9/6/2026 – In this episode of Underdog, Robert Ris presents two entertaining blitz upsets from a strong event in Sofia. First, Jolanta Zawadzka punishes former 2700 player Ivan Cheparinov with a sharp kingside attack in a Sicilian, finishing the game in just 20 moves. The second example features José García Molina against Sanan Sjugirov, where White sacrifices material for a dangerous initiative and builds a powerful attack against the black king. Both games show how quickly even very strong grandmasters can come under pressure in blitz when tactical threats and initiative take over.

9/6/2026 – England and Slovenia claimed the titles at the European Senior Team Championships in Crete. England finished unbeaten to win the 50+ section with 17/18 match points, one ahead of Italy. In the 65+ competition, Slovenia and England both scored 16/18, with the Slovenian team taking gold on tiebreaks after having defeated their English rivals in their direct encounter. | Photo: Zetta Grapsa / European Chess Union

9/6/2026 – ChessBase´26 is amazingly versatile and often surprisingly user-friendly — as the first 29 parts of this tutorial series have already shown! One particularly important feature in this context is the “Folders” window, which lets you quickly locate anything you want to use within your storage directories. In this episode, we’ll show you how to activate the window (in case it’s been disabled) and what you can view and work with there.

9/6/2026 – The fourth season of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League got under way on Saturday, with the FYERS American Gambits making the strongest start. They won both of their opening-day matches, including a victory over the Triveni Continental Kings, who lost twice. The Ganges Grandmasters and Alpine APL Pipers also began with wins as the six-team double round-robin stage commenced at the Lalit Ashok hotel in Bengaluru. | Pictured: Javokhir Sindarov (American Gambits) defeated Viswanathan Anand (Alaskan Knights) | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/5/2026 – Iranian grandmaster Pouya Idani has switched federations and will now represent France. The 30-year-old, who has lived in Brest since 2023 and has long been active in French club chess, enters the country's top group of players with a rating above 2600. Idani, a former World Under-18 champion and Iranian Olympiad representative, will nevertheless have to wait before becoming eligible for the French national team. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

9/5/2026 – British Grandmaster Daniel King has been one of ChessBase's most popular and respected trainers for decades. In this Summer Special, all of his video courses are available at heavily reduced prices, including the complete 28 volume Power Play series, opening repertoires, tactical training and endgame courses. A great opportunity to explore Daniel’s best training material and save up to 50%.

9/3/2026 – ChessCare.com, a new player management agency dedicated to professional chess players, has been launched by grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht and marketing expert Oliver von Wersch. The agency will offer services covering career planning, contracts, travel logistics, sponsorship, communications and talent development. Its stated aim is to support players as the chess world becomes increasingly professional, allowing them to focus more fully on competition while receiving structured commercial and operational support.

9/2/2026 – The Tirol Open 2026 featured eight days of high-level chess in Innsbruck. In the A Open, GM Harshit Raja successfully defended his title from the previous year, albeit only on tiebreaks ahead of FM Tobias Kolb, who finished level on points with the two-time champion. Philipp Schlosser, Timur Kocharin and Cedric Chassard ensured that three more German players finished in the top ten of the 57-player field.

9/2/2026 – The year 1926 was a major one for chess tournaments. Among the many outstanding events was the anniversary tournament of the Hannover Chess Club, which had already enjoyed a remarkable history and was now celebrating its 50th anniversary. The battle for first place developed into a close contest between the two favourites, Aron Nimzowitsch (pictured) and Akiba Rubinstein, with Nimzowitsch ultimately prevailing. Friedrich Sämisch proved to be the decisive factor.

9/2/2026 – Spanish Anti-Berlin: "Give me the f-file!": Christian Braun likes 4.d3 Bc5 5.Be3!? – "The Fortress" with opposite-coloured bishops and two connected passed pawns: Dorian Rogozenco shows how the defender should position himself – Do you know the Barendregt Variation? Robert Ris advocates 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 c5 5.d5 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 e5!? – "Attack with Qh5!" One move, many motifs: Oliver Reeh tests you in 32 example games with plenty of training exercises – Alekhine-Chatard Attack – as dangerous as 100 years ago: Sergey Grigoriants updates 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4! – The Isolated c-Pawn: Mihail Marin demonstrates the advantages of a fragmented structure, using two games of Kasparov-Karpov! – Grischuk's Stroke of Genius in the Sicilian Kan Variation: After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.Be2 b6 8.0-0 Bb7, Petra Papp considers the magnificent 9.Nd5!! and much more. Download version including a comprehensive and redesigned accompanying PDF (52 pages)! Take a look – an extract from the PDF is provided below.

9/2/2026 – The second edition of Legends & Prodigies will take place in Madrid from 7 to 12 September, with Faustino Oro (pictured) returning to the event he won last year. The Argentine teenager will face David Antón, José Martínez, Ivan Sokolov, Diego Flores and José "Pepe" Cuenca in a six-player double round-robin. | Photo: Mar Melero

9/2/2026 – FIDE and World Chess have submitted an application to ICANN for .chess, a proposed top-level domain intended to provide the chess community with a dedicated and verified online space. Filed as a community application on behalf of FIDE, the project would give federations, clubs, organisers, platforms, media and players recognisable chess-specific domains if approved. Registration will open only after ICANN's review, with an early-access list already available.