David R. Sands

Arab League ministers move to end Syria’s isolation despite U.S. concerns

Syria took another major step toward ending a decade of isolation as Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Egypt on Sunday voted to allow the regime of President Bashar Assad back into the fold.

May 7, 2023

Comeback kid Ding Liren is China’s first world chess champ

It was a fitting finale for the unlikely coronation of the 17th world chess champion: The only time Chinese GM Ding Liren led in his epic monthlong title match with Russian rival Ian Nepomniachtchi was when the clocks were stopped on the fourth and final game of the rapid playoff that decided the contest.

May 2, 2023

Ding Liren becomes first Chinese world chess champion

China has its first official world chess champion, as Grandmaster Ding Liren defeated Russian rival Ian Nepomniachtchi in a playoff Sunday after their 14-game title match in Astana, Kazakhstan ended in a 7-7 tie.

April 30, 2023

Chess title fight may be decided by a freeze and a bluff

The world chess championship may be decided by a freeze and a fake-out. The unexpectedly compelling 14-game title match in Astana, Kazakhstan, between Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and Chinese GM Ding Liren is entering the home stretch.

April 25, 2023

An unassuming winner sparks an unlikely sports dynasty

President Biden's plan to host South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol for a three-day state visit this month comes just before a milestone anniversary for the history of South Korean sports.

April 24, 2023

In a break with tradition, chess title fight turns into slugfest

Given the stakes and the quality of the opposition, world chess championship matches -- especially in the early rounds -- tend to be cautious, risk-averse affairs.

April 18, 2023

Putin made stealth visit to occupied Ukraine for briefing, Kremlin says

Russian President Vladimir Putin made a stealth visit to parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russian forces, the closest the Russian leader has come to the front lines since ordering the invasion more than 14 months ago.

April 18, 2023

Nuclear confusion: Finland powers up as Germany shuts down

It was a banner day -- both good and bad -- for nuclear power in Europe.

April 16, 2023

Russian mercenary chief: Declare victory in Ukraine and get out

The head of Russia's shadowy mercenary force The Wagner Group is recommending a strategy in Ukraine once proposed by U.S. officials for the bogged-down war in Vietnam: Just declare victory and call it quits.

April 16, 2023

Steady Nepomniachtchi, shaky Ding as world chess title match kicks off

It's been a dream start for Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in his scheduled 14-game FIDE world championship match against China's Ding Liren. The two began play Sunday in Astana, Kazakhstan, for the vacated world chess title long held by Norwegian world No. 1 GM Magnus Carlsen.

April 11, 2023

Crowns at stake as chess title matches get underway

April will be a clarifying month for the chess world, as we learn who will succeed Norway's Magnus Carlsen after a 10-year reign as world champion and a challenger emerges to take on women's world champion GM Ju Wenjun of China in a title match in July.

April 4, 2023

Worthy winners: Nakamura, Krush take home American Cup titles

It got a little messy at the end, but the players playing the best chess took home the American Cup and the American Women's Cup at the all-star U.S. knockout event last week at the Saint Louis Chess Club.

March 28, 2023

World’s divisions play out on the chessboard

In the landscape of chess geopolitics, the tectonic plates are shifting.

March 21, 2023

Sen. Mike Rounds chalks up DeSantis’ Ukraine comments to ‘primary politics’

Sen. Mike Rounds said Sunday that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' recent characterization of Russia's unprovoked war against Ukraine as a "territorial dispute" is all about politics.

March 19, 2023

Putin stirs Ukrainian fury with his first foray to front lines

Russian President Vladimir Putin late Saturday evening made his first visit to a Ukrainian city captured in Russia's nearly 13-month-old invasion of its neighbor, in a show of defiance just a day after an international tribunal called for his arrest for war crimes.

March 19, 2023

Bickering on violence divides U.S. and Mexico, adds new strain to tension between neighbors

Mexico is "safer than the United States," Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador declared in an impassioned response to growing criticism from Washington this week.

March 14, 2023

Saints be praised: Honoring the pious pawn-pushers

This week, we observe what I've always thought of as the "Week of the Saints": St. Patrick's Day on March 17 and, two days later, St. Joseph's Day -- an actual holiday at my parochial grade school because the nuns who taught us were from the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

March 14, 2023

Two Americans killed in cartel crossfire across Mexican border, raising fresh security fears

Two of the four U.S. citizens whose Friday kidnapping at a Mexican border town by a local drug cartel was captured on a gripping video have been found dead, while the other two have been found alive, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador confirmed Tuesday.

March 7, 2023

Queen power: Celebrating a rich legacy of women in chess

The general public may not always appreciate it, but the history of women's chess began long before the custodian Mr. Shaibel taught young Beth Harmon the moves at that girls' orphanage in "The Queen's Gambit."

March 7, 2023

Winners all around: Aronian bounces back with win in WR Masters chess tournament

The just-concluded WR Masters tournament was one of those rare events where the winner and the runners-up can all be happy with the result.

February 28, 2023