On the day that Dutch king Willem-Alexander turned 50, Anish Giri was the king in Reykjavik. The Dutch number one won the Reykjavik Open with an undefeated 8.5/10 score, and finished ahead of four grandmasters who reached 8/10. Giri flanked by I...
GM Vladimir Kramnik would like to fast-forward over the middle rounds of the Shamkir super-tournament. His audacious 25. Rxe5 in round four is now a distant memory. After losing in round five before the rest day, he dropped another today in roun...
With Zurich, Grenke, Reykjavik, and Poikovsky tournaments all taking place nearly simultaneously, you might think there's no room for "other news." But this is the digital age; there's room for anything! In this edition of Chess.com's grab-bag o...
The winning score in all four Speed Chess qualifiers was 8.5 points. On Tuesday, only GM Gadir Guseinov made that mark. He wins the final qualification spot for the Speed Chess Championships, joining GMs Sergey Grigoriants, Georg Meier, and Jeffer...
Neither the world's number-two rated player nor the world champion runner-up were having memorable events at Shamkir Chess 2017, but they will now sleep a little easier going into the tournament's only rest day. All photos courtesy official site...
Two days ago, Veselin Topalov played a wonderful rook sacrifice in Shamkir that some commented might be a move-of-the-year candidate. Today, Topalov's long-time adversary Vladimir Kramnik one-upped him with a possibly even more astonishing rook sa...
Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia won the 18th edition of the European individual championship for women, held April 11-22 in Riga, Latvia. IM Jovanka Houska, who participated as well, reports. Nana Dzagnidze. | Photo courtesy EWCC2017. ...
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has long been renowned for his skill in sharp, complex positions. He drew on his talents today to defeat Pavel Eljanov, but he also needed a bit of luck as Eljanov missed a clear win. Consequently, Mamedyarov passes Eljanov i...
Having won the Grenke Chess Classic already, Levon Aronian missed an excellent chance to finish with another win today, vs Fabiano Caruana. Eventually all games in the final round ended in draws. The top three with organizers Sven Nopp...
Pavel Eljanov won his second game in a row to start The Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir in clear first place after two rounds, but the main story of the day was Veselin Topalov's beautiful win as Black against Radek Wojtaszek in which a rook sacrific...
After 67 consecutive classical games without a loss, GM Wesley So's streak ended today in the opening round of Shamkir Chess 2017, colloquially known as the Vugar Gashimov Memorial. The streak dated back to last summer and ended when he blundered ...
With a fourth win in a row Levon Aronian, reached a 5/6 score today, winning the Grenke Chess Classic with a round to spare since the other games ended in draws. Tournament victory for Levon Aronian. | Image courtes...
Hou Yifan missed a draw and lost an instructive endgame to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave today at the Grenke Chess Classic. The new leader is Levon Aronian, who won against Matthias Bluebaum. Levon Aronian, the new leader at Grenke | Photo: G...
The reigning world junior champion, Jeffery Xiong, was the unlikely winner of Chess.com's third Speed Chess Championship qualifier. How could such a noted talent be an unlikely winner? First, he was seeded 25 in the 166 player event, but second, h...
In a statement to Chess.com, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov today announced that he will be running for FIDE president again in 2018. "One billion people playing chess" continues to be his motto. "Today I was analyzing everything that has happen...
The third time is really quite charmed for Hikaru Nakamura. Today, he won his third Zurich Chess Challenge in a row. Additionally, he won all three formats in Zurich, the opening blitz, the "new classical," and the final blitz. In February, Nakamu...
Hou Yifan had the better chances but drew with Magnus Carlsen to keep her lead at the Grenke Chess Classic today. Again there were three winners: Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana and Arkadij Naiditsch. Hou Yifan vs Carlsen&nbs...
Entering the final day of the "classical" portion of the Zurich Chess Challenge, Hikaru Nakamura and Peter Svidler held the lead. Svidler had earlier beaten Nakamura in great style, but today Nakamura drew as White against Viswanathan Anand while ...
For the second day in a row Magnus Carlsen spoilt a promising (in this case winning) position at the Grenke Chess Classic in Karlsruhe. Hou Yifan moved to 2/2, while both Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave bounced back with wins. Hou...
Both Fabiano Caruana and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave dropped below 2800 in the live ratings today. In round one of the Grenke Chess Classic Caruana lost to Hou Yifan, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was defeated by Arkadij Naiditsch. Sporti...
If one prerequisite to a great sporting event is the lead changing hands several times, then the 2017 Korchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge is for you. Consider: After the opening round, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Vladimir Kramnik led. One mo...
Everything looked primed for GM Hikaru Nakamura to jump out to sole first place at the end of the second day of "new classical" games at the Korchnoi Zurich Chess Challenge. Then GM Peter Svidler interjected. He had not defeated the America...
Does the "new classical" time control work in making more decisive games? It's early in Zurich, but so far the limited sample size has given good returns, especially if your "science vs. sport" pendulum swings toward the latter. Both GMs Vladimi...
GM Hikaru Nakamura can't stop playing chess. Even an ocean can't hold him back. Just after the closing ceremony of the U.S. championship, he played in Chess.com's Titled Tuesday from the airport (and the plane!), then took off and a few hou...
