7/22/2022 – Both the Grandmaster Triathlon and the Women’s Quadriathlon in Biel will feature direct encounters between the first and second placed participants in final-round battles for the respective titles. Le Quang Liem has a 3-point lead over Andrey Esipenko (a win is worth 4 points) in the GM Triatholn, while Iris Ciarletta has a 1-point lead over Zhuang Yongzhe in the ladies’ Quadriathlon. | The final round kicks off four hours earlier than usual, at 10.00 CEST. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/21/2022 – On Thursday, there was only one game on stage in the Golden Hall: the two winners from the previous round, Dmitrij Kollars and Viswanathan Anand, met in the NC World Masters. Kollars had a slight advantage in a rook endgame, but Anand managed to keep things under control and drew his younger opponent to keep the lead. Lara Schulze and Max Warmerdam won and are still leading the Women’s Sportland NRW Cup and the A-Open respectively. | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/21/2022 – This week Robert Ris discusses a sharp variation of the Sicilian Defence, explored this week by none others than Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Sometimes short draws can be very exciting! | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/21/2022 – In what can be only described as a wonderfully inspiring 'comeback' story, the 2022 Fields Medal was awarded, among others, to June Huh for his work in chromatic polynomials, stemming from a chess puzzle involving four knights. The Fields Medal is one of the most prestigious awards in Mathematics, given out only once every four years, to the brightest minds in the field. | Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

7/21/2022 – Ending months of speculation, Magnus Carlsen has officially announced he will not be defending his title in a rematch against Ian Nepomniachtchi come the end of 2022. As a result, the second-place winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, Ding Liren, will face the Russian to determine the new World Champion. (Photo: Albert Silver)

7/21/2022 – There were two decisive games in the No-Castling World Masters. Vishy Anand defeated Daniel Fridman and Dmitrij Kollars beat Michael Adams. In the Deutschland Grand Prix, Luke McShane remains in the lead after all three games ended in a draw on Wednesday. In the open tournament, Max Warmerdam and Tornike Sanikidze are sharing the lead. | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/18/2022 – The two German representatives, Matthias Blübaum and Rasmus Svane, at the Deutschland Grand Prix started with defeats in Sunday’s first round, as they lost their games against Luke McShane and Pavel Eljanov. Romanian rising star Bogdan-Daniel Deac defeated David Navara. McShane shared his thoughts on his remarkable win. | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/18/2022 – Levon Aronian beat Wei Yi in the finals of the FTX Road to Miami online tournament. By reaching the finals, both Aronian and Wei gained a ticket to the upcoming FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, where the players will meet in-person but will play their games online from individual computers.

7/17/2022 – In recent months, our columnist Jon Speelman had a couple of run-ins with technology, which have necessitated speaking to help lines, and in both cases he initially asked the wrong questions. A perfect excuse to reflect on those times when there are no forcing moves to make in a chess game — when asking ourselves the right questions is crucial. Games by Anatoly Karpov and Fabiano Caruana (pictured) are used to illustrate this topic. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

7/17/2022 – 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 87th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why playing the Benko Gambit might be a good choice for club players. | Photo: Pascal Simon

7/17/2022 – In the ’90s, Igor Naumkin left his native Moscow, as did many other Soviet players, in order to seek playing opportunities at the many tournaments in Europe. Their grandmaster titles would help to get invitations and participation at various opens on the continent and secure a livelihood. Igor passed on July 13, a month before turning 57 years old.| Photo: Giordano Macellari

7/17/2022 – With a win over former sole leader Le Quang Liem, Dommaraju Gukesh took the lead in the Grandmaster Triathlon at the Biel Chess Festival — and at 16 years, 1 month and 17 days he became the third-youngest player in history to cross the magic threshold of 2700 Elo points! | Photos: Biel Chess Festival