If the 2016 U.S. Championship was a slow-moving glacier, the first day of the Ultimate Blitz Challenge event was more like four super-GMs stabbing each other with icicles. All four suffered gashes at some point. At the end of the nine ...
Just when it seemed to become a Magnus Carlsen show, the Altibox Norway Chess is wide open again. Today the world champion was outplayed by Levon Aronian, who joined his opponent in the lead. A cloudy sky above Stavanger on T...
The new FIDE Grand Prix series will be quite different from earlier versions. There will be four Swiss tournaments of 18 players, and the organizers are hoping to find companies to sponsor individual players. FIDE's Grand Prix tournaments h...
With a crushing victory over Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen increased his lead at the Altibox Norway Chess to a full point on Wednesday. Levon Aronian, Carlsen's opponent tomorrow, joined the group of players who tie for second place b...
For the first time since his retirement in 2005, Garry Kasparov will play chess against some of the best players on the planet. The 13th world champion agreed to meet the top three finishers of the 2016 U.S. Championship in a blitz tourname...
Heated action in Norway and St. Louis hasn't slowed down chess news in the rest of the world. Chess stories just keep rolling in, and we're here to keep you up to date with a quick tour of chess happenings around the world! Hackers Strike Worldc...
The final round of the 2016 U.S. Championships produced the expected result for the men, but an emotional inversion for the women. When the afternoon closed, GM Fabiano Caruana and IM Nazi Paikidze carried the day. (Photo abo...
He was a bit under pressure, but with a bishop sacrifice Magnus Carlsen held the draw as Black against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Norwegian still leads Altibox Norway Chess going into the second rest day. Pavel Eljanov and Pentala Harikrishna wer...
Things could get very messy tomorrow, or GM Fabiano Caruana could make them quite simple. By escaping with a draw today against GM Gata Kamsky he didn't clinch his first U.S. Championship, but he didn't spoil it either. In the final round, ...
In a good fifth round in Stavanger, where Vladimir Kramnik played 1.e4 and Anish Giri remained undefeated against Magnus Carlsen, two players left the playing hall with a win: Pentala Harikrishna and Veselin Topalov. After the first rest day (do...
It was not a good day to be the king, or queen, at the 2016 U.S. Championship. The two 2015 title winners, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Irina Krush, both drew, and saw the visage of the leaders get a little fuzzier at day's end. Nakamura had t...
Fireworks and a far-too-familiar sense of frustration were on display in the latest Man Vs. Machine match on April 19th and 20th. Scoring the full point in games one and three, Komodo bested GM Eugene Perelshteyn...
Before the ink dried on the headers to the notation sheets, round eight produced a multitude of interesting openings at the 2016 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship. Spectator heads swiveled more than at a tennis match -- nea...
Using a setup popularized by Alexander Morozevich, Pentala Harikrishna came close to beating Nils Grandelius, but at the end of the day all games at the Altibox Norway Chess tournament ended in draws. The stand...
Two days removed from the rest day at the 2016 U.S. Championship, a lot has happened and yet nothing has changed. Just like after round five, GMs Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So are tied for first, with GM Ray Robson trailing by a half-point&...
As the only winner in the third round, Magnus Carlsen leads the Altibox Norway Chess alone. Today he defeated Nils Grandelius, who created an original game right from the start with the Nimzowitsch (2...Nf6) Sicilian. So...
Love kingside pawn storms? Pack your umbrella. Today the weather turned south and so did the results for the aggressors at the 2016 U.S. championships. Four adventurous pawns storms resulted in only one half-point, while GM Fabiano Caruana used ...
Anish Giri hasn't forgotten how to win, or how to lose. Today he played extremely sharp but faced a Maxime Vachier-Lagrave up to the task. The French GM now leads Altibox Norway Chess with Carlsen and Kramnik. “Time to draw some ...
Gawain Jones won the Dubai Open as he edged out Vladimir Akopian on tiebreak. The English grandmasters beat sole leader Boris Savchenko in the final round... which he had also done to win the blitz tournament a few days earlier! All photos ...
Three of the players who earned five white games in yesterday's blitz tournament started Altibox Norway Chess with a win: Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri and Vladimir Kramnik. Giri ended a streak of 20 draws in classical games. All photos courtesy&nb...
Sweet revenge. Last year he beat the tournament leader in the final round but came second on tiebreak. This year Surya Shekhar Ganguly won the 16th Bangkok Open on tiebreak, ahead of Francisco Vallejo Pons after both players sc...
When two baseball teams are about to have an off day and want to play the game quickly, pitchers throw a high percentage of fastballs to get a jump on their freedom. So too in round five of the 2016 U.S. Championship. The day befo...
Magnus Carlsen won today's opening blitz tournament of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. The world number one reached 7.5/8 (drawing only with Nils Gradelius of Sweden) but then lost to Anish Giri in the final round. The f...
Update: Video interviews with Caruana and Krush added. It's hard to say which was more declarative Sunday at the 2016 U.S. Championship: GM Fabiano Caruana's play, or his manager's praise. The U.S. number one and new world number two, Car...
