3/29/2019 – Leinier Dominguez, playing in his first U.S. Championship, is now co-leader with Hikaru Nakamura. He took a small endgame plus and converted it to a full point against Sam Sevian in round eight. Nakamura and Dominguez are scheduled to play in Saturday's tenth round. Fabiano Caruana remains a half point back. In the Women's tournament Jennifer Yu extends to her lead to a full point after winning her third game in a row. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/28/2019 – All four decisive results of round seven had a direct impact on the top of the standings at the US Championship. Wins by Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez and Sam Sevian allowed them to remain half a point behind sole leader Hikaru Nakamura, who also won on Wednesday. Meanwhile, among the women, for a second day in a row Jennifer Yu survived a losing position and went on to win to stay on top with 6½ out of 7. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/24/2019 – Round four of the US Championships was filled with peculiar episodes that made for an incredible day of chess in Saint Louis. Ray Robson took down sole leader Jeffery Xiong with the black pieces, while Fabiano Caruana and Sam Sevian were not able to make the most of completely winning positions against Leinier Dominguez and Timur Gareyev. In the women's section, Jennifer Yu remains perfect after her opponent blundered on move ten. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/19/2019 – The U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Chess Championship will take place for an eleventh time at the Saint Louis Chess Club starting on Wednesday. The opening ceremony was held on Monday March 18th. Two concurrent twelve-player round robin events will determine the new chess champions of the United States. The open section has a stellar line-up, with five 2700+ players for the first time in the national tournament, as Leinier Dominguez will make his debut as an American representative. Fabiano Caruana (pictured) is the top seed. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/8/2019 – Over Easter, from April 18th to 22nd, one of the strongest open tournaments in the world takes place in Karlsruhe: the GRENKE Open. At the same time, ten of the world's best will face off in the GRENKE Chess Classic. Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Anand and Vachier-Lagrave are all confirmed, but also Vincent Keymer, the surprise winner of the 2018 GRENKE Open, who will have a prime opportunity to show what he can do against the world's best. Details via the tournament press release.

3/4/2019 – It was an eventful weekend in the Bundesliga, as leaders and clear favourites OSG Baden-Baden lined up their best squad but ended up giving up two crucial match points, allowing SG Solingen to catch up with them in the standings. It was giant-killing season in Berlin for Peter Leko, Gata Kamsky and Anton Korobov, who took down top-ten stars Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vishy Anand. Games, standings and great video content from the organisers below. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

3/1/2019 – FIDE's March ratings reflect changes from the Gibraltar Masters, the Cairns Cup and Champions Showdown in St. Louis. Vladislav Artemiev took a big step up the classical list after his Gibraltar win. Valentina Gunina can point to her fine performance in the USA to justify her re-entrance into the top 10 among women. And Fabiano Caruana showed that he really has worked on his rapid chess. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/25/2019 – Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura were dominant in their blitz matches against Pentala Harikrishna and Jan-Krzysztof Duda; Richard Rapport got the better of Sam Shankland; David Navara tied with Wesley So in the blitz but lost the match nonetheless; and Leinier Dominguez actually edged Veselin Topalov in the 3+2 games, but could not surmount the lead Veselin had achieved in the rapid section. Two days of quick-paced fun wrapped up this year's Champions Showdown. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/23/2019 – The Saint Louis Chess Club organised yet another compelling event, as five rapid and blitz matches between top-notch competitors are being played from Wednesday to Sunday. With the exception of Jan-Krzysztof Duda v. Hikaru Nakamura, all the matches finished the rapid section with a clear winner. On the final two days of action, however, no less than 24 blitz games will be played, and anything can still happen in the 3+2 encounters! | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/21/2019 – The Champions Showdown in St. Louis features five exhibition matches in which five US players compete in rapid and blitz against five non-US players. With three wins and one draw Fabiano Caruana (who played against Pentala Harikrishna) and Richard Rapport (who played against Sam Shankland) scored best on day one. Caruana more than once showed superb endgame skills. | Photo: Saint Louis Chessclub

1/15/2019 – Courtesy our friends At New in Chess: GM MATTHEW SADLER on books looks at two of Simon Williams' recent video series. Plus, what would AlphaZero think about the World Championship match that was held at a stone’s throw from DeepMind’s headquarters in London? Sadler and NATASHA REGAN, authors of Game Changer: AlphaZero’s Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI, provide a glimpse.

1/11/2019 – A few weeks ago we launched reader polls with nominations for the best players of 2018. In addition to overall player and best female, we added "newcomer" of the year. The latter proved to be a close contest between World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo and German IM Vincent Keymer. Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun easily took the "female player of the year" honours, and Fabiano Caruana edged World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the readers' minds for "player of the year". Here's to an even greater 2019! View the results...

