9/1/2025 – Kirill Shevchenko's bid to overturn sanctions for alleged cheating at the 2024 Spanish Team Championship has failed. The FIDE Ethics & Disciplinary Commission’s Appeal Chamber has unanimously confirmed his guilt and strengthened the penalties originally imposed. The decision follows earlier controversy in Melilla, where the 22-year-old grandmaster was excluded after suspicions arose over repeated absences to the same toilet cubicle, with mobile phones later discovered and linked to him.

9/1/2025 – Pranav Venkatesh kept the sole lead at the Fujairah Global Chess Championship after drawing with Abhimanyu Mishra in round eight, reaching 6 points. Two players closed in on the leader, as Brandon Jacobson defeated Aydin Suleymanli and Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) outplayed Andrew Hong, both moving to 5½ points. In the final round, Pranav will face Alan Pichot, while Jacobson and Tabatabaei meet Nihal Sarin and Alexander Donchenko respectively, all with tournament victory still in sight. | Photo: Anna Shtourman

8/31/2025 – The FIDE Grand Swiss, one of the most competitive events in the chess calendar, has been held three times so far, each edition producing distinct winners in both the open and women's sections. In the open, the champions were Wang Hao, Alireza Firouzja and Vidit Gujrathi. The women's tournaments, introduced in 2021, saw victories for Lei Tingjie and Vaishali Rameshbabu. The much anticipated 2025 edition is scheduled to begin on Thursday, 4 September. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE Grand Swiss 2023

8/31/2025 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look at CBM 226. All games from the European Championship, 27 annotated games, 11 opening surveys, 4 opening videos, 7 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include two-time European champion Matthias Bluebaum (pictured), Frederik Svane, Daniil Yuffa, Maxim Rodshtein and Gabriel Sargissian, among others. | Photo: European Chess Union

8/31/2025 – In this Smart Moves episode, Svitlana explains the Stonewall pawn structure, most often arising from the Dutch Defense, and outlines key strategic plans for both sides. White aims to control the e5 square, trade dark-squared bishops, and expand on the queenside with ideas like c4–b4, while Black typically seeks kingside play with a knight on e4, improving the bad bishop via maneuvers, or breaking with c5. She then illustrates these concepts through a model game by Jon Ludvig Hammer, showing how White successfully opened the c-file, traded bishops, exploited weaknesses, and converted into a winning endgame — demonstrating both the strengths and vulnerabilities of the Stonewall.

8/31/2025 – How to use ChessBase 18 effectively in training — that is the subject of this three-part series in our tutorial line. Using it effectively also means being able to send your files to your training group, since the material you created in the earlier parts should, after all, be made available to your students in a useful way. ChessBase 18 offers several practical methods for doing this, which we explain in this part.