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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

An Israeli airstrike hits the high-rise building housing The Associated Press' offices in Gaza City, Saturday, May 15, 2021. The airstrike Saturday came roughly an hour after the Israeli military ordered people to evacuate the building. The building housed The Associated Press, Al-Jazeera and a number of offices and apartment. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

U.S. struggles for leverage in escalating Israeli-Palestinian clash

The Biden administration struggled to find its diplomatic footing Sunday in a bid to contain escalating clashes between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip, even as other outside players stepped up their efforts to shape the crisis.

May 16, 2021
Nakamura-Carlsen after 24. Qe1.

Child’s play: Chess title combatants go way back

The story goes that Benjamin Franklin, while negotiating a peace treaty in France in 1783, was in the crowd the day the first manned hot-air balloons soared above Paris. When an unimaginative skeptic in the crowd wondered at the utility of the newfangled invention, Franklin replied, "What good is a newborn baby?"

May 4, 2021
Russian President Vladimir Putin gives his annual state of the nation address in Manezh, Moscow, Russia, Wednesday, April 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko) ** FILE **

Kremlin says Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin will meet this summer

The Kremlin's top spokesman said Monday that President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning for a summit this summer to be held at an undetermined third country, meeting at a time when Moscow's relations with the U.S. and the West have badly deteriorated.

April 26, 2021
Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman is shown in this 2009 file photo. On Friday, April 23, 2021, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that Mr. Feltman, a career diplomat, would serve as the State Department's special envoy for the Horn of Africa. (Associated Press) **FILE**

Blinken names experienced diplomat Jeffrey Feltman as envoy for troubled Horn of Africa

Jeffrey Feltman, a career diplomat who served for a time as assistant secretary of state and as the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for political affairs, has been named the State Department's special envoy for the Horn of Africa, where a civil war in Ethiopia has created a destabilizing humanitarian crisis in one of the continent's most strategic areas, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken announced Friday.

April 23, 2021
Caruana-Giri after 25...Rfb8.

Candidates pick up the pieces in disrupted hunt for chess title match

It was the longest halftime break in the history of tournament chess and perhaps all of sports, but Round 8 of the FIDE Candidates Tournament to pick a challenger to world champion Magnus Carlsen finally was played Monday, some 389 days after Round 7 was completed.

April 20, 2021
The 2,500-plus U.S. troops remaining in Afghanistan face a period of maximum uncertainty and vulnerability in the next few months. The Pentagon may have to send more U.S. forces to the country, at least temporarily, to help speed the withdrawal. (Associated Press/File)

U.S. to monitor Afghanistan after troop withdrawal

President Biden has put a date certain on the U.S. military's withdrawal from its 20-year mission in Afghanistan, but that might be the only thing certain about Afghanistan's short- and long-term future.

April 18, 2021
In this Thursday, April 1, 2021 photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Russian Human Rights ombudsman Tatyana Moskalkova during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia. Hit by a barrage of new sanctions from the Biden administration, the Kremlin is carefully weighing its response in a tense showdown with the United States. (Alexei Druzhinin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP) **FILE**

Kremlin says U.S. has an ‘obsession’ with sanctions

The Kremlin's top spokesman Friday slammed what he called the U.S. government's "obsession" with imposing sanctions on countries it does not like, but said any retaliation for President Biden's recent moves to punish Russian hacking operations was still being considered by President Vladimir Putin.

April 16, 2021
Bartel-Artemiev after 21. Bg5.

Tragedy and redemption at the chessboard

Chess is the ultimate game of second chances, providing fresh opportunities for redemption every time you set up the pieces for a new game. But it's not often you go from bug to windshield as dramatically and quickly as Polish GM Mateusz Bartel did in the space of a couple of days.

April 13, 2021
Kuzubov-Keymer after 33. Qxd7.

German club comes up aces in European chess clash

Turns out there's no "I" in "mannschaft," either. That's the German word for "team," and it was a classic bit of teamwork that helped German chess club SF Deizisau to a surprise win in the recent European Club Cup championship, held as a rapid online event this year because of COVID-19 concerns.

April 6, 2021
In this photo released by Suez Canal Authority, the Ever Given, a Panama-flagged cargo ship is pulled by one of the Suez Canal tugboats, in the Suez Canal, Egypt, Monday, March 29, 2021. Engineers on Monday "partially refloated " the colossal container ship that continues to block traffic through the Suez Canal, authorities said, without providing further details about when the vessel would be set free. (Suez Canal Authority via AP)

Stuck Suez container ship freed and on the move

The massive container ship that ran aground in the narrow Suez Canal and sparked a massive backup in global shipping has been freed and is on the move, Egyptian officials said Monday morning.

March 29, 2021