8/14/2017 – Closing the books on the Sinquefield Cup with video from the closing ceremony, and turning to the next major event right on its heels, the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament, which opens Sunday with live-streamed opening ceremony and drawing of lots. Find out who Garry Kasparov will play on Monday! | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/12/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins the Sinquefield Cup, the first classical event of the 2017 the Grand Chess Tour. He settled the matter without consideration for tiebreak rules by winning over Ian Nepomniachtchi to reach 6 points. Magnus Carlsen gave it his best shot by beating and leapfrogging Levon Aronian to reach 5½ points. Viswanathan Anand earlier drew with So, and only reached 5½ | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/11/2017 – Anand is still in the joint lead after draw with Vachier-Lagrave, as Aronian drew with Svilder. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are lurking a half point back and will have to win in round 9 to have any chance for tournament victory | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/10/2017 – We now have a three-way tie for first, after wins by Anand and Aronian. Vachier-Lagrave only drew, and Magnus Carlsen remains a half point back. Garry Kasparov arrived and delighted fans with an appearance on the live commentary webcast! | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/9/2017 – Levon Aronian was the sole winner of the sixth round, impressively defeating Wesley So and moving into shared second place with Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. The latter missed chances to beat Hikaru Nakamura in a long drawn-out rook endgame, but had to settle for a draw after six hours of play. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave remains in the lead. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/8/2017 – Magnus Carlsen is back in the black! It was a day when Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen showcased brilliant calculating skills and self belief in order to win their games against Caruana and So respectively. When your opponent makes a move which you have thought was impossible, it is natural to doubt your own calculation. But great players go beyond that doubt and play confidently if they can find no refutation. Anand did just that, and so did Carlsen to score the only victories of the day. Blow by blow analysis of both the games. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/6/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became "the Frenchman with two names...and three points"! On Saturday he eked out a win with Black over World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He now leads Fabiano Caruana, who drew, and five players with an even score a point back. Hikaru Nakamura slipped to -1 with a loss to Neponiachtchi. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/5/2017 – It was a calmer day in St. Louis with all games in Round 3 ending in draws. Still plenty of interesting chess, as the tournament heads into the weekend. The main attention was on Anand-Carlsen. | Photo: Austin Fuller

8/4/2017 – The Sinquefield Cup continues to delight the spectators and chess fans, with its indomitable fighting games and typical drama. The second round too saw three games ending decisively and near-complete effort from all the players. | Photos: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour)

8/3/2017 – Aronian’s creativity, Karjakin’s precision in an advantageous position, and full-fledged fights in all the boards were the talking points of the first round at Sinquefield Cup which started today at Saint Louis, USA, the 4th leg of the Grand Chess Tour. So Wesley fell for the time immemorial classic zeitnot tragedy when he blundered on the 40th move and lost to Vachier-Lagrave from a difficult position. | Photos: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour)

2/19/2017 – It promised to bring levels of excitement and dynamism, and the new format did not disappoint. Three games ended in decisive results, with one hardly a surprise: Ding Liren - Rapport. The game was a mess as expected, and both players sopught to show who was the wilder of the bunch. Adams defeated Salem after he produced super piece centralization, and strangled his rival. Finally, MVL outplayed Li Chao in an endgame to score. Full report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

11/27/2016 – While Ian Nepomniachtchi was giving simul again, our reporter arrived at the venue just in time to see what is going. He was discussing the match with Vladimir Potkin, then Lawrence Trent showed up, so a re-match with the big F. was looming up. Some non-alcoholic Lychee Martinis helped to prepare, but when the moment arrived, Anna Burtasova took her chance. Inside Report, game 11...

11/25/2016 – See what happened backstage while Carlsen and Karjakin fought it out in game ten: Maxim Dlugy reports: "It was getting clear that Magnus has to make the most out of today’s White pieces. The fight was tense, grandmasters watching the game were electrified. Read about the crowd in the VIP Lounge in our report from Fulton Market, Manhattan.

11/24/2016 – Really into it - VIP-Lounge Inside Report, Part III: Maxim Dlugy our man in New York, runs into a cluster of grandmasters, melts into the crowd and wonders what happened to the food the VIPs could enjoy during the first half of the match. Of course, he also follows game nine and ends up enjoying Judit's company in the broadcast room. Back in the crowd he sees Lawrence Trent offering outrageous odds. Check the temperature...

7/13/2016 – The sixth round of the 7. Hainan Danzhou tournament was a round of draws. No game had a winner. For tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played against Wang Hao, it was his first draw after winning four and losing one game. The table, of course, did not change much: Nepomniachtchi now leads with 4.5/6 but is still one point ahead of Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue.

7/12/2016 – Ian Nepomniachtchi continues to dominate the Hainan-Danzhou tournament in China. In round five he played against Women's World Champion Hou Yifan, demonstrated good technique in a knight endgame four vs three on one wing and scored his fourth win. All other games were drawn. Nepomniachtchi now leads with 4.0/5, one point ahead of Yu Yangyi, Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue.

9/19/2015 – It was the final match of the day, and the cliffhanger of cliffhangers. After tying their standard and rapid games, Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi each survived must-win situations to push the match to sudden death. After a dramatic game, the American prevailed and it was all over. Or was it? To the astonishment of all, the Russian filed an appeal demanding the result be nullified.