David R. Sands
Articles by David R. Sands
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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published 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. Published October 2, 2012
The Washington Times: A ‘miracle’ that has endured for 30 years
Starting a newspaper "is worth doing, and we make our first public appearance with a heady sense that we can do it. Our confidence rests in part on the zest and skills of the staff we have recruited. Just as importantly, it rests on the need we find expressed all over Washington for a new perspective on local, national and world events." Published October 1, 2012
SANDS: Olympian efforts abound on Istanbul’s lower boards
Just as in the five-ring Olympics where athletes compete in track events and on the ski slopes, many of the competitors and countries that show up at the biennial chess Olympiad arrive knowing they have little hope of earning a medal. Men’s and women’s teams from more than 150 countries took part in the recent 40th Olympiad in Istanbul, which once again was dominated by the globe’s long-standing chess powerhouses: Russia, China, Armenia, Ukraine and the U.S. Published September 25, 2012
Funeral for Rev. Moon a time of reflection for church
Hak Ja Han Moon, widow of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, told 15,000 Unificationists on Monday that she will "be faithful" to his life and tradition and that the worldwide movement should "march forward without pausing" to build God's ideal world. Published September 16, 2012
Unification Church faithful gather in South Korea to mourn Rev. Moon
Tens of thousands of mourners descended on this remote rural retreat to pay their final respects to Unification Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon in a solemn two-and-a-half hour ceremony Saturday. Published September 14, 2012
Rev. Moon lauded for efforts to reunify Koreas
It's just one floral tribute among hundreds here, but the stand of white paper chrysanthemums draped by a ribbon of Korean characters bears some unique political and diplomatic weight. The wreath expresses the condolences of new young North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for the death of Unification Church founder and spiritual guide the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Published September 13, 2012
