9/13/2025 – Round eight of the FIDE Grand Swiss tightened the race without changing the leaders, as Matthias Bluebaum and Nihal Sarin drew quickly to remain joint frontrunners. Vincent Keymer scored his fourth win of the event, this time against defending champion Vidit Gujrathi, while Jorden van Foreest claimed his first classical victory over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In the women's tournament, Vaishali Rameshbabu's first loss of the event allowed Kateryna Lagno (pictured) to take over the sole lead, with Bibisara Assaubayeva, Song Yuxin and Vaishali now in joint second. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

5/26/2025 – Anish Giri claimed outright victory at the 2025 Sharjah Masters with a 7/9 score, edging out top seed Nodirbek Abdusattorov and European Champion Aleksandar Indjic, who shared second place. Giri's win in the final round secured him the title and a place just outside the world's top ten in the live ratings. Meanwhile, Bibisara Assaubayeva achieved her third and final grandmaster norm, finishing with 5/9 points against consistently higher-rated opposition and earning the GM title at age 21. | Photos: Sharjah Chess Club

11/4/2024 – Aleksandra Goryachkina has taken the lead at the Shymkent Women’s Grand Prix with a stellar performance, securing her third consecutive win by defeating former co-leader Tan Zhongyi in round 5. Goryachkina now holds 4/5 points, a half-point ahead of Kazakhstan's own Bibisara Assaubayeva, who sits in second place after a strong win against Humpy Koneru. Tied for third are Tan, Humpy and Stavroula Tsolakidou, all remaining within striking distance. | Photo: Konstantin Chalabov

8/23/2024 – In a round full of dynamic, interesting chess only 1 of 5 games ended decisively at the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix. The one winner of the day was Bibisara Assaubayeva, who defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk to grab the sole lead with two rounds to go. Mariya Muzychuk could have joined the Kazakhstani youngster in the lead, but she missed a win in her game with black against Lela Javakhishvili. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

8/18/2024 – Three rounds into the first event of the 2024/25 Women's Grand Prix series, Stavroula Tsolakidou and Bibisara Assaubayeva (pictured) are sharing the lead with 2 points each. Both co-leaders scored a win in the first round and drew their next two encounters. R Vaishali, who lost in the first round and missed a big chance to bounce back in the second, was the only player who scored a win in Saturday's third round. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

10/30/2023 – Round 5 of the FIDE Grand Swiss saw Hikaru Nakamura and Arjun Erigaisi grabbing wins to join Andrey Esipenko in the lead of the open section. Nakamura obtained his third consecutive win after starting the event with two draws. The large chasing pack, now consisting of 16 players, now includes round-5 winners Sam Shankland, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Bibisara Assaubayeva beat Tan Zhongyi to become the first sole leader of the event. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

4/15/2023 – Organized by the Bibisara Assaubayeva Foundation and the National Lottery of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Satty Zhuldyz (“Lucky Stars”) Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament is set to take place on April 20-25. The likes of Vladimir Kramnik, Hou Yifan and Levon Aronian will be joined by a host of rising stars, including Bibisara Assaubayeva, Vincent Keymer and Arjun Erigaisi.

4/6/2023 – Aleksandra Goryachkina, Zhu Jiner and Bibisara Assaubayeva all finished with 6/9 scores atop the standings of the Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi. The three players entered the final round in shared first place, and all three drew their games on Wednesday. Prize money and Grand Prix points were evenly distributed between the three, but Goryachkina was declared tournament winner based on tiebreak criteria. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

3/29/2023 – The third round of the Grand Prix in New Delhi was played on Tuesday. Three of four games finished drawn for a second day in a row, and also for the second day running, Bibisara Assaubayeva was the only player to collect a full point. The 19-year-old beat Nino Batsiashvili with the white pieces. With only two games played, Assaubayeva has a half-point lead over five chasers — who have all played three games so far. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

3/28/2023 – The second-round games of the Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi were played on Monday. Bibisara Assaubayeva, the 19-year-old IM from Kazakhstan, is the only player who has so far scored a win in the tournament, as she defeated India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu with black. A look at the standings does not help much at the moment: six players have played two games, four have played only one. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

12/31/2022 – Magnus Carlsen has become World Blitz champion for the sixth time in his career. He won it in 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2022. The Norwegian also became World Triple Crown champion for the third time in his career (2014, 2019 and 2022). Unlike 2019, this time Carlsen became a clear champion by scoring 16/21, a full point ahead of Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 15/21. Haik Martirosyan (ARM) scored the same and finished third on tie-breaks. The defending champion, IM Bibisara Assaubayaeva (KAZ) won her last five games to clinch the Gold 13/17. Koneru Humpy scored a magnificent 8.5/9 in her last nine games to secure Silver 12.5/17. IM Polina Shuvalova won the Bronze 12/17. Photo: Amruta Mokal

12/31/2021 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the world title in blitz chess after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a playoff. Alireza Firouzja scored as many points as MVL and Duda, but had an inferior tiebreak score. The women’s world title went to 17-year-old Kazakh star Bibisara Assaubayeva. | Photos: Rafał Oleksiewicz, Anna Shtourman / FIDE

