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David R. Sands

David R. Sands

dsands@washingtontimes.com

David R. Sands covered numerous beats, including international trade, banking, politics and Capitol Hill, and spent eight years on the foreign desk as senior diplomatic correspondent. He has authored The Times' weekly chess column since 1993.

Articles by David R. Sands

Robson-Xiong after 26...Rg8.

Caruana romps, Yip survives in U.S. chess title tournaments

GM Fabiano Caruana coasted to his third U.S. national chess championship this week, while IM Carissa Yip took a more arduous route to claim her second U.S. women's title Tuesday at the events' traditional home at the Chess Club of St. Louis.

October 18, 2023
Israeli tanks head towards the Gaza Strip border in southern Israel on Thursday, Oct.12, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Blinken cautions Israel against strike on Gaza civilians; shaken by images of atrocities

Israel's military on Thursday ramped up its promised campaign of retaliation for last weekend's murderous rampage by the Palestinian militant group Hamas, leveling entire neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, massing troops for a possible ground operation against the Hamas stronghold, and vowing that a punishing blockage of the densely populated Palestinian enclave would continue until the 100-plus Israeli and foreign hostages are freed.

October 12, 2023
In this Oct. 4, 2018 file photo, Palestinian members of the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad group, march with their weapons to show loyalty for the Iranian-backed Palestinian movement's newly elected leader Ziad al-Nakhalah in the streets of Gaza. Islamic Jihad is the smaller of the two main Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, and is vastly outnumbered by the ruling Hamas group. But it enjoys direct Iranian backing, both financially and militarily, and has become the driving force in rocket fire and confrontations with Israel. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)

U.S., Qatar put hold on Iranian $6 billion fund after Hamas attack

Facing bipartisan criticism at home, the Biden administration has reportedly put a new hold on some $6 billion in Iranian funds held in a Qatari bank account in the wake of the attack by Palestinian Hamas militants on Israel that has killed more than 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.

October 12, 2023
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, and Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu make statements to the media inside The Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, after their meeting in Tel Aviv, Thursday Oct. 12, 2023. President Joe Biden is dispatching his top diplomat to Israel on an urgent mission to show U.S. support after the unprecedented attack by Hamas militants. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, pool)

Blinken assures Israel of support, says civilians must be protected

The U.S. will stand beside Israel as it battles Hamas terrorists whose "litany of brutality and inhumanity" calls to mind the savagery of ISIS, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

October 12, 2023
Palestinians walk amid the rubble following Israeli airstrikes that razed swaths of a neighborhood in Gaza City, Tuesday, Oct. 10, 2023. The militant Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip carried out an unprecedented attack on Israel Saturday, killing over 1,000 people and taking captives. Israel launched heavy retaliatory airstrikes on the enclave, killing hundreds of Palestinians. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)

Signs point to ground war in Gaza as scale of Hamas atrocities emerges

A bloody and extended ground battle in the densely populated winding streets of Gaza appeared imminent Tuesday as Israel massed its forces along the border to the sealed Palestinian enclave and called up 360,000 reservists to avenge a surprise attack by the Palestinian militant group Saturday.

October 10, 2023
Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., talks to reporters as he holds Pen and Pad on assuming chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 28, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Cardin freezes military aid to Egypt, questions support for Azerbaijan

Newly installed Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin is moving quickly to put his stamp on the panel, announcing a freeze on new military aid and arms sales to Egypt because of the Cairo government's poor human rights record and calling for a "reevaluation" of U.S. aid to Azerbaijan after its forcible takeover of a large Armenian-majority enclave in Nagorno-Karabakh.

October 4, 2023
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addresses a joint meeting of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 21, 2022. Ukraine hosted an international defense industry conference as part of a government effort to ramp up weapons production within the country to repel Russia's full-scale invasion and reduce foreign dependence on arms deliveries. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

Ukraine takes U.S. funding block in stride after Hill vote

The Ukrainian government insisted Sunday it was not worried about U.S. support after a new package of aid to Kyiv was stripped out of the stopgap bill approved by Congress and signed by President Biden over the weekend to avoid a government shutdown.

October 1, 2023
Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., left, is greeted by Gen. David Allvin during a Senate Armed Services Committee nominations hearing of Gen. Allvin for reappointment to the grade of General and to be U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, Tuesday, Sept. 12, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Schumer moves to stop Tuberville’s blockade of military nominees

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has lined up votes to advance the nominations of three top military officials who have been waiting to take their posts since Sen. Tommy Tuberville has been holding them up in a protest over Pentagon abortion policy.

September 20, 2023
Then-U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker speaks during a news conference in the Commission Berlaymont building in Brussels, Belgium on July 12, 2016. The Biden administration has tapped former Commerce Secretary and major Democratic donor Penny Pritzker to coordinate U.S. efforts to channel private sector reconstruction assistance to Ukraine. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic, File)

Eyeing endgame, Biden taps Obama vet Pritzker to oversee Ukraine rebuilding

President Biden has tapped a veteran of the Obama administration Cabinet and major Democratic Party donor to help promote the rebuilding of the Ukrainian economy, creating a new post to coordinate the reconstruction effort even as Ukraine battles to fight off a Russian invading force that still occupies a fifth of the country.

September 14, 2023
Gukesh-Sargissian after 24...gxf5.

Stars of the future shine in chess’s ancestral homeland

The recent FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, just confirmed what many have long predicted: India, the country with the longest history with our noble game, may also be the country with the brightest future.

September 12, 2023
Nepomniachtchi-Svidler after 16...Qb8.

The king of chess gambits can still be a royal pain

It was the most popular opening for the first three centuries of modern chess. Paul Morphy relied on it heavily during his meteoric rise to world supremacy in the mid-19th century. Bobby Fischer claimed to have definitively refuted it after a famous loss with Black to nemesis Boris Spassky 12 years before their epic title match.

September 5, 2023