11/14/2018 – As tournaments go, this was an odd one: with nine draws and one win, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the Shenzhen Masters with a mere 5½ points from 10 games. Since Ding Liren and Anish Giri both also scored 5½, but 'MVL' beat Ding in their direct encounter, the Frenchman had the better tiebreak. Giri earned a notable first victory in the final round against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY sends his final thoughts. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/14/2018 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 20:00 CEST (19:00 UT, 2 pm EDT). On this week's show: How Ding's 100 games undefeated came to an end. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

11/12/2018 – After his undefeated streak was rounded off at a hundred games with a loss against Vachier-Lagrave, Ding Liren jumped right back to winning ways with a victory over Yu Yangyi in round eight of the Shenzhen Masters. He now shares the lead with MVL at 4½/8 with two days to go in the double round robin. In round seven, Nikita Vitiugov defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek and joined the chasers half-a-point behind the co-leaders. | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/11/2018 – Ding Liren lost in Shenzen today for the first time in over 15 months, ending his historic streak at 100 games. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the spoiler, and he now is the co-leader of the tournament along with Yu Yangi. Nikita Vitiugov also won on Sunday, sending Radoslaw Wojtaszek into the cellar. Records are meant to be broken, but the all-time undefeated streak claimed by Sergei Tiviakov is going to be a tough one to crack. He kindly provided all 110 games and a brief description in an attempt to set the record...of the record...straight! | Photo: qipai.org.cn

11/8/2018 – Finally! After four rounds with a total of 12 games without a decision, today the damn burst, the knot burst (or choose your own idiom). GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY explains how the two Chinese grandmasters, Ding and Yu, both won, against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Nikita Vitiugov respectively. Ding extends the streak to 99 games without a defeat. Can he make it 100? | Photos: Quipai.org.cn

11/7/2018 – No winners in Shenzhen so far. All three games in both the third and fourth rounds ended drawn. Ding Liren was closest to winning in today's contest, with an extra pawn, but he had to settle for splitting the point. GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY checks in and brings the players in for some harsh criticism. But he also herald's Ding's undefeated streak — now at 98 games — noting that "he doesn't play for draws, he just plays good chess his opponents cannot refute". | Photos: Qipa.org.cn

11/5/2018 – In the Chinese metropolis of Shenzhen, six world-class players have played six draws so far. The two top Chinese players Ding Liren and Yu Yangui compete with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. With Monday's draw Ding surpassed the undefeated streak of the great Mikhail Tal! Ding's 96 games without a loss can be considered the best undefeated streak in history, if not (yet) the longest. | Photos: Qipai.com

11/5/2018 – Two out of three games in the first round of the second edition of the Shenzhen Masters were hard-fought draws, as only Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave signed a somewhat lifeless ½-½. Ding Liren kept his undefeated streak by drawing with Black against Anish Giri, while Radoslaw Wojtaszek held his own and even got some chances against Yu Yangyi. Things might quickly heat up in the double round-robin with a very attractive line-up. | Photo: Official site

10/18/2018 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen kept fans on pins and needles as he appeared to be losing to Ding Liren which would have dropped him to number two in the world behind Fabiano Caruana (at least temporarily). But Carlsen defended hard and salvaged a critical draw that allowed his teammate Nils Grandelius to win the match for the underdog Norwegian squad of Valerenga. They are now in clear first. ALEX YERMOLINSKY shares his outlook. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/16/2018 – Ding Liren inflicted Peter Svidler's third straight loss to give Alkaloid a critical victory over fourth seeded Mednyi Vsadnik. The rating favourites now share the lead with Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova, which barely beat the over-performing Dunajska Streda. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen drew Alexander Donchenko and lost 2.9 rating points, but his team Valerenga Sjakklubb grabbed a clear win to stay one point behind the leaders. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/6/2018 – The excitement levels had gone off the charts for the final round of the Batumi Olympiad 2018. The strongest teams were fighting against each other to decide who would take gold. USA and China were pitted against each other in the open section and China and Russia faced off against each other in the women's. The matches ended in 2-2 draws with a lot of drama surrounding them. The tiebreaks favoured China in both the sections and they went home with a double gold! In the Open, the USA took the silver and Russia the bronze while in the Women's Ukraine had to be content with silver, and bronze went to Georgia's first team. Full report from Batumi by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

9/1/2018 – September is here, and as the month kicks off we check in with the FIDE rating lists to see how a busy (northern) summer season has shaken thinks up Elo-wise. Magnus Carlsen's top spot in both classical and blitz was briefly threatened, but he remains the king of all formats. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour / Lennart Ootes