12/23/2018 – Two Indians pre-teeners came very close to breaking Sergey Karjakin's record of the youngest GM in history. Sergey made his final norm back in 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months. Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh were the boys that were within a hair of bettering that. Pragg missed the target by three months, and yesterday Gukesh, who had a realistic chance to complete his third GM norm at the Sunway Sitges International 2018, narrowly missed it. In the meantime 11-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam made his first IM norm. | All photos: Rupali Mullick

11/26/2018 – Did you catch the world-class blitz at the Tata Steel tournament in India? For the vast majority the venue, like with so many other events, was just too far away. Thankfully Sagar Shah, who set up ChessBase India, was there and filmed the most interesting games from the best possible angle. You can watch the action at close range, see the players think and react to the opponent's moves, and even analyse on the replay board with engine support. It's highly enjoyable — just ask 1.3 million viewers on YouTube you have watched Praggnanandhaa vs Anand!

11/25/2018 – And then there was one! The World Championship match is headed to a dramatic conclusion after Magnus Carlsen could not score a goal in his last White game. Game 11 ended up as one of the shorter and least interesting draws of the match although it started promisingly enough. The previous Challenger Sergey Karjakin was the surprise guest making the ceremonial first move and he got a smile out of both players by starting with 1.b4 for Magnus. Carlsen opted not to take Karjakin's suggestion to heart and played into a critical line from the Petroff preparation of Caruana — a line shown in the training video accidentally leaked before Game 4. Guest analysis by GM BORIS GELFAND and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photos: World Chess

11/18/2018 – With the long-awaited World Championship match between World Champion Magnus Carlsen and his Challenger Fabiano Caruana finally underway, GM LARS BO HANSEN was inspired to revisit some analyses from the previous World Championship match in New York between Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin in November 2016. As most readers will recall, the reigning World Champion survived a scare in the regular games before eventually dominating the rapid playoff. What conclusions can we draw and how might that impact the 2018 contest? | Photo: Albert Silver

11/16/2018 – The strongest chess event on Indian soil was held from November 9th to the 14th, 2018 with three days of rapid chess and two days of blitz. Hikaru Nakamura had already won the rapid section with a dominating performance. In the blitz event, the American GM was racing ahead on the first day with 6½/9. It seemed as if Nakamura would take home both the titles, but Vishy Anand had other plans. The 48-year-old former World Champion showed his class as he notched up one win after another. By scoring 7½/9 on day two he tied with Nakamura for the top spot. We then had a blitz playoff in which Anand triumphed and won the Tata Steel Chess India Blitz 2018. IM SAGAR SHAH and AMRUTA MOKAL provide pictures, videos, game analysis from Kolkata.

11/14/2018 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2018 Rapid came to an end on November 11th with American GM Hikaru Nakamura taking home the first prize with 6.0/9. Nakamura played the event as per the demands of the situation — calm on first and third days and three victories on day two! It was excellent news for Indian fans that Harikrishna managed to fight back with two wins against Levon Aronian and Vidit Gujrathi in last two rounds to finish second. Levon Aronian had to settle for the third spot. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you six things that happened on the last day of the rapid and reflections on the first super tournament held in his native India! Of course, one mustn't forget the small sensation — Vishy Anand was beaten by his former second Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the final round.

10/25/2018 – All kinds of games were seen in the fifth round of the Chess.com Isle of Man International Tournament — short draws, theoretical battles, upsets, a checkmate with two knights against a queen, and so on. Jeffery Xiong and Abhijeet Gupta beat Richard Rapport and Vidit Gujrathi, respectively, to join Wang Hao and Arkadij Naiditsch in the lead with 4½/5. Meanwhile, Hikaru Nakamura and Sergey Karjakin won impressive games to up their tallies to four points. | Photos: John Saunders

9/25/2018 – It's a historic moment for Indian chess. The country will be hosting its first super tournament this November — the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz. Bigwigs like Aronian, Nakamura, Karjakin, So and Mamedyarov will be seen crossing swords with Anand, Harikrishna, Vidit and others. Prodigies, Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa will also be seen matching their wits with some of the absolute best in the world. Here's all you need to know about the event.

9/21/2018 – It was none other than Vladimir Putin, who dropped in at the training camp in Sochi. There he spoke to the men and women team members, about the importance of Russia regaining their dominating role in chess, about young talents and talent schools — like the one initiated by former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. "Sirius" has already produced a number of children's champions. Watch this 1TV report — it is in Russian, but we provide a rough transcript for you to read.

8/28/2018 – The sixth edition of the Sinquefield Cup had an unprecedented finish. Levon Aronian defeated Alexander Grischuk in a memorable game, while Magnus Carlsen got a 97-move victory over Hikaru Nakamura. Therefore, Aronian, Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana tied for first — in points and in all tiebreak criteria! The rules stipulated that a drawing of lots would decide which two players would go to the playoff — Carlsen objected, as he thought it to be 'ridiculous'. Finally, the players and organisers decided all three would be declared co-winners! V. SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

8/27/2018 – Everything looked set for a day full of fireworks when the eighth round of the Sinquefield Cup had just begun — Grischuk opened with 1.f4, Karjakin and Nakamura went into what seemed to be a sharp Catalan and Carlsen surely was in the mood to avenge his Biel loss against Mamedyarov. The players did try to fight, but the final result was, once again, five drawn games. Curiously, with one round to go, all the GCT "regular" players still have chances to qualify to the final stage in London. V. SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes