6/24/2023 – Ray Robson joined Vincent Keymer in the lead of the Prague Masters tournament after beating Boris Gelfand in what turned out to be the only decisive game of round 3. Both Robson and Gelfand are known for favouring principled, theoretical lines, and that is precisely what they did in their direct encounter. The young US grandmaster prevailed following an engaging strategic battle. In the Challengers, Mateusz Bartel beat Vaclav Finek and is now the sole leader with 2½/3 points. | Photo: Anežka Kružíková

6/23/2023 – The highly anticipated match of the day was between SG Alpine Warriors and Ganges Grandmasters. The sole reason could be deduced: it featured the battle between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand. We got a glimpse of the Carlsen we are familiar with — one tiny positional inaccuracy and he will punish you. However, that win did not turn out enough for the team as Richard Rapport and Bella Khotenashvili scored important victories over D Gukesh and Elisabeth Paehtz, which meant SG Alpine Warriors had lost to Ganges Grandmasters (6-11). Balan Alaskan Knights bounced back after their loss against SGAW by defeating upGrad Mumba Masters by a huge margin (5-14). Four matches will be played tomorrow, starting with SG Alpine Warriors vs Triveni Continental Kings from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. | Photo: Tech Mahindra Global Chess League

6/23/2023 – The Saint Louis Chess Club announced the appointment of Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan as its Chief Commentator and Spokesperson. Now a Saint Louis resident, Yasser joins more than twenty other grandmasters who call the city home, one of just a few cities in the world with as many grandmasters in residence. Yasser is a four-time U.S. champion, a former world championship candidate and an inductee to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

6/23/2023 – In his new Power Play Show, GM Daniel King tests the viewers’ killer instincts. In the last-round game from Norway Chess between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, a position arose which was highly tactical and could have led to a swift conclusion! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

6/23/2023 – All five games in the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival finished drawn, leaving Vincent Keymer in the sole lead. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Matuesz Bartel and Benjamin Gledura both won with white to join Vaclav Finek in the lead with 1½/2 points. Bartel obtained a fine win over Czech IM Richard Stalmach, whose approach in the French Defence proved ineffective against Bartel’s energetic play. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/23/2023 – The last time Vishy Anand played a rated tournament game was on 9th October 2022 at European Club Cup. After eight months, the maestro did not show any rust on the board. In fact, he felt very optimistic about his position against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. He felt that his queen and rook were flooding towards the kingside. The other former world champion in his team, Yifan Hou scored the second decisive game of the match against Alexandra Kosteniuk. Thus, Chingari Gulf Titans lost to Ganges Grandmasters 0-3 (4-10) without conceding a single match. Four matches will be played tomorrow starting with SG Alpine Warriors vs Balan Alaskan Knights from 2 p.m. local time. Photo: Jio Cinema live stream

6/22/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #573 Merijn van Delft takes a close look at a line of the Catalan that has recently become popular and seems to offer Black good chances. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/22/2023 – Regional powerhouse Vietnam continues to dominate in standard chess after six rounds of play. Vietnamese players occupy the top three positions in the Open U-8, Open U-10, Open U-12, Open U-14, Open U-16 and Open U-18 categories, and it is a similar story in the Girls U-8 & U-10 Combined and Girls U-18 categories. | Photos: Peter Long

6/22/2023 – The Prague Chess Festival kicked off on Wednesday. Both the Masters and the Challengers saw four draws and a decisive game each. In the Masters, top seed Wang Hao was defeated by German star Vincent Keymer, who got a superior endgame out of a sharp, theoretical variation, and converted it proficiently. In the Challengers, 13-year-old Czech FM Vaclav Finek beat Indian GM Akash G with the white pieces. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/22/2023 – "I am thrilled to share some exciting news with you," wrote us ChessBase sysop Angom Nongsha, who had just won the title. Not in chess, but in a related field. "I have emerged victorious in both the Asian Chessboxing Championship and the Chessboxing World Cup 2023!" he wrote. This sport has a long tradition (we have links to many reports). In this article Nongsha describes his success in the most recent events, in his own words.

6/21/2023 – The second edition of the Colònia de Sant Jordi International Chess Festival came to an end last Sunday in Mallorca. English CM Ankush Khandelwal, a 4-time Pentamind world champion, was proclaimed champion of the International Open. Famed streamer Anna Cramling was the strongest woman player in the open, and successfully streamed her games on Twitch. The Masters tournament, a 10-player single round-robin, was won by Spanish IM Aarón Alonso. | Photos: Tournament’s Facebook page

6/21/2023 – Dommaraju Gukesh continues his incredible ascent at the elite chess circuit. In an interview given to World Chess, the 17-year-old talks about his development as a chess player, his strengths and (many) weaknesses and his opinions on the best players of all time. Referring to Bobby Fischer, Gukesh states: “It feels like he’s just the purest genius of our game”. | Photo: World Chess