9/4/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev emerged victorious from their semifinal duels at the Aimchess US Rapid on Friday. While the world champion beat Levon Aronian in the second set, Artemiev only went through after beating Alireza Firouzja in Armageddon. | Photo: Alina l’Ami

8/21/2021 – The European Women’s Championship came to an end on Friday, with Armenia’s Elina Danielian winning the title as the only player who collected 9/11 points in Iasi, Romania. In the final round, Danielian clinched clear first place by beating Estonian WIM Mai Narva on top board. Draws were seen on boards 2 to 6. Iulija Osmak (Ukraine), who had been at the top of the standings table for several rounds, had to settle for second place. | Photos: Official site / Eropean Chess Union

8/19/2021 – The second round of the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis was played on Wednesday. Wesley So was the only winner of the day. The Filipino-born star inflicted Dariusz Swiercz’s second loss in a row. So thus joined Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Leinier Dominguez in the lead of the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/16/2021 – A win with black over Igor Kovalenko in round 9 gave Alexander Donchenko tournament victory at the RTU Open in Riga. In the end, Donchenko was the only player to score 7½ points, so he did not even need to bother with tiebreak-criteria calculations. After losing in round 3 against a lower-rated opponent, Donchenko sensationally won six games in a row to win the event! | Photo: Anna Shtourman

6/27/2021 – The first five rounds of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament were played on Saturday. Five players are currently sharing the lead on 3½/5 points: Vladislav Artemiev [pictured], Daniil Dubov, Levon Aronian, Ding Liren and Mangus Carlsen. The 16 participants are fighting to finish the preliminaries in the top half of the standings table, as 8 of them will move on to the knockout stage of the online event. | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

6/26/2021 – The French Team Championship, also known as Top 12, is taking place in Châlons-en-Champagne. Only two teams have managed to score victories in the first two rounds: Bischwiller, with Markus Ragger and Etienne Bacrot on top boards, and the team from Clichy, led by Jorden van Foreest. | Photos: Official site

6/20/2021 – Sam Shankland reached the final round of the Prague Masters Tournament with a half-point lead over Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The American grandmaster was still busy with his game against Jorden van Foreest when Duda had already overtaken him in the standings thanks to a win over Wojtaszek. Shankland only needed a draw, but his opponent was desperate to win. The curse turned into a blessing when Van Foreest blundered: Shankland won and thus became the undisputed tournament winner. | Photo: Official site

6/14/2021 – On Sunday, the last four of the 19 rounds of the "Gelfand Challenge" were played. After 15 rounds Vincent Keymer from Germany had led the tournament but he only scored 1.5/4 on the final day. This was the chance for the 15-year old Indian Gukesh D., who had started the day two points behind Keymer, to catch up. After a 4.0/4 run Gukesh finished on 14.0/19 and tied first with his compatriot Praggnanandhaa but Gukesh won the tournament on tiebreak because he had won the direct encounter against "Pragg". Half a point behind the two Indians, Vincent Keymer came third. | Picture: Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour

6/7/2021 – The first two decisive results of the Superbet Chess Classic were seen in Sunday’s second round, as the top seed and the bottom seed won their games and are now sharing the lead. Fabiano Caruana defeated Constantin Lupulescu, while Bogdan-Daniel Deac [pictured] stunned Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/29/2021 – On the first day of the FTX Crypto Cup semifinals, Wesley So beat Ian Nepomniachtchi by winning game 4 after having agreed to three draws. Meanwhile, world champion Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov traded blows in games 3 and 4, which means their match is tied going into day 2 of the semis.

5/26/2021 – The preliminaries of the FTX Crypto Cup ended on Tuesday, with eight of the sixteen players qualifying to the quarterfinals. Fabiano Caruana was the top scorer in the round robin, while Magnus Carlsen only managed to qualify at the last minute, after defeating Teimour Radjabov on demand in the last round. Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wesley So, Teimour Radjabov and Ian Nepomniachtchi also made it through.

5/24/2021 – The preliminaries of the FTX Crypto Cup, the sixth event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, started on Sunday. Anish Giri grabbed the sole lead with a 4/5 score, while world champion Magnus Carlsen only managed to get fifty percent of the points. There are ten more preliminary round games to come, so Carlsen is well in time to climb up the standings table. | Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit

5/10/2021 – Already one round before the end of the event, the Russian team champions in the Premier League as well as in the women’s competition have been decided. In the Premier League, the Mednyi Vsadnik from St. Petersburg secured their fourth consecutive title after winning seven out of seven matches. The women’s tournament was similarly won by the Moscow Chess Team, which also has a perfect score. | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

5/8/2021 – Four (out of nine) rounds of the Mitropa Cup have alerady been played. After a 3-1 victory over Hungary in round four, the German team is currently in second place, only one team point behind the leading Czechs. In the women’s category, Italy has won every single match so far and has a two-point lead over Hungary and Germany. | Photos: Claudia Münstermann

5/1/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura will play the final of the New In Chess Classic online tournament. Carlsen safely won his second semifinal mini-match against Levon Aronian 3-1 on Friday after the first set had ended 2-2 the day before. The match between Nakamura and Shakriyar Mamedyarov was more exciting. Mamedyarov initially levelled the score with a convincing 3-0 victory in the second set. The Azerbaijani, however, went on to lose the tiebreaker in Armageddon. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/25/2021 – The preliminaries of the New In Chess Classic, the fifth event of the Champions Chess Tour, kicked off on Saturday. The most successful player on day 1 was Teimour Radjabov, who scored 4 out of 5 points. Second place is shared by Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen with 3½/5 each. The aim of the preliminaries is to find out which 8 (out of 16) players move on to the knockout stage. Expert analyses by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: FIDE

4/11/2021 – The Kader-Challenge came to an end on Sunday. Draws were seen on all boards in the men’s section. At the top of the table finished Alexander Donchenko, Dmitrij Kollars, Matthias Bluebaum and Daniel Fridman, each with 5½ points, with Donchenko getting tournament victory on tiebreak criteria. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Jana Schneider drew Elisabeth Paehtz with the black pieces and thus remained half a point ahead of her last-round opponent in the final standings. | Photos: Sandra Schmidt, Frank Hoppe

4/11/2021 – Saturday saw the top games of Round 8 — Rasmus Svane v Matthias Bluebaum and Dmitrij Kollars v Alexander Donchenko — ending in draws. Daniel Fridman seized the opportunity, as he managed to catch up with Bluebaum, Kollars and Donchenko with a win over Andreas Heimann. The tournament ends on Sunday with the ninth round (starting at 10:00 CEST). In the women’s tournament, Jana Schneider defended her lead in the standings with a win against Antonia Ziegenfuß. | Photo: Frank Hoppe