9/30/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a game from the Spanish Team Championship, in which Yuriy Kuzubov showed excellent endgame technique. | Merijn's show is freely available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) for a limited time, and on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo:

11/26/2019 – Seven players tied for first at the Spanish Championship in Marbella. The first tiebreaker criterion left Alexei Shirov, Paco Vallejo and Iván Salgado on the podium, in that order. Among the women, Sabrina Vega obtained her sixth national title, while Liudmila Kolotilina and Mónica Calzetta got second and third places respectively. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

11/22/2019 – After six rounds, five players share the lead at the Spanish Championship in Marbella, with top seed Paco Vallejo and former world number two Alexei Shirov included in the group that collected five points so far. José Cuenca, Miguel Santos Ruiz (pictured) and Pedro Ginés Esteo (b. 2004) are also co-leading. In the race for the women's trophy, four players are currently on top with 4 out of 6. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

11/19/2019 – Most of the strongest Spanish players are participating at the 2019 edition of the national championship in Marbella, Málaga. After three rounds, five players have managed to maintain a perfect score: Alexei Shirov, Iván Salgado, Jaime Santos, José Cuenca and defending champion Gabriel del Río. The strong event had Anatoly Karpov as a special guest. The former world champion also gave a simul. | Photo: Diario Sur

9/7/2019 – After organizing one of the strongest elite tournaments from 1978 until 2010, the Spanish city of Linares has not ceased to host important chess events. This year, the VII Ibero-American Tournament took place from the 10th to the 18th of August at the auditorium of "El Pósito". Jorge Cori (Perú), Francisco Vallejo (Spain) and Carlos Albornoz (Cuba) finished the nine-round Swiss tournament tied atop the standings on 7 points. Cori had the best tiebreak score and claimed first place. | Photo: FIBDA

8/8/2019 – He was rated 2630, he was the 15th seed, and yet he went on to win the Belt and Road Hunan Open 2019 with a clear half point margin. How did Surya Sekhar Ganguly manage to do it? It is said that a chess tournament has a life of its own. In order to understand a success story, you have to study it from all angles. In this article, IM SAGAR SHAH tells you about Surya's frame of mind during the event, the games that he played, the opponents he faced and how he managed to come out strong and win the first prize of US$50,000. | Photos: Ganguly's Facebook page

4/30/2019 – Magnus Carlsen scored a fourth straight win to claim clear first place at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic. The world champion knew in advance that he would win the tournament, as Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian signed a 43-move draw, but kept on pushing to convert his extra pawn against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Arkadij Naiditsch and Francisco Vallejo Pons also finished the tournament with wins. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/28/2019 – After scoring his fifth win of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen almost secured yet another super-tournament triumph. His round eight victim was Peter Svidler, who allowed the world champion to mate him on the board. The only player with chances to catch Magnus is Fabiano Caruana — the American remained one point behind the leader thanks to a win over Georg Meier. Sole third place was taken by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who defeated Vincent Keymer. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/27/2019 – The standings table at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic was seriously shaken up after Magnus Carlsen defeated Georg Meier and Vishy Anand lost against Arkadij Naiditsch in round six. Vishy gave up a pawn in the early middlegame and could never get enough compensation, while Magnus got a winning advantage before the time control but needed close to six hours to finally get the point. The rest of the games were drawn. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/25/2019 – Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen drew games of very different nature to maintain the lead at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic; Peter Svidler could not make the most of an opening edge against Paco Vallejo; while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian repeated the position three times in the early middlegame. In the meantime, after having lost four games in a row, Vincent Keymer got his first super-tournament victory, a welcomed reward for his uncompromising play so far in Karlsruhe. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/24/2019 – Four out of five games saw the higher-rated player getting a win in round four of the GRENKE Chess Classic. Only Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen drew, after continuing the theoretical battle in the Sicilian Sveshnikov that began last year during their match in London. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand defeated Paco Vallejo and joined Magnus in the lead. Arkadij Naiditsch, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also won. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

