David R. Sands

A relieved George Zimmerman not guilty; verdict stirs emotion across the country

A Florida jury late Saturday cleared George Zimmerman of any criminal charges in the February 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin, rejecting the state’s case that the neighborhood watch volunteer had stalked and killed the unarmed black teenager.

July 13, 2013

SANDS: Negi and Gang of 10 capture big local chess events

The Northern Virginia suburbs have been the focus of the U.S. chess world for the past two weeks, hosting two high-profile events back-to-back in Crystal City, including the first-ever World Open in the event's four-decade history not held in New York or Philadelphia.

July 9, 2013

SANDS: Naroditsky confirms promise with junior chess title

You know someone is precocious when he publishes an instructional manual on positional chess — the subtlest aspect of the game and the most difficult to master — before his 15th birthday.

July 2, 2013

SANDS: Moscow battle hints at championship fight

The mashup between chess and boxing is all the rage these days, with "chessboxing" clubs springing up all over the globe and reports that a Kickstarter campaign has just been launched to fund a documentary on the phenomenon. Contestants alternate games at the board and rounds in the ring, with lots of airy talk about the parallels between cerebral and physical combat skills involved.

June 25, 2013

SANDS: A great game honors chess tournament namesake

"Nezhmetdinovesque" is a mouthful as an adjective, but for any lover of superlatively imaginative attacking play, it perfectly describes their favorite kind of chess.

June 18, 2013

Russia rejects U.S. claims on Syria; Britain’s Cameron backs Obama shift

Russia, a longtime ally of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, Friday rejected new U.S. assertions that the regime had crossed President Obama's "red line" by deploying chemical weapons against rebels in the country's bloody civil war.

June 14, 2013

SANDS: Dominguez Perez surprises with first-place finish in Greece

It may be the best result by a Cuban star since the great world champion Jose Raoul Capablanca departed the scene: Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez Perez, a solid but not spectacular player on the elite scene, took sole first earlier this month at the FIDE Grand Prix tournament in Thessaloniki, Greece.

June 11, 2013

SANDS: Iron man Kamsky falls just short in Thessaloniki in chess tourney

American GM Gata Kamsky came up just short of a remarkable double this week, blundering in a level position Monday against Italian GM Fabiano Caruana in the final round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Thessaloniki, Greece, to allow Cuban GM Lenier Dominguez Perez to pass him for the tournament title.

June 4, 2013

SANDS: Two top chess grandmasters fall in miniatures in Greece

After a long weekend, let's go with a couple of really short games. In an age of vast game databases, computer-aided study and 25 move-deep opening theory, it's remarkable how even the world's very best players can get themselves into trouble before the game has barely begun.

May 28, 2013

SANDS: Remembering German chess grandmaster Schmid

He was one of the game's greatest tacticians, equally at home on offense and defense in the most complicated situations. He was masterful at disarming a volatile, unpredictable opponent, and he held his own against the greatest players the game has ever known. He also played chess pretty well.

May 21, 2013

SANDS: Kamsky tops Ramirez in playoff for U.S. chess title

Breaking news — It came down to a single "armageddon" playoff game, but top-seeded GM Gata Kamsky claimed the 2013 U.S. championship in a thrilling finish Monday at the Chess Club Scholastic Center of St. Louis. He defeated Texas GM Alejandro Ramirez in a rapid playoff after the two finished atop the 24-player field with 6½-2½ scores.

May 14, 2013

Late moves gave Sanford new life in S.C. House fight

Republican Mark Sanford's campaign for South Carolina's open House seat was slumping two weeks ago when he gambled on a stunt many at the time ridiculed: He "debated" a life-size poster-photo of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

May 7, 2013

SANDS: Kamsky, Krush hold lead in U.S. chess title chase

Top seeds GM Gata Kamsky and IM Irina Krush are setting the early pace at the U.S. men's and women's championships that got underway Friday at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, with each posting three wins in their first three games.

May 7, 2013

Dow cracks 15,000 mark after jobs report

Wall Street rocketed into record territory Friday after the government released its latest jobs report, with the Dow Jones index of 30 top stocks cracking the 15,000 mark for the first time in history. Stocks retreated later in the day, but still posted a record closing price of 14,973.96, up 142.38 points or 0.96 percent.

May 3, 2013

Beleaguered H&R Block offers refund of its own: Gift cards for customers

Tax preparation giant H&R Block, embarrassed by a filing glitch this tax season that contributed to a delay in refunds for hundreds of thousands of clients, is offering up a refund of its own with a $25 gift credit card to those affected.

May 3, 2013

SANDS: Top chess players in action at home and abroad

It's an embarrassment of riches for a chess journalist these days, with not one but two major tournaments in progress across the pond and the U.S. championships gearing up to start in St. Louis later this week.

April 30, 2013

SANDS: Kaidanov, Karff voted into U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

From Kashdan, Koltanowski and Keres back in the day to Korchnoi, Karpov and Kasparov in the modern era, the "K" section of the encyclopedia has long been a thick and fertile source of chess greatness.

April 23, 2013

Ruslan Tsarni says nephews Dzhokhar and Tamerlan are ‘losers’

The Maryland uncle for the two brothers suspected in Monday's Boston Marathon bombing angrily denounced his nephews as "losers" who failed to assimilate into American society, while saying it was a "fraud" to suggest their Islamic faith was to blame the attack.

April 19, 2013

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev talked of Islamic faith: Moscow paper

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said on his Russian social media page that his world view was "Islam," while his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev talked about being "very religious" and complained there "are no values anymore," according to an English-language Russian newspaper.