David R. Sands

Iran condemns chemical attack but won’t blame Syrian ally Assad

In its first official comment on the suspected chemical attack on rebel-held territory in Syria Tuesday that killed more than 100 people, Iran strongly condemned the strike but refused to blame its ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad.

April 5, 2017

Juan Carlos Pinzon, Colombian ambassador, firm on peace with FARC, war on coca

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW: A surge in coca production has cast a shadow over the peace process, but Colombia remains committed to implementing a deal with leftist FARC guerrillas to end a half-century of civil war, Colombian Ambassador Juan Carlos Pinzon said in an interview Monday.

April 4, 2017

Red-hot Wesley So sets the pace in early rounds of U.S. chess title race

So young. So talented. So successful. That pretty much sums up the recent record of the 23-year-old Filipino-born U.S. GM Wesley So, who has been perhaps the world's most successful tournament player of the past year. He's looking to extend that run -- and an unbeaten streak that has now reached nearly 60 games -- at the 2017 U.S. championship tournament at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.

April 4, 2017

Russian Culture Ministry idles ‘Fast and Furious 8’ in favor of government-backed cosmonaut flick

The Russian Culture Ministry has reportedly tapped the brakes on the release of the latest installment of Hollywood's "The Fast and the Furious" mega-franchise to give a government-backed movie about cosmonauts a clear lane at the box office.

March 28, 2017

Webster University defines excellence with fifth straight college chess championship

Which is better -- the College Chess Final Four or its pretentious basketball rival?

March 28, 2017

Walter Shipman, a gentlemanly amateur with a chess pro’s talent

Walter Shipman, one of the last great amateurs from the great postwar generation of American chess, died last month at the age of 87 following a long illness.

March 24, 2017

U.S. Navy makes first port of call to Myanmar since World War II

A U.S. Navy vessel has made the first official port of call to Myanmar, formerly Burma, in seven decades, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

March 21, 2017

Crimea gambles on gamblers to ease isolation

What happens in Crimea stays in Crimea, if top officials of the Black Sea peninsula now claimed by Russia has anything to say about it.

March 21, 2017

Blondes beat brunettes, China bests India in chess rivalries

Insert brunette joke here. It may not settle the argument, but consider it an interesting data point: A team of blondes defeated a team of brunettes in a blitz match last week in Moscow to mark International Women's Day.

March 15, 2017

Brains at the board: Blondes defeat brunettes in chess grudge match

Insert brunette joke here. It may not settle the argument, but consider it an interesting data point: A team of blondes defeated a team of brunettes in a "friendly" team chess match last week in Moscow to mark International Women's Day.

March 13, 2017

China: U.S. media biased for Hillary Clinton

It may be unanimous: China has officially declared that the U.S. media were in the tank for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

March 9, 2017

The ‘other Lasker’ finally punches ticket to U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

He was an easy man to overlook, both because of his diminutive stature and because he happened to share a first initial and last name with one of the greatest chess players to ever play the game.

March 7, 2017

China’s Tan Zhongyi wins women’s world chess title in Tehran

Continuing a long string of dominance by China's women, WGM Tan Zhongyi defeated Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk in the final match to claim the FIDE women's world chess championship knockout tournament in Tehran Friday. The upset win makes Tan the fifth Chinese woman to hold the women's title since GM Xie Jun ended a long period of Russian and Georgian dominance by taking the title in 1991.

March 3, 2017

High drama leads to comedy of errors in women’s chess title hunt

For chess fans, there is a constant tug-of-war between art and combat. There is real beauty in the flawless conceived plan, the brilliant attack, the airtight winning combination. Then again, a "perfectly played game" by both contestants would produce an unending string of draws.

February 28, 2017

Hans Berliner, the D.C. boy who conquered the (postal) chess world

Before he conquered the world, he ruled the D.C. chess scene. Postal chess great Hans Berliner, who passed away last month in Florida at the age of 87, grew up here and got his start at the fabled Washington Chess Divan.

February 22, 2017

In Joop van Oosterom and Raymond Smullyan, chess loses two colorful characters

In a game played between White and Black, chess lost a couple of colorful characters in recent days.

February 14, 2017

Kevin McCarthy has sick Valentine’s Day burn for colleagues

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy threw a couple of his colleagues under the love bus Tuesday when the chamber's GOP leadership met the press Tuesday morning.

February 14, 2017

Vladimir Putin reportedly eyeing hardliner as next envoy to Donald Trump’s Washington

For all the talk of their budding bromance, Russian President Vladimir Putin is widely reported to be ready to select a well-known military hardliner as his new ambassador to Donald Trump's Washington.

February 7, 2017

Hou Yifan, reigning chess queen: Brilliance, then bravado at Gibraltar

GM Hikaru Nakamura has won the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival -- one of the world's most prestigious open events -- for a third straight year, but the American star's victory last week was hardly the biggest story of the event.

February 7, 2017

Wesley So pushes unbeaten streak to 56 with Tata Steel chess win

Make room, Byron Nelson. Coming through, UCLA. Scoot over, Joltin' Joe. The list of great sports streaks may have a new entry if rising American superstar GM Wesley So can keep it up.

January 31, 2017