How to describe a day in which three men sacrificed pawns in the opening, while three women blew easily-winning games? After five hours at the 2016 U.S. Championships where the unpredictable became the expected, commentator GM Yasser Seirawan...
Seven leaders are down to five after 30 hours in St. Louis. GM Ray Robson tried something new and beat his former coach, while GM Wesley So survived as his young opponent missed a winning shot late in the game. Later, GM Fabiano Caruana stifl...
All three world top-10 players drew boxes last night giving them more Whites than Blacks at the 2016 U.S. Championship. Their first-strike advantage allowed them to bombard their enemies, and when the fusillade ended, three points were the booty.&...
With three rounds to go, GMs Jan Gustafsson and Loek van Wely are tied for first place at the Bangkok Open, with 5.5 out of 6. Nigel Short suffered a second loss on Thursday, and a third in the boxing ring! It's time for an update on the Bangkok...
Hall of famers have been coming to St. Louis for years, they just didn't know it at the time. Longtime U.S. Championship commentator GM Maurice Ashley and five-time champion (four times in the Gateway City) GM Gata Kamsky were both inducted in the...
It may seem a rather quiet period in between the Candidates' and Norway Chess, but quite a few strong players can be found behind the board. Besides the Bangkok Chess Club Open (covered yesterday) there's the even stronger Dubai Open, un...
The 16th Bangkok Open is underway in the Thai capital. Francisco Vallejo Pons, Nigel Short and Loek van Wely are the top seeds. The traditional open tournament in Thailand has reached its 16th edition already, but it seems to be getting stronger...
Last week India won the Asian Nations Cup, ahead of China. The young Chinese GM Wei Yi played another king hunt game, but dropped below 2700 in the live ratings. The Asian Nations Cup, held for the 19th time this year, saw a ...
Li Chao is the replacement for Sergey Karjakin at the Altibox Norway Chess tournament. The Chinese grandmaster is the current world number 15. After Sergey Karjakin's withdrawal the organizers of the Altibox Norway Chess tournament quickly found...
Nine of the current top 10 grandmasters will compete in the 2016 Grand Chess Tour. Magnus Carlsen will only participate in the two blitz & rapid events in Paris and Leuven. This was announced yesterday on the tour's website. At the star...
Sergey Karjarkin, the winner of the recent Candidates' Tournament, has withdrawn from the Norway Chess tournament scheduled for April18-30 in Stavanger. Whereas the organizers haven't given up yet, Karjakin's manager told Chess.com that it's...
In an epic first round of Chess.com's Grandmaster Blitz Battle, Alexander Grischuk defeated Levon Aronian 11.5-9.5. The Russian GM won $1547.60 (Aronian got $1452.40) and Grischuk qualified for the second round, where he will face t...
A week ago Sergey Karjakin emerged as the winner of the Candidates' Tournament in Moscow. Let's look back one more time at this historic event. Our photographer Lennart Ootes, who was present during the last five rounds, shot many more phot...
Sometimes dictionaries change the meanings of words, but "Webster" has been consistent since 2013. Webster University repeated as champions of the President's Cup, also known as the Final Four of College Chess. The event took place April 2-3 ...
Sergey Karjakin is back to where he belongs: among the world's top 10 rated players. He didn't get a BMW, but the 19 Elo points at the Candidates' Tournament are definitely his. Veselin Topalov lost 26 points. The top two players in the world di...
The first edition of the Grenke Chess Open saw a huge surprise. Not GMs Li Chao, Nikita Vitiugov, Richard Rapport or any other big name won the A group, but German GM Matthias Blübaum instead. Photo Georgios Souleid...
The title of part two of "In Other News" isn't a joke. Instead it encapsulates pretty much all the leftover news for this edition! By now you've surely read part one of March's column, but in this one women rule the day. First the newly-crowne...
GM Magnus Carlsen was once asked if he would have liked to have played chess during the Cold War. He said he couldn't relate, then added, "Well, we have Sweden." Now, Sweden gets a piece of him, and the rest of Norway. Top Swedish player and cur...
This is going to be a world championship unlike any other. The chess world waited many months for the announcement of New York City as the location for November's World Championship Match. Now we also know the players -- champion GM Magnus Carls...
Once the world's highest rated chess playing entity, Komodo set the tone in the recent Man Vs. Machine odds match against GM Joel Benjamin by converting a magnificent positional duel in game one. In the increasing odds that followed, Komodo...
Besides the 95,000 Euro first prize, Sergey Karjakin received a BMW sports car at the end of the Candidates' Tournament's closing ceremony. The closing ceremony of the FIDE Candidates' Tournament was held a day after the tournament end...
Sergey Karjakin defeated Fabiano Caruana in the final round of the 2016 Candidates' Tournament, making him the new challenger for the world championship. Karjakin will face World Champion Magnus Carlsen in Novemb...
After both drew their games in the penultimate round Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana will decide tomorrow in their mutual game who will win the 2016 Candidates' Tournament. If they draw and Vishy Anand wins tomorrow, Caruana wil...
It's much harder to stay at the top than to get there. This cliche seems oh so true for the Candidates' Tournament, where Vishy Anand had to let go of pole position today after losing quickly to Hikaru Nakamura. Sergey Karjakin beat Vese...
