an extensive interview, the Swedish grandmaster reveals what drove her decision and reflects on her long career. | Pictured: Juan Bellon, Anna Cramling, Pia Cramling; Photo: Swedish Chess Federation

2/2/2018 – On the last day of the Tradewise Chess Festival in Gibraltar, there was plenty of excitement. Seven players ended tied after ten rounds. The four best on tiebreak battled in a pair of rapid and blitz matches. Aronian defeated Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who ended Nakamura's run as Gibraltar champion. | Photo: Sophie Triay

1/8/2018 – The Rilton Cup in Stockholm is over and in the end it came down to the many young players taking the top prizes. Six of the top seven places went to players under the age of 21. Kirill Alekseenko, Maksim Chigaev and Mikhail Antipov from Russia all won their games in rounds eight and nine and thus secured the podium places | Pictured: The decisive game of the tournament: Johan Salomon against Kirill Alekseenko | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

12/31/2017 – After a thrilling two days of action, we saw severe turnarounds by the challengers on Day 2. Magnus Carlsen capped a brilliant day with a massive score against the world's best to snatch gold. Sergey Karjakin fought back to win silver, and Vishy Anand concluded his magnificent run with bronze. In the Women's event, Pia Cramling faded as she lost steam, while Nana Dzagnidze took gold. We bring a massive report by Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: riyadh.fide.com

12/30/2017 – The second stage is underway in Riyadh. 138 players are contesting the World Blitz Championship title in a 21-round Swiss, played over two days. At stake is a quarter-million first prize and the title of World Blitz Champion. After 11 rounds of wild action, defending champion, Sergey Karjakin has taken the lead, while the women's section, veteran Pia Cramling stormed to a commanding lead. Report and analysis by Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Anastasia Karlovich

11/30/2017 – The 11th Kings Tournament was the first edition held in memory of legendary Romanian player, organiser and teacher, Elisabeta Polihroniade, who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. A large scholastic event including a simul by Anatoly Karpov started the festivities last Friday in Bucharest. This year's tournament — a pair of four-player double round-robins — was won by Ukrainian's Vassily Ivanchuk and Anna Muzychuk, and was broadcast live on ChessBase with grandmaster commentary. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

11/28/2017 – Vassily Ivanchuk was impressive on his way to winning the blitz tournament and at one point was leading by three full points. He finished two points clear of Sergey Karjakin. Anna Muzychuk lead the women's tournament from start to finish, ultimately scoring 1½ points more than her nearest rival Elisabeth Paehtz. The tournament (November 24th-29th) was held in memory of Elisabeta Polihroniade who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. Ivanchuk and Muzychuk also won their respective rapid tournaments for a clean sweep!

2/20/2017 – With half of the matches going into the tie-break, the world championship saw another exciting, although slightly less dramatic, match-ups. however, the trend clearly favoured the higher rated players, who dominated their respective strong opponents. There were moments of great play and lapses worthy of mentioning. Joining Muzychuk, Stefanova, Dzagnidze, and Shiqun are four others. Here is the illustrated report with GM analysis.

2/17/2017 – The common theme in the tie-break games of the second round was as follows: the experienced players managed to keep calm, play the board, and with consistent play, they took their chances and scored in the most crucial moments. After all, in such a win-or-die format, one has to have the stomach and gut for such a nerve-wracking job in order to win. In addition, two thrilling Armageddons would tell us enough. decided in overtime. Here is the report with photos and GM analysis.