2/9/2023 – Hikaru Nakamura will face Magnus Carlsen in the Airthings Masters’ Grand Final on Friday. The famed streamer drew Wesley So with black in Armageddon to win the losers’ bracket and set up a rematch against the world champion. So had gained the right to face Nakamura by scoring a 1½-½ victory over Arjun Erigaisi in the semifinal of the lower bracket.

7/12/2022 – Sam Sevian grabbed the sole lead on day 2 of the FTX Road to Miami online tournament. The US grandmaster collected a perfect 12/12 score on Monday, with one of his four wins obtained by default as Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the competition after round 5. Day 2 also saw Ju Wenjun collecting three wins to climb to the top half of the standings. The Chinese is the lowest-rated player and the only woman in the field. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

4/21/2022 – The inaugural American Cup kicked off today with plenty of decisive action as several players drew first blood in their individual matches within the Champions Bracket. Samuel Sevian (pictured) caused the biggest upset: he won with Black against Wesley So. | Photos: Austin and Crystal Fuller, Saint Louis Chess Club

9/17/2020 – With 7.0/9 Nikita Vitiugov and Steven Zierk shared first at the strong Pacific Northwest Chess Center Artist Point tournament, a 9-round Swiss online tournament with an almost classical time-control of 60 minutes for the whole game and a 5-second increment per move. Awonder Liang reports and takes a close look at interesting games. | Photos: Xuhao He

7/31/2019 – India's wunderkind 13-year-old GM R Praggnanandhaa started out Xtracon Open 2019 as the 21st seed, scored an unbeaten 8½/10 at a performance rating of 2741, to win the tournament convincingly. He finished a half point ahead of the pack of five players who were all higher rated than him. Norwegian no.3 GM Aryan Tari scored 8.0/10 and finished 2nd, while Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian finished 3rd according to their tie-break scores respectively.

5/14/2019 – After scoring a clutch victory over Adhiban, Vassily Ivanchuk won his eighth Capablanca Memorial title on Monday night. He had arrived in the final round tied in first with David Antón, but the latter could not convert a rook endgame a pawn up against Carlos Albornoz, thus allowing the Ukrainian to claim clear first. Samuel Sevian also won in round ten and caught up with Antón on 6½ points. | Photo: Abel Rojas / Mi Columna Deportiva

5/8/2019 – The traditional Capablanca Memorial is celebrating its 54th edition in Havana, Cuba. After taking place in Varadero in 2016 and 2017, the event returned to the capital last year. Seven-time winner Vassily Ivanchuck and American rising star Samuel Sevian are atop the standings table on 3½/5. Meanwhile, top seed Adhiban is having a hard time, as he lost to Sevian and David Antón in the first half. In the Open, Isán Ortiz and Luis Agüero are sharing the lead. | Photo: Abel Rojas / Mi Columna Deportiva

9/3/2018 – GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan (pictured left) outpaced the competition in the Masters Section of the Washington International, held in Rockville, Maryland, adjacent to the US capital city from August 11-15, 2018. A full point behind him in the nine-round Swiss open tournament was a trio of international grandmasters including NICLAS HUSCHENBETH (pictured right) who annotated two games for our report. The top American player was US number ten and the sixth best Junior player in the world, GM Sam Sevian, who finished with 6 points. | Photos: Maryland Chess Association

7/13/2018 – At the annual World Open in Philadelphia, 21-year-old, Webster University student Illya Nyzhnyk from Ukraine scored one of the biggest wins of his young career, by taking clear first and the USD $20,500 first prize with an impressive tally of 7½ from 9 games in a field of 32 GMs and 24 IMs. Among the GMs was RUIFENG LI, who filed this report with games and photos from the massive 1,223 player open (over nine sections).

11/1/2017 – Recently, the 2017 Spice Cup was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and won by Lazaro Bruzon Batista, Yunieska Quesada, and Dariusz Swiercz. This traditional event is organised by Webster University, also home to the strongest collegiate team in the US. It brought players from around the globe, including a field rich in titled players. Among them was our correspondent Alex Yermolinsky, who performed well, and brings his report with some fantastic games and notes. Not to be missed! | Photo: Paul Truong

7/31/2017 – The Match of the Millenials was astonishing to say the least. On paper, the US under-17 team had such an Elo advantage that some bemoaned the lack of stronger foreign juniors to make it more ‘competitive’. Instead they had already lost a full round in advance, as had the under-14. A great result for the World team, winning 30.5-17.5, and a tribute to their team spirit and their captain. Full illustrated report. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/26/2017 – Yet another interesting new event put on by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the Match of the Millennials sees eight young American players face off against some of the best juniors from around the world. World Junior Champion Jeffery Xiong leads the USA squad, and Haik Martirosyan from Armenia heads the World team.

12/29/2016 – The 46th Rilton Cup is played from December 27 to January 5 in Stockholm. This year 21 grandmasters start, ten of them have a rating of 2600+, top seed is Gata Kamsky. But the grandmasters do not have an easy life at the Rilton and the first two rounds brought a couple of upsets.

4/7/2015 – It was only a matter of time before 14-year-old Samuel Sevian, the youngest grandmaster in US history, attracted the attention of the international media. The Guardian, a British news paper, had a chat with the prodigy during the US Championship, in which he discussed his long term ambitions for the World Championship, and what he learned from Kasparov.

3/25/2015 – While St. Louis may have been declared the chess capital of the United States, there is little doubt that in the academic circles, the University of Texas - Dallas is a bright beacon in itself. During the Spring Break, it organized a particularly appealing idea by pitting its grandmaster team against a group of guests all of whom represent the very best of the US Juniors.

1/14/2015 – It was not long for the US media to gravitate to one of its newest stars, fourteen-year-old Samuel Sevian, the youngest grandmaster in American chess and the youngest in the world at the moment. The New York Times published an article describing how the Kasparov Chess Foundation has helped put the player in touch with a top trainer as well as give him training with Kasparov himself.

12/17/2014 – At age 13 years 10 months and 27 days, Samuel Sevian became the world's youngest grandmaster, and the youngest grandmaster in US history, beating Ray Robson's record. His course has been a list of 'youngest evers', and his determination in the recent Saint Louis Invitational, where he clinched the 2500 rating, showed in his games. Here is a look at his spectacular chess resume.

6/4/2014 – Saint Louis was recently named the capital of chess in America, and it is living up to its name. Only a couple of weeks after the US Championship two closed tournaments were held simultaneously; one an IM-norm and one a GM-norm section. The GM section was dominated by young kids, and the winner was 13 year old Samuel Sevian from California. Brian Jerauld brings us a full report.

7/9/2013 – That was the title of a story in a number of (non-chess) news sources this week. They pointed to a video showing the sheer joy of a boy, who has just turned ten, realizing that he is going to win a game against an IM – and proceeds to do so with enthusiasm and determination. The blitz game took place two and a half years ago, but deserves to be enjoyed by anyone who does not know it. Must watch!