4/5/2021 – José ‘Pepe’ Cuenca was the clear winner of the “Semana Santa” tournament that took place on Easter weekend in La Nucía, Alicante. The 34-year-old from Granada was the only player to score 7½ points in the 9-round Swiss tournament. No fewer than eight players finished half a point behind, with Aarón Alonso and Marc Narciso getting second and third places on tiebreak criteria. | Photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar

4/3/2021 – A 9-round over-the-board tournament is taking place in La Nucía, a municipality in the comarca of Marina Baixa, Alicante in Spain. No fewer than 180 players registered to participate, 11 of which have a 2400+ Elo rating. After 5 rounds, 58-year-old Armenian grandmaster Karen Movsziszian is the sole leader. | All photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar

9/5/2020 – The 2020 Spanish Championship is taking place in Linares from August 31 to September 8. Given the corona crisis and the fact that the event is being played “over the board”, a few players have been quarantined. After 5 rounds, four players share the lead on 4½ out of 5 — Manuel Pérez Candelario, Iván Salgado (pictured), Jaime Santos and Daniel Alsina. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

12/17/2019 – The Sunway Sitges Open started on the Catalonian coast south-west of Barcelona over the weekend. The starting list was led by Parham Maghsoodloo and there are also several other strong grandmasters in the field. After five rounds, Anton Korobov and Narayanan S.L share the lead. | Photos: @SunwayChessOpen on Twitter

9/24/2018 – The name of the tournament sounds like music. On Tenerife, the "1st Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez San Cristobal de la Laguna" was held, fittingly in an old convent. The guests met a chess-loving population, young and old. Venezuelan IM Daniel Pulvett emerged the winner a half point ahead of Grandmasters Ilja Zaragatzki and José ("Pepe") Cuenco Jiminez and FM Makan Rafiee who tied for second place. | Photos: Melik Kramer

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 – With only two rounds left, round eight was decisive in showing how alive the chances to qualify for the Candidates are for both Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Teimour Radjabov. After another draw, MVL is still on a modest +1 and needs to win at all costs in round nine. Radjabov has come back from his loss roaring with two wins, this time against Gelfand in a do or die game analyzed in detail by GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

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

11/23/2017 – Round six of the FIDE Grand Prix in Palma was a bit of confirmation of how the tournament had gone thus far. Levon Aronian built a big advantage against Svidler, but after a mistake settled for a draw, and is still sole leader. The next notable result was Teimour Radjabov’s loss to Tomashevsky after declining a draw earlier. Read on in this illustrated report. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/21/2017 – After the tempestuous round the day before, round five was an understandable anticlimax with draws on all boards. For the top two boards in particular, this was quite expected, as it pitted the leaders against each other. Lions don't attack other lions for the 'challenge', they wait for easier prey. Still, it was not all dull games or lack of theoretical ideas as shown by GM Alex Yermolinsky in his round five report. | Photo: Valerij Belobeev

11/20/2017 – What an exciting round it was! Round four not only saw a plethora of decisive games, but spectacular ones at that. Levon Aronian was once more his brilliant best as he defeated Anish Giri in a beautiful game with sacs coming from all directions. Ding Liren's imaginative attack against Ernesto Inarkiev was also a joy to watch, and even Hikaru Nakamura's endgame squeeze over Radjabov started with a sparkling queen sac. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky. | 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

11/17/2017 – The final stage of the FIDE Grand Prix has started in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, and at stake are the final two spots in the next Candidates. Both Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will fight tooth and nail to pull the rug from under the feet of Mamedyarov and Grischuk. In round one, MVL had a perfect start with a win over Gelfand. Inarkiev and Giri also won their games with stylish victories. Report and analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky | Photo: Agon

10/9/2017 – The 83rd Spanish Individual Championship was held between September 29th and October 7th in Las Palmas of Gran Canaria. After nine rounds of competition, champion Ivan Salgado López was crowned. He scored six wins and three draws and left the final score at 7½ / 9. Runner-up was David Anton with 7/9 points. Daniel Forcén was third. | Photos: Patricia Claros

2/11/2017 – Imagine an Open tournament with beautiful surroundings around the venue, a beach nearby. Imagine going to the playing hall by pedaling a bicycle on the seashore. Atul Dahale found it so mesmerizing that he thought he was in a different world. Find beautiful pictures, annotations, GM masterclass by the winner, and more in his personal report!

7/22/2015 – The 35th edition of the Benasque Open had 412 participants, with players from 37 different countries, including 104 titled players. It was won by the 22-year-old Indian player B. Adhiban with a half-point margin, ahead of Peruvians Granda and Cori. The winner gave us an interview and also sent us an exciting and instructive game that he has analysed in great detail.

8/25/2014 – In the small, and picturesque village of Sabiote, Spain, the 2014 Spanish Blitz Championship was held... in the streets. Indeed, with a small population of 4300 inhabitants, counting on spectators to come and see the chess made little sense, so instead the organizers brought the chess to the people, and it was a great success. Rising star David Anton Guijarra took first. An illustrated report.

7/25/2014 – The Sant Marti Open was the third tournament in the Catalonian circuit for our reporter – who fulfilled the final requirements for his IM titel in this event. It was won by a lively young GM from Armenia, 19-year-old Karen Grigoriyan (2592). The atmosphere is as pleasant as could be, with the Spaniards showing everyone how to properly stage a chess open. Big illustrated report by IM Sagar Shah.

7/14/2014 – When preparing his second report from the Spanish summer circuit Sagar Shah discovered that his colleague WGM Alina l'Ami had reported for ChessBase from Barbera del Valles three year ago. Both had played in the event, scored 6.0/9 points and made norms – Alina her maiden for GM, Sagar his final for IM. And gained around 50 rating points each. Enjoy this big pictorial report.

5/9/2014 – An ambitious chess spectacle is planned for September in the Basque city of Bilbao: the European Chess Club Cup, with around 70 men’s and women’s teams, and the Grand Slam Masters Final, which will bring together the elite of world chess. Special promotional events are planned in Turkey and Norway, and Garry Kasparov has spoken about it in a video interview.

6/10/2013 – The start of the three-day chess bonanza between Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri did not bode well for the Ukrainian genius. After two days he was behind 5-1 and was so depressed he began speaking about retirement. Then on the last day, Ivanchuk came different, and he was a man on a mission. Though Ivanchuk ended with more points overall, Giri won due to the event scoring system. Big illustrated report by Leontxo García.