7/25/2023 – Melikset Khachiyan and Alice Lee won the US Senior US Girls’ Championship with a round, which meant only one champion remained to be decided in Saint Louis. Going into the Junior Championship’s final round, Arthur Guo and Abhimanyu were tied for first place. Guo lost his game in the final round, allowing Abhimanyu to be crowned as the national champion in his category. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/25/2023 – From 26th to 28th of August 2023, the German city of Düsseldorf will host a unique competition — the first World Team Rapid Chess Championship, organized by FIDE in partnership with WR Logistics GmbH. 43 teams from all over the world will compete for a €250,000 prize fund, and the best team will receive the first prize of €100,000. Participants include former world champions Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Hou Yifan, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Mariya Muzychuk, as well as Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Boris Gelfand, Levon Aronian, Peter Svidler, Jan-Krzysztof Duda Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Daniil Dubov.

7/25/2023 – Endings with opposite coloured bishops have large drawish tendencies. But in the diagram position it is White to move and win. What should he do?

7/25/2023 – Defending champion Le Quang Liem took the lead at the Grandmaster Triathlon in after convincingly beating top seed Yu Yangyi with the black pieces. Le was the top scorer in classical chess last year, and is again impressing in that discipline this time around. The Vietnamese grandmaster has won four out of five classical games so far, two of them with the black pieces. | Photos: Official website

7/24/2023 – In the current issue of his column in Zeit Magazin, Helmut Pfleger reports on the rediscovery of Zukertort's grave. In 1886, Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort set in motion a tradition with their match for the world championship, a tradition that continues to this day. Zukertort's grave in London's Brompton Cemetery, however, was lost and forgotten. It has been found and restored.

7/24/2023 – Top American junior and senior chess players returned to Saint Louis. From July 15-25, the top 10 players across three divisions — juniors, girls, and seniors — competed for more than $130,000 in prizes. Replay all the games with computer-assisted analysis.

7/22/2023 – The new sole leader of the Grandmaster Triathlon in Biel is Vincent Keymer. The youngest participant in the competition beat top seed Yu Yangyi and was thus able to leave former co-leader Navara behind in the standings. The latter signed his third consecutive draw, this time against Bogdan-Daniel Deac. Le Quang Liem climbed to third place after beating Arjun Erigaisi. | Photos: Official website

7/22/2023 – Ju Wenjun claimed her fourth Women’s World Champion title after clinching a crucial victory in the decisive, final, 12th game of the match against challenger Lei Tingjie. With this victory, Ju has now equalled the record set by her compatriot Hou Yifan, both having won the world crown four times. Apart from defending the title, Ju also won €300,000 in prize money, while €200,000 went to the runner-up Lei Tingjie.

7/21/2023 – Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie seem to be heading to a playoff at the Women’s World Championship in China. Game 11 saw the contenders for the title signing the ninth draw of the match, which remains tied with one game to go. The twelfth and last classical game of the contest will be played on Saturday. | Photos: Stev Bonhage / FIDE

7/21/2023 – On Thursday, the strong Isbank Turkish Super League, Turkey’s team championship, came to an end in Ankara. The Turkish Airline Sports Club topped the standings. The best player on board one was Dommaraju Gukesh, who climbed to eleventh place in the live elite ratings list and became the youngest-ever player to cross the 2750-mark. | Photos: Turkish Chess Federation

7/21/2023 – Living legend Vasyl Ivanchuk received a wild card from FIDE to participate in the upcoming World Cup in Baku. According to current legislation, he needs permission from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to leave the country for sports purposes as he is under the age of 60. Such permission was not granted. To address this situation, some of the world’s top GMs — including Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand — signed an open letter to the Minister of Youth and Sport of Ukraine, Mr. Vadym Gutzeit. | Photo: sunwaychessfestival.com

7/21/2023 – Vincent Keymer won the duel of pursuers in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament on International Chess Day, as he defeated Le Quang Liem with the white pieces. Keymer is now sharing the lead with David Navara. Bassem Amin also won in round 4, as he got the better of Arjun Erigaisi to claim 4 points for the standings (in the classical section of the Triathlon, wins grant 4 points while draws grant 1½ points). | Photos: Official website