2/14/2021 – Wesley So scored a win on demand to tie the score in the first mini-match of the Opera Euro Rapid’s finals against Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov got ahead on the scoreboard against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the match for third place. Report with instructive analysis by Karsten Müller. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

2/8/2021 – The Opera Euro Rapid tournament saw rounds 6 to 10 of the preliminaries being played on Sunday. At the top of the standings table, Magnus Carlsen defended his half-point lead over Wesley So and Anish Giri. The remaining five rounds will be played today (Monday) at 17.00 CET. Do not miss Karsten Müller’s analyses of five highly instructive endgames! | Photo: Play Magnus Group

1/11/2021 – On Saturday the preliminaries of the French Online Blitz Team Championship were played on Playchess. The two groups with four teams each were named after famous French chess masters of the past. In the group "Philidor" the team from Nice with GM Christian Bauer (pictured) won smoothly; as did the team of Mulhouse (Mulhouse) with Jean-Noël Riffin in the group "de La Bourdonnais".

1/3/2021 – The first day of the Airthings Masters finals was played on Saturday. Teimour Radjabov won the last of the four games against Levon Aronian to bag the first ‘set’. In the match for third place, everything is still tied, as Daniil Dubov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew their first four-game encounter. | Photo: FIDE

1/2/2021 – The Chinese Championships took place in the city of Xinghua. In the open section, Yu Yangyi, Lu Shanglei and Wei Yi all collected 8 points after 11 rounds. Yu Yangyi, however, had the best tiebreak score. Fourth place went to the Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, whose predecessor in the post of World Champion, Tan Zhongyi, won the women’s tournament. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

12/24/2020 – The European Women’s Club Cup was played online on December 19-22. The favourites from Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo won the event despite losing their direct encounter against the tail-enders from SK Schwäbisch Hall. Two Russian teams, UGRA and Gambit Volgograd, completed the podium.

12/14/2020 – In Round 8 of the Russian Championship Sergey Karjakin immediately redeemed himself for his previous loss to Ian Nepomniachtchi with a win over Peter Svidler. As Nepomniachtchi had to settle for a draw against Vladimir Fedoseev, Karjakin is now only half a point behind the leader. In the women’s tournament, Polina Shuvalova, who continues to lead the field, suffered her first defeat. | Photos: Vladimir Barsky

12/13/2020 – The final of the Speed Chess Championship between Hikaru Nakamura and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was played on Saturday, with Nakamura getting a clear 18½:12½ victory. A total of 31 blitz and bullet games were played with three different time controls. Nakamura’s superiority only came to light in the bullet-chess section. This surprised no one, as the American grandmaster is known for his astounding strength in 1-minute games. | Image: chess.com

12/13/2020 – A big point for Nepomniachtchi. In Round 7 of the Russian Superfinal, Ian Nepomniachtchi won the top match against Sergey Karjakin in fine style. With 5½ points, the leader now has a full-point lead over Karjakin, who despite the defeat managed to hold on to second place for the time being. In the women’s competition, Polina Shuvalova did not win for the first time in Round 7, as she “only” managed a draw against Leya Garifullina. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

12/12/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura qualified to the final of the Speed Chess Championship on Wednesday with a narrow victory over Wesley So. On Friday, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became the other finalist. The Frenchman defeated none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen with a 13:11 score after playing 24 blitz and bullet games (which were played with three different time controls). The final will be played today (Saturday) at 18:00 CET, Noon ET. | Image: chess.com

11/9/2020 – The Tegernsee Masters in Bad Wiessee ended with the expected victory of Alexander Donchenko. Despite his dominant performance in the first eight rounds, the German grandmaster did not miss his chances and defeated Ashot Parvanyan on Sunday — Donchenko finished with an impressive 6½/8 score and was the only undefeated participant in the field. Matthias Bluebaum and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu came in second and third respectively. | Photo: Amruta Mokal (Archive)

10/10/2020 – The Russian city of Sochi will host the “Higher League” until October 17. Thanks to the large number of strong grandmasters in the country, this qualifying tournament to the Superfinal is heavily contested, so much so that it equals the level of the national championship in almost any other country in the world. Rating favourite Vladislav Artemiev (2716) already gave up a half point in the first two rounds. In the women’s tournament, Valentina Gunina is the rating favourite. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili

9/13/2020 – With a run of three consecutive wins Levon Aronian has taken the lead on the second day of the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX". At this tournament, organized by the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Armenian grandmaster, with his now 4.5/6, has a half-point-lead on Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura. Former world champion Garry Kasparov, on the other hand, is towards the bottom of the standings after an underwhelming second matchday.

9/12/2020 – Yesterday, the 20+10 online tournament "Champions Showdown Chess 9LX" of the Saint Louis Chess Club started with the first of a total of three matchdays. Ten world-class grandmasters play against each other in a round robin tournament of "Chess 960". The difference to regular chess is that the starting position varies each game. After three rounds, world champion Magnus Carlsen and Leinier Dominguez Perez share the lead in the standings with 2.5 points each. Former world champion Garry Kasparov is also doing well with 1.5/3.

8/24/2020 – The “German Masters” tournament took place on August 16-22 in Magdeburg. Both the open and the women’s sections were 8-player single round-robins. Matthias Blübaum won the open tournament with 5 out of 7 after all games finished drawn in round 7, while Fiona Sieber secured first place in the women’s with one round the spare. | Photos: Frank Hoppe

8/13/2020 – The Polish Women's Championship in Ostrów Wielkopolski ended yesterday. Karina Cyfka and Klaudia Kulon both drew in the last round and thus shared first with 6.0/9. But Cyfka won the two-game tiebreak and became new Polish Women's Champion 2020. Joanna Majdan won bronze. | Photos: Wojciech Zawadzki (Polish Chess Federation)

8/11/2020 – In round 7 of the Polish Women's Championship tournament leader Klaudia Kulon lost with Black against Patrycja Waszczuk. It was Kulon's first loss but she still has good chances to win the Championship. With two rounds to go Kulon leads with 5½/7 and is one full point ahead of Karina Cyfka who is sole second with 4½/7. | Photos: Szymon Pieczewski (Polish Chess Federation)

8/11/2020 – The friendly six-round match on the Playchess server between Turkey and Azerbaijan to prepare for the Online Olympiad ended yesterday, August 10. In the Online Olympiad Azerbaijan is seeded in the "Top Division", while Turkey will start in "Division 2", and in the match the Azerbaijanis also had the better of it: they won 26:10. | Photo: Turkish Chess Federation