2/24/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fine attacking game in which Dutch player Manuel Bosboom found a number of unusual, surprising and pleasing positional sacrifices. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/17/2021 – This week Merijn van Delft looks back to the final of the Opera Euro Rapid Tournament and presents a crucial game, in which Wesley So defeated Magnus Carlsen. | Merijn's show is available at 16.00 UTC (17:00 CET, 12:00 EDT) and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

2/16/2021 – On Sunday, February 14, Wesley So added another tournament victory to the long list of his successes: he won the Opera Euro Online Tournament by beating Magnus Carlsen in the final. Which So also managed to do in the Skilling Open and in the final of the World Championship in Fischerrandom. But why is Wesley So so successful and how does he manage to beat Carlsen again and again? In an interview with Wesley So Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal tried to find out!

2/15/2021 – Wesley So defeated Magnus Carlsen in the final of the Opera Euro Rapid tournament to bag a second consecutive victory in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen lost game 1 after playing a speculative piece sacrifice and never managed to bounce back, missing opportunities in games 3 and 4. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov convincingly beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to claim third place.

2/14/2021 – Wesley So scored a win on demand to tie the score in the first mini-match of the Opera Euro Rapid’s finals against Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov got ahead on the scoreboard against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the match for third place. Report with instructive analysis by Karsten Müller. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

2/13/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So advanced to the final of the Opera Euro Rapid tournament, to be played on Saturday and Sunday starting at 17.00 CET. For a second time in a row, Carlsen knocked out his opponent in the Armageddon decider, while So had a much shorter day at the office, as it was impossible for Teimour Radjabov to win the match once the American collected two points in their second mini-match. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

2/12/2021 – Eternal favourite Magnus Carlsen needed luck to survive in the quarterfinals against Danniil Dubov, but on the first day of the semifinals he obtained a clear victory against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Wesley So also took the lead in his match against Teimour Radjabov. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/11/2021 – Two out of four quarterfinal matches at the Opera Euro Rapid tournament went to tiebreaks, with Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov eliminating Daniil Dubov and Anish Giri in the blitz section of their matches. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also moved on to the semifinals. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

2/10/2021 – The imaginative Daniil Dubov is an uncomfortable opponent for all players, including Magnus Carlsen. On the first day of the Opera Euro Rapid quarterfinals, however, the world champion defeated the Russian convincingly. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So also won their mini-matches. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

12/10/2020 – On Wednesday, December 9, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So played the first semi-final of the chess.com Speed Chess Championship. The match was close but in the end Nakamura's skills in bullet chess helped him to a narrow 13½-12½ win. On Saturday, he will play in the final, either against Magnus Carlsen or against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave who will face each other in the second semi-final on Friday, December 11. | Picture: chess.com

12/1/2020 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent takes a look at the final of the Skilling Open, in which Wesley So defeated Magnus Carlsen in a blitz-tiebreak. | Lawrence's show is available at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET, 14:00 ET) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

12/1/2020 – Wesley So stunned Magnus Carlsen on his 30th birthday to win the Skilling Open, the inaugural event of the Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen admitted that So was a deserved winner, as he showed great nerves to make the most of his chances in the blitz tiebreaker. It was not a great tournament for Carlsen — by his extremely high standards — and in the final he faced a tactically alert opponent, who was up to the task when the pressure was at its highest. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/30/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So go into the last day of the Skilling Open with the score tied after trading wins with white in the first four games of the final match. It all comes down to the second 4-game mini-match, while another tied score will lead to a blitz tiebreaker. The deciding confrontation will be played on Carlsen’s 30th birthday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/29/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So moved on to the final of the Skilling Open by drawing their second semifinal mini-matches against Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura respectively. It was a tougher day at the office for the world champion, who had to come back from a loss in game 1 and find defensive resources in the remaining encounters to keep things under control. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

11/28/2020 – The semifinals of the Skilling Open kicked off on Friday. Magnus Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in their first mini-match after collecting three draws and a win. Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura followed a similar pattern, with So getting ahead in the matchup after getting a single win. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/27/2020 – Three out of the four players that qualified to the semifinals of the Skilling Open did it by coming back from behind in their quarterfinal matchups. The only player to move on without needing tiebreaks was Magnus Carlsen, while Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura reached the semis despite having lost on Wednesday. Carlsen v Nepomniachtchi and So v Nakamura are the semifinal pairings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/20/2020 – In the first third of the quarterfinal Speed Chess Championship match between Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the young Polish player kept his own in the 5+1 blitz games, and in bullet he was even slightly better. But this was not enough because So dominated Duda in the 3+1 blitz games, which helped So to win the match 16-10 and to qualify for the semifinals. | Picture: Chess.com

10/30/2020 – By scoring two quick draws on the last day of competition, Wesley So secured first place at the 2020 U.S. Championship. The Filipino-born grandmaster had a great run from start to finish and took home the $40,000 first prize after obtaining a remarkable 9/11 score. Jeffery Xiong also had a great performance, finishing in sole second place on 8½, while Ray Robson took third place after collecting 7½ points.

10/29/2020 – Wesley So continues his amazing run at the 2020 U.S. Championship, played online this year on October 26-29, as he has a one-point lead going into the last two rounds after having scored 8 points in the first nine rounds. Despite his great performance though, there are still two players who have chances to catch up with him on Thursday — Ray Robson and Jeffery Xiong, both currently on 7/9. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/28/2020 – GM Wesley So continued his excellent form at the 2020 U.S. Championship, scoring 2½/3 today to end with 5½/6 after the second day of play. GM’s Jeffery Xiong and Ray Robson have also been in excellent shape so far as they are tied for second with 5/6, a full two points ahead of the rest of the field.

10/27/2020 – Wesley So scored three wins in as many games to take the sole lead of the 2020 U.S. Championship. Ray Robson and Jeffery Xiong are sharing second place a half point behind, while Sam Sevian is the only other player with a plus score, currently in sole fourth place with 2 out 3 points. The tournament, taking place online, is a 12-player single round-robin. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

10/1/2020 – The 2700chess.com webpage has been keeping track of top players’ ratings on a daily basis for quite a while now. Besides presenting the highest rated players in classical, rapid and blitz, both in the open and the women’s categories, they have included a list of the highest live ratings ever achieved. Let us recap the top ten of this list, and look at the games which gave each of the players their highest-ever live rating.

9/20/2020 – In an appropriate turn of events, given how the tournament had developed, Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So tied for first place at the Saint Lous Rapid & Blitz online tournament. Carlsen beat the American in their direct encounter and had a one-point lead with three rounds to go, but So was not discouraged as he won his final three games to catch up with the world champion. Hikaru Nakamura was undefeated on day five and finihsed in clear third place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

9/19/2020 – Magnus Carlsen reclaimed the lead at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz online event after scoring 6½ points in the first nine rounds of the blitz section. Wesley So, who obtained the highest score in the rapid, is a half point behind. With the second half of the blitz left to go, it is very unlikely for any player other than Carlsen or So to win the event, as Ian Nepomniachtchi currently stands no fewer than 3½ points behind the leader in sole third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club