5/20/2020 – The four first rounds of the Lindores Abbey Chess Challenge were played on Tuesday, and four players are sharing the lead on 3 points. Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura won with white and drew with black, Wesley So also won two despite playing three times with black, while Sergey Karjakin won three games and lost one. The twelve-player round-robin that continues until Thursday will eliminate the bottom four before the knockout kicks off after a rest day. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

5/14/2020 – In a press release World Champion Magnus Carlsen today revealed his $1 million vision for a new online chess tour designed to cement the game’s future in the public eye. Four super-tournaments culminating in a Grand Final in August will become the new "majors" for online chess, the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour. It follows the breakout success of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational which shattered all records for online viewership and now serves as the first leg of the Tour. Carlsen believes carrying the momentum into an online Tour presents the opportunity to establish chess permanently as a mass media sport.

5/12/2020 – "Billions" is an Award-winning and critically acclaimed TV series about power and politics in the world of New York high finance. In the second episode of the fifth season, "The Chris Rock Test", Hikaru Nakamura has a cameo appearance. It is the first time a top player appeared in an Award-winning American network show since Magnus Carlsen's was part of "The Simpsons" three years ago. | Photo: Hotstar Stream

5/6/2020 – Merijn van Delft takes a look at the dramatic final of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational match where Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura showed their skills in rapid chess. | Merijn's show is available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

5/2/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura is the first finalist of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. The American defeated his compatriot Fabiano Caruana 4:2 after drawing in the four-game rapid section and winning both blitz tiebreakers. Nakamura will face either Carlsen or Ding Liren, who will play the other semi-final on Saturday. Round-up show by GM Yannick Pelletier. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

4/30/2020 – The seventh round of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational saw world numbers one and two, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, losing to Ding Liren and Anish Giri respectively. Carlsen played some dicey openings against Ding and, despite equalizing in the middlegame, made critical mistakes in three of the four rapid games. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hikaru Nakamura also won. The first semi-final between Caruana and Nakamura will be played on Friday. Round-up show by IM Lawrence Trent. | Photo: Official site

4/30/2020 – The four-player field for the semi-finals of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational has been decided one round prior to the end of the round-robin section. Fabiano Caruana defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to leave the Frenchman without chances of qualifying, while Hikaru Nakamura got the better of Ding Liren in Armageddon — both Nakamura and Ding will nonetheless join Carlsen and Caruana in the semis. | Photo: Official site

4/28/2020 – After Carlsen's loss on Sunday, two players joined him in the lead the very next day. Ding Liren defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi 2½:1½ to catch up with the world champion, while Hikaru Nakamura got one point in his match against Fabiano Caruana after losing on tiebreaks to also reach Carlsen's mark of eleven points. With two rounds to go in the round-robin section, there are four clear favourites to reach the semis. Round-up show by GM Daniel King. | Photo: Official site

4/26/2020 – Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren obtained key victories in round four of the Magnus Carlsen Invitational. Nakamura took down Ian Nepomniachtchi 2½:1½, while Ding had black and drew Anish Giri in the Armageddon decider of their match-up. Nakamura is now in sole second place a point behind Carlsen and is very likely to reach the semi-finals. Round-up show by GM Yannick Pelletier. | Photo: Official site

4/20/2020 – After Monday's round, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational has a sole leader in the world champion himself. Magnus Carlsen got a 2½:1½ victory over 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja, thus gaining three points for the overall standings. Firouzja did get to win a game, when Carlsen blundered the game away in one move. In the other match of the day, Hikaru Nakamura defeated Anish Giri. Round-up show by GM Daniel King. | Photo: Official site

1/1/2020 – Happy New Year! World Champion Magnus Carlsen heads into 2020 with a 50 Elo point lead in the classical ratings and a 45 point lead on the rapid list. Yet, despite winning the recent World Blitz Championship in a playoff over Hikaru Nakamura, the American clings to a 13 point margin atop the world blitz rankings. Alireza Firouzja, who gave both a run for their money in Moscow, is now #1 on the Juniors rankings. | Photos: Amruta Mokal / Jingda Chen on Unsplash

12/31/2019 – What an exciting final day we had at the World Blitz 2019. A controversy between the World Champion and one of the brightest young talents of the game, a blitz playoff to determine the winner, a retired player making a comeback, and winning the bronze and the defending women's world champion defending her title! The World Blitz 2019 was filled with exciting moments, and we bring you a detailed report with information of all the things that happened at the Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

12/29/2019 – Magnus Carlsen is now not just the Classical World Champion, but also the Rapid World Champion! He played sublime chess, gaining 14 Elo points, reaching 2900 on the Elo scale to win the title one point ahead of his nearest rivals. Silver medal was won unexpectedly by Alireza Firouzja who scored 4½/5 on the last day. Nakamura settled for the bronze. In the women's section we witnessed a blitz playoff to determine the winner. It was finally Humpy Koneru who won the gold. Silver went to Chinese Lei Tingjie and bronze to Ekaterina Atalik. A detailed report and interviews with the World Champion.

