7/26/2021 – Two national champions were crowned on Sunday, 25 July, as both GM Hans Niemann (pictured) and IM Annie Wang clinched victories in the 2021 U.S. Junior Championships, both winning $10,000 scholarships in addition to the first place prize. Meanwhile, GM Larry Christiansen won a critical last round game in the U.S. Senior, forcing a playoff tiebreak on Monday against GM Gregory Kaidanov. With their victories, Hans and Annie qualified for the 2022 U.S. Championship and U.S. Women’s Championship. | Photo: Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller

7/26/2021 – The main event at this year’s edition of the Biel Chess Festival is the Grandmaster Triathlon, in which eight participants play a mix of classical, rapid and blitz chess. The rapid section was played on Sunday, and saw Gata Kamsky getting clear first place with a 5½/7 performance. Nihal Sarin and Maxime Lagarde finished second and third respectively. | Photos: Official site

7/26/2021 – Day 1 of the fifth round at the World Cups in Sochi saw Haik Martirosyan and Alexandra Kosteniuk (pictured) getting off to winning starts in their matches, as they beat Amin Tabatabaei and Valentina Gunina respectively. The remaining 7 matches in the open section and 3 matches in the women’s category finished drawn. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

7/25/2021 – Many of the ChessBase products have been around for more than 30 years, and we now have ChessBase 16, Fritz 17, over 200 ChessBase magazines, as well as more than 500 training programmes from chess masters. With so much choice, it is easy to lose the overview, and sometimes you ask yourself: what is which software good for, what can I do with it, and what are the main functions? With the newly made shopping assistant, we have created a guide for you in a short description + videos.

7/25/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 37th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why it is so important to develop one's pieces as soon as possible. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

7/25/2021 – Two sets of tiebreaker rounds were enough to find a winner in all 12 matches that were played on Saturday at the World Cups in Sochi. The top seeds in both sections moved on to the next round, as Magnus Carlsen and Aleksandra Goryachkina got the better of Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Antoaneta Stefanova, respectively. A big upset was seen in the open, as Serbian GM Velimir Ivic knocked out Dmitry Andreikin. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/24/2021 – The main event of the 2021 Biel Chess Festival kicked off on Saturday, as the 8 participants of the Grandmaster Triathlon battled it out at the ACCENTUS Chess960 tournament. While the event did not grant points for the final standings, it decided who will get an extra white in the classical section of the triathlon, and might end up serving as the tiebreaker in case two or more players finish equal in points in the overall standings. | Photos: Official site

7/24/2021 – In the diagram position, decentralizing White's queen with 20.Qa5? Rxd4 21.Qxa7 looks unhealthy - and runs into a direct refutation. Full score only if you can see it already in this position!

7/24/2021 – Exactly half the matches in both sections were decided on Friday at the World Cups in Sochi. Among those needing to return to the playing hall for Saturday’s tiebreaks is world champion Magnus Carlsen, who got a winning position but could not break through against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/23/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at tactics from the World Cup with the main feature a brilliant attack by Adhiban 'The Beast' Baskaran. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

7/23/2021 – Half the matches in the open section of the FIDE World Cup finished decisively on Thursday, with Kacper Piorun, Vidit Gujrathi, Vasif Durarbayli and Sam Shankland scoring crucial wins with the black pieces. The biggest upset rating-wise was Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) beating Harikrishna with the white pieces. In the women’s section, Antoaneta Stefanova and Polina Shuvalova won their first games in the round-of-16. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/23/2021 – The Biel International Chess Festival takes place from 24 July until 04 August and offers a large variety of tournaments, and the prestigious Grandmaster Tournament impresses with an interesting format and an interesting line-up. Young players like Nihal Sarin and Vincent Keymer will meet veterans like Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky, and others, in a triathlon (Fischer Chess, Rapid, Classical). The tournament will begin on Saturday, 24 July, with the Fischerrandom event.