7/22/2017 – Polish GM Radek Wojtaszek clings to a slim lead as a massive chasing pack tries to overtake him. He faces Bluebaum with Black today in a key matchup. Anyone can still win with two rounds to play; anyone, that is, except Vladimir Kramnik, who's mathematically eliminated.

7/22/2017 – Matthias Bluebaum's luck seems to have turned. After missing chances on Thursday against Dmitry Andreikin in a long draw, Wang Yue ground him down in an endgame on Friday as the Chinese scored his first win.

7/21/2017 – Georg Meier wins 20th Maccabiah top group ahead of Alexander Moiseenko, while Tal Baron took the B group. Yochanan Afek sends stories, photos and highlights | Photos: Ritvo Photography

7/21/2017 – After three games in the Match of the Century the score was 2:1 for the reigning World Champion. In game four Spassky played a well-prepared Sicilian and obtained a raging attack. Fischer defended tenaciously and the game was drawn. Then came a key game, about which the 1972 US Champion and New York Times and Chess Life correspondent GM Robert Byrne filed reports. In Reykjavik chess fan Lawrence Stevens from California did something extraordinary: he manually recorded the times both players had spent on each move.

7/21/2017 – A murky position: in order to win, White must tackle the enemy king without disregarding the potential threats of Black's queen + knight tandem. How would you start his attack?

7/21/2017 – Amid a tumultuous summer thunderstorm in Dortmund, the standings of the 45th Sparkassen Chess Meeting remain the same through four rounds. With both rest days behind them, the players head for a tense final weekend, with Wojtaszek and Bluebaum clinging to a half point lead.

7/20/2017 – Some of you may not have noticed: in our live broadcast of international tournaments, when computer analysis is added to the games, there are "precision" statistics given at the end of the notes. They give the percentage of relevant (non-forced) moves that are identical with the ones a top chess engine would play. In top events we find correlations between 15% and 97%. You can compare the level of precision of different players, and also look for suspicious values. Here's how, and why you should care.

7/19/2017 – Chinese prodigy Wei Yi gets stronger and stronger and dominated the Hainan Danzhou Super GM tournament from beginning to end, winning four games and drawing five to finish sole first with 6.5/9. On the live-rating list the 18-year old Chinese is now the world's number 14.

7/19/2017 – This year’s World Senior Team Championship was held in late April on the island of Crete. In the over-50s section Short, Nunn, Speelman, Arkell and Chapman played in the England One team and finished third. Our columnist Jonathan Speelman scored 5.5/7 points, winning two very nice games in the end. Jon uses these two games to demonstrate how you can play for a win in a rook and knight endgame, even when things are looking fairly drawn. Don't miss this practical GM endgame lesson from CHESS Magazine.

7/19/2017 – Top Georgian player Nino Khurtsidze is fighting cancer. She underwent surgery in Germany and now has to undergo five rounds of chemotherapy. The total cost is beyond what she can afford. Her friends have asked the chess community to support her efforts to overcome the situation and return to the chess board. | Photo: Evgeny Surov, chess-news.ru

7/18/2017 – Today, Alexander Morozevich celebrates his 40th birthday. Morozevich is one of the most original grandmasters in the chess scene and was in his best year, 2008, number two in the World Cup. The Russian Chess Association honors the anniversary with a portrait.

7/18/2017 – What is style in chess? And how unique is it? Tal and Botvinnik played differently but how easy — or difficult — is it to spot these stylistic differences? Part 1 of the "Exercises in Style" presented games by Wilhelm Steinitz, Emanuel Lasker, José Raúl Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine, the first four World Champions in the history of chess. Now follow games by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal. Do you know which World Champion played which game?