5/30/2018 – From May 26 to June 5 the French Team Championships are played in the town of Brest, in the west of France. The counting method of the championship is unusual: the winning team gets 3 points, a draw yields 2 points, and a loss is still rewarded with 1 point, just for showing up. Of course if you lose by default that's punished with 0 points. After four rounds, Bischwiller leads with 12 points, followed by Grasse Echecs with 11 points (three wins, one draw), and three teams with 10 points each.

11/25/2017 – Levon Aronian survived the pressure from Hikaru Nakamura, making a draw that ensured him a share of first place. He was somewhat surprisingly joined by Dmitry Jakovenko, who beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the black pieces. MVL was in a must win situation, so had to go for broke. All other games ended in draws including the remaining key game for the Candidates qualification: Teimour Radjabov vs. Richard Rapport. In the end Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk maintained their lead in the overall Grand Prix standings and secured the final two Candidates tournament spots.

11/24/2017 – Although little changed overall in round seven, perhaps the buzzword that best describes the action of the day was ‘determination’. On board one, it was Rapport’s tenacity that won out over Aronian, who came close to winning, while Radjabov overcame his disappointment to outplay Li Chao. Finally, Boris Gelfand scored his first win, beating Riazantsev in a game analyzed by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev