David R. Sands

Silver Spring, Washington, D.C.

Deputy Editor at Washington Times

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Articles

Lee shines in early Cairns action

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

- Special to The Washington Times - The late, great D.C. chess champion Oscar Shapiro, the oldest player ever to earn the master’s title and still a dangerous pairing in local tournaments well into his 90s, once told me he bore down especially hard when playing against promising junior players zooming up the ratings charts.
A fragrant cherry blossom bouquet shared at Virginia chess tournament

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

- Special to The Washington Times - There was an international flavor at the top of the leaderboard at last month’s 12th Cherry Blossom Classic in Sterling, Virginia, with Lithuanian GM Titas Stremavicius and Serbian GM Luka Budisavlijevic sharing top honors at 7-2, while foreign-based players claimed seven of the top 10 spots in the strong 50-player event.
A high-class case of losing by resigning

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

For many beginning players, the trickiest thing about chess is not how to play a game but how to end one. The concept of resigning — conceding defeat before your opponent has even started to checkmate your king — takes some getting used to. What baseball team forfeits its last three outs just because the other team has a huge lead going into the bottom of the ninth?
Czech great Vlastimil Hort dies at 82

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

The ranks of the great generation of post-World War II chess players lost another luminary last week with the death of Czech-born, German-based GM Vlastimil Hort at the age of 81. A six-time national champion in his native land and a three-time German champion after emigrating to the West in 1985, the genial Hort ranked as high as sixth in the world in the mid-1970s, barely losing an epic Candidates match to former Soviet world champ Boris Spassky in 1977.
Efim Geller at 100: A sterling chess career but never the brass ring

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

It seems every chess era produces at least one star-crossed player whose path to the top is blocked by an even greater talent. Polish great Akiba Rubinstein may have been the world’s strongest player in the first decades of the 20th century, but war, chess politics and simple bad luck prevented him from ever securing a match against longtime champ Emmanuel Lasker.
April shower of chess wins puts Vasyl Ivanchuk back in the game's top ranks

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

Don’t look now, but one of the hottest players on the international circuit is a grizzled veteran who first earned his grandmaster spurs in the second Reagan administration. Ukrainian GM Vasyl Ivanchuk, 56, has shot up the rating ladder on the strength of a string of sparkling tournament performances in Iceland and Spain in recent weeks.
Ju Wenjun's winning streak leaves rival reeling in women's world chess title clash

2 months 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.
Even the chess greats falter when endgame pressure mounts

2 months 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.
April Fools' gold: Chess deceit and deception in the spirit of the day

2 months 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.
Hikaru Nakamura tops archrival Fabiano Caruana to claim American Cup

Mar 25, 2025 | 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.