6/25/2019 – The Netanya Chess Festival (June 23 to July 2) features a GM round-robin and an open. In the GM tournament, possibly the strongest tournament in Israel ever, five world-class grandmasters take on five Israeli GMs. The prize fund is $100,000, while in the open it is just under $50,000: Luke McShane started with two wins. Watch Round 3 LIVE! | Photo: imt.chess.org.il

6/25/2019 – Marco Bode is a German football legend, famous for his fair play and his loyalty to his club, Werder Bremen. Bode is also a passionate chess player who is keen to teach young kids the game and to make chess a subject in schools. Last week, Bode's efforts led 1,000 primary school students to play a huge tournament in the center of Bremen. | Photos: Pascal Simon/ Rainer Woisin

6/25/2019 – Rules of thumb are just that — rules of thumb. They are often a good guideline but sometimes they are made to be broken and only concrete calculation helps.

6/24/2019 – Grandmaster RUIFENG LI reports and annotates games from Las Vegas as Ukrainian GM Illya Nyzhnyk won the newly lengthened 9-round National Open. Nyzhnyk's five wins and four draws were good enough for clear 1st place and the USD $8,000 prize. Alejandro Ramirez was the best scoring US player. Pictured: Organizers Janelle and Alan Losoff, with the new National Open Champion. | Photo: Tim Hanks

6/24/2019 – In this Simon Says we take a look at some of the highlights from the Summer Chess Classic in St Louis. Concentrating on the top section, where David Howell and Jeffrey Xiong are leading, Simon will show you the best (and worst!) moves that have been played.

6/24/2019 – The three tournaments of the "Summer Chess Classic" at the Saint Louis Chess Club will start in their second half today with five of the ten rounds in the books. Sunday was the tournaments' sole rest day. In the A tournament there was a draw between co-leaders Jeffery Xiong and David Howell, allowing Sam Shankland to move closer to the top with his win against Dariusz Swiercz. The encounter between Gawain Jones and Le Quang Liem ended in a draw. | Photo: Xiong vs Howell (webcast)

6/24/2019 – It is something little hard to imagine but yes, in the history of chess there was one occasion when FIDE had no certain type of play — such as Armageddon — to decide the winner in case of draw. For those who are unaware of the format, Armageddon is the ultimate form of tie-breaker in chess, where time-odds are there and Black just needs to draw the game to win the match and White must win the game to advance or be declared as the winner of the match.

6/23/2019 – An instant fix for a thalassophile (a person who loves the sea) with the sounds and shades of sunset waves. It's just impossible to get bored on the Lyttos Beach (pictured). IM ALINA L'AMI sends her photo reportage of another picturesque chess holiday destination that will have you dialing your travel agent. Don't miss her instructive annotated games and game fragments!

6/22/2019 – Entrepreneur, trainer, and Grandmaster Miguel Illescas puts down some thoughts on how to make elite chess touranments more fan friendly. Inspired by the Norway Chess Armageddon experiment, he offers a proposal to improve the format with tweaks to the scoring and time control. We encourage you to offer feedback in the comments below.

6/22/2019 – Annually, sponsors spend over five billion dollars per year on motorsports. Millions of fans watch motorsports, such as Formula One, IndyCar, and NASCAR. In this first article of a two-article set, WIM ALEXEY ROOT explores what chess can learn from racing after interviewing — and playing chess with — race car driver Kory Enders (pictured) at the Texas Motor Speedway. | Photo: Louis A. Reed Jr.

6/21/2019 – On the show today: GM Daniel King be looking at the game that won the brilliancy prize at the Women's Candidates' tournament, Maria Muzychuk v. Aleksandra Goryachkina. Power Play is live most Fridays at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, Noon EDT) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

6/21/2019 – From the diagram, the pawn sac 6.Nb5!? a6 7.Nd6+ Bxd6 8.Qxd6 (Bxe4) gives White the typical dark-squared compensation. The catastrophe to follow shortly after was of course not forced but, some might feel, not completely unexpected either.