7/15/2025 – At the Dutch National Chess Championships, Jorden and Machteld van Foreest delivered a remarkable double triumph for the Van Foreest chess family. Jorden van Foreest claimed the men's title with an impressive attacking victory over Loek van Wely in the final. In the women's event, Machteld van Foreest won in the playoff against Robin Duson. | Photos: Dutch Chess Federation

7/15/2025 – After playing the Accentus 960 tournament and the Rapid tournament, the grandmasters of the Masters and Challengers could enjoy a rest day before they start to play classical chess on Tuesday. Meanwhile, the players in the Masters Open began their tournament. Murali Karthikeyan is the Elo favourite and started with a win. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/15/2025 – Gukesh knows where to put his pieces. In the diagram position he had to find a way to stop Black's pawns. He did so and went on to win one of the most discussed games of the year. What did he do?

7/15/2025 – Golden State Warriors forward Quinten Post has claimed the title of first-ever NBA Chess Champion, winning the blitz tournament at the inaugural Chesstival, a unique crossover event co-hosted by Derrick Rose and Freestyle Chess at the Wynn Las Vegas. Post scored an impressive 4.5 out of 5, defeating several top basketball personalities in five fast-paced rounds. | Photo: Tania Sachdev and Quentin Post playing "Head and Hand" | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Freestyle Chess

7/14/2025 – In the new episode of his Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft looks at a game from the Dutch Championship that helped Jorden Van Foreest to win the title: Van Foreest's win again Sergei Tiviakov, who is notoriously hard to beat. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/14/2025 – In the Endgame Magic Show #303, Karsten Müller shows a selection of endgames from the Uz Chess Cup. Guest tonight: Arne Kähler| You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/10/2025 – The area around Lone Pine is best known as the backdrop for Western films such as "Django Unchained". However, chess history buffs will also recognise it as the venue for important chess tournaments in the 1970s. Roger Lorenz visited the site searching for clues.

7/10/2025 – This week only (7–14 July), take advantage of ChessBase's Summer Special with major discounts on top training material. Ivan Sokolov's full "Understanding Middlegame Strategies series (Vol. 1–11)" is available for €209.90, down from €299.90. Also on offer: Martin Breutigam's German-language "1.d4! A Modern Repertoire (Vol. 1 & 2)", now €49.90 instead of €69.90. Ideal resources for serious club and tournament players looking to improve!

7/10/2025 – Twelve matches at the FIDE Women's World Cup will be decided in Friday's tiebreaks after a tense day of chess saw both solid draws and dramatic turnarounds. While many favourites, including Lei Tingjie, Humpy Koneru and Tan Zhongyi, secured qualification, others must battle again for a place in round three. Meanwhile, 15-year-old WFM Elnaz Kaliakhmet caused the day's biggest upset by eliminating Georgian GM Nino Batsiashvili. | Photos: Anna Shtourman, Polina Bovina and Andrei Anosov / FIDE

7/9/2025 – Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi secured a convincing victory over US representative Levon Aronian in the 2025 Yanwu Cup Grandmaster Match, held in Yancheng, China. Originally scheduled for eight games, the match concluded early after Wei Yi built an unassailable lead. Featuring both classical and rapid formats, the event highlighted Wei's consistent form and boosted his international rankings. | Photo: Frans Peeters / Tata Steel Chess

7/9/2025 – Svitlana presents an unconventional yet effective way to combat the English Opening by responding with 1...e5 and then an early ...h5, aiming to unsettle White's typical kingside fianchetto plans. The line offers dynamic attacking potential with ideas like ...h4, or even ...g5, depending on how White responds, and even top blitz players have experimented with it. While engines consider some White responses (like Nf3 followed by h4) slightly better, the surprise value and aggressive intent behind this line make it a strong practical weapon, especially in blitz and rapid games.

7/9/2025 – The Albin Counter Gambit is a provocative attempt to combat the Queen's Gambit: after 1.d4 d5 2.c4, Black sends the second centre pawn forward unprotected with 2...e5. After 3.dxe5, the idea behind the pawn sacrifice is to advance boldly with 3...d4, limiting White’s queen's knight and claiming space advantage in the centre. This is an ambitious move, but one that promises active play for Black. While analysing a highly topical variation, our author Luc Henris recently came across the astonishing piece sacrifice 10...Bc5 – which turned out to be ‘a completely new and incredible concept for Black’! He shares his discovery with you in the current ChessBase Magazine #226. Take a look at this week's free sample!