4/10/2018 – Fabiano Caruana strikes again! A win with black in the final round in Baden-Baden leaves him alone atop the GRENKE Chess Classic standings, with no playoff needed. Caruana defeated Nikita Vitiugov, while all other games ended in a draw. Magnus Carlsen finished the tournament in clear second place. Vitiugov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian finished with 5 points apiece, tied for third through fifth. | Photos: Georgios Souleidis, Macauley Peterson

4/9/2018 – From March 31st to April 9th, the Grenke Chess Classic takes place in Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden, Germany. Ten grandmasters play a single round-robin, headed by World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, the winner of the 2017 tournament, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand. Live games and commentary webcast. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

4/9/2018 – On a gorgeous Spring day in Baden-Baden there was another series of five draws in the eighth round. Magnus Carlsen tried to will his way to victory over Nikita Vitiugov, in the longest game of the round, but in the end, had to settle for a draw. Both remain a half point behind Caruana. It will be one of those three emerging as the GRENKE Chess Classic 2018 winner. Vitiugov, with White against Caruana in the final round (WATCH LIVE) has a chance to make a bold statement. For Magnus Carlsen, he'll have to try to win with black against Viswanathan Anand. Naiditch vs Anand is annotated by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson. | Photos: Macauley Peterson

4/8/2018 – In the GRENKE Chess Classic, standings shuffled dramatically after the seventh round. Fabiano Caruana managed a convincing win against his former co-leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the black pieces, to take the sole lead in the standings. World Champion Magnus Carlsen also won with Black, against Arkadij Naiditsch, and moved up to second place. Georg Meier missed chances to add to Viswanathan Anand woes. GM Daniel Fernandez annotates all five games | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/7/2018 – The sixth round of the Grenke Classic tournament lasted no less than seven hours today. Fabiano Caruana suffered long and hard against Yifan Hou but finally came to a happy draw. Matthias Bluebaum celebrated a great success against Viswanathan Anand, while Arkadij Naiditsch won against Georg Meier | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/5/2018 – On April 5th, the 5th round of the "GRENKE Chess Classic", now in Baden-Baden was the first in which all five games ended in a draw. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana and Nikita Vitiugov thus continue to lead the standings; a half point behind are Levon Aronian and World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Against Georg Meier, Carlsen was on the verge of losing shortly before the time control, but the German grandmaster missed the win! Another game was nearly decisive: Arkadij Naiditsch stood much better against Matthias Bluebaum, but here it was the young German, who somehow managed to survive a devastating attack and fight back in the endgame. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/4/2018 – The GRENKE Chess Classic continued today in Baden-Baden with round four. For a long time, it looked like this was going to be a game day where all players would struggle to play the 40 moves required before draw offers are allowed. However, Fabiano Caruana exploited an opening left by Arkadij Naiditsch, and showed that his brilliant form from Berlin persists. With only a queen and knight each left on the board, the American was able to produce dangerous threats against Naiditsch who ultimately collapsed under the pressure. As a result, Caruana joins the leaders, Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/3/2018 – The third round of the Grenke Classic seemed headed to a very dull series of draws, but somehow things changed before the games ended. Carlsen tried very hard to lead young Bluebaum astray, but no luck, while Caruana final scored a win after a fairly sharp game against Meier. Finally, Hou Yifan lost a tough game against MVL. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/2/2018 – In a day when White scored 4½/5, how else could one describe the round? Even the one draw took herculean measures by Matthias Bluebaum (with black) to survive Fabiano Caruana's powerful attack. For Nikita Vitiugov, the qualifier from last year's Open, it means 2/2 also. Still, be sure to see the fascinating notes by GM Yermolinsky, who sheds light on how chess understanding has changed in the last 20 years. Not to be missed! | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/1/2018 – The 5th Grenke Classic could not have come any sooner, as it features a preview of the upcoming World Championship match. By luck of the draw the two rivals Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana got to play each other in the opening round. While the engine jockeys screamed Carlsen had missed an 'easy win' as they drew, author and annotator GM Alex Yermolinsky shows that this was anything but true. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

3/31/2018 – There were plenty of interesting results this last month, and the Candidates was but one of the contributing factors. There can be no discussion about calling Fabiano Caruana 'Man of the Month', but fascinating moves abound, from the rise of Iranian youth (watch out Batumi!), to Anand's ascension to world no.3 in Rapid. See all, read all, in this month's ratings report! | Photo: World Chess

3/30/2018 – Right from a very early age, everyone knew that Vishy Anand would make it big in the world of chess. His talent and work ethic combined with the love for the game took him to the top. But what is it that kept him at the top for so many years? If you had to ask us, we would say: a very important role was played by his wife Aruna Anand. She gave Anand the emotional support that helped him keep going for years and years. Even at the age of 48 he is going strong. In Part II of our interview with the Tigress of Madras - Aruna Anand, we ask her about her role as a manager, the biggest challenge, how she deals with Vishy's losses and how Akhil's presence has brought new colours into their lives!