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

5/6/2018 – The Russian Team Championship has long been one of the strongest team events of the year, often with elite players from abroad mixed with local talents. This year, due to economic difficulties, many times were forced to forego on big names, but as pointed out by author ALEX YERMOLINSKY, this is almost a blessing in disguise as many talented local masters and grandmasters find themselves invited to play. Enjoy this illustrated report with various commented games. | Photo: Russian Chess Federation

3/6/2018 – 13 rounds of blitz is tiring. If you are not playing well you want to get over with it as soon as possible. But if you are winning like Sergey Karjakin was at the Tal Memorial Blitz 2018, you would want to keep playing forever! Sergey was in top-notch form as he mustered up 10.0/13 (+8,=4,-1) and finished 1½ points ahead of second-placed Nakamura. The American tried hard but couldn't keep up with Karjakin's pace. Third place was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi. We have the full coverage with interesting games, positions and lot of videos!

3/5/2018 – In memory of Mikhail Tal, the 11th Tal Memorial takes place in Moscow from March 2nd-4th, with a blitz tournament on March 5th. The venue is the Museum of Russian Impressionists in Moscow. Participants are Mamedyarov, Kramnik, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi, Anand, Dubov, Nakamura, Gelfand, Karjakin and Grishuk. Watch live with video updates and more from the venue by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

3/5/2018 – Chess is considered as a young man's game, but a 48-year-old gentleman from India is changing that perception! Vishy Anand seems to be on a mission - to win just about every rapid event that he plays. Gold at the World Rapid Championship 2017 was difficult, but winning the Tal Memorial Rapid was tougher. The field had some of the best rapid players on the globe and Vishy simply cruised to the finish line with 6.0/9, one point ahead of the rest. In this article we try to analyze the reason for his spectacular performance. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

2/26/2018 – The sixth round of the Aeroflot Open was tactics galore. While Vladimir Fedoseev went for broke to rip open his opponent's king in his game against IM Amin Tabatabaei, Krishnan Sasikiran caught Aryan Tari's king in a mating net after the latter gave up a piece for three pawns. Besides, the tournament saw yet another leader dethroned as Kovaleyev defeated Artemiev on the top board to take the sole lead himself. An illustrated report.

2/22/2018 – The Aeroflot open sports a strong field of 60 GMs, 27 IMs, two WGMs and three FMs. In such a tournament the favourites are not likely to have an easy time. For instance, Dmitry Andreikin had a long fight for his draw against Andrey Esipenko in the first round. Another top seed, Rauf Mamedov, actually lost. The second round, however, contained fewer surprises. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

1/7/2018 – At the end of our survey of 2017, we will be voting for the "Player of the Year 2017". We picked ten players who stood out over the past 12 months, excelling in one way or another. Choose your player of the year in our poll.

1/3/2018 – It was a great month to end the year, with exciting chess throughout. Fabiano Caruana retook the no.2 spot after his win at London, but the biggest news was really Vishy Anand's evergreen result, taking the World Rapid title at age 48, facing a player less than half his age, albeit a bit green in tournament strategy, 22-year-old Vladimir Fedoseev. Let's not forget Magnus Carlsen who took the World Blitz title, and many more results. | Photo: Anastasia Karlovich

1/1/2018 – Readers may have noticed the final report on the World Rapid had not been by Alex Yermolinsky, who begged forgiveness as he was very ill. A day later he sent this series of notes he had already prepared, saying it would be a pity for them to go to waste and we could not agree more. Enjoy the chosen moments with his highly instructive annotations. Happy New Year! | Photo: Anastasia Karlovich

12/29/2017 – It would be an understatement to describe the last day of the King Salman Rapid Chess Championship as exciting. Round after round, the balance of power was rocked by big games and big results and every time you though it was now clear, something dramatic took place. In the end, it came down to a playoff between Vishy Anand and Vladimir Fedoseev won by the Indian. In the women’s section, Ju Wenjun completed her domination with gold. Enjoy this large illustrated report. | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

12/28/2017 – The second day at the King Salman World Rapid Championship continued its thrilling run with a clash between the leaders Fedoseev and Jobava won by the Russian. He continues as sole leader with 8.0/10. Half a point behind him are Wang Hao, Peter Svidler, and a rejuvenated Vishy Anand, who beat Magnus Carlsen in a big game. In the Women's section, Ju Wenjun leads with 8.0/10. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

12/27/2017 – The incredibly rich King Salman World Rapid Championship has started with a record prize fund only rivaled by that of the actual world championship. The tournament started with a bang as Magnus Carlsen lost his first round game to Bu Xiangzhi! The early leaders are Fedoseev and Jobava in the Open section with 4½ / 5 and Ju Wenjun in the Women's with 5/5. We bring a huge report with 11 games chosen and analysed by Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: riyadh2017.fide.com

12/16/2017 – Both the open and women's Russian Superfinals in St. Petersburg 2017 could not have been more exciting! In the open event, the two St. Petersburgers Peter Svidler and Nikita Vitiugov were in first place with 7 points each after 11 rounds and had to decide the title in rapid chess (two games 15 minutes + 10 seconds). Svidler took his record eighth title, winning both tiebreak games. The same thing happened in the women's tournament: Alexandra Goryachkina and Natalia Pogonina were tied after eleven rounds also on 7 points each and also followed by an exciting rapid playoff, won by the 19-year-old Goryachkina. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

12/14/2017 – Live from St. Petersburg, it's 70th Russian Championship Superfinal. The final round was December 14th, 2017. The 12-player round-robin, has a first prize of 1 million roubles (~€14,500 euros) plus a Renault Kaptur car. The top three finishers qualify automatically for the 2018 Championship. Peter Svidler, the top seed, defeated Vladimir Fedoseev with black in the penultimate round and also won his final round game to reach 7 / 11 and qualify for a tiebreak with Nikita Vitiugov, who also won. In the 15 minute rapid games that followed, Svidler won both to earn his eighth Russian Championship! | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili