6/17/2022 – The first round of the Candidates will start today at 15.00 CEST (09.00 ET, 18.30 IST) in Madrid, Spain. At the press conference that started the Candidates officially, Fabiano Caruana, who has already played in three Candidates Tournaments, and who was the only player participating in the press conference, explained which tournament strategy promises success. Report and video...

6/17/2022 – Pentala Harikrishna beat Saleh Salem in the penultimate round of the Masters tournament in Prague, thus climbing to the shared lead going into the final day of action. Similarly, in the Challengers, Hans Niemann collected a second win in a row to catch Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the lead. Friday’s final round kicks off four hours earlier than usual, at 11.00 CEST. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/16/2022 – This week Robert Ris looks at a game between the two young Indian Grandmasters Aravindh and Erigaisi, which was played at the MPL Indian Chess Tour and is a good example of Aravindh's attacking skills. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/16/2022 – The French Defence is an opening with a marked strategic character, but it also offers rich tactical possibilities to both sides. This video course is aimed as a tactical guide for Black, featuring the most typical combinations for the French structures. The reader is also invited to find combinations delivered by White, in order to become aware of the possible dangers.

6/16/2022 – The 2022 FIDE Presidential election will be held on August 7, 2022, at the FIDE General Assembly in Chennai, India. The Electoral Commission, after a preliminary exam, approved the following list of valid Presidential ticket candidacies: Mr. Andrii Baryshpolets and Mr. Peter-Heine Nielsen; Mr. Inalbek Cheripov and Mr. Lewis Ncube; Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich and Mr. Anand Viswanathan; Mr. Bachar Kouatly and Mr. Ian Wilkinson.

6/16/2022 – Le Quang Liem continues to lead the Masters tournament at the Prague Chess Festival, as wins for Saleh Salem and Sam Shankland in round 7 did not affect the status of the fight at the top of the standings table. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, co-leaders Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Vincent Keymer drew their direct encounter. Top seed Hans Niemann scored a full point, and is now in sole third place, a half point behind the leaders. | Pictured: Kamil Warchol, co-leader in the Futures tournament. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/15/2022 – Rating favourite Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu (pictured, on the left) won the Targu Mures Open, a tournament that is part of the Romanian Grand Prix, a series of strong open events in Romania. In round 1 Nisipeanu lost against WGM Mihaela Sandu but he recovered and finished sole first with 7.0/9, ahead of the 13-year old Ukrainian IM Ihor Samunenkov who was sole second with 6.5/9. Irina Bulmaga (pictured, on the right) won the women's prize and sent a report. | Photos: CS Juvenes | Facebook

6/15/2022 – In 2019, the Prague Chess Festival took place for the first time and currently, the 4th Prague Chess Festival is played - with two interesting grandmaster tournaments, the Masters and the Challengers, an Open, the Futures, a tournament for young players, and a number of side events. In an interview, Petr Boleslav, organiser and tournament director of the Prague Chess Festival, talks about the background of the tournament and reveals why he decided to become a chess organiser. | Photo: Petr Boleslav at the opening of the Chess Festival | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/15/2022 – The Budapest Gambit (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4) has its most loyal followers in club chess. 1.d4 players who are confronted with the gambit have to reckon with the fact that their opponents are far more familiar with the positions, if only because of the number of games they have played with that system. In the current ChessBase Magazine Extra 207 Ivan Sokolov shows a little-known but very convenient way for White to gain a nice advantage without extensive study of opening theory. You can watch an excerpt from his video analysis here!

6/14/2022 – Le Quang Liem grabbed the sole lead at the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival after beating Saleh Salem in Tuesday’s sixth round. Pentala Harikrishna is in sole second place a half point back. In the Challengers, former sole leader Vincent Keymer was held to a draw by Marcin Krzyzanowski, which allowed Nodirbek Abdusattorov to climb to the shared lead thanks to a win over Max Warmerdam. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/14/2022 – Almost eight years ago, in 2014, it was with deep chagrin that we announced the demise of the decades-old chess column in the venerable New York Times. Its most recent upkeeper at the time was the New York Times journalist, Dylan Loeb McClain, who still writes about chess affairs for the paper. It is with pleasure that we can trumpet its resurrection at the hands of GM Daniel Naroditsky.

6/14/2022 – Mate ends the game and mating attacks also occur in the endgame. In the diagrammed position it is White to move. What should he do?