1/15/2022 – The Pan-American Intercollegiate Team Championship is a university championship in which, as the name suggests, teams from both the Americas and the Caribbean are allowed to participate — but in fact most of the participating teams come from the United States. This year’s tournament was won by the Saint Louis University, which was the only team to emerge victorious from all six matches they played. | Photo: Bill Simmons

1/10/2022 – The Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu won the "Vergani Cup" in the Italian Adriatic resort of Cattolica which finished on Sunday. With 7.0/9 Lalith shared first place with Hans Moke Niemann (USA), Vitaliy Bernadskiy (Ukraine) and Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), but he had the best tiebreak and therefore won the tournament and the first prize of €2,500. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

12/27/2021 – The first five rounds of the World Rapid Championship were played on Sunday. Three players are sharing the lead on 4½ points: defending champion Magnus Carlsen, local hero Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Baadur Jobava from Georgia. On the women’s tournament, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Valentina Gunina have a perfect 4/4 score after the first day of action. | Foto: Michal Walusza

12/20/2021 – At the European Rapid Championship in Katowice, three grandmasters finished level on points atop the standings: Alexander Motylev (Russia), Alexander Donchenko (Germany) and Paulius Pultinevicius (Lithuania), each with 9½ points after 11 rounds. According to the tiebreak criteria, Motylev was declared European Champion, Donchenko got the silver medal and Pultinevicius took home the bronze. | Photos: Michał Walusza

12/18/2021 – The European Blitz Championship took place on Friday in Katowice. Polish grandmaster and rating favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the event after obtaining an 18/22 score. Duda finished a half point ahead of his compatriot Maciej Klekowski. Eight players scored 16½ points. | Photos: Official site

10/25/2021 – The Danish Championship, played in Svendborg on the island of Funen, ended on Sunday with the victory of Allan Stig Rasmussen. With a score of 7.0/9 the 37-year-old Grandmaster finished half a point ahead of Sune Berg Hansen and Jesper Søndergård Thybo, who shared second place. It was the fifth time Rasmussen won the title. | Photos: Dansk Skak Union

10/24/2021 – The Dutch Championship will be played in two stages this year. On Saturday, the three-round knockout phase was completed in the town hall of Hoogeveen. The field of participants was thus reduced from 16 to 4, who will determine the new champion in a double round-robin in Rotterdam at the end of November. The qualified players are Roeland Pruijssers, Max Warmerdam, Robin Swinkels and Hing Ting Lai. Meanwhile, the Women's Championship, which was played concurrently, was organized as a round robin tournament — the event was won by WGM Anne Haast. | Photos: Frans Peeters

10/9/2021 – After escaping with draws from two inferior positions in the first rounds of the US Chamionship, Fabiano Caruana scored his first win of the event on Friday to join a group of 4 co-leaders atop the standings table — Sam Sevian also won to join the leading pack. In the women’s section, Katerina Nemcova continues to be the sole leader. | Photo: Bryan Adams

10/4/2021 – At the Women’s World Team Championships in Sitges, Spain, the Russian team won the gold medal on Saturday by defeating India in the final match. The Russian players in the photo from left to right: Alina Kashlinskaya, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Polina Shuvalova, Kateryna Lagno and Alexandra Kosteniuk. | Photos: Niki Riga

10/3/2021 – After the 7th round of the final tournament of the "Meltwater Champions Chess Tour" played on Saturday, Magnus Carlsen is now the "Tour Winner". Although neither the World Champion nor his direct rival Wesley So scored, So cannot catch up to Carlsen's seven-point lead with only two remaining rounds. Carlsen lost to Teimour Radjabov 1:3, while So lost to Levon Aronian 0.5:2.5 after just three games. Radjabov is now only half a point behind So and could challenge him for second place - the prize money difference between second and third place is USD 20,000. | Graphic: Play Magnus Group

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