12/30/2023 – Magnus Carlsen grabbed his 17th World Championship title — the 7th in blitz — by scoring 16/21 points at the World Blitz event in Samarkand. After losing his first game of the day, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen grabbed six wins in a row to retake the sole lead. Two draws in the final rounds allowed him to outscore Daniil Dubov by a half point. In the women’s championship, Valentina Gunina got outright victory thanks to a final-round win over Anna Muzychuk. Alexandra Kosteniuk came close to catching the eventual champion, but fell just short and took the silver medal. | Photo: FIDE / Anastasia Korolkova

12/26/2023 – Five players ended day 1 of the World Rapid Championship sharing first place with 4½/5 points. Magnus Carlsen, who assessed his play on the first day as “so-so”, heads the leading pack, which also includes Yu Yangyi, Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun Erigaisi and Ivan Cheparinov. In the women’s section, Zhu Jiner and Nurgyul Salimova are sharing first place with perfect 4/4 scores. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes

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

3/30/2023 – The Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi saw its fourth round being played on Wednesday. Former leader Bibisara Assaubayeva was defeated by Aleksandra Goryachkina. Zhu Jiner, who beat Humpy Koneru, and Polina Shuvalova (pictured), who beat Nana Dzagnidze, now top the standings with 2½/4 points each. In addition, Kateryna Lagno defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu. | Photo: FIDE / Ismael Nieto

2/7/2023 – The fifth round of the Munich Grand Prix saw Alina Kashlinskaya scoring her first full point. The Polish IM was losing in the middlegame, but managed to hold on and turn the tables once Mariya Muzychuk erred in a double-edged position. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk (pictured) kept her 1½-point lead by escaping with a draw from a clearly inferior position against Harika Dronavalli. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/6/2023 – A fourth consecutive win at the Munich Grand Prix left Alexandra Kosteniuk 1½ points ahead of her closest chasers in the standings. On Sunday, the runaway leader defeated Tan Zhongyi with white after finding herself in some trouble during the opening phase of the game. Sharing second place on 2½/4 are Nana Dzagnidze, Mariya Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru. The latter two scored full points in round 4. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

2/5/2023 – Alexandra Kosteniuk grabbed a third consecutive win in Munich to get a full-point lead over a 3-player chasing pack at the second stage of the Women’s Grand Prix series. Kosteniuk inflicted Dinara Wagner’s third consecutive loss. In the other decisive game of the round, Zhu Jiner beat Zhansaya Abdumalik with the black pieces. | Photo: FIDE / David Llada

9/29/2022 – Going into the final round of the Women’s Grand Prix in Astana, Kateryna Lagno leads Aleksandra Goryachkina by a half point after both contenders for first place drew their games with white on Wednesday. Zhu Jiner (pictured) beat Alina Kashlinskaya to grab sole third place. Unfortunately for the chess world, another scandal made headlines on mainstream media: commentator Ilya Smirin was fired by FIDE after making sexist remarks during round 9’s broadcast. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

9/21/2022 – Top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured) and Chinese youngster Zhu Jiner are sharing the lead on 3/4 points at the first leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in Astana. Zhu, aged 19, has so far defeated Dinara Wagner and Polina Shuvalova after playing three out of her four first games with the black pieces. Bibisara Assaubayeva and Kateryna Lagno stand a half point behind the co-leaders. | Photos: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

10/24/2019 – He read the Zurich Interzonal 1953 book written by Bronstein and Gelfand's Positional Decision Making to improve his positional understanding. He goes to the gym and swims every day to stay fit. He is the sole leader in the open section with a score of 7½/9 and has a performance rating of 2783. She won the under-18 world championship 2019. She's sure to go the gym every morning, and she enjoys each and every moment she spends on the chess board. She has an Elo performance of 2585 and is leading the girls section at the World Junior with 8.0/9. That's Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova for you! These two youngsters are looking unstoppable at the World Juniors 2019.

10/16/2019 – The World Junior Championships 2019 began with great excitement on Tuesday in New Delhi, India. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich visited the event and boosted the spirit of the participants. This is the second big event happening in India in the month of October after the successful completion of the World Youth Championships. It is perhaps for the first time in the history that the number of male participants in the open section is exactly equal to the number of female participants in the girls section — 94 each! In the first round both the top seeds — Amin Tabatabaei (2642) and Zhu Jiner (2507) — were held to a draw. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you detailed coverage from the venue in New Delhi. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

10/1/2019 – The October rating list is out and with most of the world's best occupied in Khanty-Mansiysk at the World Cup (which is not yet rated), the changes there will only be reflected in November. Therefore the women are in focus this month, as most of the best were busy doing battle on the outskirts of Moscow in the first event of the newest FIDE Grand Prix. A notable exception is China's Zhu Jiner who was busy too, but in her home country, where she quietly slipped into the Top 10. | Pictured: The closing ceremony of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Skolkovo, Russia | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky

12/1/2018 – FIDE's December ratings are out and surprisingly little has changed across all rating categories. The World Championship did not lead to a new number one. The Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun will have to wait to claim the number one spot as well, since Hou Yifan played in the German League and is in no danger of dropping off the rating list due to inactivity despite her ongoing University studies. There was more of a shakeup in rapid and blitz ratings thanks to India's first ever super-tournament which featured both. | Pictured: Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun survived a strong challenge to hang on to her title, not unlike a certain Magnus Carlsen! | Photo: ugra2018.fide.com

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.