11/1/2019 – The November rating list is out and reflects the performances of two of the most important tournaments on the calendar this year: The World Cup and the Grand Swiss, both qualifying events for the 2020 Candidates tournament which attracted a massive turnout of elite players. Every member of the top 40 was in action in the rating period except for the retired Vladimir Kramnik, Richard Rapport and Veselin Topalov. | Pictured: World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov, runner-up Ding Liren, third place finisher Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and fourth placed Yu Yangyi at the close of the Khanty-Mansiysk festivities. | Photo: FIDE

10/5/2019 – Azerbaijani Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov defeated rating favourite Ding Liren in tiebreaks at the final match of the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk. After draws in all four rapid games, Radjabov got victories in both blitz encounters to take home the title and USD 110,000. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave prevailed in the match for third place with a commanding 2:0 victory over Yu Yangyi. IM LAWRENCE TRENT sent a video recap of the play-offs. | Photo: FIDE

10/4/2019 – Fabiano Caruana is already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020 and Ding Liren too de facto. They should now be joined by two World Cup finalists. Instead, the situation is less clear. Anish Giri is banking on a rating spot freed up by Ding's new qualification. Radjabov is also in, if he wants it, but that is very much an open question. CONRAD SCHORMANN explains. | Photos: FIDE

10/3/2019 – First and third places of the World Cup will be decided Friday in Khanty-Mansiysk, as the classical phase of the deciding matches ended with 2:2 scores. Ding Liren and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had the white pieces in the last "slow" games of the match-ups, but could not get last-minute victories to avoid the rapid play-offs. Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will kick off the tiebreaks with the white pieces. Round-up show by GM YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: FIDE

10/3/2019 – Teimour Radjabov bounced right back after his loss in game two against Ding Liren at the finals of the FIDE World Cup. The Azeri knew exactly what to do when his opponent did not play the most accurate move out of a Marshall Attack and went on to show good technique to even the score in Khanty-Mansiysk. The score of the match for third place is also 1½:1½ after Yu Yangyi could not make the most of a superior position against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Analyses by GM YANNICK PELLETIER and IM MERIJN VAN DELFT. | Photo: FIDE

10/2/2019 – The World Cup is headed for a dramatic conclusion, and today IM Merijn van Delft brings you right up to date. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

9/30/2019 – Teimour Radjabov and Ding Liren signed a 33-move draw as the final match of the FIDE World Cup kicked off Monday in Khanty-Mansiysk. The players blitzed out no less than 26 moves of theory before simplifying into a completely drawn rook endgame. Meanwhile, a similar story was seen in the match-up for third place, as Yu Yangyi had the white pieces against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — they played 36 moves of a sharp Grünfeld before splitting the point. IM LAWRENCE TRENT reviewed the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/28/2019 – Teimour Radjabov qualified to the next Candidates Tournament by knocking out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the classical phase of the World Cup semi-finals. The Azeri grandmaster obtained a clean-cut victory with the white pieces to take down the Frenchman and will have two rest days before the final match begins next Monday. Meanwhile, Yu Yangyi and Ding Liren signed a 30-move draw and will decide their match-up on tiebreaks. GM YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games. | Photo: FIDE

9/27/2019 – After Wednesday's dramatic tiebreaks, things cooled off at the start of the semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ding Liren had White against Yu Yangyi but was the one slightly under pressure before finding a repetition, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov played 31 moves before splitting the point. A win in game two will give any of the semi-finalists a spot in the next Candidates Tournament. Round-up show by GM DANIEL KING. | Photo: FIDE

9/25/2019 – Ding Liren and Teimour Radjabov won with White on Tuesday to qualify to the FIDE World Cup semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk. The Chinese arrived in Siberia as the favourite and eliminated Alexander Grischuk, while Radjabov got the better of Jeffery Xiong, who came from getting impressive match victories over Giri and Duda. Yu Yangyi v Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave v Levon Aronian finished drawn and will be decided on tiebreaks. GM DANNY KING recapped the highlights of the day. | Photo: FIDE

9/17/2019 – The round of 32 of the FIDE World Cup began on Monday, with seven players getting the lead in their mini-matches. The three biggest underdogs — all with ratings in the 2500s — are amongst those needing a win to bounce back after a loss, as Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov defeated Xu Xiangyu, Eltaj Safarli and Daniil Yuffa respectively. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the action of the day. | Photo: FIDE

