10/28/2018 – The Russians Peter Svidler and Vladimir Fedoseev narrowly won their Hoogeveen matches over Sam Shankland and Jorden van Foreest, respectively. Fedoseev needed a blitz tiebreak match to emerge victorious. In the Hoogeveen Open, the format called for a "final four" — a one-game semi-final and final in lieu of the last two rounds. Rating favourite Bassem Amin was among the four and then proceeded to beat Eltaj Safarli and Dmitry Kryakvin in back-to-back games to win the Open outright.

10/24/2018 – Peter Svidler lost the opening game of his six-game match against Sam Shankland, but in game two he was able to fight back and win with white. Tuesday's game ended drawn. In the second match between Jorden van Foreest and Vladimir Fedoseev the point was shared for the third time, meaning both matches are all tied up at the halfway mark. Wednesday is a rest day in the matches, but the Open games are live. | Photos: Official site

10/22/2018 – The 22nd edition of the traditional "Schaaktoernooi" started over the weekend in the Dutch town of Hoogeveen. 82 players participate in the Open where the top seed is the Egyptian Grandmaster Bassem Amin. But there are also two matches on offer, typically featuring rising stars and veteran players. This year Samuel Shankland (USA) meets Peter Svidler (Russia) and Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) is pitted against Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands). The tournament director is GM Loek van Wely. | Photos: hoogeveenchess.nl

10/19/2018 – Any of the top teams could have won it, but Mednyi Vsadnik ended up ahead at the European Club Cup in Porto Carras. Valerenga arrived in the last round as sole leaders but barely one point ahead of the four-team chasing pack — the eventual champions from Saint Petersburg defeated Carlsen's squad and edged AVE Novy Bor on tiebreak criteria to take home the gold medals. In the women's section, Cercle d'Escacs de Monte-Carlo finished first thanks to Anna Muzychuk's win on top board. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

10/13/2018 – Less than a month before the World Championship match begins in London, Magnus Carlsen flew to Porto Carras to represent Valerenga Sjakklubb at the European Chess Club Cup. The Norwegian expectedly rested on day one, when all the favourite teams comfortably swept their lower-rated opponents by wide margins. Only in the women's section we saw a surprise, as Caissa Italia Pentole Agnolli had to settle for a draw against the Russian SSHOR. | Photo: Niki Riga / eurochess2018.com

9/6/2018 – The extremely competitive Russian Superfinals finished on Wednesday in Satka. Both the open and the women's sections were decided on two-game rapid playoffs — Dmitry Andreikin and Natalija Pogonina won their games with White and drew with Black, against Dmitry Jakovenko and Olga Girya, to become the 2018 Russian champions. ALEX YERMOLINSKY sent a report with no less than ten games analysed. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

9/3/2018 – The open and women's sections of the Russian Superfinal continue in Satka. After eight rounds, both tournaments have two leaders — the main section has Dmitry Andreikin and Dmitry Jakovenko in front, while Olga Girya and Alina Kashlinskaya are ahead amongst the women. A large group of chasers are at a half point distance in both events, so everything is still up for grabs with three rounds to go. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

8/4/2018 – Scoring 4½/7, tournament's top seed, GM Yu Yangyi bagged the title prize of the 9th Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster tournament. In the final round, the race for the title was between Yu Yangyi and his countryman Bu Xiangzhi. Going for a comfortable draw in the Petroff, Yu put the onus of catching up on his rival who was half-a-point behind. Bu was never really in a position to win his game but Fedoseev, Bu's opponent, surprisingly pulled out a win at the last moment to score his first win of the event. Le Quang Liem and Wei Yi also scored impressive wins in the finale.

8/3/2018 – Big changes occurred on the leaderboard at the conclusion of the penultimate round at the 9th Hainan Danzhou Masters. Tournament leader, Bu Xiangzhi lost his first game of the event to Jan-Krzysztof Duda. This allowed Yu Yangyi, Bu's closest rival to take over the lead after he won a fine attacking game against Vladimir Fedoseev. Le Quang Liem also scored his first win of the tournament in round six against Sam Shankland.

