1/25/2020 – The Gibraltar Chess Festival is one of the strongest open tournaments in the world but only after three rounds did we see the GMs begin to separate from the pack, five of whom maintained a perfect score. After four rounds the five dropped to one: Ivan Cheparinov. The festival also has an interesting program of side events. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, currently number eight in the world, gave a masterclass (pictured) after round two, which you can relive at your leisure. | Photo: Niki Riga

1/20/2020 – Escaping the cold Romanian winter, IM IRINA BULMAGA returned home recently from a successful jaunt to the UAE where she shared first with fellow IMs Irine Sukandar and IM Olga Zimina, and GM Monika Socko, each scoring 7 out of 9. It was the tenth such tournament for women in Sharjah. | Photos: Official site: shjwomenchess.com

2/6/2019 – One more look back at the Gibraltar Chess Festival with one of the players, GM JAN WERLE, who takes a tour of the highlights from this year's tournament, including a selection of games from the winners — Vladislav Artemiev, Karthikeyan Murali and Tan Zhongyi — plus the best game prize-winner: Gawain Jones vs Alejandro Ramirez. You'll also find video from GM Simon Williams and IM Lawrence Trent and interviews with Vassily Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian and D. Gukesh — one of the young stars of the festival. | Photo: Niki Riga

7/22/2018 – The QCD-Prof Lim Kok Ann Grandmasters Invitational 2018 was the first GM norm event two be held in Singapore in the last twenty years. At the conclusion of the event, two Singaporean players had secured their final norms. While IM Kevin Goh secured his final GM norm after six years of wait, WIM Gong Qianyun scored her third WGM norm and became Singapore's latest Woman Grandmaster. After the event, both players spoke about their success with JUNIOR TAY and shared some annotated games.

4/6/2018 – The strongest open tournament in Australia, the Doeberl Cup, has been held annually for 56 years in the capital city, Canberra. This year saw a new winner from Uzbekistan who represents the USA, GM Timur Gareyev, who edged out Australian IM James Morris on tiebreak score. The "Blindfold King" also swept the field by winning 10-0 in a blindfold exhibition prior to the tournament and had a perfect score in the 2018 Doeberl Cup Lightning. A successful trip to the land down under by Gareyev, but also for our reporter IM Irene Sukandar, who won the prize for the best woman. | Photo: O2C Doeberl Cup

11/6/2017 – The Women's event gold goes to Russia for the second straight year as they blanked Turkey 4 : 0 to clinch with a round to spare. The silver and bronze medal battle is between Georgia, Poland, Ukraine and Armenia. IM Irene Sukandar looks at key moments from Round 8. | Photo: EuroTeams2017.com

10/5/2017 – The 2017 Asian Indoor Games recently wrapped up in the city of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. In the open section, Le Quang Liem was crowned champion with 5½/7 points. Lu Shanglei tied, but was behind on tiebreak score. China's Tan Zhongyi, the Women's World Champion, left with a final score of 6.0/7 points and was crowned champion of the women's section. | Photo: AIMAG on Facebook

9/5/2017 – Irene Sukandar is not only an International Master, but she also has a Masters in International Relations. She recently returned home to her native Jakarta, after a long multi-country tour through Europe playing in tournaments. Along the way she spent a day in Hamburg, where she stopped by ChessBase HQ and shared some insights into her background and chess training. | Photo: Pascal Simon

5/1/2014 – The 13th Asian Continental Open in Sharjah included a Women's section. Gold went to Irine Sukandar, a 22-year-old WGM from Indonesia — not the first time she has won an Asian Continental. And already at the 2004 Olympiad in Calviá, at the age of twelve (!), she scored 10/12. This remarkable young lady has sent us pictures and annotated a game from Sharjah.