David R. Sands

In taxing times, a tip of the eyeshade to accountant chess stars

On this, their Super Bowl Week, let's hear it for the accountants. And while no CPA ever won the world chess title, some came very close.

April 16, 2019

Assange, Stalin score high in Russian polls

Detained WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and deceased Soviet dictator Josef Stalin have something in common -- both score well in new Russian opinion polls released Tuesday.

April 16, 2019

Emmanuel Macron on Notre Dame fire: ‘Worst has been avoided’

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday night that "the worst has been avoided, but the battle has not been fully won," as he briefed the nation on the fire that engulfed the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris.

April 15, 2019

Assange won’t face death penalty if extradited: Ecuador president

Ecuadoran President Lenin Moreno on Thursday defended his decision to lift the protections that prevented British police from arresting Julian Assange, but said in a video that he had also received assurances in writing from the U.K. government that the WikiLeaks founder would not be extradited to a country where he might face torture or the death penalty.

April 11, 2019

Rio Grande Valley again the toast of Texas with chess Final Four repeat

It seems the valiant Texas Tech Red Raiders came up just short against my Virginia Cavaliers in the men's college basketball, but another Lone Star State college Cinderella managed to dance the final triumphant dance this week.

April 9, 2019

Veteran Hikaru Nakamura, newcomer Jennifer Yu take top honors at U.S. chess title tourneys

"Yu be Yu" proved a winning formula as WGM Jennifer Yu, of Ashburn, Virginia, scored a sensational 10-1 to claim her first U.S. women's national title. The 17-year-old Yu was so dominant that she clinched the title at the Chess Club of St. Louis with a round to spare last week, besting an exceptionally strong field by 2 1/2 .

April 2, 2019

Chess champs take it on the chin in U.S. title fights

It's never easy taking down the champ, as the play in the U.S. open and women's national championships now at the midway point at the Chess Club of St. Louis amply demonstrates.

March 26, 2019

In anti-racist statement, chess champs let Black move first

World chess champion Magnus Carlsen and Dutch rival Anish Giri are marking a U.N. international campaign against racism by playing a game in which -- contrary to the longstanding rules of the game -- the player with the black pieces made the first move.

March 22, 2019

Max Judd’s unlikely journey from Krakow to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

For a prime example of how immigrants have enriched the American chess scene, look no further than the remarkable career of one Maximilian Judkiewicz, one of three inductees into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame this week.

March 19, 2019

British Parliament decisively rejects May’s Brexit deal to leave European Union

The British House of Commons Tuesday evening again decisively rejected a plan by Prime Minister Theresa May to take the U.K. out of the European Union, leaving the country with no clear path forward with a March 29 deadline to negotiate a deal.

March 12, 2019

Youth is served, elders dissed at St. Louis chess tourney

The late, great D.C. city champion Oscar Shapiro, who was still playing in weekend tournaments into his 90s, once explained his strategy against hotshot players on the rise: "Beat 'em when they're young," he once said. "They only get better."

March 12, 2019

A chess life in a library, a biography on a bookshelf

Like the rings on a fallen oak or the scars on an athlete's knee, one could almost tell a person's life story from the books in their chess library.

March 5, 2019

Donald Trump-Kim Jong-un summit ends early with no deal

President Trump's second denuclearization summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un fell apart Thursday in a dispute over lifting economic sanctions, cutting short two days of talks aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's weapons program.

February 28, 2019

Despite Arpad Elo’s remarkable system, upsets still happen at the chessboard

It was nearly 60 years ago that Arpad Elo, a physics professor at Marquette and a fine amateur player, set out to quantify the seemingly unquantifiable -- how strong one's chess ability really is.

February 26, 2019

Valentina Gunina reigns as queen of Cairns in powerful women’s chess event

The inaugural Cairns Cup, believed to be the strongest women's tournament ever held on U.S. soil, is in the books, and GM Valentina Gunina has claimed a little piece of history as the event's first winner.

February 19, 2019

Top women claim the spotlight in strong St. Louis chess invitational

With a six-time U.S. women's champ, a four-time U.S. women's champ, a former women's world champion, and top female stars from Russia, Georgia, India and France gracing the field, the 1st Cairns Cup tournament that just hit the midpoint at the St. Louis Chess Club is easily the strongest women's event ever held on these shores.

February 12, 2019

Class act Vladimir Kramnik retires from competitive chess at age 43

He may have been overshadowed at times by the man whose crown he took, but former Russian world titleholder Vladimir Kramnik will go down in the annals of chess history as a class act, an underrated fighter and one of the most complete players to ever play the game.

February 5, 2019

European powers side with Donald Trump, demand Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro step down

France, Germany, Britain and six other European nations on Monday joined the U.S. and said they no longer recognized socialist President Nicolas Maduro as the country's rightful ruler, demanding that quick new national elections be organized.

February 4, 2019

Adam Smith, House Armed Services chairman, fumes over Pentagon border testimony

The new Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday Pentagon officials were less than "fully transparent" when they testified this week on the military's plans to carry out President Trump's order to deploy to the southern border to bolster the fight against illegal immigration.

January 31, 2019

Magnus Carlsen wins, but local hero makes mark at elite Tata chess tournament

It's the central plot of any number of Hollywood feel-good classics, like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Breaking Away" and "Rocky" (I, II, III, IV etc.) -- underdog local hero is offered an unexpected chance to compete against the big boys, comes through with inspiring victory.

January 29, 2019