David R. Sands

Russian lawmakers eye McDonald’s as ‘foreign agent’

Perhaps the golden arches are bugged. Perhaps the "special sauce" in the Big Mac is a secret helping of espionage.

November 24, 2017

Tom Carper: Gary Cohn, Trump’s top economic adviser, faked bad connection to end call with boss

President Trump's top economic adviser pretended to have a bad connection in order to cut short a telephone conference call with his boss, a Democratic senator told CNN Wednesday, an account the White House quickly labeled as "completely false."

November 22, 2017

Choo Mi-ae, South Korean party leader, sees promise in Trump’s hawkish stand on North Korea

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: President Trump has broken with his predecessors in making North Korea's nuclear programs a priority from the first day of his administration, improving the prospects for a negotiated solution to the crisis on the Korean Peninsula despite the angry rhetoric and provocative moves from both Washington and Pyongyang, the head of South Korea's ruling Democratic Party said in an interview.

November 21, 2017

Levon Aronian wins big in Spanish chess tourney

The two most dangerous opponents in chess are those who are desperate for a win and those who have nothing to lose. Armenian star GM Levon Aronian falls into the latter category right now, which may explain his strong start at the final FIDE Grand Prix event now underway in the Spanish city of Palma de Mallorca.

November 21, 2017

Robert Mugabe resigns as Zimbabwe’s president after 37 years

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe agreed to step down Tuesday in the face of crumbling support and a "soft coup" engineered by the military, ending 37 years of autocratic rule in the southern African nation.

November 21, 2017

In key chess win, it’s thanks for the memories

Been there. Seen that. Queened the pawn. Bobby Fischer famously observed the first essential for a great player is a "good memory," and he wasn't just referring to the ability to recall reams of opening subvariations.

November 14, 2017

Jeb Bush joins GOP establishment chorus calling on Roy Moore to step down

Former Florida Gov. and failed GOP presidential contender Jeb Bush became the latest prominent establishment Republican to call on Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore to drop out of the race over reports that he had a sexual encounter with an underage girl nearly four decades ago.

November 13, 2017

Russian retaliation over RT curbs could hit all foreign media

Russian anger over a U.S. demand that its state-owned RT news network formally register as a foreign agent could lead to a far greater retaliation, hitting both American and other international news outlets reporting in Russia.

November 13, 2017

Boden’s bishops claim another victim at European team chess tourney

Many people don't realize you can obtain chess immortality -- or at least notoriety -- without putting in the hard work to achieve chess mastery. And I don't just mean by writing your own column.

November 7, 2017

Jerome Powell nominated by Trump to replace Yellen as Federal Reserve chief

The disrupter in chief decided to stay very much inside the box with one of his biggest economic appointments as President Trump confirmed Thursday that he was nominating Federal Reserve insider and monetary moderate Jerome Powell as the next chairman of the nation's central bank.

November 2, 2017

Tricks lead to chess treats as lost souls rise from the dead

In this week of Halloween and All Souls' Day, we honor those who use tricks to get treats, who come back from the dead to save a lost position.

October 31, 2017

Russian government, state-backed network slam Twitter ad ban, vow revenge

Russia's Foreign Ministry and a Kremlin-funded news network sharply criticized a decision Thursday by social media site Twitter to block all advertising from the global messaging site.

October 26, 2017

Iran’s loss is America’s gain in Dorsa Derakhshani’s headscarf fight

Chess is a global game, and top players deciding to switch their national federation is not uncommon. At least six of the top-rated players in the U.S., including No. 1 GM Fabiano Caruana (Italy) and No. 2 GM Wesley So (Philippines), once competed under a flag other than the Stars and Stripes.

October 24, 2017

35th Anniversary: Creating ‘America’s Newspaper’

Starting a newspaper "is worth doing, and we make our first public appearance with a heady sense that we can do it. Our confidence rests in part on the zest and skills of the staff we have recruited. Just as importantly, it rests on the need we find expressed all over Washington for a new perspective on local, national and world events."

October 19, 2017

Donald Trump says world is adjusting to his leadership

President Trump acknowledged Tuesday that some countries were "a little bit nervous" when he took office, but they are now accepting his leadership in foreign affairs.

October 17, 2017

‘Father Bill’ Lombardy, Bobby Fischer’s great contemporary, dies at 79

He was the greatest chess-playing Catholic priest since Ruy Lopez but only the second-greatest player in his own hometown, but we still honor the legacy of GM William Lombardy, who passed away from a suspected heart attack last week at the age of 79.

October 17, 2017

James Tarjan, unretired, shines at Isle of Man event

Our story last week on ex-world champ Garry Kasparov coming briefly out of retirement this year got us to thinking about other players who took long "vacations" from the game only to come back and enjoy fresh success.

October 10, 2017

Garry Kasparov on the Hill to honor U.S. Chess Center

We start with a world exclusive today -- a brand new, unpublished Garry Kasparov game that no other column, website or blogger can offer. I say that with some certainty since I was the only one in the room writing down the moves.

October 3, 2017

James Harkins, Cleveland’s chess ‘Hawk,’ dies at the age of 87

Minerva, Kentucky-born Jackson Showalter was the "Kentucky Lion." Bostonians still raise a glass of Sam Adams to the memory of local-boy-made-good Harry Nelson Pillsbury. Chess fans in New Orleans honor the memory of Paul Morphy, the nation's first great player, and Jude Acers, a talented and colorful master still going strong taking on all challengers from his gazebo in the French Quarter at the age of 73.

September 26, 2017

Angling for a win — the chess player as fisherman

Google "chess and fishing" and you get, well, not a whole heckuva a lot. Both are nonaerobic activities that entail a lot of waiting around, but athletically inclined grandmasters tend to favor tennis or soccer. "Fish" was a term of derision for weaker players favored by Bobby Fischer and other players of his era. There is something called the "Fishing Pole Trap" in the Ruy Lopez that looks nothing like a fishing pole.

September 19, 2017