4/14/2023 – The La Roda Open took place on April 5-9 in La Roda, a small town located in the province of Albacete. The 9-round Swiss open saw two players scoring 7½ points, Alexandr Fier and Aravindh Chithambaram. Fier was declared champion thanks to his better tiebreaker score. A number of Indian players had strong performances, as Pranav, Iniyan and top seed Narayanan all collected 7 points in the tournament. | Photos: Official website

2/20/2023 – Uruguay has once again hosted a strong chess tournament, as the sixth edition of the Marcel Duchamp Cup 2023 took place on February 3-11 in Montevideo. After nine intense rounds of competition, GM Alexandr Fier emerged as the champion with an impressive 7½/9 score. The victory cements Fier’s place as one of the top players in the region. | Photos: Official site

12/26/2022 – GM Alexandr Fier and FM Juliana Sayumi Terao obtained outright victories at the Brazilian Championships (open and women’s, respectively). The events took place on December 15-23 at the Hotel Jangadeiro in Recife, the capital of Pernambuco. Fier grabbed his fourth national title by scoring 9½/11 points, while Terao dominated the women’s field and obtained a perfect 9/9 to claim her sixth national title. | Photo: Albert Silver (2018)

12/24/2020 – With a last-round win Ivan Cheparinov clinched clear first place at the over-the-board open tournament in Sitges — Cheparinov scored 8 points in 10 rounds. Jules Moussard, Jaime Santos, Alexandr Fier and Vladislav Nevednichy finished a half point behind. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

12/9/2020 – Four parallel tournaments were organized at La Palma, the most north-westerly island of the Canary Islands, Spain. Besides a Scheveningen match in which five Spanish players are facing a multinational squad, three 10-player single round robin tournaments took place, with local talents looking to get GM, IM and WGM norms. The strongest of these events was won by IM Julio Suárez (pictured), who tied atop the standings table with Alexandr Fier on 6/9 and got first place on tiebreaks. | Photos: Spanish Chess Federation (FEDA)

3/25/2019 – The Sharjah Masters 2019 is one of the strongest open tournaments in the world. With a total prize fund of $60,000 and the first prize of $15,000, they have been able to attract some of the strongest GMs in the world. There are 35 GMs and 35 IM taking part in this tournament. After three rounds we have five leaders: 14-year-old Nihal Sarin, Alexander Fier, Ernesto Inarkiev, Le Quang Liem and Eduardo Iturrizaga. Niklesh Jain is at the venue and sends us a detailed report.

9/26/2018 – There was a proposal of marriage before Round 2 at the Olympiad but, of course, it is also a hotbed of high-quality chess. We could produce an entire book with interesting tactical and strategic positions for your improvement., but instead we have given a few positions for you to train and improve your chess. At the same time you get all the updates of the big news of round two, the main one being Uzbek women getting the better of Russia!

3/7/2018 – The dMP Batavia tournament (made possible by main sponsor De Melker & Partners), was won by Brazilian GM Alexander Fier, who flew to Amsterdam fresh off his success in the Brazilian Championship last month. Fier also won the blitz tournament for the second straight year. Tournament director and ChessBase contributor, IM Merijn van Delft, sent this recap. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

2/23/2018 – Two traditional tournaments, known for their social scene as much as their strong fields, kick off today, with anniversary editions. In Amsterdam, the Batavia tournament is in its 10th year, while in Bunratty, Ireland, the Bunratty Chess Festival is celebrating its 25th edition! Top seeds are GMs Ivan Sokolov and Nigel Short respectively, and both tournaments are carried on live.chessbase.com. Photo: Simon Williams pre-Bunratty selfie with Blair Connell, via Twitter

2/18/2018 – In an effort to innovate and breathe some new life into the Brazilian Championship, the 84th edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, was structured as a knockout event like the World Cup. Bringing in an eclectic field headed by chess legend Henrique Mecking, it came down to a match between Krikor Mekhitarian and Alexandr Fier, won by the latter in a final thrilling game. | Photo: Albert Silver

1/25/2018 – With wild weather and even wilder results on the board, rounds seven and eight at the 4th Floripa Open saw a series of 'zebras', as Brazilians put it (explained in the report). The leaderboard was finally reduced to a handful, and Vitor Carneiro, Leandro Perdomo and Alexandr Fier seized the podium. Then in a spectacular game, Alexandr Fier fell to Neuris Delgado in a brilliant mating combination with bishop and knight. Not to be missed! | Photo: Albert Silver

1/23/2018 – The IV Floripa Open is now in full swing, and many an adventure has taken place in the first six of ten rounds. From heroic battles to ignoble defeats, and many a dream on the line still. In spite of the accelerated pairings to force true fights earlier, eleven players share first with 5.0/6, with Alexandr Fier at the top after a thrilling game against Andrés Rodrigues. | Photo: Albert Silver

3/4/2017 – It really must be considered a Cinderella story, since by all means, Everaldo Matsuura was not even supposed to be in the final, let alone win it, yet by forceful contortions of fate, the friendly player from the state of Paraná stormed away with the event, winning his second Brazilian title after 26 years. Juliana Terao crushed the Women’s Championship with 8.5/9. Here is the large illustrated report with GM analysis.