6/6/2020 – Life as a professional chess player can be tough. Alex Yermolinsky, a.k.a. ‘Yermo’, knows it all too well. In an unmissable edition of this new series, the Soviet-born American grandmaster tells the backstory surrounding an impressive attacking win over Veselin Topalov in Wijk aan Zee. Things were not going well for him, nor at the chessboard nor in life, but he pulled through: “Every line I calculated was going through my mind like a flash, with uncanny accuracy as well”. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club

3/14/2020 – The World Senior Team Championships in Prague ended prematurely, Thursday, after 7 rounds due to the looming Coronavirus epidemic. In the 50+ tournament, the favoured USA team lived up to expectations by winning with a full point margin. The top 65+ team, Russia, also took top honours, but only on better board point tiebreak over the second-placed French. GM Evgeny Sveshnikov, who played a fantastic tournament with 5½/6 shortly after his 70th birthday. | Report and photos: ALEX YERMOLINSKY

3/10/2020 – Our regular contributor ALEX YERMOLINSKY unexpectedly finds himself with the U.S. Team at the World Senior Championship in Prague. Battling fellow seniors (and avoiding viruses), he sent us an update on the first four rounds. | Pictured: Spring outside the US Embassy in the Czech capital.

1/13/2020 – Four decisive results, all favouring White, left five players sharing first place on 1½/2 at the 2020 Tata Steel Masters. Wesley So obtained a quick win over Vishy Anand, Vladislav Artemiev defeated his compatriot Nikita Vitiugov, Daniil Dubov inflicted Vladislav Kovalev's second loss and Jeffery Xiong got the better of Jorden van Foreest. In the Challengers, Jan Smeets and Rauf Mamedov joined the leading pack. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports; round-up show by GM DANNY KING. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/12/2020 – It is hard to call a win by Alireza Firouzja a surprise after his stellar performance at the World Rapid and Blitz Championships — and his general good form from last year — but it is still noteworthy that he won his first ever game in Wijk aan Zee. He is joined in the lead in the Masters by Jorden van Foreest, who beat Yu Yangyi. In the Challengers, Pavel Eljanov, Surya Ganguly and Erwin l'Ami kicked off with victories. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports. Round-up show by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Official site

8/2/2019 – For the first time, the USA held an invitational Senior Championship at the Saint Louis Chess Club which brought the best players age 50 and over to compete in parallel to the U.S. Junior Championships. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY was there and reports on the victory of his teammate and friend Alexander Shabalov, including instructive annotated games. | Pictured: Shabalov, Dlugy, Yermolinsky and Goldin | Photos: Crystal Fuller

7/5/2019 – In the U.S. there's a new U.S. Senior Invitational starting soon, but as a warm-up GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY travelled to Illinois for the U.S. Senior Open. He and fellow former U.S. Champion Joel Benjamin were the top seeds, but 62-year-old GM Dmitry Gurevich, also a four-time U.S. Champion, scored a clutch last round win to finish in sole first with 5½/6. "Yermo" also snagged an annotated game from U.S. Junior Open winner IM Christopher Shen. | Photos: Alex Yermolinsky

4/29/2019 – The top teams won the Senior World Team Championships in Rhodes as both the USA in the 50+ age group Russia in the 65+ age group were unstoppable. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY (now back in the USA and recovering from jet-lag) completes his trilogy on the exploits of the American cohort, which included swimming and billiards. | Pictured: (L to R) Alexander Shabalov, Joel Benjamin, Igor Novikov, Jaan Ehlvest and Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Thorsten Cmiel

4/23/2019 – The World Senior Team Championship is heading for the finish line. ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports on the progress of team USA which beat Armenia, Italy and drew Iceland before rebounding with a win over Israel (pictured) to maintain their lead. | Photo: Chess In Greece Facebook page

4/20/2019 – Hot on the heels of the European Senior Championship in Rhodes, the World Senior Team Championship for players aged over 50 and 65 is underway. ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports on the progress of the top-seeded USA team. | Pictured: Captain Alexander Shabalov and Yermolinsky decided to take a few days to be chess tourists in advance of the competition

3/29/2019 – Leinier Dominguez, playing in his first U.S. Championship, is now co-leader with Hikaru Nakamura. He took a small endgame plus and converted it to a full point against Sam Sevian in round eight. Nakamura and Dominguez are scheduled to play in Saturday's tenth round. Fabiano Caruana remains a half point back. In the Women's tournament Jennifer Yu extends to her lead to a full point after winning her third game in a row. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/11/2019 – 18-year-old American GM Jeffery Xiong (pictured, left) scored a clutch last round win to avoid a play-off and take top honours in the St. Louis Spring Classic. He finished with six points from nine games, a half point more than Ukrainian GM Illya Nyzhnyk. In the parallel "B" tournament, Chinese GM Bai Jinshi (pictured, right) was clear first with the same score, despite losing his last round game! ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports on the highlights from the past ten days of chess action in the U.S. chess 'capital'. | Photos: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/24/2019 – Saturday was a double-round in Moscow but that didn't faze Indian veteran GM Krishnan Sasikiran who remains perfect with five out of five and a full point lead! ALEX YERMOLINSKY takes a look at the highlights of a chess-packed day. | Photo: Eldar Mukhametov / ruchess.ru

1/26/2019 – A completely unexpected resignation from Sam Shankland allowed Anish Giri to catch up with Magnus Carlsen in the standings. A half point behind, the only chaser is Ian Nepomniachtchi, who grabbed an important win over Vladimir Fedoseev. In other news, Vladimir Kramnik got his first victory this year, while Vladislav Kovalev won the only decisive game of the Challengers and joined Maksim Chigaev at the top of the standings. Full report by ALEX YERMOLINKSY. | 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

1/8/2019 – Americans invade Mexico! At least to play some chess! Grandmaster ALEX YERMOLINSKY recounts his recent trip to a memorable tournament (with a memorable name) "south of the border", in an instalment of his ongoing travelogue featuring Latvian legend GM Alexei Shirov and GM Alex Shabalov and a photo tour of Chihuahua's central Plaza de Armas. | All photos: Alex Yermolinsky

11/14/2018 – As tournaments go, this was an odd one: with nine draws and one win, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the Shenzhen Masters with a mere 5½ points from 10 games. Since Ding Liren and Anish Giri both also scored 5½, but 'MVL' beat Ding in their direct encounter, the Frenchman had the better tiebreak. Giri earned a notable first victory in the final round against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY sends his final thoughts. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/8/2018 – Finally! After four rounds with a total of 12 games without a decision, today the damn burst, the knot burst (or choose your own idiom). GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY explains how the two Chinese grandmasters, Ding and Yu, both won, against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Nikita Vitiugov respectively. Ding extends the streak to 99 games without a defeat. Can he make it 100? | Photos: Quipai.org.cn