Going back to Africa! Before traveling to Francophone (French-speaking) Africa for the first time, I had to brush off my French instruction books from grad school to brush up on vocabulary, cognates, listening, phrases, and passe compose’. I discovered that there were a lot of videos on YouTube and went through a number of them. […]

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Nigeria has plans to break through to produce their first Grandmaster and an official campaign was launched in February. One of the hopefuls in the Africa’s most populous nation is International Master Oladapo Adu. A long-time national team member, Adu spent a number of years in the U.S. before returning in 2016 to nurture chess […]

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GM Maurice AshleyPhoto by Daaim Shabazz Côte d’Ivoire was Maurice Ashley’s 7th African country, all in a relatively short period of time. This would be the first visit to a Francophone African country and the Jamaican-born GM would put his French skills to use. Ashley took up French in high school with a desire to […]

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The first event of the Grand Chess Tour is officially over and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire will have in its history and world class chess event. There will be trivia questions such as the players who played, the hotel where it was hosted and that famous icon who was visiting the hotel during the event! All […]

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Congratulations to @MagnusCarlsen for winning Côte d’Ivoire, the first leg of 2019 #GrandChessTour with 2 rounds to spare!! pic.twitter.com/xbEc8RCkTo — Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) May 12, 2019 After the election in the past FIDE election, there was an assertion that the international chess body would be more inclusive. While the Grand Chess Tour is not […]

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Former World Champion Veselin Topalov with Daaim Shabazz in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. Photo by The Chess Drum. Veselin Topalov has seen a thing or two in chess. Known as a tremendous fighter and the master of the exchange sacrifice, he has playing many a scintillating game. However, he is a bit more relaxed and is […]

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When one thinks of the Ivory Coast, several things come to mind including their world-famous cocoa, but one unmistakable characterization is that the land of 23 million is a football-crazy nation. During the lead up of the Grand Chess Tour, there were a lot of promotional content including photos of Grandmaster Maurice Ashley interacting with […]

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The Grand Chess Tour has begun! Ten of the world’s top players have assembled in the capital of Cote d’Ivoire to launching the first event of the season. World Champion Magnus Carlsen will headline the 2019 Rapid and Blitz field after having had a blistering first half of 2019. This event is also important because […]

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All chess roads lead to Africa! On Tuesday, May 7th, ten of the world’s strongest players will gather in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire for the Grand Chess Tour Rapid & Blitz. It will feature the resurgent World Champion Magnus Carlsen who recently won his third straight supertournament by winning the Grenke Classic in fine style. Now […]

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When it was announced that Africa would be one of the hosts to a leg of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT), there was a bit of a celebration throughout the continent’s chess community. Magnus Carlsen will compete May 8th-12th in the Rapid and Blitz event in Abijdan, Cote d’Ivoire. He shall be the first sitting […]

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In the aftermath of a successful hosting of the World Chess Championship that saw Magnus Carlsen defend his crown, the city of London is getting another gem of an event in the London Chess Classic. Fabiano Caruana is back in action after a valiant fight against Carlsen, losing in tiebreaks. This is the last tournament […]

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Drum Interviews @ St. Louis 2017 Rapid & Blitz The inaugural event was launched in St. Louis on the tailend of the 2017 Sinquefield Cup won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. It is hard to top such a strong field, but the intrigue was heightened when the 13th World Champion decided to play in the St. Louis […]

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Levon Aronian holding the cup of the inaugural St. Louis Rapid and Blitz.Photo by Maria Emelianova (chess.com) Garry Kasparov made at long-awaited return occurred in St. Louis as part of the 2017 Grand Prix Tour. Media organizations around the world were excited and fans were buzzing in social media. In the end, Kasparov contended that […]

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1 Caruana, F USA ½-½ Aronian, L ARM 2 Kramnik, V RUS ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave, M FRA 3 Topalov, V BUL 0-1 Nakamura, H USA 4 Anand, V IND ½-½ Adams, M ENG 5 Giri, A NED ½-½ So, W USA Official Site Round #4: Monday, 12 December 2016Is this it for Topalov? Different day… same […]

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1 Aronian, L ARM ½-½ So, W USA 2 Adams, M ENG ½-½ Giri, A NED 3 Nakamura, H USA 1-0 Anand, V IND 4 Vachier-Lagrave, M FRA ½-½ Topalov, V BUL 5 Caruana, F USA ½-½ Kramnik, V RUS Official Site Round #3: Sunday, 11 December 2016Hikaru rebounds… continues domination of Anand The only […]

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1 Kramnik, V RUS ½-½ Aronian, L ARM 2 Topalov, V BUL 0-1 Caruana, F USA 3 Anand, V IND 1-0 Vachier-Lagrave, M FRA 4 Giri, A NED ½-½ Nakamura, H USA 5 So, W USA 1-0 Adams, M ENG Official Site Round #2: Saturday, 10 December 2016Boards blaze! Wesley So sizzles; Caruana swindles After […]

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World Champion Magnus Carlsen won the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour by winning the London Chess Classic on tiebreaks. It was a rather austere series for Carlsen garnering an efficient +1 over the three events. He was helped by his high-scoring performances in Sinquefield and London. Indeed there were some disgruntled fans and […]

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Round #9: Sunday, 13 December 2015 Viswanathan Anand ½-½ Anish Giri Michael Adams ½-½ Fabiano Caruana Levon Aronian ½-½ Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Magnus Carlsen 1-0 Alexander Grischuk Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Veselin Topalov Carlsen essayed 1.Nf3, but the game ended up in a Sicilian. Grischuk missed his chances in the end when zeitnot came back to haunt […]

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Round #8: Saturday, 12 December 2015 Anish Giri 1-0 Hikaru Nakamura Veselin Topalov ½-½ Magnus Carlsen Alexander Grischuk ½-½ Levon Aronian Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Michael Adams Fabiano Caruana ½-½ Viswanathan Anand Despite losses last round, bright smiles for two national legends. Two players at opposite ends of field,but still a fierce fight ahead.Photos by Amruta […]

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Round #6: Thursday, 10 December 2015 Anish Giri ½-½ Magnus Carlsen Hikaru Nakamura ½-½ Levon Aronian Veselin Topalov ½-½ Michael Adams Alexander Grischuk 1-0 Viswanathan Anand M Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Fabiano Caruana A very interesting scenario given tension in France. Well done!Photo by Ray Morris-Hill. Not the game of the round, but a classic shot.Photo by […]

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