David R. Sands

Russia to Biden: Butt out over protests

The Kremlin reacted angrily Sunday to U.S. criticisms of its handling of nationwide protests against President Vladimir Putin, protests which so far have led to at least 3,500 detentions across the country.

January 24, 2021

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin speaks with counterparts in South Korea, Japan

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin spoke by phone over the weekend with his counterparts from South Korea and Japan, longtime allies who will be key to the U.S. path ahead in dealing with China and North Korea.

January 24, 2021

Twitter says Iran leader’s tweet threatening Trump’s death was a fake account

Twitter has suspended an account purportedly linked to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that featured an image showing a Donald Trump-like figure on a golf course apparently being targeted by a missile strike, saying it believed the account was a fake.

January 22, 2021

Lloyd Austin approved by Senate as first Black secretary of defense

The Senate Friday overwhelmingly approved former Gen. Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense, giving President Biden a key member for his national security team. The final vote was 93-2.

January 22, 2021

Russia welcomes Biden missile treaty offer — with reservations

The top spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday welcomed -- with reservations -- the new Biden administration's offer to extend the expiring New START arms control deal for another five years.

January 22, 2021

The best make a welcome return to the chessboard

After a troubled year of cancellations, disruptions and migrations to online play, the chess world is starting 2021 on a refreshing note of normalcy -- an actual over-the-board elite tournament played at classical time controls in one of the great traditional venues for the game.

January 20, 2021

Zugzwecklos: When you have chess moves, but it doesn’t matter

Beginning chess students are quickly introduced to the remarkable concept of "zugzwang" -- German for "It's your move, pal" -- in which a player's position may be perfectly fine as is, but any move makes things worse, and may even lose. Unfortunately under the rules, passing is not allowed when it's your clock that is ticking.

January 12, 2021

Canada’s Justin Trudeau calls out Donald Trump over U.S. Capitol clash

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau dropped the diplomatic niceties Friday and said President Trump and his supporters were directly responsible for the clashes in the halls of the U.S. Capitol this week attempting to block the ratification of the 2020 U.S. presidential vote.

January 8, 2021

Daniil Dubov’s games rank as must-see chess

He didn't win the tournament, but Russian GM Daniil Dubov's performance at the just-concluded Airthings Masters online tournament may have cemented his reputation as the one grandmaster whose games are must-watch viewing.

January 5, 2021

TurkStream, Russia pipeline bypassing Ukraine, advances

A major new Russian pipeline designed to bypass Ukraine to supply southeastern Europe got a major symbolic boost on New Year's Day as Serbian President Alexandar Vucic officially proclaimed the first nearly 250 miles of the Balkan Stream natural gas pipeline to be open for business.

January 1, 2021

On a locked-down New Year’s Eve, Pyongyang parties

While many of the world's great cities were eerily quiet on a New Year's Eve clouded by the COVID-19 pandemic, North Koreans partied on.

January 1, 2021

Rising U.S. chess stars bring home the hardware at world junior tourney

There are still a couple of days left to turn things around, but the consensus seems to be building that 2020 will not go down as a banner year. Chess was not exactly spared: tournaments big and little scrubbed for the first in decades, top players -- including both the U.S. and U.S. women's national champs this year -- surviving nasty brushes with COVID-19.

December 29, 2020

Pressure-cooker chess yields some savory results

When it's your game and your clock ticking and your rating points on the line, even a Friday night ladder pairing at the local club can be a highly stressful exercise. Put some higher stakes on the table -- say, oh, the last available slot for next year's U.S. championship field -- and things really start to get interesting.

December 22, 2020

Vladimir Putin: U.S. pressure won’t stop Nord Stream pipeline deal with Germany

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday expressed confidence that a massive natural gas pipeline to Germany will be completed despite the determined opposition of the Trump administration, telling a national audience in his annual holiday press conference that the Nord Stream 2 project is nearly completed.

December 17, 2020

Scottish whisky prices could be headed down as U.S., U.K. talk trade deal

The spirits of the season may soon be more affordable as U.S. and U.K. trade negotiators work toward a deal that would bring down tariffs on a range of goods, including prized Scottish whisky.

December 17, 2020

Digging the Queen’s Gambit long before ‘The Queen’s Gambit’

Chess players were into the Queen's Gambit long before "The Queen's Gambit." The runaway Netflix hit may have made chess cool this year (at least for a little while), but the Queen's Gambit -- accepted, declined or counter-gambited -- has been opening royalty since at least the late 19th century.

December 15, 2020

Hou Yifan has tough loss, good win in women’s chess ‘summit’

Former women's world champion GM Hou Yifan of China was the clear winner of the recent Belt and Road World Chess Summit, an online tournament replacing the traditional December event in Danzhou, China. It was not all smooth sailing for the top-rated Hou.

December 8, 2020

Chess: A global game gets snared in global problems

Who's up for a little more political talk? It's just a game, but chess with its global appeal can't help but get caught up in the great controversies of the day. From the Napoleonic wars to the Cold War, battles at the chessboard too often come to be stand-ins for ideological debates on whose faith, race, country or form of government is best.

December 1, 2020

For a chess lover, still many reasons to give thanks

In this weird, disjointed year, for the world of chess and the world in general, there are still plenty of reasons for our annual Thanksgiving count-your-blessings column.

November 24, 2020