7/22/2019 – Leinier Dominguez Perez won the Grandmaster Tournament at the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund. In the last round, a draw against Radoslaw Wojtaszek gave him the top spot on 4½/ 7. Ian Nepomniachtchi came in second, thanks to his tiebreak score in the four-player chasing group (all on 4/7). Germans Daniel Fridman and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu ended up with 2½/7 at the bottom of the standings table. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/18/2019 – In yesterday's 4th round of the Sparkassen Chess meeting, all games ended without a winner. Leinier Dominguez (pictured right) thus defended his lead in the tournament. Wojtaszek, Radjabov (pictured left) and Rapport remain a half point back in this short seven-round sprint. Thursday is the tournament's second (and final) rest day. Play resumes on Friday at 13:15 UTC (15:15 CEST, 9:15 AM EDT) | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

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

5/20/2019 – Two rapid games were enough for Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura to take down Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Teimour Radjabov in the first-round tie-breaks of the Moscow Grand Prix. Both Americans had White in the first encounter and scored right off the bat. While Nakamura was never in big danger in the return game, Duda posed many problems to So with the white pieces. Both encounters finished drawn, however. | Photo: World Chess

4/9/2019 – A third consecutive win in Shamkir meant Magnus Carlsen finished on 7 out of 9, two points ahead of his closer pursuers, with an out-of-this-world rating performance of 2988. His last victim was Alexander Grischuk, who was duly overrun both on the board and on the clock. The rest of the games finished drawn. LAWRENCE TRENT took a closer look at the final encounters of the sixth Gashimov Memorial. | Photo: Official site

4/8/2019 – The one decisive game of round seven saw Magnus Carlsen defeat his Twitter arch-enemy Anish Giri to take the sole lead in Shamkir. It was a rather flashy win, which means Magnus will arrive in Monday's showdown against Sergey Karjakin in high spirits. With only two rounds to go, it seems almost impossible for any player other than Magnus or Sergey to win the event. Grandmaster YANNICK PELLETIER analysed the games in depth. | Photo: Official site

4/3/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen looks determined and focused at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir. After defeating Viswanathan Anand in Round 2, he also won in Round 3, beating David Navara with Black through good technique and energetic play. He is now the sole leader with 2½ out of 3 alone. The second win of the day was provided by Anand who bounced back from his prior day's loss to beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The remaining three games ended drawn. Report and analyses by GMs ARYAN TARI and DANIEL FERNANDEZ. | Photos: ShamkirChess.com

3/31/2019 – The 2019 edition of the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir kicked off with all games drawn in the first round — much like last year, when the first decisive game came in round four. That does not mean there was no fighting in the Azeri town, however, as Teimour Radjabov put pressure on Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand had David Navara against the ropes during most of their encounter. | Photo: Official site

1/27/2019 – At the conclusion of the penultimate round of the Tata Steel Masters, it became clear that the race for the title will be only between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. With a win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the twelfth round, Carlsen has taken the sole lead. Giri remained half-a-point behind the World Champion after avoiding defeat thanks to a sudden draw offer by Teimour Radjabov. Other wins of the round were scored by Vladimir Kramnik (over Vladimir Fedoseev) and Sam Shankland (over Ian Nepomniachtchi), while the game between Vishy Anand and Ding Liren ended in an exciting draw. | Photo: Alina l'Ami / Official site

1/23/2019 – Early leader Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Vidit Gujrathi's Petroff Defence to join Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand at the top of the standings. Round nine also saw Vladimir Fedoseev bouncing back to 50% after tricking Teimour Radjabov in a rook endgame and Jorden van Foreest holding Anish Giri to a draw from a complex middlegame. In the Challengers, Maksim Chigaev is still the sole leader. Expert analysis by GMs DANIEL FERNANDEZ and DANIEL KING. | Pictured: Pia Sprong | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

1/20/2019 – The youngsters in both the Masters and Challengers scored wins in Round 7, but GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY also focuses on the first victory of Wijk aan Zee veteran Teimour Radjabov. "The traditional Tata Steel tournaments are in full swing, and I'm grateful for an opportunity to share my impressions." | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko and Jorden van Foreest | Photos: Alina l'Ami

1/20/2019 – On a day filled with remarkably fighting chess in Wijk aan Zee, Vishy Anand defeated his old rival and friend Vladimir Kramnik to join the leading pack on 4½/7 — the Indian now shares first place with Carlsen, Giri, Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov and Sam Shankland grabbed their first wins this year. In the Challengers, Maksim Chigaev won and caught up with Vladislav Kovalev on 5/7. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

10/3/2018 – It was perhaps the most hard-fought round of the tournament. Nine out of the first ten matches ended decisively in the open section. We now have a sole leader — USA in the open section. The US team managed to beat Azerbaijan in a thrilling match. In the women's section, Ukraine managed to beat overnight leaders Armenia to take the top spot. They are joined by the Chinese girls. With three rounds to go this Olympiad is excitingly placed with the biggest match today being USA taking on Poland in the open section. Report from Batumi by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.