10/21/2026 – Wesley So needs just a draw in the final round of the US Championship to secure his fourth national title. He leads Fabiano Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin by a full point after all three drew their tenth-round games. In the women's tournament, 16-year-old Rachael Li defeated Rose Atwell to maintain her one-point lead over Alice Lee, who kept her title chances alive by beating Thalia Cervantes. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

10/18/2026 – Wesley So defeated Andy Woodward in round eight of the US Championship to extend his lead to a full point over Fabiano Caruana, who drew against Sam Sevian. The two will meet in Monday's ninth round. In the women's tournament, Alice Lee and Rachael Li remain tied for first place on 6/8, while Thalia Cervantes moved within half a point of the leaders by defeating four-time national champion Carissa Yip. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

10/12/2026 – Wesley So and Awonder Liang drew their direct encounter in round three of the US Championship, remaining tied for first place on 2½/3. Andy Woodward and Sam Shankland (pictured) scored victories, with Woodward joining Fabiano Caruana half a point behind the leaders. In the women's tournament, Alice Lee defeated Nazi Paikidze to join Thalia Cervantes and Megan Paragua in first place. Defending champion Carissa Yip suffered her second consecutive defeat. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

7/1/2026 – The KazChess Masters Almaty has begun in Kazakhstan's largest city, with five established international grandmasters facing five rising local players in a ten-player single round-robin. The opening round produced two decisive results, as Igor Kovalenko defeated Alexander Donchenko with a strong attacking display, while Sam Shankland converted an endgame against Aldiyar Ansat. | Photo: Official website

6/12/2026 – Sam Shankland retained his American Continental Championship title in Oaxtepec, finishing clear first on 9½/11 after conceding only three draws. The US grandmaster secured one of four qualification spots for the 2027 FIDE World Cup, together with Juan Carlos Obregón (Mexico), Sandro Mareco (Argentina) and Alexandr Fier (Brazil). | Photo: Confederation of Chess for Americas

11/17/2025 – Eight players now remain in contention at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, where Sunday's round-of-16 tiebreaks completed the quarterfinal lineup. Alexander Donchenko, Jose Martinez, Sam Shankland (pictured) and Andrey Esipenko advanced alongside earlier qualifiers, ensuring a diverse field in which no participant has yet played in a Candidates Tournament. With seven nations represented and three coveted Candidates places at stake, the knockout event enters its decisive phase on Monday. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

11/10/2025 – A tense day of tiebreaks marked the end of round three at the FIDE World Cup in Goa. Eleven matches were decided through rapid and blitz play, including one that reached Armageddon, where Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finally overcame Vladislav Artemiev. Three players who were rating underdogs won their matches: Sam Shankland, Karthik Venkataraman and Alexey Sarana advanced to the round of 32 alongside the event's leading seeds. | Photo: Michal Walusza

6/3/2025 – Sam Shankland won the 2025 American Continental Chess Championship in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, after finishing in a seven-way tie for first place and prevailing on the Buchholz tiebreak criterion. The event, held from 23 to 31 May, awarded four places for the 2025 FIDE World Cup. José Eduardo Martínez and Alexandr Fier joined Shankland on the podium, while José Gabriel Cardoso secured the final qualification spot. | Photo: FIDE Americas

2/27/2025 – Vincent Keymer had a good start at the Masters section of the Chess Festival in Prague: he defeated top seed Wei Yi in Wednesday's first round. The second victory of the day was secured by Sam Shankland, who won against Ediz Gürel. The three remaining games all ended in draws. There were also two wins and three draws in the Challengers: the two winners were Jonas Buhl Bjerre, who beat Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis with black, and Ivan Salgado Lopez, who defeated Divya Deshmukh with white. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

9/5/2024 – Surya Shekhar Ganguly defeated Sam Shankland in their 8-game online match with the unique scoring system devised by Venceslav Rutar - which changes the scoring of draws into three categories based on the material disparity. Surya won the match by a 26-11 score, after grabbing 5 wins. Shankland collected 1 win, and 3 games ended in 'equal draws'. While there were no 'favoured' nor 'unfavoured' draws in the match, the format advocated for fighting chess as we got to see so many interesting games.

9/2/2024 – Venceslav Rutar from Slovenia is organising a match between GM Sam Shankland and GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly on 2-3 September. What's so special about this event? As Venceslav says, "Draws are not the problem, the problem is how we score them!" A unique scoring system will be used in this match. The traditional system with 1 point (to the winner), ½ point (to both the players) and 0 points (to the loser) will be replaced by five possibilities: win, favoured draw, equal draw, disfavoured draw and loss. Live transmission of the first game starts at 8.30 pm IST (17.00 CEST, 11.00 EDT). | Photos: Austin Fuller & Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

5/21/2024 – Round 7 of the Sharjah Masters saw former sole leader Aravindh Chithambaram losing his game with white against Iranian GM Bardiya Daneshvar, the 50th seed in the event. Daneshvar thus leapfrogged Aravindh in the standings, as he is now sharing the lead with Sam Shankland. Shankland defeated his compatriot Hans Niemann after the latter misplayed a king and pawn endgame. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy