9/18/2020 – Wesley So, the only player to finish the rapid section undefeated, took the sole lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online tournament on Thursday. So obtained back-to-back victories over Levon Aronian and Pentala Harikrishna in rounds 8 and 9 to go into the blitz section atop the standings table. Former leader Magnus Carlsen is now in sole second place, after having finished the day with a loss against Alexander Grischuk. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/17/2020 – World champion Magnus Carlsen took the sole lead of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament after winning all three of his games on the second day of action. Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi share second place a point behind — So repeated his formula from day one, winning a game and drawing the remaining two, while Nepomniachtchi won two and lost against Jeffery Xiong on Wednesday. Three more rapid games will be played on Thursday, before 18 rounds of blitz on Friday and Saturday decide the winner of the online event. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/16/2020 – The 2020 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament, this year played online, kicked off on Tuesday. After three rounds of rapid play, Levon Aronian and Pentala Harikrishna are leading on 5 out of 6 (each win is worth two points in the rapid section). Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi are currently a point behind, with the latter having got a win in round 2 after his opponent, world champion Magnus Carlsen, disconnected in an equal position. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/15/2020 – The online presence of chess has only increased throughout the years, and more so during the pandemic. A great medium for an abstract game, the web does not only serve as a place to share moves played in tournaments all over the world but also for people to share their passion for the game. Ben Johnson’s “Perpetual Chess Podcast” serves for the latter purpose, having shared in-depth interviews with top-level players, well-known authors and educators for almost five years — the podcast is now closing on two-hundred episodes!

9/5/2020 – The 2020 Spanish Championship is taking place in Linares from August 31 to September 8. Given the corona crisis and the fact that the event is being played “over the board”, a few players have been quarantined. After 5 rounds, four players share the lead on 4½ out of 5 — Manuel Pérez Candelario, Iván Salgado (pictured), Jaime Santos and Daniel Alsina. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

8/31/2020 – The 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad came to an end on Sunday, with an internet outage prompting FIDE to declare finalists Russia and India as joint winners. The match had started with a tie in the first six-game mini-match. In the second encounter of the day, however, Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh disconnected towards the end of their games and lost on time. First, the Russians were declared champions, but after India’s appeal, on the grounds that their players lost connection as a consequence of a massive internet outage, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich decided to grant gold medals to both teams.

8/30/2020 – India and Russia defeated Poland and the United States respectively to reach the final of the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad. After losing the first mini-match, India came back with a convincing win in the second. In the Armageddon decider, Humpy Koneru comfortably defeated Monika Socko to give her team overall victory. Meanwhile, the Russians defeated USA in the first mini-match and drew the second encounter to advance to the final. | Pictured: Humpy Koneru and Alexandra Kosteniuk | Photos: Austin Fuller / Russian Chess Federation

8/28/2020 – Eight teams are left standing in the FIDE Online Olympiad, with the quarterfinals, semifinals and final scheduled to take place between Friday and Sunday. In the preliminary knockout to decide four of the eight spots in the quarterfinals, Armenia, Poland, Hungary and Ukraine knocked out Greece, Bulgaria, Germany and China respectively. Two matches went to Armageddon. | Pictured: Members of the Hungarian team at the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad | Photo: David Llada

8/24/2020 – The Top Division section of the FIDE Online Olympiad was played from Friday to Sunday this week. Three teams from each pool qualified either to the quarterfinals directly or to the preliminary stage. India, Azerbaijan, Russia and the United States are already in the quarterfinals while eight teams will fight for the remaining four spots in the first knockout stage of the playoffs. | Photos: Niki Riga / John Saunders

8/21/2020 – Seven days of intense chess fights ended with Magnus Carlsen drawing the Armageddon decider with black in the deciding set of the final against Hikaru Nakamura to win the tournament and the $140,000 first prize. Carlsen won four out of the five events that made up the Magnus Carlsen Tour, a series of online tournaments organized by the world champion during the coronavirus crisis. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/20/2020 – What has already become a landmark in the world of chess, the Saint Louis Chess Club, opened in July 2008 and hosted the US Championship for the first time in 2009. A 21-year-old Hikaru Nakamura won his second national title that year, scoring 7 points in the 9-round Swiss. Robert Hess, then 17 years old and not yet a grandmaster, and Alexander Onischuk shared second place a half point behind. | Photos: Betsy Dynako

8/20/2020 – On Wednesday, for the first time in the final, a player managed to win a set with a two-point advantage. Magnus Carlsen showed a dominant performance to level the score of the match despite having played with a back pain after getting injured while swimming before the games. It all comes down to the seventh and final set, when the whole Magnus Carlsen Tour will come to an end. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/19/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura is one set victory away from winning the Magnus Carlsen Tour Finals against the man himself, world champion Magnus Carlsen. Nakamura won set 5 in Armageddon after winning the second blitz tiebreaker on demand with the black pieces. | Photo: Niki Riga

8/18/2020 – Magnus Carlsen levelled the score of his tour’s final on Monday after getting a 2½:1½ victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the fourth set. The world champion won game three and drew the rest to even the overall score without needing tiebreaks. The match has now turned into a best-of-3 contest, with both players having obtained the exact same amount of points so far in the final. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/17/2020 – “Yesterday I should’ve won the match and today I should’ve lost the match, so I think all is right in the world”, said Hikaru Nakamura after winning set 3 of the final against Magnus Carlsen. The American is now leading 2:1 in the match played to the best of 7 sets. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

8/16/2020 – Magnus Carlsen obtained a 3½:2½ victory in set 2 of the final against Hikaru Nakamura to level the overall score in the match played to the best of 7. Nakamura won game 1, but both times he had the white pieces he implicitly offered a draw by playing a line that led to a triple repetition as early as move 14. It all came down to the blitz tiebreaks, which saw the American blundering in his game with white. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/15/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura kicked off the final of the Magnus Carlsen Tour with a 2½:1½ victory over the world champion, after winning game 2 with the black pieces and drawing the remaining three encounters of the day. The match is played to the best of 7 sets and has no scheduled rest days. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/13/2020 – The fourth set of the semifinal match between Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren saw the Chinese grandmaster missing one opportunity after another to level the score and force a fifth set. Magnus Carlsen kept his cool while under heavy pressure and managed to win the match and get a spot in the final. The world champion will face Hikaru Nakamura in a best-of-7 final showdown starting Friday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes