7/2/2026 – Pranav Venkatesh and Anna Muzychuk have qualified for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship through the first part of the 2026 Freestyle Friday Championship. Pranav topped the open standings after 19 weeks of online play, while Muzychuk finished first in the women's standings. Both will join the already confirmed players in Weissenhaus, where the women's and open events are scheduled for February 2027. | Image: Freestyle Chess

7/2/2026 – Alireza Firouzja took the sole lead after the first day of the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia in Zagreb, scoring two wins and a draw in the opening three rapid rounds. His victories over Ivan Saric and Bogdan-Daniel Deac were not straightforward, while a third-round draw against Anish Giri left him on 5/6. Four players are one point behind: Giri, Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/1/2026 – Bodhana Sivanandan took on the virtual version of José Raúl Capablanca in Fritz 21 at Master Candidate strength and impressed with her calm, confident decision-making throughout the game. Despite facing one of history's greatest positional players, she consistently found strong plans, converted her advantage into a favourable endgame, and secured a convincing victory. The post-game analysis highlighted her excellent endgame understanding and tactical awareness, showing why she is regarded as one of the brightest young talents in chess.

7/1/2026 – “Mate is great!”: Combinations, opening tactics, calculation drills – loads of training exercises + four interactive videos with Oliver Reeh – “Everything's ruined on the 50th move”: Peter Heine Nielsen comments on Carlsen’s game against Erdogmus at the TePe Sigeman 2026 – “Underrated and highly dangerous”: Yago Santiago examines the Sicilian Wing Gambit in the version 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.b4!? – “A spectacle guaranteed”: Dorian Rogozenco presents the “Modern Classic” Kramnik–Shirov from Linares 1994 – “Javokhir Sindarov, the new challenger”: ChessBase authors comment on 20 winning games by the young Uzbek in the “Special”, and much more. New: Download version including a comprehensive and redesigned accompanying PDF (42 pages)! Take a look – a sample chapter awaits you!

7/1/2026 – Magnus Carlsen may have lost a significant number of rating points at Norway Chess, but he remains the undisputed world number one. World Champion Gukesh continues to lead the junior rankings, though only by a narrow margin. In the girls' rankings, Anastasiia Hnatyshyn is the new number one.

7/1/2026 – The 39th edition of the "Ciudad de León" Masters will take place from 3 to 5 July, with Le Quang Liem, Kirill Alekseenko, Faustino Oro and Jaime Santos in the four-player knockout. Le returns as defending champion, while Oro arrives with grandmaster-elect status and Santos once again represents the host city. The XI Open Internacional "Magistral de León" will be played alongside the main event. | Image: Official website

6/29/2026 – The second volume of the FritzTrainer Master Class series revisits the games and career of Mikhail Tal (pictured in 1959), the eighth world chess champion, combining biographical context with training material. The FritzTrainer examines Tal's openings, strategy, endgame play and tactical imagination through video lessons by Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller. Two examples, against Antonio Medina and Boris Spassky, show how Tal's calculation and attacking instinct shaped his best-known games. | Photo: Anefo / Dutch National Archive

6/28/2026 – The inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 3 to 5 July 2026, combining open tournaments with elite showcase events across a three-day festival. Featuring a guaranteed $50,000 prize fund and offering FIDE Circuit and US Chess Grand Prix points, the competition is open to players of all ratings, with participation limited to 300 entrants. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov headline a programme that also includes a Creator Invitational and blitz finals.

6/28/2026 – The FIDE World Youth Chess Championships 2026 concluded in Montesilvano, Italy, with six new champions crowned across the under-14, under-16 and under-18 categories. The event brought together 758 players from 84 countries and produced several close finishes, including titles decided on tiebreaks and by final-round results. Azerbaijan, whose players won two individual gold medals, received the Best Federation Trophy ahead of Canada and Poland. | Photos: Mark Livshitz and Niklesh Jain

6/28/2026 – Do you know the powerful training tool in ChessBase´26? It's called "Replay Training"! This great feature lets you actively go through games move by move—sharpening your strategic and tactical understanding in a targeted way. Whether under time pressure or not, the choice is yours. Train in a realistic setting, get instant feedback, and systematically improve your play—whether you're a beginner or an ambitious tournament player. In this tutorial, we'll guide you step by step through how Replay Training works. Let's get started!

6/28/2026 – The International Chess Federation has introduced the FIDE Excellence Awards, a biennial programme recognising achievements across the global chess community during each Olympiad cycle. The first ceremony will be held in Samarkand in September 2026, during the Chess Olympiad. Nominations are open across regular and discretionary categories, covering players, federations, events, creators and social-impact projects. The deadline to submit nominations is 30 June.

6/27/2026 – Larry Christiansen is one of the finest players in the history of American chess. He was US Champion three times, represented the United States at nine Chess Olympiads, where he won a number of medals. In the Bundesliga, he played for SG Porz for many years and was once the league's top player with 12 points from 13 games. Today he turns 70. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Austin Fuller