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

11/7/2018 – No winners in Shenzhen so far. All three games in both the third and fourth rounds ended drawn. Ding Liren was closest to winning in today's contest, with an extra pawn, but he had to settle for splitting the point. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY checks in and brings the players in for some harsh criticism. But he also herald's Ding's undefeated streak — now at 98 games — noting that "he doesn't play for draws, he just plays good chess his opponents cannot refute". | Photos: Qipa.org.cn

10/18/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen kept fans on pins and needles as he appeared to be losing to Ding Liren which would have dropped him to number two in the world behind Fabiano Caruana (at least temporarily). But Carlsen defended hard and salvaged a critical draw that allowed his teammate Nils Grandelius to win the match for the underdog Norwegian squad of Valerenga. They are now in clear first. ALEX YERMOLINSKY shares his outlook. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

9/6/2018 – The extremely competitive Russian Superfinals finished on Wednesday in Satka. Both the open and the women's sections were decided on two-game rapid playoffs — Dmitry Andreikin and Natalija Pogonina won their games with White and drew with Black, against Dmitry Jakovenko and Olga Girya, to become the 2018 Russian champions. ALEX YERMOLINSKY sent a report with no less than ten games analysed. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

7/18/2018 – The participants rave about a well-organized Senior World Team Championship of seniors in Radebeul, Germany. In the 65+ section, the Russian team won gold. The 50+ category was more competitive, but in the end, the favourites from the USA pulled ahead. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY reports. | Photo: Karsten Wieland

7/12/2018 – The United States sent a strong squad to the World Team Championship 50+. ALEX YERMOLINSKY is playing, spending time with good old friends and sending some pictures and stories for us to enjoy. The account until round six includes images of the team's trip to Dresden and, as Yermo calls it, the German Grand Canyon.

7/9/2018 – GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY travels to Radebeul (near Dresden), Germany to take part in the 6th World Team Championship 50+ & 65+ from July 7th to the 15th. The American all-GM squad also features Alexander Shabalov (pictured), Joel Benjamin, Jaan Ehlvest and Sergey Kudrin, making it the highest rated team in the competition. High-expectations, but Yermolinsky will also take time out to keep ChessBase readers apprised of how things progress, with annotated games an photos. Now about that cowboy...

6/25/2018 – Sergey Karjakin seemed unstoppable after Saturday's first nine rounds of blitz, however, Nakamura finally emerged as the winner of the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Hikaru fought until last minute and finished one and a half points ahead of the field. Meanwhile, Wesley So played it safe to get clear third and keep the lead in the Tour overall standings. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/3/2018 – Ding Liren is expected to make a full recovery following surgery on Friday for a fractured hip after a fall off a bicycle. But his need to rest following the injury trumps his need to play chess and he has bowed out of the tournament in Stavanger. The three draws he has made will not count for score and the tournament continues with his remaining opponents getting a rest day. Fabiano Caruana was the beneficiary in round four, and he returned to the board with a vengeance on Saturday, scoring the day's only win. Report and games by ALEX YERMOLINSKY. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/2/2018 – In the first three rounds of the Altibox Norway Chess tournaments, Magnus Carlsen was the only player to win a game, but in round four Sergey Karjakin and Levon Aronian put their first number 1 up on the crosstable. Viswanathan Anand and Wesley So drew, as did Hikaru Nakamura and Carlsen. The game between Ding Liren and Fabiano Caruana was postponed following a serious bicycle accident suffered by Ding, who fractured a hip. Carlsen's lead has now shrunk to half a point. Report and games annotated by GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess