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David R. Sands

David R. Sands

dsands@washingtontimes.com

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.

Articles by David R. Sands

Wei-Navara after 14…f6.

DAVID R. SANDS: After a long siege, the Berlin Wall starts to come down

Norwegian world champ Magnus Carlsen captured his fifth Tata Steel Masters title, winning the year's first strong event at the Dutch seaside town of Wijk aan Zee with an undefeated 9-4 score, a full point clear of American GM Fabiano Caruana and China's Ding Liren.

February 2, 2016
Meeting of the minds: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (left) met in private with Pope Francis at the Vatican Tuesday during a European trip aimed at positioning Tehran as a potential top player in efforts to resolve Middle East conflicts — including Syria's civil war — as Tehran's nuclear sanctions dissolve. Story, A9. (Associated Press)

Iran hard-liners reject middle path, disqualify moderate candidates

For the second time in less than a week, Iran's theocratic leaders have disqualified a slew of moderate candidates from the race for a key governing body, ruling that even the grandson of Iranian revolutionary hero Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was too ideologically suspect to run for office.

January 26, 2016
Navara-Caruana after 48…Rh6-g6.

DAVID R. SANDS: Magnus Carlsen takes risks to rise to chess top at Wijk

The champ isn't resting on his laurels. Unlike some of his illustrious predecessors, world titleholder Magnus Carlsen isn't afraid to mix it up with his rivals, maintaining an active tournament schedule -- and risking the occasional embarrassing loss -- since he first won the crown in November 2013.

January 26, 2016
"The legs of Iran's economy are now free of the chains of sanctions, and it's time to build and grow," Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose own political future may hang in the balance if the economic payoff does not come, said in a tweet Sunday. (Associated Press)

Iran welcomes business rush as sanctions are lifted

Literally hours after the ink had dried on the accord lifting international economic sanctions on Iran, big-name companies across Europe and Asia were signing deals, major world leaders were booking trade missions to Tehran, idled oil fields were being ordered back online, and Iran's financial authorities had processed applications for some 1,000 letters of credit from businesses hoping to cut deals in the near future.

January 18, 2016
In this Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, file photo, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen removes her glasses as she testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, before the House Financial Services Committee hearing: "Monetary Policy and the State of the Economy." A rate increase is expected when the Federal Reserve ends its latest meeting Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2015. It would be the first rate hike in more than nine years. And it would raise the Fed’s benchmark rate from a record low near zero, where it’s been for seven years. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

Federal Reserve boosts lending rates for first time under Obama

After one of the longest, most telegraphed windups in monetary policy history, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday delivered a small brushback pitch to the American economy, raising its key lending rate by a quarter of a percentage point for the first time since 2006.

December 16, 2015
People walk past an exchange office sign showing the currency exchange rates of Russian ruble, U.S. dollar, and euro in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015. The ruble continued to decline on Tuesday as oil prices are reaching a seven-year low. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Feeble ruble boosts Russia tourism numbers

The plunging value of the ruble has had one positive effect for the recession-wracked Russian economy -- bargain-hunting international tourists are coming to Russia in numbers not seen since the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008.

December 16, 2015
Liang-Spyropoulos after 23…Ne6.

DAVID R. SANDS: With victory in London, Magnus Carlsen wins chess Grand Tour

World champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway has won the last major event of the year, taking the 7th annual London Chess Classic, the third and final leg of the FIDE Grand Tour events, in a two-game rapid playoff over French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The playoff came after Carlsen, Vachier-Lagrave and Dutch GM Anish Giri finished in a three-way tie for first at 5-3.

December 15, 2015
In this photo taken on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2015, fighters of a Chechen battalion fighting against Russia-backed rebels, reload in the town of Lysychansk, Ukraine. Russian pro-Kremlin newspapers published reports based on unidentified sources in the security services that accused the Ukrainian government and Osmayev of ordering the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, the claims Osmayev has denied. (AP Photo/Olya Engalycheva)

U.S. church collecting supplies for Ukrainian fighters

A Washington-area Ukrainian Catholic Church will be setting up an unusual table at its annual Christmas bazaar this weekend -- a collection point for supplies for Ukrainian troops battling Russian-backed separatists in the old country.

December 8, 2015
Traders James Doherty (left) and John Panin (center) work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Dec. 4, 2015. (Associated Press)

Markets surge on jobs report, dismiss rate hike fears

Wall Street seized on another strong U.S. jobs report and appeared to shrug off mounting expectations of an imminent interest rate hike from the Federal Reserve, with the Dow Jones index rising 396.96 point, or 2.12 percent, to 17,847.63, for one of its best trading days in three months.

December 4, 2015