10/16/2018 – Ding Liren inflicted Peter Svidler's third straight loss to give Alkaloid a critical victory over fourth seeded Mednyi Vsadnik. The rating favourites now share the lead with Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova, which barely beat the over-performing Dunajska Streda. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen drew Alexander Donchenko and lost 2.9 rating points, but his team Valerenga Sjakklubb grabbed a clear win to stay one point behind the leaders. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

7/9/2018 – In a very tense match, Wesley So defeated Paco Vallejo in the blitz tiebreak rounds despite the fact that the Spaniard obtained better positions in most of the games. So played offbeat openings that did not quite work out in his favour, but showed great tenacity in the ensuing positions. This was Wesley's second consecutive tournament victory in Leon. | Photo: Official website

7/8/2018 – An incredible case of mutual blindness allowed Paco Vallejo to tie the match against Jaime Santos in the rapid section of Saturday's second semi-final in Leon. Paco then went on to defeat his young compatriot in the blitz tiebreaks to reach the final, where he will face Wesley So. Both Santos and Praggnanandhaa proved to be worthy opponents of their higher-rated colleagues. | Photo: Official website

7/7/2018 – The second youngest grandmaster in history, R. Praggnanandhaa came close to beating the second highest rated rapid player in the world Wesley So in the first semi-final of the Leon Masters. Pragg actually won the first game with Black and had a chance to obtain a big edge in the opening of the second. The Indian impressed both So and the audience. | Photo: Official website

3/23/2018 – In the European Individual Championship in Batumi, after six rounds the top group has increased to seven players. After his victory over Ivan Saric, Radoslaw Wojtaszek is now the only player rated over 2700 in the leading pack. Friday is a rest day, and the tournament resumes on Saturday at 12:15 CET. | Pictured: Musical chairs on the top board. Benjamin Bok (right) is one of the co-leaders. Ivan Saric (left) is now half a point back | Photos: Official facebook page

11/26/2017 – What an astonishing event Palma turned out to be. From the get-go, the question was on what both Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov needed to earn a spot in the Candidates. However, in spite of promising starts and chances at the end for both, neither made it and the spots will go to Mamedyarov and Grischuk. Enjoy this final report with analysis by GM Moradiabadi. | Photo: World Chess

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

11/19/2017 – Round three was mostly one of missed opportunities as many games failed to capitalize on the promise of their positions. The first and foremost was Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's excellent chances against co-leader Levon Aronian that fizzled out during the technical transition, while Rapport will regret his near-win not yielding its fruits. That said, Peter Svidler did deliver mate on the board against Jon Hammer! Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/18/2017 – After a cautious game in round one, Teimour Radjabov roared like a lion as he unleashed a powerful King's Indian as only he, one of the world's foremost proponents, could do. It was a masterful game as he beat Vallejo Pons. Levon Aronian is another who scored a brilliant win, showing magnificent opening preparation that caught Inarkiev in his net. Here is the round two report with analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: Agon

9/10/2017 – Round three of the World Cup 2017 witnessed the biggest upset of the tournament — World Champion Magnus Carlsen was outplayed and defeated by China's Bu Xiangzhi. Carlsen's task of making a comeback is further complicated by the fact that he will be black on September 10th. Bu would require only a draw to make it to the next round. In the other results of the day, Wesley So managed to beat Francesco Vallejo Pons and Levon Aronian showed some of his class to get the better of Maxim Matlakov. We have analysis of all three of these encounters, plus some interesting posts about the "shorts incident" involving Anton Kovalyov. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

6/10/2014 – Leon has been a stepping stone in the career of many elite grandmasters. The event has been a battle ground for Karjakin, Carlsen, Leko and many others. Today a new star joins that prestigious group as Wei Yi emerges victorious in the Leon rapid tournament by narrowly defeating Vallejo. The win came despite Wei Yi finding himself several times with less than one second on the clock.

6/8/2014 – The Chinese prodigy Wei Yi, who turned 15 last week, is the second finalist in Leon. He vanquished Ivan Salgado in a match where the Spanish player never had any real winning chances. Setting the tone on game one Wei Yi was able to push his advantage until the end taking the match 2.5-1.5. Festivities in Leon conclude with the match between Wei Yi and Paco Vallejo.