8/4/2023 – Shocking results were seen on the fifth day of action at the FIDE World Cup in Baku. In the open, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were knocked out by players in the 2500-2600 rating band — Vahap Sanal and Tin Jingyao (pictured) respectively — while sixth seed Wesley So barely escaped with a draw to take his match against Emre Can to tiebreaks. In the women’s section, Yan Tianqi and Maili-Jade Ouellet surprisingly won on demand to even the score against Alexandra Kosteniuk and Irina Krush. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

11/22/2020 – Vahap Sanal obtained his second consecutive Turkish Chess Championship on Saturday in Kemer, a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province. The 22-year-old was the rating favourite and duly dominated the field by scoring five wins and four draws in the 10-player single round robin. IM Melih Yurtseven finished the tournament in style, winning three in a row to get sole second place. | Pictured: Cem Kaan Gokerkan (3rd), Vahap Sanal (1st) and Melih Yurtseven (2nd) | Photos: Official site

11/17/2020 – The 2020 Turkish Championship is taking place in Kemer, a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast. The event is a 10-player single round-robin. Defending champion and rating favourite Vahap Sanal is leading the standings table on 4 out of 5. Kivanc Haznedaroglu is in sole second place after beating women’s national champion Ekaterina Atalik. | Pictured: Vahap Sanal facing Ataberk Eren in round 4 | Photo: Official site

7/11/2020 – The 16-game match between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Vahap Sanal, played from Tuesday to Friday on the PlayChess platform, was won by the rating favourite, but not by a big margin. Mamedyarov defeated his Turkish colleague 9:7 in a hard-fought battle that saw Sanal winning four games against his famed opponent. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

7/7/2020 – The Turkish Chess Federation is organizing online matches in which the best players from the country face international stars. Starting July 7, Turkey’s number four Vahap Sanal will face Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the PlayChess platform. They will play sixteen 15-minute games (with 10-second increments) over the course of four days. | Photo: Turkish Chess Federation

4/14/2019 – The 21st Dubai Open witnessed one of the closest finishes that you would see at an open tournament. After nine rounds we had eight players on the same score of 7.0/9. Buchholz was the tiebreak and based on it Maxim Matlakov from Russia finished first and took home USD $13,000 along with the glittering Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup. Other players on 7.0/9 were 14-year-old prodigy Abdusattorov Nodirbek, Le Quang Liem, Yuriy Kuzubov, Eduardo Iturrizaga, Sanal Vahap, Aleksandar Indjic and P. Iniyan. A detailed report from Dubai by NIKLESH JAIN.

12/10/2018 – A two-day 13-round event finished with the 40th seed as the winner. The European Rapid Championship took place on December 8th and 9th in Skopje and was won by Russian GM Valerij Popov. Three other players scored the same 10½ points, but the 44-year-old took gold on tiebreaks. Andrey Esipenko (Russia) finished second, Vahap Sanal (Turkey) third and Luca Moroni (Italy) fourth. IVA VIDENOVA and PATRICIA CLAROS sent us a report with highlights and plenty of images from the capital of Macedonia. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar