David R. Sands

1 week ago | washingtontimes.com | David R. Sands

Chinese women’s world champion GM Ju Wenjun is just a draw away from retaining the title she has held since 2018, using a four-game midmatch winning streak to pull away from compatriot and longtime rival GM Tan Zhongyi in their scheduled 12-game clash in Shanghai and Chongqing. The 34-year-old Ju needs just a draw in Wednesday’s Game 9 to clinch the win, which would be her fourth successful title defense.

2 weeks ago | washingtontimes.com | David R. Sands

There’s no hindsight in chess like endgame hindsight. Point out a slick finesse in a rook-and-pawn ending or that clever triangulation idea that gains the opposition over the enemy king to hold a draw, and the typical player will nod in admiration and appreciation.

3 weeks ago | washingtontimes.com | David R. Sands

With all the pieces visible to both players and all the rules much pretty set in concrete, it’s hard to think of a good April Fools’ Day joke to play over the board in tournament play that doesn’t run the risk of getting you forfeited. Still, creative players over the years have carved out a small niche for (legal) deceit and deception that’s very much in the spirit of the day.

1 month ago | washingtontimes.com | David R. Sands

​At the turn of the 20th century, Frank Marshall and Harry Nelson Pillsbury vied for bragging rights as America’s best chessplayer, before Pillsbury’s untimely death at the age of 33. In the 1930s, Sammy Reshevsky and Reuben Fine battled for American supremacy and Reshevsky, at the end of his career, would clash memorably with a fast-rising Bobby Fischer in the early 1960s for the same honor.

1 month ago | washingtontimes.com | David R. Sands

The history of chess is riddled with missed opportunities. Owing to a combination of bad timing, bad faith and bad luck, such all-time greats as Poland’s Akiba Rubinstein and Estonia’s Paul Keres never got the shot at a world title match that their talent and results had earned them. Cuban star Jose Raoul Capablanca failed to secure the rematch he richly deserved after losing his world title in a stunning upset to Alexander Alekhine in 1927.