4/9/2019 – The last weekend of Germany's Premier League, (a.k.a. the Bundesliga), brought the perennial champions OSG Baden-Baden another success. With a 7-1 victory against Düsseldorf, Baden-Baden (pictured) once again became German Team Champion, securing their 13th title in 14 years. 14-year old German talent Vincent Keymer narrowly missed his third and final GM norm. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

7/30/2018 – The Najdorf, one of the strongest Sicilian variations, was definitely a good choice for the players that had the black pieces on Sunday. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was inches away from beating Magnus Carlsen in an exciting game, while Peter Svidler scored against Nico Georgiadis in a very sharp battle. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Simon Bohnenblust / Biel International Chess Festival

6/24/2018 – Sergey Karjakin jumped out to a small lead after a stellar performance on the first day of blitz in Paris. Nakamura also had a good day and is second. Wesley So has slipped to third place, but along with Vachier-Lagrave and Aronian, remains in contention. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/4/2018 – Wesley So showed his usual modesty when he declared that he had "caught Magnus on a bad day", after defeating the World Champion for the first time in his career. Carlsen was not at his best today — his light-squared bishop looked particularly tragic, as it spent most of the game stranded on the b1-h7 diagonal. The remaining games ended in a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/12/2018 – The first five games of the Women's World Championship between reigning world champion Tan Zhongyi and challenger Ju Wenjun were played in Shanghai, Ju's hometown, the second five are played in Chongqing, Tan's hometown. After five games Ju led with 3½-1½ but in game six Tan hit back and shortened the lead to 3½-2½ with four games to go. | Photo: Gu Xiaobing

4/23/2018 – After 15 draws over the first three rounds in Shamkir, Sunday's round saw one of the players finally win a game. Veselin Toplalov wrestled with Shakriyar Mamedyarov in a razor-sharp Open Spanish and thus takes over the sole lead. Plus: David Navara analyzes the Caro-Kann until the end, Anish Giri lets Liren Ding off the hook and Teimour Radjabov explains his strategy with White against World Champion Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Shamkirchess.az

4/16/2018 – Valentina Gunina took the sole lead after seven rounds in Vysoke Tatry, Slovakia. Against the top favourite, Mariya Muzychuk, she managed a very convincing victory on Saturday. Six players are now a half point behind with 5½ / 7. Sunday was a rest day. Play resumes Monday at 15:00 CEST (9:00 AM EDT) | Photo: Official site

1/8/2018 – The Rilton Cup in Stockholm is over and in the end it came down to the many young players taking the top prizes. Six of the top seven places went to players under the age of 21. Kirill Alekseenko, Maksim Chigaev and Mikhail Antipov from Russia all won their games in rounds eight and nine and thus secured the podium places | Pictured: The decisive game of the tournament: Johan Salomon against Kirill Alekseenko | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

11/10/2017 – The International Open Bavarian Championship in Gmund attracted 484 players, among them a lot of strong grandmasters. GM Ahmed Adly from Egypt started with 6.0/6 and after a dramatic finish won on tie-break with 7½ / 9. IM Marco Baldauf presents highlights and brilliancies. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

9/9/2017 – While watching yesterday's tiebreaks of the World Cup, my attention got caught by an endgame played between Richard Rapport and Wei Yi. With impressive ease, Rapport showed an exciting winning plan in a typical scenario "Rook vs Bishop". I consulted my (admittedly rarely used) copy of Dvoretsky's Endgame Manual and look at this: Rapport's plan was already shown in a game, coincidentally played in Tbilisi, 46 years ago! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

8/30/2017 – At the RTU Open in Riga the drawing of lots gave me a very special opponent. I was to play against Alexei Shirov, one of my chess idols as a junior. The chance to play him was definitely my tournament highlight. I knew that I was the underdog but I did not want to submit meekly. But what to play against Shirov? Fortunately, Peter Heine Nielsen's new DVD "The Semi-Slav" offered help. | Photo: Pascal Simon

8/29/2017 – "Schach ohne Grenzen" ("Chess without limits" or "Chess without borders") is the confident name and motto of a young club from Kufstein/Tyrol in Austria. The club wants to promote chess in general and junior chess in particular. This summer the club organised its fifth "Chess and Adventure Camp". Almost 90 kids took part. | Photo: "Schach ohne Grenzen"

8/24/2017 – In 2005 Garry Kasparov, World Champion from 1985 to 2000 and arguably the best player of all times, withdrew from tournament chess. At the Grand Chess Tour Rapid- and Blitz Tournament in Saint Louis in August 2017 he dared a comeback and played a serious tournament again. His final score of 13.0/27 indicates that he was not as dominant as he used to be - but how good did he play, how good was his opening repertoire and did he miss chances? Let's take a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/22/2017 – The RTU Open took place in Riga from August 7th to 13th, and was won by Ukrainian Grandmaster Vladimir Onischuk with 7½/9. Local hero Alexei Shirov couldn't show his best chess and finished 35th. Strong impressions were made by some youth players, including the world's current female No. 1 in the Under-18 category, Zhansaya Abdumallik | Photos: rtuopen.lv

7/30/2017 – Leader Etienne Bacrot drew against Peter Leko to remain on top with 4.5 / 6. The closest pursuers are now Pentala Harikrishna and Ruslan Ponomariov. The Ukrainian former FIDE World Champion overcame of David Navara's Najdorf, as the Czech's slide continues. Rafael Vaganian got a win to pull himself out of the cellar. | Photos: Pascal Simon

12/24/2016 – Only ten rating points separate Richard Rapport (2717) and Wei Yi (2707), the world's two best juniors. And the match they played from 20th to 23rd December in Yancheng, China, was close. A 2-2 tie after four classical games required a blitz-tiebreak. After two blitz-games and another 1-1 tie, an Armageddon game decided the match in favor of Rapport.

12/22/2016 – Wei Yi and Richard Rapport are the world's top two juniors and both are known for their entertaining and uncomprosing attacking chess. From 20th to 23rd December they play a match in Yancheng, China. Wei Yi won the first game, Rapport the second, the third was a draw and this leads to a current score of 1.5-1.5. Analyses and photos.

12/16/2016 – The man of the day was once again Hikaru Nakamura. After his devastating loss in the round before, he didn't hesitate to opt for the ultrasharp 6.Bg5 in the Najdorf and destroyed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in exemplary fashion - as shown by Georg Meier in his notes. By the way, it was the same line, Nakamura went to rack and ruin with Black the day before. The other four games ended in a draw, Wesley So remains in the lead, Fabiano Caruana is trailing him by half a point. Mehr...