David R. Sands

India’s Pranav fits the mold as new world junior chess champ

In a rare double unlikely to be replicated, the new world chess champion is an 18-year-old grandmaster from the Indian city of Chennai, and the new world junior champion is, yep, an 18-year-old grandmaster from the Indian city of Chennai.

March 11, 2025

All-around great: Spassky was defined by far more than that match with Fischer

Boris Spassky was far too great a chessplayer -- and human being -- to be defined and remembered by the one memorable match he lost.

March 4, 2025

European leaders offer support for Ukraine, Zelenskyy after contentious White House visit

A number of top European leaders took to social media Friday to offer some backup for beleaguered Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy after his tense, televised clash with President Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance over the war with Russia and the road ahead.

March 1, 2025

Putin to U.S.: We have mineral resources too for sale, development

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is willing to make his country's significant rare earth and critical mineral resources available to U.S. buyers and investors, responding to President Trump's push for a similar deal with Ukraine.

February 25, 2025

Champ’s blue jean blues latest move in the long clash between chess and fashion

Modern chessplayers -- to put it mildly -- are not exactly known for their sartorial sophistication. Now comes news that the most famous pair of blue jeans in chess history is up for sale -- the pair worn by former world champion Magnus Carlsen that earned him a rebuke from organizers at the World Rapid Championships in New York late last year for violating the event's dress code.

February 25, 2025

Merz on track to win German election, but far-right party a clear second

Germany's center-right parties are on course to return to power after four years in opposition, while a far-right party that has garnered praise from top Trump administration figures doubled its vote for an unprecedented second-place finish in Sunday's national elections, according to the first exit polls from Berlin.

February 23, 2025

Kremlin applauds Trump’s characterization of Zelenskyy; allies reaffirm support for Ukraine

President Trump's new comments that Ukraine started the war with Russia and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is an unpopular "dictator" who refuses to hold elections generated a sharp pushback Wednesday from top European leaders -- and a ringing endorsement from Russia's foreign minister.

February 19, 2025

Trump blasts Zelenskyy as ‘dictator’ who duped U.S. into sending aid

President Trump unleashed a blistering rebuke of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday, calling him a "dictator without elections" who tricked the U.S. into spending billions to help his country.

February 19, 2025

Freestyling in style, Keymer captures Chess960 inaugural event

German GM Martin Keymer was Freestyling in style, successively defeating the world's two highest-rated players to capture the inaugural event of the new Freestyle Grand Slam in Wangels, Germany, last week.

February 18, 2025

The mating game: Chess couples in love soar up the Cupid Index

GM Magnus Carlsen pulled off an unexpected pre-Valentine's Day combination, as the Norwegian great took himself off the market as the most eligible former world chess champion.

February 11, 2025

Pragg nips Gukesh in tournament debut as champ

It seems the only way to beat a superstar Indian teenage chess phenom these days is with another superstar Indian teenage chess phenom.

February 4, 2025

Kremlin verifies famed Russian figure skating pair were aboard downed U.S. jet

The Kremlin Thursday confirmed that two well-known Russian-born figure skaters were aboard the D.C.-bound plane that collided with an Army helicopter and crashed into the Potomac River Wednesday evening.

January 30, 2025

Barnes bicentennial: British master ranks as Morphy’s toughest chess foe

He didn't exactly have Paul Morphy's number, but largely unheralded 19th century English master Thomas Barnes -- born 200 years ago this month -- did manage to win more chess games off the brilliant young American than any other player of the day.

January 28, 2025

Trump doubles down on Greenland buy as Denmark balks

Dismissed as a pipe dream during his first term in office, President Trump's determination to wrest control of Greenland is very much alive at the start of his second term.

January 26, 2025

Marked man: New champ Gukesh back at the chessboard in strong Tata tournament

It's something of a rite of passage in chess -- the new champ is a marked man when he first returns to the board. Indian teenager Dommaraju Gukesh, who became the youngest world champion ever when he dethroned Chinese GM Deng Liren in their December title match, is testing himself in his first classical tournament since then -- the always-strong Tata Steel Masters Tournament in the storied Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee.

January 21, 2025

Blinken pushes vision for transformed postwar Middle East as Gaza ceasefire hopes rise

With the Biden administration on its way out the door, Secretary of State Antony Blinken offered on Tuesday an expansive vision of a revamped and revised Middle East, even as negotiators in Qatar were struggling to nail down an elusive ceasefire deal between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants.

January 14, 2025

A Huebner appreciation, and exploring the relationship between the board and the bottle

The tributes and appreciations are flowing in for German GM Robert Huebner, the cerebral four-time world championship candidate, Olympiad first-board gold medalist and one of the world's best players on either side of the Cold War divide in the 1970s and 1980s, who -- as we noted here last week -- died Jan. 5 after a long illness at the age of 76.

January 14, 2025

Kremlin: If Trump wants to talk, Putin is ready to listen

Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to the idea of direct, personal talks with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump, though no talks have been formally scheduled, the Kremlin said Friday.

January 10, 2025

Familiar traditions survive into the new chess year

It is indeed a new year and a chance for a fresh start, but it's also nice to see that some familiar traditions in chess still endure.

January 7, 2025

Carlsen’s blue jean blues drown out Murzin’s remarkable rapid chess win

It was a real-life Cinderella story, but the glass slipper got upstaged by a pair of blue jeans. Russian teenage GM Volodar Murzin, seeded 59th in a world-class field, is the new FIDE rapid world champion, in one of the biggest upsets of the year. But as you may have heard, the drama at the board was overshadowed by a ridiculous dress-code spat between FIDE organizers and former world classical and rapid champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

December 31, 2024