David R. Sands

DAVID R. SANDS: UMBC, Virginia Assassins come up short in team chess events

In two big national team events last week, the locals got passed by the express.

April 1, 2015

U.S. allies rush to join China’s new bank as deadline looms

The rush to join the China's new development bank for Asia has become a stampede, with even longtime U.S. allies such as Georgia, South Korea, Australia and even Taiwan now saying they are ready to join despite the clear reservations of the Obama administration.

March 30, 2015

Ashraf Ghani, Afghan president: Islam’s leaders must speak out on terror threat

Islam's leaders must be more forceful in condemning jihadi violence, Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani told lawmakers in an address to a joint session of Congress Wednesday.

March 25, 2015

Australia latest U.S. ally to sign on to new Chinese development bank

Australia Tuesday moved a big step closer to becoming the latest U.S. ally to buck Obama administration concerns and sign on as a founding member of the China-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

March 24, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: Busted bracket: U.S. women bounced from chess tournament

If you picked the American women, your bracket is already busted. March madness — the non-trademarked kind — is underway in Sochi, Russia, where FIDE is holding a knockout tournament for 64 of the world's best female players, including three former women's world chess champs.

March 24, 2015

Obama humiliated as allies join China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank

The battle of wills between Beijing and Washington over a China-sponsored development bank for Asia is turning into a rout, and the Obama administration has found itself isolated and embarrassed as its top allies lined up this week to join the proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.

March 18, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: Bring me your tired, your poor and your top-rated chess grandmasters

The New York Times last week gave front-page treatment to the under-the-radar machinations now being used to "persuade" top grandmasters to change the flag for which they play.

March 17, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: After 26 years at the top, Judit Polgar surpassed by Chinese chess challenger

She hasn't exactly been dethroned, but Hungarian GM Judit Polgar's reign as the ratings queen of women's chess has finally come to an end after an astonishing 26 years of supremacy.

March 10, 2015

Strong U.S. jobs report raises pressure on Fed to boost rates

The U.S. jobs machine showed no signs of the winter blues as employers added 295,000 jobs in February, exceeding analyst expectations and marking the 12th straight month with gains of 200,000 or more, the Labor Department announced Friday.

March 6, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: The joys of kibitzing by computer in chess

They've made some things a bit more complicated — problem-solving contests and correspondence chess, to name two — but superstrong computer programs have not proved the death of competitive chess that some feared.

March 4, 2015

Pakistan envoy: Iran nuke deal would lower tensions, boost projects

While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was warning in his Tuesday address to Congress that Iran's neighbors feared the potential nuclear agreement now being negotiated by the Obama administration and its international partners, at least one of those neighbors said it is rooting strongly that a deal can be struck.

March 3, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: Virginia Assassins surprise with win at Amateur East chess tourney

It's the biggest, rowdiest team competition in American chess, and an unheralded Virginia team has taken home the blue ribbon.

February 24, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: Nakamura rocks Gibraltar, reclaims top U.S. rating slot in chess

Top-ranked U.S. GM Hikaru Nakamura rules the Rock, having just won this year's edition of the strong Tradewise Gibraltar open tournament on the British Mediterranean outpost with an 8½-1½ score. Nakamura, now being challenged by rising GM Wesley So as the top-rated American player, didn't drop a game, defeating ex-world champion Veselin Topalov and Chinese star GM Yu Yangyi along the way.

February 10, 2015

Angela Merkel takes tough line on Greece ahead of key meeting

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave no sign Monday she's ready to ease the hard line she has taken with the new government in Greece over its financial crisis, saying the austerity package her government has demanded remains the "basis of any discussion we have" with Athens over a new bailout.

February 9, 2015

Hiring strong, but U.S. jobless rate ticks up to 5.7 percent

The U.S. job machine continued to fire on all cylinders in January, adding a higher-than-expected 257,000 jobs while estimates of previous monthly growth were also revised sharply higher, the government reported Friday.

February 6, 2015

DAVID R. SANDS: Another rising Chinese star makes his mark on chess

China's women have already taken the chess world by storm, and now the Chinese men are trying to follow in their path.

February 2, 2015

Minister: ‘No’ role for FARC after Colombia peace deal

There will be no role for Colombia’s leftist FARC guerrilla movement in the nation’s armed forces even if peace talks now underway produce an end to the country’s long civil war, Colombian Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon said Friday.

January 30, 2015

Venezuela hits Ford profits with Nicolas Maduro currency, market controls

Its economy is in free fall, inflation is soaring and its dominant export — oil — is plummeting in value, but Venezuela is still making its impact felt as some of America's biggest corporate names release their latest quarterly earnings statements.

January 29, 2015

Fed holds firm, gives no hint of rate hike

Interest rates will remain at historic lows for the time being as the Federal Reserve finished a two-day meeting without announcing a shift in policy.

January 28, 2015

Strong dollar weakens earnings, competitiveness for top U.S. companies

Some of America's biggest and best-known companies are paying the price for the country's economic strength, as the surging U.S. dollar is cutting into foreign sales and profits across of a slew of industries.

January 27, 2015