5/21/2016 – In just over two weeks the first event of the 2016 Grand Chess Tour will be inaugurated in Paris, France. The best players in the world will duke it out over four days in rapid and blitz chess, including Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik and more. The games will be broadcast via Dailymotion Games, a company specializing in broadcasting video games live. Press Release.

5/21/2016 – Going into round eight, two players lead ahead of the rest. To say this is crunch time is an understatement. Ernesto Inarkiev scored a powerful win over co-leader David Navara taking sole lead, followed by a dozen others, all with chances to steal the gold at the first slip. In the meantime, Pavel Eljanov called Dubov's win a masterpiece reminiscent of Torre-Lasker.

5/21/2016 – Contrary to some fields where controlled steady progress is the norm, chess is dominated more often than not by timely bursts forward preceded by periods of seeming stagnation. It can be tricky knowing when it is one or the other. Here is the tale of just such a leap forward, as well as tips and recommendations to help you make your big leap.

5/20/2016 – It is clear that chess in on the rise in many countries. Talents are popping up everywhere, from Armenia to India, from China to South America. However, it seems that the combined program between the Kasparov Chess Foundation and the Saint Louis Chess Club, named the Young Stars, has a key to success. They currently have the two strongest players born in the year 2000, and they only keep going up!

5/20/2016 – At fourteen she was the youngest female player ever to gain the title of grandmaster, and at sixteen she became the youngest Women's World Champion in history. She has won the title four times and is the reigning champion. Now Hou Yifan, 100 points stronger than any of her colleagues, has abandoned the Women's Championship cycle. She tells us why and calls for a reform of the system. Her proposal is amazingly simple.

5/20/2016 – Ivan Saric, after six rounds sole leader at the European Championship in Gjakova, suffered a setback in round seven and lost against Ernesto Inarkiev. After this win Inarkiev has 6.0/7 and shares the lead with top seed David Navara, who won a rook ending against Baadur Jobava. Half-a-point behind the leaders follows a group of six players with 5.5/7 each.

5/16/2016 – "If you really want to do something good or change your life for the better, be determined - don’t hesitate and start to act! A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." With these words in mind, Polina Torochkova established the Russian charity foundation "Country of Talents". Since its inception it has been involved in pathbreaking work in the field of chess for disabled children. In this article you can see how top players like Kramnik, Karjakin, Nepo, and others are supporting this endeavour.

5/15/2016 – After three rounds nine players share the lead with 3.0/3 at the European Championship in Gjakova and only two of them belong to the top ten of the starting list: Radoslav Wojtaszek and Maxim Matlakov. Nine of the 15 top encounters in round three were decided, six times the Elo-favorites won, but in three games the favorites failed to win.

5/15/2016 – The 42nd Chess Olympiad will be held in Crystal Hall in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (seating capacity: 25,000). After examining the location FIDE representatives were ecstatic: "I think Azerbaijan will organize the best Olympiad in the history of chess," said acting FIDE president Georgios Makropoulos. In an interview vice president Israel Gelfer described the anti-cheating measures that will be in place.

5/14/2016 – In his first article studying the ratings disparities of juniors compared to adults, Ganesh Viswanath had studied the causal factors that might be responsible. In this second article, he posits, "I find that on average juniors are statistically underrated by up to 50 Elo rating points against adult players, and this bias increases with the age difference." Here is his statistical study.

5/14/2016 – Swept up in the Bobby Fischer-inspired American chess awakening of the early 1970s, three high school boys from Florida, bonded over chess, travelling together to tournaments all over the state. Sadly, one of the trio, Eric, passed away in 1992. Decades later, Eric’s old chess buddies Mike and Marc conceived the idea of organizing a tournament in Eric’s honor, featuring this poignant remembrance of Eric by Marc.

5/13/2016 – In this final report on the Russian Team Championship, you will read about the trials and tribulations of being the top dog, either being beaten down to size as "Malachite" in the Higher League, or utter domination such as "Legacy Square Capital" in the Women's event, winning two rounds in advance! It had it all from guts and glory to children's delight.