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

7/21/2021 – 50 years ago, on 20 July 1971, Bobby Fischer (pictured) and Bent Larsen played the sixth and final game of their semi-final match of the Candidates. Fischer had won the first five games and he also won the sixth. It was Fischer's 19th win in a row against some of the world's best players, a sensational and unrivalled winning streak. In his new book "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman takes a close look at this winning streak and Fischer's dominance in the years 1970 to 1971. Confident, entertaining, and with new insights about Fischer's strengths and weaknesses.

7/21/2021 – An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set's value lies in just one piece: the knight. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than ten people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. It is fascinating to watch the high-end pieces being made.

7/21/2021 – Upsets continue at the FIDE World Cups in Sochi, as Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were knocked out by Nodirbek Abdusattorov (pictured) and Haik Martirosyan in the rapid and blitz playoffs of round 3. Meanwhile, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi and Mariya Muzychuk won lengthy, exciting matches. The players will have a rest day on Wednesday. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/20/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will continue recapping the World Cup and the focus game will be Jumabaev's surprising win with Black against world number two, Fabiano Caruana, which eliminated Caruana from the tournament! | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/20/2021 – The 2021 U.S. Senior, U.S. Junior, and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships kicked off on Friday, July 16, at the Saint Louis Chess Club. After four rounds, Gregory Kaidanov is leading the seniors’ event, Hans Niemann tops the standings in the juniors’ tournament, while three players are sharing first place in the girls’ championship. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

7/20/2021 – Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the 7th world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time!