1/10/2019 – A few weeks ago we launched a reader poll with nominations for the best game, endgame and combination of 2018. The results are in! The "endgame of the year" was hotly contested, and best game of the year contest was virtually a dead heat. Games of Kramnik, Carlsen and Caruana were the top vote-getters in that category. But readers clearly felt that Ivan Cheparinov deserved to be recognised for the best combination of 2018 for his brilliant rook sacrifice way back in January at the Gibraltar Masters. Take a look...

12/27/2018 – The year 2018 is drawing to a close and it was filled with great events, strong tournaments and fantastic games. Now, at the end of the year, we invite you to vote for the player of the year (male and female), the newcomer, the game, the combination and the endgame of the year. What do you think: Who was the best player overall of 2018?

12/19/2018 – 12 games, 12 draws - there was not a single win in the World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. However, the players more than once came close. In game 1 Carlsen missed the win, in game 6 Caruana could have won - in a very complicated and difficult endgame. Karsten Müller took a closer look and shows how Caruana missed a big chance. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky (Agon)

12/17/2018 – After drawing the first seven games of the final match against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura pulled off a very nice win to secure first place at the London Classic — given this year's format, this meant Nakamura also won the overall Grand Chess Tour. Third place went to Fabiano Caruana, who obtained three victories on Monday to take down Levon Aronian. Meanwhile, Gawain Jones showed a more than convincing performance to beat Luke McShane and become the champion of the 2018 British Knockout Championship. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/17/2018 – The final matches of the Grand Chess Tour and the British Knockout Championship continued in London's Olympia Conference Centre on Sunday. The second classical games of the GCT resulted in two more draws, which leave the scores tied before the decisive rapid and blitz rounds. In the British KO Championship, meanwhile, Gawain Jones took a six-point lead over Luke McShane in the match for first place. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/16/2018 – The final match of the Grand Chess Tour kicked off on Saturday. Hikaru Nakamura held Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw from the white side of a Grünfeld Defence, after the Frenchman won a pawn but could not convert it in the endgame. In the battle for third place, Levon Aronian achieved a slight edge against Fabiano Caruana but was not able to get the full point. The first classical round of the British Knockout Championship also ended with two draws. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/14/2018 – Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are considered two of the best rapid chess and blitz chess players in the world. In rapid Nakamura is rated number two and Vachier-Lagrave number six, while in blitz, 'MVL' is now number one — surpassing Magnus Carlsen — and Nakamura is number three. They will meet in the London Chess Classic finals after defeating Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian respectively. Here's how day 3 unfolded. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/12/2018 – Those who fear the "draw death" of classical chess gained a bit more ammunition today after both semifinal games ended drawn. In light of the 12 draws in the World Championship, four more in London so far is a bit disappointing. The game between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana ended quickly and without even a hint of fireworks. Levon Aronian (pictured) surprised Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the opening and got an advantage, but could not exploit it. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/11/2018 – The 10th London Chess Classic is underway with the semifinal played at the headquarters of Google's DeepMind. Demis Hassibis (pictured in the background) joined tournament director Malcolm Pein and a schoolgirl — learning chess under the Chess in Schools and Communities umbrella — on stage at the start of the first classical game. Yesterday, at the London Pro-Biz Cup, chess-loving business people or celebrities joined grandmasters taking turns in a tandem chess team tournament. Garry Kasparov was among the professionals, but it was the team of Roiko Vujatovic and David Howell that won. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

12/11/2018 – There was not much of a breather for Fabiano Caruana after his defeat in the tiebreak at the World Championship. He is back in London joining Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave as the four players qualified for the London Chess Classic, the final leg of the 2018 Grand Chess Tour, from December 11th to 17th. Can Caruana regain his mojo in rapid chess against Nakamura? Meanwhile, the top four players in England fight for the British Knockout Championship in a parallel semifinal and final.

12/9/2018 – While Carlsen and Caruana played for the World Championship in London, millions of people all over the world saw them fight in a soundproof glass box. But behind the scenes, the teams of seconds who supported them remained largely hidden. GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov has been the second of Fabiano Caruana since 2015, and in this interview, he shares impressions of the match to date. | Photos: Nikolai Dunaevsky / World Chess

12/1/2018 – FIDE's December ratings are out and surprisingly little has changed across all rating categories. The World Championship did not lead to a new number one. The Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun will have to wait to claim the number one spot as well, since Hou Yifan played in the German League and is in no danger of dropping off the rating list due to inactivity despite her ongoing University studies. There was more of a shakeup in rapid and blitz ratings thanks to India's first ever super-tournament which featured both. | Pictured: Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun survived a strong challenge to hang on to her title, not unlike a certain Magnus Carlsen! | Photo: ugra2018.fide.com