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

8/10/2020 – Six rounds have been played at the Polish Women's Championship in Ostrów Wielkopolski, and with 5.5/6 International Master Klaudia Kulon has a comfortable 1.5 point lead over Karina Cyfka. Another half point behind follows Monika Socko with 3.5/6. | Photos: Szymon Pieczewski (Polish Chess Federation)

7/20/2020 – The first discipline of the ‘Grandmaster Triathlon’, the rapid section, was played on Sunday at the International Chess Festival in Biel. The best player in the 15'+5" tournament was Radoslaw Wojtaszek, who in the end only drew two games and won the rest to get a 6/7 score. Vincent Keymer had another strong performance, as he finished third with 5 points, behind Pentala Harikrishna who obtained the same amount of points but had a better tiebreak score. | Photos: Official website

7/5/2020 – In the thirteenth round of the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, almost all games ended drawn — and some of them were very short. Only the Bulgarian grandmaster Milko Bobotsov (photo: Dutch National Archive) achieved a victory against Jürgen Teufel from Bamberg. But, since these two players are in the bottom half of the standings table, their decisive result had no influence on the fight for first place: with two rounds to go, Paul Keres still has a one-point lead over World Champion Tigran Petrosian.

7/4/2020 – The editor of the chess periodical “Deutsche Schachzeitung” Rudolf Teschner is an International Master and thus a strong chess player. Yesterday at the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Yugoslavian grandmaster Borislav Ivkov confirmed this was the case when he lost to Teschner — in fourth place, Teschner is now half a point ahead of Ivkov. At the top of the table, World Champion Petrosian and Bamberg’s Lothar Schmid have moved closer to Paul Keres: both won their games, while Keres signed a quick draw against Wolfgang Unzicker. | Pictured: A view of Bamberg from Michelsberg

6/28/2020 – At the Bamberg Jubilee Tournament, Hans-Günther Kestler could not repeat his surprise success from two days earlier when he drew world champion Tigran Petrosian: the local hero was literally overrun by Paul Keres’ central pawn mass in the 6th round. Keres remains the sole leader of the standings with 5/6. Petrosian and Borislav Ivkov are merely a half point behind. | Photo: The town hall of Bamberg (Pixabay)

6/27/2020 – In the 5th round of the International Jubilee Tournament in Bamberg, Paul Keres took the sole lead with a victory over the Austrian Andreas Dückstein — the Estonian has collected 4 points so far. World Champion Tigran Petrosian from the Soviet Union and Borislav Ivkov from Yugoslavia, who had previously been level with Keres, drew their games and are now sharing second place with Jan Hein Donner.

6/14/2020 – After his brilliant win over Capablanca, Mikhail Botvinnik certainly hoped to win the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, but just one round later the 27-year-old turned in an inexplicably weak performance against Max Euwe (the other ex-world champion in the tournament, left in the picture) and lost a short game. With all the other games of round twelve drawn, Paul Keres remains at the top of the standings table a half point ahead of Reuben Fine, while Botvinnik, with two rounds left to play, is a full point behind the leader.

6/13/2020 – The victory of Mikhail Botvinnik (photo) over José Raúl Capablanca in the eleventh round of the AVRO tournament will be enjoyed by many generations of chess players to come. At the outset of the game, the 27-year-old single-mindedly implemented a crystal-clear strategy against the former world champion, based on a central advance; then, he launched the final attack on the king with two brilliant piece sacrifices. In the shadow of this brilliant game, the most important development was almost ignored: Paul Keres secured the sole lead after Reuben Fine conceded yet another defeat.

6/7/2020 – At the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands, the lead of the young American Reuben Fine over his closest rivals has increased further. Now that about a third of the games have been played, Fine has collected 4½ points, while World Champions Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres are lagging behind with 3 points apiece in second place. In round five, Fine was the only one to score a win, while the game between Alekhine and Keres was drawn. | Pictured: Studios of the broadcasting company "AVRO" in Hilversum

6/6/2020 – After another win in the fourth round, this time against former world champion Max Euwe, 24-year-old Reuben Fine from New York (pictured) is still leading the standings table of the AVRO tournament in the Netherlands. Fine has collected 3½ points, and thus has a full-point advantage over World Champion Alexander Alekhine and Paul Keres.