David R. Sands covered numerous beats, including international trade, banking, politics and Capitol Hill, and spent eight years on the foreign desk as senior diplomatic correspondent. He has authored The Times' weekly chess column since 1993.
The first major poll since Hillary Clinton was declared the presumptive Democratic nominee this finds her trailing Republican rival Donald Trump -- among voters in Russia, at least.
Odd but true: Some of the most brilliant and most anthologized games in the history of chess were distinct mismatches, the equivalent of Stephen Strasburg pitching a no-hitter against a Double-A minor league team.
The world title match between Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen and Russian challenger Sergey Karjakin, set for New York City in November, will almost certainly be more subtle, more sophisticated, more finely balanced than the world title match that was played 150 years ago this month in London.
The U.S. economy is no longer the most competitive and pro-business in the world, after holding the top spot for the previous three years, according to a comprehensive new survey.
A highly anticipated meeting between Russia President Vladimir Putin and British pop superstar Sir Elton John won't be held next week after all, Mr. Putin's spokesman revealed Thursday.
An 89-year-old cleric with a reputation as a fiercely anti-Western ultraconservative on Tuesday won the election to head the key government body charged with picking a successor to Iran's longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
If you want a friend in this game, queen a pawn. OK, that's not a real chess saying, but there is this idea out there that it's an every-man-for-himself world out there among elite grandmasters, that the top players are lone wolves forced to hunt solo to survive. The reality is far different.
Wracked by drought, deflation and falling world commodity prices, the Zimbabwean economy faces deepening economic difficulties with little relief in sight, the International Monetary Fund said in a new report Wednesday.
As President Obama travels to Flint, Michigan, Wednesday to highlight the city's water contamination crisis, the United Nations said it might initiate a human rights complaint in the case based on racism and class bias, a narrative the White House didn't dispute.
The United Nations is weighing whether to insert itself in the probe into contaminated drinking water for residents of Flint, Michigan, after a trio of U.N. human rights experts in Switzerland said that racism and class discrimination may have played a key role in the scandal.
America's new queen of chess is a proud daughter of Maryland. Baltimore WGM Nazi Paikidze, an alumna of the University of Maryland-Baltimore County and its powerhouse chess team, captured her first women's national crown just over a year after switching her allegiance from her Georgia homeland to the U.S.
Despite -- and in some cases because of -- her four-year record as secretary of state, Democrat Hillary Clinton is coming in for a share of criticism from allies and adversaries alike, even if the level of vitriol doesn't match some of the comments targeting her potential Republican rival for president.
There were some new names at the top and new faces making noise at the just-concluded U.S. Championship and U.S. Women's Championship, which both wrapped up Monday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis.
The luck of the draw proved a bit unlucky for U.S. chess fans this year, as the most anticipated pairing of the U.S. Championship -- top-rated GM Fabiano Caruana vs. defending champ GM Hikaru Nakamura -- came in Sunday's Round 4, with more than half of the event still to go.
Just in time for his 146th birthday this weekend, a majority of Russians in a new poll now say that Soviet dictator Vladimir Lenin played a largely positive role in the country's history.
They've won four national championships in a row, their bench could probably beat most rival schools, they have a controversial coach, and there are some real questions about whether they are good for the sport.
The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday cut its global growth projections for 2016 and 2017, warning that the world economy faces rising risks despite a plunge in oil prices that has boosted both developed and developing nations.