8/31/2026 – Chola Chess is building a dedicated space for India's strong chess players to train and improve. It is led by R. B. Ramesh and Aarthie Ramaswamy, and supported by a committed team. With consistent camps and serious training, it has already impacted over 1300 players across the country. In this article, we take a look at some of the positions studied during a Chola Chess camp. Take your time and see if you can solve them. | Pictured: GM Debashis Das | Photo: Chola Chess

8/30/2026 – Klaudia Kulon impressed at the 11th Menchik Memorial in London, scoring 7½ points in the 9-round event. She won six games and drew just three. Her performance rating for the tournament was 2463. She had already secured overall victory before the final round. Cecile Haussernot from France and Andreea-Marioara Cosman finished in second and third place, respectively. | Photo: European Chess Union (archive)

8/30/2026 – Defeating Magnus Carlsen in any format remains one of the most difficult tasks in modern chess. For 15-year-old Vandan Alankar Sawai of Delhi, that milestone arrived on 18 August during the late Titled Tuesday. Paired with the white pieces against the former world champion in round two, Vandan kept pressing until, at one point, Magnus mouse-slipped, and after that Vandan gave him no chance to come back. Read the story of this talented boy.

8/30/2026 – Club Ajedrez Solvay lead the Spanish "Primera División" team championship with a perfect 6/6 match points after three rounds in Linares. Granada SIDN-Cívica-Nazaríes-Trevenque, Gros Xake Taldea and Andreu Paterna share second place on 4/6. With four rounds still to play, the race for the two promotion places to the "División de Honor" remains open in the eight-team, round-robin event. | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation

8/30/2026 – How to use ChessBase´26 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.

8/29/2026 – Chess has been introduced into the school curriculum in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with students in Grades 7, 8 and 9 now set to learn the game through a structured educational programme. Developed by Khanzad Chess Club in cooperation with the regional Ministry of Education and supported by the Iraqi Chess Federation, the initiative includes dedicated teaching materials and training for 150 Physical Education teachers in Erbil. | Photos: FIDE

8/29/2026 – The Nottingham 1936 tournament, played almost exactly 90 years ago, is regarded as one of the greatest tournaments in chess history. Five world champions took part. With many young players in the field, a changing of the guard was already beginning to take shape. And for the first time since their 1927 World Championship match, Alexander Alekhine and José Raúl Capablanca faced each other again. Alongside the games and a number of photographs, film footage from the event has also survived as a valuable historical record.

8/29/2026 – Chess players, mark your calendars. The Icelandic Chess Federation, Goðinn Chess Club, and Reykjavík Chess Club are joining forces to present "Town and Country" – two spectacular tournaments that together offer 15 rounds of high-level chess in just 11 days, set against two of Iceland’s most contrasting backdrops. It all begins on Thursday, 19 November at 19:00. On Tuesday, 24 November, the Friðrik Ólafsson Memorial Tournament opens – honouring Iceland’s first grandmaster.

8/29/2026 – IM Andrew Martin presents a complete 1.e4 repertoire for White in his new two-volume course, based on the Evans Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4). The repertoire also covers the Two Knights Defence (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6) and all relevant deviations by Black from the second or third move onwards. Jochen Schwarz, a club player from Bremen, is himself a keen gambit player and therefore firmly part of the target audience for this course.

8/29/2026 – The Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot will take place in Budapest from 10 to 21 November, bringing together an elite field led by Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Vincent Keymer and Wesley So. Created by Norway Chess and approved by FIDE, the event will test players across Fast Classic, Rapid and Blitz formats. The Budapest pilot will serve as the first step towards a multi-city tour launching in 2027. | Photo: FIDE

8/28/2026 – In a 15-minute video, Demis Hassabis, one of the central scientists working on artificial intelligence, tells us why he worries about AI going rogue. Hassabis, head of Google AI research, is a very strong chess player who created Alpha zero, the first neural network program on which all modern chess engines are based. It is his vivid description of how AI handled chess that will be of particular interest to the readers of our news page.

8/28/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu overturned a six-point deficit on the final day to defeat Fabiano Caruana 15-13 and win the 2026 Grand Chess Tour Finals. The Indian GM won both rapid games before holding his advantage through the blitz section. In the third-place match, Wesley So recovered from an early deficit against Vincent Keymer and swept all four blitz games to secure an 18-12 victory. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour