In the recent Jermuk tournament Nana Dzagnidze seemed to be in a different class to the others. Here we look at how she outplayed her closest rival.

Ian Nepomniachtchi continues his rapid progress towards joining the world's elite. Here he is in fine form as he storms his opponent's defences in flamboyant style.
How good can he get?

The following game is just remarkable. Both of Riazantsev and Naiditsch play some amazing moves and the resulting positions are just so difficult to judge.

Despite so much being at stake, Artyom Timofeev certainly held his act together as he played an impressive game to overcome Rauf Mamedov in the last round of the European Championship.

In the final round, Topalov beat Gelfand from a drawish rook ending and thus won the Linares tournament. I believe that Gelfand's 48th move was to blame for his loss, and Topalov's joy!

Magnus Carlsen had beaten Vladimir Kramnik in London a month earlier but this time his experienced opponent was in great form and managed to win with Black.
Despite this loss, Carlsen still won the tournament and retains the World number one spot.

Don't always expect my choice of Game of the Week to be spectacular!
Here the way Vitiugov manages to eke out a win in a technical endgame is quite impressive.
I hope you agree!

Magnus Carlsen won the first London Chess Classic and by avoiding defeat in the last round will be the world's number one in the New Year.
However the final game was memorable: he was pressing to win, before going astray and then having to find some good moves to draw. A natural candidate for Game of the Week!

In the Berlin Defence of the Spanish, Black aims to construct an impenetrable barrier which is often known as the wall. However twenty years after the more famous Berlin Wall fell, the chess version is known to wobble at times as this game demonstrates!