9/6/2019 – Hikaru Nakamura made a strong comeback in his match against Levon Aronian to score 6-2 and clinch his match with a margin of 14½:11½ in a remarkable comeback after a disastrous first day. Caruana and So completed the formalities in their matches against Kasparov and Topalov respectively to win with wide margins, while Peter Svidler too prevailed against Dominguez with a 4½:3½ margin. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from Saint Louis. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/5/2019 – Public appearances by Garry Kasparov are often notable, even more so at chess events and especially if the ex-world champion is coaxed into playing chess himself. At the "Champions Showdown" from the Saint Louis Chess Club, Kasparov faced Fabiano Caruana in a 'Fischer Random' match from Monday to Thursday. Although the final score is clearly one-sided in favour of Caruana, the world champion showed he still has what it takes to play against an active player of the elite. In the other match-ups Wesley So and Peter Svidler got comfortable wins over Veselin Topalov and Leinier Dominguez, while Hikaru Nakamura bounced back from a lousy start to finally beat Levon Aronian. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

9/5/2019 – The third day of the Champions Showdown Chess 9LX almost continued on the same lines of the previous two days. Fabiano Caruana has already defeated Garry Kasparov in their match with a day to go, with a score of 14½:3½, while Wesley So too has almost crossed the threshold against Veselin Topalov at 13:5. Leinier Dominguez showed a fightback against Peter Svidler to narrow the trailing margin to 7:11. Kudos to Hikaru Nakamura who narrowed Aronian's lead to a point before the last day of 8 blitz games. Aronian leads 9½:8½. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/4/2019 – The Champions Showdown 9LX continued on the same lines as the first day, with Garry Kasparov and Hikaru Nakamura suffering more heartbreaks and continuing to trail their opponents with scores of 3:9 and 4:8 respectively. Peter Svidler and Wessley So gained further ground on their opponents. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVAN reports all action from the venue. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/3/2019 – Garry Kasparov has a very steep climb ahead if he wants to get back into contention in his Champions Showdown match versus Fabiano Caruana. He arrived several days early to participate in the now traditional post-Sinquefield "Ultimate Moves" exhibition. Presumably he found some time to practice before taking on super-GM Fabiano Caruana. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN has been in St. Louis throughout, reporting all the action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

9/3/2019 – While those in the United States had an "unofficial end-of-summer" holiday during Labour Day, Garry Kasparov was back to work at the Champions Showdown event in Saint Louis. The former world champion had it rough, though, as he ended up losing his last three games against world number two Fabiano Caruana. Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler also racked up comfortable advantages over Hikaru Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez respectively, while Wesley So will kick off day two with a 4:2 lead over Veselin Topalov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/14/2019 – Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin were the heroes of the day as both of them scored 6½/9 on Day 1 of Blitz. Wild cards Richard Rapport and Yu Yangyi also had a fantastic start in the Blitz as they scored 6.0/9 and 5½/9 respectively. Magnus only managed to score 50% while Caruana scored a meagre 1½/9 in Blitz. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN brings you all action from Saint Louis. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/11/2019 – "The chess world is a better place when Aronian is playing well!" These words of Garry Kasparov in 2015 reverberated on day one of the Saint Louis Rapid 2019 as the Armenian GM went on to score wins against MVL, Karjakin and Mamedyarov. Aronian now leads the event with a 6.0/6 score. Magnus Carlsen suffered a shock defeat against Ding Liren but came back to score two wins. We bring you an on-site report by VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN, with photos, player's quotes and analysis.

7/24/2019 – The Slovenian city of Maribor celebrated the 100th anniversary of the founding of the first chess club in the city this year. A number of well-known grandmasters took this opportunity to participate in this year's chess festival, among them, Antoaneta Stefanova, women's world champion from 2004 to 2006. From there she won the strong Women's Open in Shaoxing, China, scoring 7 points from 9 games. The Bulgarian, born in 1979 and the mother of a nine-month-old girl, remained undefeated and ended up one point ahead of China's Guo Qi, Harika Dronavalli of India and Munguntuul Batkhuyag from Mongolia, who shared places two to four.

7/2/2019 – The latest news from the Kasparov Chess Foundation includes and update on their Young Stars program and, from New York, the Harlem Children's Zone. The most recent camp for US stars took place in June in Saint Louis, while the global camp has just wrapped up in Zagreb, Croatia, alongside the Grand Chess Tour. Try your hand at a few of the studies that Garry Kasparov himself poses for the students! | Pictured: Saint Louis celebrates the Blues hockey team with a parade, as IM Christopher Yoo analyses a position

6/27/2019 – Four players opened the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour with a win. Most eyes were on World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who continued his astounding year with an inaugural win in Zagreb over Anish Giri. Carlsen's latest challenger, Fabiano Caruana, also won, after taking advantage of a blunder by Hikaru Nakamura, while Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi got full points as well, with victories over Ding Liren and Vishy Anand. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

6/15/2019 – After a 14-year tournament hiatus, Grandmaster Patrick Wolff recently played several rated games at the Mechanics’ Institute Chess Club, where he had been serving as Interim Director until June 14. In an extensive interview he tells WIM Alexey Root about updating his best-selling book, being a second to then-World Championship challenger Vishy Anand, winning two U.S. Championships, and making chess more appealing to corporate sponsors. | Photos: Courtesy of Patrick Wolff