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

7/21/2022 – The SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament, the third event in this year’s Grand Chess Tour, kicked off Wednesday in Zagreb. Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the contenders of the last World Championship match, were paired up against each other in the first round and drew their game. Once the day’s action was over, Alireza Firouzja emerged as the sole leader with 5 out of 6 points (wins are worth 2 points in the rapid section). | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/20/2022 – In his “Game of the Week” show Merijn van Delft recaps a lovely attacking game from the second round of the Sparkassen Open in Dortmund. Thomas Beerdsen employed a strong novelty, which was connected to an amazing concept! | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/20/2022 – With a day’s delay due to the change in the field of participants, defending champion Vishy Anand played his first game on Tuesday at the NC World Masters 2022. With Black, he drew round-1’s winner Michael Adams. The second game in the NC World Masters offered everything one could expect from this chess variation, as both kings were under fire throughout the game. In the end, Daniel Fridman prevailed over Dmitrij Kollars. Follow | Follow today’s action live with expert commentary! | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/20/2022 – With their victories today, Lê Quang Liêm and Andrey Esipenko climbed to first and second places in the Biel Grandmaster Triathlon. Esipenko defeated former leader Gukesh, while Lê prevailed against Keymer. There was also a change of leader in the Ladies’ Quadriathlon, with France’s Margaux Moracchini taking the lead for the first time. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

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

7/17/2022 – The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will hold its second Major of the season, the FTX Crypto Cup, in Miami from August 15 to 21. But first, a thrilling battle for qualification in the sixth tour event of the season will take place online from July 10 to 17, titled the FTX Road to Miami. | Follow the games live with expert commentary! The action kicks off at 18.00 CEST (12.00 EDT, 21.30 IST)

7/16/2022 – The Schara-Hennig Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4!?) is now over 100 years old. Recently the gambit has received more attention - also thanks to Magnus Carlsen's games against Sam Shankland and Le Quang this year. Our new author, GM Lucian Miron, takes a closer look at the pawn sacrifice in the latest ChessBase Magazine #208. "if you are tired of constantly being under pressure when White plays 1.d4 and only the main lines, go for the Schara-Hennig Gambit!" he concludes. Take a look!

7/16/2022 – In the previous article composer Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen showed us how he strips ideas he has seen in tournament games to construct a proper endgame study. Today he shows us the alternate strategy: massaging the position and the brilliant idea to make it into full-fledged study that at first sight barely resembles the original game. The description of this process appeared in The Macedonian Problemist.

7/16/2022 – Wei Yi and Levon Aronian will play the 2-set final match of the FTX Road to Miami online tournament on Saturday and Sunday. Wei knocked out Richard Rapport, while Aronian got the better of Jan-Krzysztof Duda in semis. Both finalists have already secured a spot in the coming FTX Crypto Cup, which will be played in Miami next month.