10/23/2019 – Polina Shuvalova is on fire at the World Junior 2019. After her pretty queen sacrifice at the World Youth 2019 that went viral, the Russian youngster yet again sacrificed her queen, this time at the World Junior. This one wasn't as deep or beautiful as what we saw in Mumbai in her game against Afonasieva, but to beat a player like Assaubayeva with a queen sacrifice is never easy! In the open section we have two leaders: Shtembuliak drew his game against Shant Sargsyan. This let Miguel Santos Ruiz catch up. The Spaniard beat Praggnanandhaa in pretty fashion to join Shtembuliak at the top. IM SAGAR SHAH brings a detailed report from New Delhi.

10/19/2019 – Praggnanandhaa had an unbeaten streak of quite some games having won the under-18 gold at World Youth and playing some inspired chess in the first four rounds of the World Juniors. However, this came to an end at the hands of Ukrainian GM Evgeny Shtembuliak. Pragg sacrificed yet another exchange in the game, but it was not enough. Shtembuliak is now the sole leader with 4½/5, with three players following him on 4.0/5. In the girls section Mobina Alinasab (pictured, left) joined the leader Boldbaatar Altantuya at the top. Something from Iran to cheer amidst their player Aryan Gholami withdrawing from the event and Amin Tabatabaei facing Or Bronstein. In this report IM SAGAR SHAH brings you detailed analysis, photos and videos from New Delhi. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

3/11/2019 – Russia, the leading team at the World Team Championship, unexpectedly gave up a team match point to Azerbaijan round six. India and England are only one point behind. England scored an important win over Iran 3-1 despite the early loss of their reserve player Jon Speelman on board four. In the Women's section, China continues to lead the field. | Photos: David Llada

9/16/2018 – Although the gold medal in the open section had already been confirmed by Parham Maghsoodloo, the fight for other medals was exciting on the last day of the World Juniors 2018. Esipenko managed to beat Maghsoodloo, but it wasn't good enough for a medal for the Russian. Silver went to Abhimanyu Puranik who beat Aram Hakobyan and bronze to Sergei Lobanov who got the better of Johan-Sebastien Christiansen. In the Girls section, Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova drew her last round game which allowed Aleksandra Maltsevskaya to overtake her and win the gold. Tokhirjonova had to be content with silver and bronze to Nino Khomeriki.

9/14/2018 – The Open section has ceased to be interesting from the gold medal point of view as GM Parham Maghsoodloo from Iran notched up another win, this time against Awonder Liang from America. Maghsoodloo is on 8½/9 and has a 1½ point lead over the field with a rating performance of 2944! In the Girls section, there is everything to play for as five girls are tied for the top spot with 7.0/9. Among the five, four are Russian and one is from Uzbekistan. It will be exciting to see who comes out on top — Maltsevskaya, Dordzhieva, Tokhirjonova, Assaubayeva or Potapova?

3/8/2018 – Last Sunday in Moscow the contest "blondes against brunettes" was held for the eighth time. Alexandra Kosteniuk led the "brunettes" to a clear victory. In India, IM Tania Sachdev launches a "Powerless Queen" project, and in Belgrade, there's a 50th International Women's tournament ongoing | Pictured: Elmira Mirzoeva | Photo: Russian Chess Federation

8/4/2017 – It was a remarkable month for ratings, with notable results all over. A few standouts are 18-year-old Wei Yi, who is now no. 14, 14-year-old Alireza Firouzja poised to become a GM at 2518 FIDE, and 13-year-old WFM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who flew to 2421 and will get her IM title soon. If that's not enough, Magnus Carlsen has now opened an 80-Elo gap in the Blitz ratings. Still, the nod must go to Teimour Radjabov, the second youngest player ever in the Top 100, for his win at Geneva.

7/31/2017 – The Match of the Millenials was astonishing to say the least. On paper, the US under-17 team had such an Elo advantage that some bemoaned the lack of stronger foreign juniors to make it more ‘competitive’. Instead they had already lost a full round in advance, as had the under-14. A great result for the World team, winning 30.5-17.5, and a tribute to their team spirit and their captain. Full illustrated report. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/24/2017 – The Russian Higher League concluded in a celebration of youth, with as much drama and excitement for the five qualifiers in each event as for the ones who failed to make the cut. The open section was won by Daniil Dubov and Sanan Sjugirov, with classy performances, and the women’s section was won by Marina Nechaeva, while 13-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva just barely missed out after a fantastic tournament. Report and analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

6/20/2017 – While a strong start is always desirable, it is how you finish that matters in a tournament. Ask Georgian GM Baadur Jobava who started with 2 losses, but finished second after seven straight wins, or Russian talent Vladimir Fedoseev who stumbled midway but came in third. Still, it was the class act by Maxim Matlakov, who was steady as she goes all the way, and ended a deserved 2017 European Individual Champion. Final report with GM analyses.