12/26/2019 – The "King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championship" 2019 is here! It is one of the most exciting events of the year with the participation of almost all the top players in the world including World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen will be looking to win the title in both rapid and blitz and become triple crown champion again. The opening ceremony was held on December 25th at the Russian Chess Museum on the Gogolevsky Boulevard in Moscow. IM SAGAR SHAH and AMRUTA MOKAL were present at the venue and bring you first-hand impressions from the place. We also have some very interesting interviews with Carlsen, Wang Hao, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, Anton Korobov and Peter Leko.

12/11/2019 – Viswanathan Anand, who turns 50 years old today, is a legend who has played many masterpieces throughout his illustrious career spanning decades. At the end of Tata Steel Chess India 2019, IM SAGAR SHAH caught up with the chess virtuoso to discuss nine of his career-best games. In this interview Anand talks about old times, untold behind-the-scenes stories of the pre-computer chess era and much more. Chess fans are in for a nostalgic treat!

12/2/2019 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2019 was held from November 22nd to the 26th, 2019 in Kolkata, India. It was truly a trailblazing event being the strongest tournament ever to be organized on not just Indian but Asian soil. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on the ten things that according to him made the Tata Steel Chess India special. A photo / video retrospective.

12/1/2019 – The December rating list is out, with Magnus Carlsen back at number one in rapid, in addition to classical chess. Hikaru Nakamura, however, remains atop the world blitz rankings. They pair will have a chance to clash in both rapid and blitz formats later this month in Moscow. Alexander Grischuk (pictured) is now nearly sure of a 2020 Candidates qualification spot after his win in the Hamburg Grand Prix tournament. | Photo: Valeria Gordienko

11/27/2019 – Tata Steel Chess India, the penultimate event of the Grand Chess Tour 2019, came to an end with Magnus Carlsen showing his best ever GCT performance, scoring 27 points out of a total 36. He will be joined by Ding Liren, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the tour's final event the London Chess Classic starting next week. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you the detailed report of the action on the final day from Kolkata.

11/26/2019 – The blitz event is much more intense than the rapid. You have to play nine games in four and a half hours. It was fairly obvious that the players were quite tired, thus they made a lot of errors. However, you could also see a lot of brilliant moves being played. Magnus Carlsen once again set the tone with a 6½/9 performance. He is now the overall leader by a gap of five points over the nearest contender. For Indian fans the main goal would be to see Vishy Anand qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour Finals to be held from November 28th in London. In this report we bring you some of the best and most interesting games, selected tactical positions and mating attacks!

11/25/2019 – Magnus Carlsen performed at an astronomical Elo of 3027 at the Tata Steel Chess India 2019 Rapid. He scored 15.0/18, with six wins and three draws. According to Magnus, this was his best performance ever in rapid format. He gained 36.8 Elo points, taking his rapid rating to 2885. He also overtook MVL and thus became World no.1 in rapid. Hikaru Nakamura took the second spot with 11.0/18 and Wesley So was third. The tournament has not yet ended of course — we've moved to the blitz section with 18 more rounds to be played. The cumulative score of both the formats will determine the winner. A detailed day three report from the National Library in Kolkata.

11/24/2019 – Magnus Carlsen does not cease to impress. This time it was not just on the chess board! He was called as the guest of honour along with Vishy Anand to open the day two of the cricket test match between India and Bangladesh. In between rounds four and five, he entertained one and all with his football skills. Last but not the least, he was an absolute monster on the board as he completely outplayed Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri. His last game for the day was a draw against Vidit Gujrathi. Magnus now has a lead of three points with 10.0/12. He is followed by Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So. In this report we bring to you detailed analysis, pictures, videos from the National Library in Kolkata.

10/22/2019 – The eleven-round FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss finished on Monday, with Wang Hao both claiming first place and getting the spot in the Candidates Tournament. The Chinese grandmaster beat David Howell — who was in a must-win game with the black pieces — to tie perennial co-leader Fabiano Caruana on top of the standings table. His better tiebreak score gave him first place and, of course, the chance to fight to become Magnus Carlsen's next challenger. Round-up show by GM SIMON WILLIAMS. | Photo: Maria Emelianova / chess.com

10/20/2019 – With two rounds to got at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss, four players are tied atop the standings on 6½ out of 9. The last one joining the group of co-leaders was Hikaru Nakamura, who defeated Vladislav Kovalev on Saturday. The ever-changing pack of chasers now consists of eleven players, still including world champion Magnus Carlsen. Meanwhile, Vincent Keymer, Jonas Buhl Bjerre and Raunak Sadhwani completed their third and final grandmaster norms. Daily highlights with IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photos: John Saunders

10/19/2019 – Three players are sharing the lead at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss, as David Anton joined Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian after beating Alexander Grischuk. Much like the leading pack, the group of chasers grew in size on Friday. Ten players are at a half point distance from the leaders, with some big names joining after round eight — Vishy Anand, Sergey Karjakin, Hikaru Nakamura and Boris Gelfand. Also among the chasers is Vladislav Kovalev, who upset Radoslaw Wojtaszek on board nine. IM LAWRENCE TRENT recapped the highlights of the day. | Photo: John Saunders