Kramnik Challenge: Liang sole leader

8/15/2021 – 18-year-old American grandmaster Awonder Liang collected 3½ points in Saturday’s four rounds to climb to sole first place at the Kramnik Challenge for young stars. Former co-leader Nodirbek Abdusattorov stumbled against Zhu Jhiner and now stands a full point behind, while Vincent Keymer kept up the pace and also scored 3½ points on the third day action — the German grandmaster is in clear second place with three rounds to go. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

RTU Open in Riga: Donchenko joins the leaders

8/14/2021 – Alexander Donchenko won a fifth game in a row on Saturday to join Igor Kovalenko and Narayanan in the shared lead on 6½ points at the Riga Techinal University Open. The German grandmaster will have the black pieces against Kovalenko in Sunday’s final round. The action begins at 10:00 CEST (4:00 ET, 10:00 UTC).

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Nakamura grabs the lead

8/14/2021 – Yet another action-packed day at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament saw Hikaru Nakamura grabbing the sole lead before entering the blitz section of the event. Nakamura beat Fabiano Caruana in their all-important direct encounter to leapfrog him in the standings table. The top scorer on Friday was Richard Rapport, who is now sharing second place with Caruana. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

Kramnik Challenge: Liang and Abdusattorov top the standings

8/14/2021 – Awonder Liang and Nodirbek Abdusattorov leapfrogged Vincent Keymer on day 2 of the Kramnik Challenge to take the lead with seven rounds to go in the online tournament. Liang kicked off the day with three consecutive wins and temporarily grabbed the sole lead, but a loss against Polina Shuvalova in round 8 allowed Abdusattorov to catch up with him on a 6/8 score. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE World Cup

Nepomniachtchi at work

8/14/2021 – In the diagram position, which is taken from a rapid game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Levon Aronian, White used his three pieces to get access to Black's weakened king and to finally hunt it down. What did the World Championship Challenger 2021 play?

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Lightning strikes twice - a deadly sac you need to see

8/13/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at two wins by Wesley So featuring the same crushing sacrifice, in the same opening, against the same opponent. Apparently lightning does strike twice. | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

News Review - How many professional chess players enjoy playing chess?

8/13/2021 – Lawrence and Arne predict the winners of the Kramnik Challenge, RTU, St. Louis Rapid, and the EIWCC. While doing so, they start philosophizing about how many professional chess players actually love their job. While the elite players can mostly make a living, if they win many chess games in tournaments, thousands of GM's have to struggle their way through chess life. Or not? Is chess a sport so far away from golf or football, that they shouldn't even be compared with each other at all? This, and other interesting topics, are being discussed in the last episode of August. "ChessBase News Review" will continue in September.

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Caruana beats Dominguez and So, leads

8/13/2021 – Fabiano Caruana climbed to sole first place at the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament after bouncing back from a loss against Sam Shankland with back-to-back victories over Leinier Dominguez and Wesley So on Thursday. Hikaru Nakamura is in sole second place after drawing all three of his games on day 2. | Photo: Bryan Adams

Berlin wins popular vote; will host the Grand Prix Series and other events in 2022

8/13/2021 – Berlin, the capital of Germany, will be the main host of the 2022 Grand Prix Series. The Series, a part of the World Chess Championship circuit, will run from February to April in a bespoke-designed chess arena. The city was chosen by World Chess, the gaming company that organizes the Series in partnership with FIDE, as well as by chess fans from around the world. | Photos: World Chess

Kramnik Challenge: Keymer in the sole lead

8/13/2021 – Vincent Keymer took an early lead at the Kramnik Challenge after scoring 3½ points in the four rounds played on Thursday. The German star stands a half point ahead of a 3-player chasing pack, which includes Christopher Yoo, Awonder Liang and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Expert analyses by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Schach-Bundesliga

Youth Chess Composing Challenge

8/12/2021 – The 5th Youth Chess Composing Challenge is open to the U23 generation, born no earlier than 01.01.1998. The thematic condition for the Mate in 2 contest is that in the initial position all four bishops, which should be fully involved in the play, must be in the corners of the board. There are examples of problems that more or less fulfil these stipulations, and now young composers are asked to come up with the finest examples.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: A new direction in the Queen's Gambit Declined

8/12/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at a fascinating game in which Black tried new ways in the Queen's Gambit Declined - which led to a little brilliancy. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

