8/28/2019 – Join IM Merijn van Delft live for a look at his favourite game of the week: Ding Liren's pivotal win over Fabiano Caruana from the ninth round of the Sinquefield Cup on Monday. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

8/28/2019 – Another intense day of fighting chess and drama in the tenth round of the Sinquefield Cup. Ding Liren shot into sole lead with six points out of ten games. It was a day when joint leader Ian Nepomniachtchi once again produced a horrendous blunder akin to the first round to lose dramatically against Maxim Vachier-Lagrave. Magnus Carlsen's winless drought finally ending with a smooth victory over Wesley So. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/27/2019 – Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi showed their guts to rise to the occasion and score crucial wins in the ninth round of the Sinquefield Cup, to jointly jump into the lead with 5½ points. Vishy Anand once again enjoyed a clear advantage against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who fought back admirably to draw the game. World Champion Magnus Carlsen failed to capitalise on chances offered to him by Aronian and drew yet again. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/26/2019 – The spell of draws was finally broken but the leading pack became a jumbo five-men crowd as Karjakin and Nepomniachtchi joined them at 4½ points from 8 rounds. While erstwhile joint leaders Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand drew their mutual encounter after a long fight, world champion Magnus Carlsen waged a spirited battle against Ding Liren but was forced to settle for a draw too. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/25/2019 – The seventh round of the Sinquefield Cup followed the same pattern of the previous day – all draws and status quo continued in tournament standings, with another heartbreak for Vishy Anand who once again missed converting a clearly better position. Thus, Anand along with Caruana and Ding continue to lead the tournament jointly with 4 points. But other games almost didn't show the fighting content worthy of a top tournament, though most of them were decently fought out. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports all action from the venue. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/24/2019 – Vishy Anand missed a great opportunity to finish off Anish Giri while holding the upper hand — many times during the game — to settle for a heart-breaking draw in the sixth round. He continues to share the lead with 3½ points along with Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren after another all-draw round at the Sinquefield Cup. Caruana versus Vachier-Lagrave was a fantastic fight from a razor sharp Sicilian Najdorf, showing the depth of the players' opening preparation and boldness. Other games contained relatively less fighting content. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/22/2019 – Ding Liren joined the leaders Viswanathan Anand and Fabiano Caruana at the top of the table with 3 points after a round of hard fought battles in almost all games at the Sinquefield Cup. Nemponiachtchi was the other winner of the round after his opponent Hikaru Nakamura played unevenly to lose a game where he didn't seem to be in his best of form. Anand, Caruana and So demonstrated very sharp opening preparations which made this round the most memorable of the tournament so far. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/21/2019 – IM Merijn van Delft is live this week and will examine Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's win over Richard Rapport from the St. Louis Rapid tournament. The show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is on-demand this week starting at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

8/21/2019 – The spell of draws was finally broken when Levon Aronian blundered under time pressure handing Fabiano Caruana a well-deserved victory in the only decisive game of the fourth round. All other games ended in draws, as Vishy Anand messed up a complicated calculation to miss a certain win while Magnus Carlsen overlooked another opportunity to grind his opponent down. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/20/2019 – For the second day in succession, it was six draws in Saint Louis at the Sinquefield Cup. That enabled Vishy Anand to continue to lead as the only winner from the first round. The story of the day was the players with white pieces getting good advantages only to fritter them away in a spate of carelessness. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports about all action from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/19/2019 – Whenever we see the pairing of Anand vs Carlsen, it is expected to be nothing short of spectacle. It did not disappoint this time either. Carlsen kept things interesting in both game and his choice words at the confession booth. Mamedyarov and Nakamura had a sharp game which fizzled out to a draw. Caruana missed a good opportunity against Nepomniachtchi. All games in round two ended up in a draw. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/18/2019 – Viswanathan Anand got lucky against Ian Nepomniachtchi when the latter made a one-move blunder and lost his rook which resulted in his immediate resignation — the only decisive game of round one of the Sinquefield Cup 2019. Carlsen would like to improve on his forgettable Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. Nakamura, Giri, So who are fresh for this event will definitely look forward to making an impact. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from the venue. Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/16/2019 – Levon Aronian won the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2019 despite losing the first and last game on the final day. Aronian managed to score only 5 points out of the last nine rounds but that was enough to beat Vachier-Lagrave. MVL's only consolation is that he beat Aronian in both of their blitz encounters. Caruana got his much awaited revenge against Carlsen in round fourteen. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Pictured: Aronian on being just informed by fellow Armenian GM Manuel Petrosyan that he has won the tournament. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/14/2019 – IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reviews the highlights from the St. Louis Rapid in more depth, paired with video interview clips of the players with GM Maurice Ashley (pictured with Vachier-Lagrave) from the official webcast. | Photo: Austin Fuller

