David R. Sands

SANDS: Class winners shine at D.C.’s Eastern Open in chess

As promised last week, here is a list of all the winners at last month’s Eastern Open in Washington, D.C., as well as a nice game from Open section champion IM Daniel Ludwig.

January 8, 2013

113th Congress mirrors  increasingly diverse U.S.

The changing face of Congress can be seen in the changing faces of Congress.

January 7, 2013

SANDS: Ludwig wins Eastern Open in chess; UMBC in Final Four

Congratulations to IM Daniel Ludwig, who took clear first Sunday night in the 2012 Eastern Open downtown at the Westin Washington Hotel with an undefeated 6½-1½ score, a full point ahead of a quartet of challengers.

January 1, 2013

SANDS: Celebrating a trio of Christmas babies who contributed to chess

For all the blessings of the day, there’s no denying it can be a drag sharing a Dec. 25 birthday with you-know-who. So we thought we’d pass on a little yuletide cheer to a trio of Christmas babies for their contributions to the game.

December 25, 2012

SANDS: Chess Eastern Open to kick off Dec. 27

'Tis the season to roll up the board, pack up the pieces and put some fresh batteries in the old chess clock: The 39th annual Eastern Open, a four-day extravaganza, kicks off Dec. 27 at its longtime home at the Westin Washington D.C. City Center hotel at 1400 M St. NW.

December 18, 2012

Gunman kills dozens, including 20 children, in Connecticut school shooting

In one of the most grisly and terrifying school shootings in the nation's history, a lone gunman entered a small-town Connecticut elementary school Friday morning and killed more than 26 people, including 20 children in his mother's kindergarten classroom and another room, according to law enforcement officials and multiple press reports.

December 14, 2012

SANDS: Tough day for the locals in London’s Chess Classic

The fourth annual London Chess Classic is shaping up as one of the best events in many a year, but it was a dark day for British chess when the players sat down for Thursday's Round 4. All three Britons in the field — GMs Michael Adams, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane — went down to defeat on a rare day when every game ended in a decisive result.

December 11, 2012

SANDS: High drama as Ushenina takes women’s world crown in chess

They packed a maximum of drama into a minimum of games at the finals of the FIDE Women's World Cup last week in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

December 4, 2012

SANDS: Women’s chess champ Akhmilovskaya dies of cancer

She was the U.S. women's chess champion three times in the space of five years, played the great Maya Chiburdanidze for the women's world crown in 1986 and was a star on Olympiad teams for both her native Soviet Union and her adopted American homeland. But Elena Akhmilovskaya, who died last week at the too-young age of 55 after a long battle with brain cancer, may be best remembered for her starring role in a dramatic Cold War love story.

November 27, 2012

SANDS: Women’s favorites falter at the FIDE World Cup

Already claiming the king of chess, India won't be able to crown a queen.

November 19, 2012

SANDS: Sorting fact from fiction in chess’ hazy past

It's a paradox: Our beloved game, so rigorously logical and immune to deceit at the chessboard, rests on a foundation of lies.

November 13, 2012

ELECTION 2012: More than ever before, the economy drives the race

It's been through a rough four years, and it no longer rules the global marketplace as it once did, but the U.S. economy proved once again that it knows how to dominate a presidential campaign.

November 6, 2012

SANDS: Power moves in politics and on the chessboard

For you last few undecided voters still out there, here’s one more data point to consider before the polls close Tuesday. President Obama, according to his autobiography, is a chess player, like eight of the last nine Democrats to occupy the Oval Office. (Lyndon Johnson was the exception.) GOP challenger Mitt Romney, to judge from the public record, doesn’t play the Royal Game, a trait he shares with the last four Republican presidents — Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and the two George Bushes.

November 6, 2012

SANDS: Making the club scene: Strong Euro Cup chess lineups

With so many hired guns in the competition, it's little wonder the annual European Club Cup team championship features some of the strongest firepower of any club tournament in the world.

October 30, 2012

SANDS: ‘The Yerminator’ enters U.S. Chess Hall of Fame

The 2012 class for the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis is small but select: Alex Yermolinsky, the St. Petersburg-born grandmaster now living in South Dakota, will become the 48th member of the Hall of Fame in a ceremony Tuesday, joining champions of the American game including Paul Morphy, Bobby Fischer and Benjamin Franklin.

October 23, 2012

SANDS: Magnus Carlsen is a chess champ with a taste for slow torture

Norway’s Magnus Carlsen presents something of a problem for a humble chess columnist. His best wins tend to be slow, sadistic positional squeezes, anacondalike asphyxiations in which Carlsen will happily nurse the tiniest of endgame advantages — or sometimes no advantage at all — before forcing his exhausted opponent to concede on Move 79. It gets the job done, but doesn’t leave much for the annotator to remark on or for the reader to enjoy.

October 16, 2012

Longtime Times executive Joo resigns, takes job in Korea

Douglas D.M. Joo, who has served The Washington Times and its affiliated publications as a senior executive, president, chairman and the company's board chairman for more than two decades, is stepping down, the newspaper's executives announced Sunday.

October 14, 2012

SANDS: The game’s great runners-up  make for a mighty lineup

Though they fell short of the summit, you could make a pretty formidable team from what might be called the Also-Rans Club.

October 8, 2012

Rumsfeld blasts Obama at TWT anniversary gala

Former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld offered a sharp and at times biting critique of the Obama administration's defense and national security record, saying the president's policies in the Middle East, Europe and East Asia have cost the country prestige and influence and put America on a path to decline.

October 2, 2012

SANDS: Exchange rate in chess fluctuates for rooks, minor pieces

Through centuries of theoretical investigation and practical results, the relative value of the pieces on the board has been pretty firmly established. If the pawn has a value of one, then the minor pieces (knights and bishops) are worth a little more than three pawns, the rook five, and the queen somewhere between 9.5 and 10. In many games with players of even moderate strength, a material edge of plus-one — a single pawn — is enough to produce a winning advantage.