8/23/2023 – In mid-August, the Women's Chess Commission hosted its inaugural Online Blitz Tournament on the ChessBase Playchess platform. Under the leadership of Chairperson Regina Pokorna, the event was organized to further spotlight women's chess. Eleven female competitors took part in this intimate online blitz event, where they had the chance to challenge the formidable IM Stavroula Tsolakidou. The top Greek female player clinched the title with a flawless score of 10/10!

8/23/2023 – The first game of the FIDE World Cup final ended drawn, as Praggnanandhaa could not get much of an advantage with the white pieces against Magnus Carlsen. In the match for third place, on the other hand, underdog Nijat Abasov managed to upset Fabiano Caruana, after the latter blundered in a sharp middlegame emerging from a Catalan Opening. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova

8/22/2023 – The first-ever World Rapid Team Championship will take place in Düsseldorf on August 26-28. Forty teams from all corners of the world are registered to take part in the tournament. The list of contenders includes the likes of Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Richard Rapport. In addition, two former world champions, Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, will represent the humorously named ‘Chess Pensioners’ team.

8/22/2023 – Aleksandra Goryachkina clinched gold at the 2023 Women’s World Cup in Baku after beating Nurgyul Salimova in rapid tiebreaks. The Russian grandmaster entered the tournament as the second seed, and needed to show great technique to take down the over-performing Bulgarian underdog. Anna Muzychuk also reached the podium, as she beat Tan Zhongyi in the match for third place. Thanks to this win, Muzychuk gained a spot in the 2024 Women’s Candidates Tournament. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

8/22/2023 – This attacking guideline from the middlegame is also valid in the endgame and helped White to win in the diagram position. What did he do?

8/22/2023 – Praggnanandhaa reached the final of the FIDE World Cup after knocking out Fabiano Caruana in tiebreaks. An incredibly level-headed teenager, Pragg thus confirmed his qualification to the Candidates Tournament. In the final, the Indian prodigy is set to face Magnus Carlsen, who got the better of local hero Nijat Abasov by a 1½-½ score in the classical phase of their semifinal match. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

8/18/2023 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu beat his good friend Arjun Erigaisi in a series of tense rapid and blitz tiebreaks to reach the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup. The 18-year-old all but secured a spot in the next edition of the Candidates Tournament. Meanwhile, in the women’s category, Nurgyul Salimova upset Anna Muzychuk to reach the final of the event. Salimova thus qualified to the Women’s Candidates, while Muzychuk will face Tan Zhongyi for a spot in the all-important event. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

8/18/2023 – In July, Svitlana participated in the open section of the 2023 Canadian Junior Chess Championship, and faced some tough opponents. Impressively, she managed to reach the overall third place and added one more trophy to her collection. In addition, she will travel to Mexico for the World Junior Championship!

8/17/2023 – Over the course of his career, Daniel King has written many books that have been chess bestsellers! This time, the world-famous grandmaster, writer, commentator and coach has come up with another book: “How to Win at Chess: From First Moves to Checkmate”. The short, 54-page book is ideal for someone who is just starting out in chess. Before examining tactics like forks, pins, and skewers, it describes each piece and its movements and clarifies fundamental concepts like check and how to open a game. We recently had a conversation with Daniel about his new book, his writing process, and more.

8/17/2023 – The world’s strongest Swiss-system chess event, the FIDE Grand Swiss, is set to be played on the Isle of Man from October 23 to November 6, 2023. At the end of July, FIDE announced that 100 players had already confirmed their participation in the Grand Swiss and 40 players in the Women’s Grand Swiss. However, wild cards are still being distributed, and it was just announced that two of them will go to the exceptional young talents, IMs Ihor Samunenkov from Ukraine and Ediz Gurel (pictured) from Turkey. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/17/2023 – Nijat Abasov, the 69th seed in the open section of the FIDE World Cup, has all but secured a spot in the next edition of the Candidates Tournament, as he beat Vidit Gujrathi with white to knock him out of the event. Since Magnus Carlsen, his next opponent, also reached the semifinals and is very likely to skip the Candidates, the Azerbaijani will not even need to finish among the top-3 to reach the 8-player World Championship qualifier. Fabiano Caruana also advanced to the semifinals, while Praggnanandhaa bounced back in his match against Arjun Erigaisi. Among the women, Aleksandra Goryachkina drew Tan Zhongyi and made it through to the final. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

8/16/2023 – Hans Niemann scored 7½/9 points to win the Uralsk Open 2023 in Kazakhstan. He finished a full point ahead of a five-player chasing pack consisting of GM Sethuraman S P, GM Manuel Petrosyan, GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, GM Boris Savchenko and Valery Sviridov. Niemann entered the tournament as the rating favourite. The US youngster lost his round-2 game and bounced back in style, scoring 6½/7 from that point on, with five consecutive wins in rounds 5 to 9. | Photos: Kazakh Chess Federation