6/16/2018 – In the Belgian city of Leuven, the "Your Next Move Rapid & Blitz" ended today with the victory of the American Wesley So. His score in the rapid tournament, which ended on Thursday, gave him a substantial lead in the overall standings. But a bad run of form in the blitz saw his lead melt away to zero, and set up an exciting if somewhat unlikely final round that saw So — but also his closest rivals Sergey Karjakin and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — all lose. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/13/2018 – The seventh game of the Women's World Championship match between reigning World Champion Tan Zhongyi and challenger Ju Wenjun was drawn after 33 moves. Ju Wenjun now leads by 4-3 and Tan Zhongyi has only three more games to catch up and to keep her title. | Photos: Gu Xiaobing

4/8/2018 – In the GRENKE Chess Classic, standings shuffled dramatically after the seventh round. Fabiano Caruana managed a convincing win against his former co-leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the black pieces, to take the sole lead in the standings. World Champion Magnus Carlsen also won with Black, against Arkadij Naiditsch, and moved up to second place. Georg Meier missed chances to add to Viswanathan Anand woes. GM Daniel Fernandez annotates all five games | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/5/2018 – On April 5th, the 5th round of the "GRENKE Chess Classic", now in Baden-Baden was the first in which all five games ended in a draw. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana and Nikita Vitiugov thus continue to lead the standings; a half point behind are Levon Aronian and World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Against Georg Meier, Carlsen was on the verge of losing shortly before the time control, but the German grandmaster missed the win! Another game was nearly decisive: Arkadij Naiditsch stood much better against Matthias Bluebaum, but here it was the young German, who somehow managed to survive a devastating attack and fight back in the endgame. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/4/2018 – The GRENKE Chess Classic continued today in Baden-Baden with round four. For a long time, it looked like this was going to be a game day where all players would struggle to play the 40 moves required before draw offers are allowed. However, Fabiano Caruana exploited an opening left by Arkadij Naiditsch, and showed that his brilliant form from Berlin persists. With only a queen and knight each left on the board, the American was able to produce dangerous threats against Naiditsch who ultimately collapsed under the pressure. As a result, Caruana joins the leaders, Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

3/24/2018 – In the Candidates Tournament in Berlin, the leader and his closest pursuer played draws in the eleventh round: Fabiano Caruana found precise answers to Vladimir Kramnik's opening ideas, Shakriyar Mamedyarov steered Wesley So towards an early peace. With three rounds to go, Caruana is still half a point ahead of Mamedyarov. Musical chairs in the chasing group. The Chinese Ding Liren was on the verge of a brilliant victory against Alexander Grischuk, but in mutual time pressure, Grischuk managed a miraculous escape. For Ding, his eleventh consecutive draw. | Photo: World Chess

3/23/2018 – Fabiano Caruana had to face his most persistent pursuer in Berlin, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, in the tenth round with the black pieces. Both players wanted to win the game and thus take a huge advantage into the remaining games, but ultimately played to bare kings. The tournament is still completely open at the top. On the other end of the standings table, Vladimir Kramnik staged a small comeback after several bruising defeats, by winning against Levon Aronian. Both the remaining games, Ding Liren vs So and Grischuk vs Karjakin were drawn. | Photo: Niki Riga

3/12/2018 – Round 2 of the Candidates Tournament in Berlin brought one win and three draws. Alexander Grischuk bounced back from his loss against Vladimir Kramnik in round 1 and won an energetic attacking game against Wesley So. Mamedyarov and Aronian, Kramnik and Karjakin, and Ding Liren and Caruana all drew their games. | Photo: André Schulz

2/19/2018 – Starting on Tuesday, February 20th, the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow (view from a guest room pictured) is once again the venue for the major annual Open sponsored by the Russian airline Aeroflot, which is already celebrating its sixteenth edition this year. There will three separate nine-round Swiss tournaments, and the top A Open is one of the strongest open tournaments ever — for a place on the starting list a player must have an Elo rating of at least 2550. The top seed is last year's winner Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia, Elo 2724), followed by Indian phenom Vidit Gujrathi, just one Elo point behind. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

2/5/2018 – In the 8th round of the "Schachbundesliga" there was another big surprise: The powerhouse OSG Baden-Baden yielded a 4-4 tie against the Hamburger SK, and their advantage over SG Solingen now stands at only 1½ board points. The HSK team showed strength on the lower boards, where Thies Heinemann managed to upset Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The other two top teams from Solingen and Bremen were able to win clear victories today. | Photo: André Schulz

2/4/2018 – The 7th round was played in the chess Bundesliga on Saturday. In Norderstedt, north of Hamburg, OSG Baden-Baden with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave on the top board clearly defeated the host club with 7 : 1, thus remaining at the top of the league. There was a big upset however, for the strong newcomer from Deizisau: The favoured squad lost a fight against Munich MSA Zugzwang 3½ : 4½. The match between Werder Bremen and Solingen finished 4 : 4.

1/9/2018 – At the 93rd Congress in Hastings, England, Grandmaster Deep Sengupta from India and Chinese IM Yiping Lou shared the Masters tournament with 7.0 / 9 each. Sengupta had a wild an unlikely ride, losing in both round 1 and 4 to players rated about 300 Elo points lower, due to tactical oversights. The fact that he managed nevertheless to battle back to the very top after such a start in an open tournament, is rare! | Photo: Brendan O'Gorman