8/2/2018 – After two exciting rounds at the 9th Hainan Danzhou Masters, draws were agreed on all boards in the antepenultimate round Wednesday. Wei Yi was the only player with any chance of pushing for a win while players battled in fairly balanced positions on all other boards. This is a welcome development for the tournament leader, Bu Xiangzhi, who now has to stay ahead of his rivals for only two more rounds in order to clinch the title.

7/30/2018 – Two wins and two draws were witnessed in the fourth round of the 9th Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster Tournament. Interestingly, the downfall of both losers — Vidit Gujrathi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda — began after they moved their pawn to b5. Bu Xiangzhi kept his tournament lead in the meantime with a draw against Wei Yi in a razor-sharp Ragozin. Going into the rest day, he remains ahead of his nearest rival by half-a-point.

7/30/2018 – The third round of the 9th Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster tournament was a turbulent affair. Bu Xiangzhi took sole lead beating Le Quang Liem after the latter faltered miserably in a Symmetrical English; Vladimir Fedoseev pulled out a draw from a lost position against Jan-Krzysztof Duda; Vidit Gujrathi broke Sam Shankland's undefeated streak of 62 games; while Yu Yangyi managed to eke out a win in a dead drawn position against Wei Yi. Round 3 report.

7/29/2018 – After having missed a win twice in round one, Bu Xiangzhi had luck smiling on him in the second round as he won in a drawn endgame against compatriot, Yu Yangyi. With this win, he also caught up with the tournament leader Jan-Krzysztof Duda at 1½/2. Meanwhile, the other games of the round finished in sedate draws leaving a field of four players half-a-point behind the leaders.

7/28/2018 – A brilliant win and an amazing miss were the highlights of the opening round of the 9th Danzhou Super Grandmaster Tournament. Continuing his great form from the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting, Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda registered an emphatic win over Vidit Gujrathi of India to take an early lead in the tournament. Bu Xiangzhi also had good winning chances against Samuel Shankland but messed up quite remarkably and had to settle for a draw in the end. An illustrated report with games.

6/6/2018 – Having taken sole lead in the seventh round, Dmitry Jakovenko inched slowly but steadily towards the towards the title. Securing short and safe draws against Vladislav Kovalev and Ian Nepomniachtchi in rounds eight and nine, he finished clear first with a score of 6½/9. In the interim, Vidit Gujrathi, Boris Gelfand and Victor Bologan also scored some fine wins. An illustrated report with games and analysis. | Photo: ruchess.ru

6/4/2018 – Only two players remain in contention for the title at the Karpov Poikovsky International: Dmitry Jakovenko and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Scoring back to back wins in the sixth and seventh rounds, Jakovenko emerged as the tournament's sole leader. Ian Nepomniachtchi, after his quick draw in round seven, is half-a-point behind with 5/7. Besides the two, Gelfand might have an outside chance of catching up for the first place if some results work in his favour. | Photo: Vasily Papin

6/1/2018 – Downfalls, comebacks, blunders and brilliancies, all was witnessed in the Siberian town of Poikovsky which is playing host to the Karpov Poikovsky International. Ian Nepomniachtchi had been leading the tournament for the most part but by the time the dust of the battles of round five had settled, he was not only joined by two co-leaders but had also suffered his first defeat of the tournament. Vidit Gujrathi also came very close to defeating Gelfand in the fifth round but the Israeli GM found a stunning stalemate tactic to save the day. A report on all the action at Poikovsky.

5/28/2018 – The Karpov Poikovsky tournament went off to a flying start on Sunday as a decisive game was witnessed on every board: Vidit Gujrathi won in Karpovian style in his very first appearance in Poikovsky; Emil Sutovsky ground down Vladislav Kovalev in an 80 move marathon; Ian Nepomniachtchi and Dmitry Jakovenko won after winning a pawn a piece out of the opening; while Anton Korobov crushed Fedoseev's dubious opening. Here's an illustrated report with analysis. | Pictured: Anatoly Karpov | Photo: Georgios Souleidis