St. Louis Rapid & Blitz: Excitement galore

8/12/2021 – Three rounds of thrilling games were played on Wednesday at the start of the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament. Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Dominguez (pictured) finished the day sharing the lead on 5/6 points (wins are worth 2 points in the rapid section of the event). Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura stand a point behind. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Game of the Week 476: Wesley So - Le Quang Liem

8/11/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look at a fine attacking game between Wesley So and Le Quang Liem from the finals of the Chessable Masters Online Rapid Tournament, which was won by So. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The Kramnik Challenge for young stars kicks off Thursday

8/11/2021 – Chess legends Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik have joined forces with the Play Magnus Group to launch a new elite online tour designed to support rising young players and advance gender equality in the sport. The third event, dubbed the Kramnik Challenge, kicks off on August 11. The lineup includes youngest-ever French Grandmaster Marc’Andria Maurizzi.

RTU Open: A massive turnout

8/11/2021 – The Riga Technical University Open is taking place on August 9-15 at the international exhibition centre Kipsala in the Latvian capital. The tournament sees 176 players fighting for a €17,100 prize fund. German GM Alexander Donchenko is the top seed, and is followed closely by nine other 2600+ rated players, including six grandmasters hailing from India. After three rounds, nine players still have a perfect score.

The Weekly Show: One of my own!

8/11/2021 – In this week's "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent is doing something a little different: he will analyse the first "Over-the-Board" game he has played for about 18 months! It is his victory vs Torben Schulenburg from a match between the SK Norderstedt and the Chess Friends Hamburg in the "Oberliga", Germany's third league. Lawrence will also talk about the big news such as the Chessable Masters, World Cup winner etc. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here

Jorge Cori wins Mexican Open

8/11/2021 – The 66th edition of the Mexican Open took place on August 4-8 in Villahermosa, Tabasco. Seven concurrent tournaments were held, including an International Open and events reserved for women, seniors and amateurs. In the main event, top seed Jorge Cori from Peru was the clear winner. Sandro Mareco (Argentina) and Juan Carlos Obregón (Cuba) finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Official site

U.S. Open: Chess games, awards, signings, meetings

8/10/2021 – Grandmaster Aleksandr Lenderman won the U.S. Open with 8½ points out of 9 rounds. Mike Walder annotates Lenderman’s wins over Grandmasters Hans Niemann and John Michael Burke. Alexey Root reports on the awards presentations, book signings, and meetings held at the U.S. Open’s Cherry Hill, New Jersey site. | Photos: Alexey Root

Starting Wednesday: St. Louis Rapid & Blitz

8/10/2021 – The fourth leg of this year’s Grand Chess Tour will be played on August 11-15. The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz will host 10 of the top players from around the world including world number 2, Fabiano Caruana (pictured), and 2021 Paris Rapid and Blitz winner, Wesley So. The tournament will showcase four GCT full tour players and six wildcards, including American favorites Hikaru Nakamura, Leinier Dominguez and first time participants, Sam Shankland and Jeffery Xiong. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Short's immortal king walk

8/10/2021 – Svitlana sets up a classic position between Nigel Short and Jan Timman. But before we start with the famous position, we derail a bit to the Alekhine Opening. It turns out, Svitlana Demchenko has a genuinely good score when playing the Alekhine Defense as Black. After the popular example, Svitlana shows us a similar technic from one of her own games, which she played in her chess club in Ottawa.

Highlights from Dortmund 2021

8/10/2021 – Chess tournaments in Dortmund, Germany, have a long and illustrious tradition. In 2021, the Sparkassen Chess Trophy continued this tradition. Vishy Anand won a "No Castling" match against Vladimir Kramnik, Pavel Eljanov won the "Deutschland Cup". Now, the organizers released a video that reviews highlights of this year's tournament. In a personal statement during the award ceremony, Carsten Hensel, former manager of Kramnik, and driving force behind the organisation of the tournament, had already explained why Dortmund 2021 was a real highlight for him.

Long may it last

8/10/2021 – The duel bishop against knight is often tricky. When defending, the side with the knight often tries to build a fortress to exploit the color blindness of the bishop. In the diagram position Black is two pawns down but built a fortress. However, will it hold? And, if so, how does Black make it last forever?

Grand Swiss tournaments to be held in Riga

8/10/2021 – The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss will be held in Riga in the format and dates originally scheduled: from 25 October to 8 November 2021. The difficult decision to relocate the tournament from Douglas, its original planned location, was forced due to the strict COVID-19 restrictions still in place in the Isle of Man. | Photo: Diego Delso