8/14/2019 – Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin were the heroes of the day as both of them scored 6½/9 on Day 1 of Blitz. Wild cards Richard Rapport and Yu Yangyi also had a fantastic start in the Blitz as they scored 6.0/9 and 5½/9 respectively. Magnus only managed to score 50% while Caruana scored a meagre 1½/9 in Blitz. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN brings you all action from Saint Louis. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/13/2019 – Carlsen started Day 3 of Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz with a loss against Aronian. The World Champion defeated MVL in the final round of the rapid event, however it is MVL who overcame Carlsen in the FIDE rapid ranking according to live ratings. Vachier-Lagrave remained undefeated on the final rapid day by defeating the former World Championship challenger Caruana in the final round. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

8/12/2019 – Rapid rounds four to six at the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz yielded no change at the top of the leader board, but Levon Aronian is now being closely pursued by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who won all three of his games on Sunday. Perhaps even more surprisingly, World Champion Magnus Carlsen lost two more of his rapid games, including to world number two Fabiano Caruana. IM VENKATACHALAM SARAVANAN reports from Saint Louis. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

8/2/2019 – A little Friday Fluff courtesy Tesla and Fabiano Caruana, who recently test drove the chess engine built into the Tesla Model 3 (and presumably the car too!). The former World Championship Challenger gave the car a little lesson in going from 0 to +60 in 21 moves...

8/1/2019 – Day four of the Paris Grand Chess Tour finished with Vachier-Lagrave still in the lead, two points ahead of Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi, with the latter collecting 5½ points on Tuesday. The best player in the first nine rounds of Blitz, however, was Hikaru Nakamura, who scored 'plus four' to bridge the gap with those atop the standings table. The current US champion is tied in fourth place with Fabiano Caruana and Vishy Anand. | Photo: Justin Kellar / Grand Chess Tour

7/28/2019 – Exciting chess was the norm in the first three rounds of Rapid at the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand kicked off with wins in rounds one and two and drew their direct encounter to share the lead on 5 out of 6 (wins in Rapid are worth two points). Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are their closest chasers, on 4 out of 6. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/8/2019 – We saw history in the making, as Magnus Carlsen won his eighth tournament in a row at the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb. The world champion defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from the white side of a Grünfeld to finish in clear first place a full point ahead of his closest pursuer with a 'plus five' score. Carlsen's official rating in August will equal his own peak rating of 2882 points — the highest ever achieved. Wesley So finished in sole second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/7/2019 – Round ten of the Grand Chess Tour event in Zagreb finished with all six games drawn. Wesley So had the white pieces against leader Magnus Carlsen and decided to use a safety-first approach which resulted in a 36-move tie. Only Caruana v Mamedyarov, by far the longest game of the day, saw the players creating some imbalances at the board. In Sunday's final round, Carlsen will have White against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and So will face Levon Aronian with the black pieces. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/6/2019 – Magnus Carlsen still leads the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour, as both he and his only chaser Wesley So got half points in round nine. Carlsen and Levon Aronian played a remarkable, precise 49-move draw while Wesley So was on the brink of defeat but miraculously survived against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The only winner of the day was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who defeated Vishy Anand with the white pieces. Round ten will see the deciding match-up between Carlsen and So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/5/2019 – In consecutive days, Magnus Carlsen defeated two players from the elite he had never managed to take down in a classical game ever before. After beating Ian Nepomniachtchi on Wednesday, he got the better of Ding Liren in round eight of the Croatian Grand Chess Tour. Second-placed Wesley So also got a win, though, which means Carlsen still has a mere half point lead in Zagreb. Meanwhile, Anish Giri inflicted Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's third defeat of the event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour