11/21/2022 – The World Team Chess Championship kicked off in Jerusalem on Sunday. With a new ‘slow rapid’ format, the event saw the teams from each of the two pools playing two matches on the first day of action. Pool A saw China and Ukraine winning both their matches, while only Azerbaijan managed the same feat in Pool B. Four out of six squads in each group will move on to the quarterfinals. | Pictured: France’s Laurent Fressinet (currently on 2 out of 2) | Photo: Mark Livshitz

10/21/2022 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the 2022 Aimchess Rapid online tournament after beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in what somewhat unexpectedly turned out to be a hard-fought final match. After getting a clear victory in the first set, Duda got a superior position in Friday’s first game. Shakh first managed to turn the tables in that game and then scored 1½ points in the next two encounter to take the match to tiebreaks. Duda won back-to-back blitz games to secure overall victory.

10/20/2022 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov reached the final of the Aimchess Rapid online tournament after outscoring Magnus Carlsen and Richard Rapport in Wednesday’s semis, respectively. Duda and Shakh finished first and third in the preliminary stage, and enter the deciding match of the event as much-deserving finalists.

10/19/2022 – Three long-standing elite GMs defeated younger opponents in the quarterfinals of the Aimchess Rapid online tournament, as Magnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Richard Rapport knocked out Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Gukesh Dommaraju, respectively. The one exception to this rule was Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who got the better of Vidit Gujrathi. By reaching the event’s semifinals, Carlsen secured overall tour victory with one tournament to spare!

8/29/2022 – An action-packed third day of action at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament left French representatives Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the shared lead going into the blitz section of the event. Sam Shankland beat Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura to climb to sole third place, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored three wins in a row to return to a fifty-percent score after a subpar performance in the first six rounds. | Photos: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes

6/10/2022 – Shakhriyar Mamedyarov defeated Vishy Anand to climb to sole second place with a round to go at the Norway Chess Tournament. The Indian star, who was having a great run in Stavanger, made a one-move blunder and immediately resigned the game on move 22. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Armageddon to keep the sole lead — the world champion goes into Friday’s final round a half point ahead of Mamedyarov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/8/2022 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won their round-7 classical encounters to climb to shared third place at the Norway Chess Tournament. Magnus Carlsen lost in Armageddon against Aryan Tari, but is still leading the standings table, albeit only by a half point — second-placed Vishy Anand won the sudden-death decider against Teimour Radjabov on Tuesday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

5/12/2022 – Levon Aronian and Wesley So continue to share the lead at the Superbet Chess Classic despite three games finishing decisively in the seventh round. After losing to Aronian on Wednesday, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave bounced back with a win over Richard Rapport — the Frenchman is now in sole third place, a half point behind the leaders. Meanwhile, both Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alireza Firouzja collected their first wins of the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

3/31/2022 – If we were to assume that there really is something to astrology — that people born in autumn really do tick a little differently from those born in spring — might we have a useful clue to our opponent’s strategy in a chess game by asking about their star sign? Perhaps we would also involuntarily expect for a typical Dutchman to prefer a different strategy than a full-blooded Sicilian.

3/30/2022 – Wesley So and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, the rating favourites in Tuesday’s rapid and blitz tiebreakers at the Berlin Grand Prix, defeated Sam Shankland and Vincent Keymer and thus advanced to the event’s semifinals. So will face Amin Tabatabaei, while Mamedyarov will play Hikaru Nakamura in 2-game matches starting Wednesday. | Photos: World Chess

3/26/2022 – Two quiet rounds were followed by a day full of excitement at the third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix. Five games finished decisively, and remarkably three of the winners beat the players who had defeated them in the first round of the event — i.e. Hikaru Nakamura beat Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Alexandr Predke, and Amin Tabatabaei beat Nikita Vitiugov. Grigoriy Oparin and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also scored full points, leaving the field wide open with two rounds to go. | Photos: World Chess

1/21/2022 – Returning from the rest day, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Richard Rapport scored full points to join Vidit Gujrathi in the lead of the Tata Steel Masters tournament. Andrey Esipenko and Magnus Carlsen stand close behind, as the world champion both lived dangerously and got winning chances in his (drawn) game against Nils Grandelius. Meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi won again in the Challengers, and now has a one-point lead in the standings table. | Photo: Lennart Ootes