7/22/2021 – After half the players returned home and the other half had a rest day before continuing the fight to reach the Candidates Tournament, the World Cup has resumed today with 32 players still going in the open section and 16 players battling it out in the women’s category. This seems to be a good time to take stock of what might happen in the next two weeks or so. | Pictured: Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/22/2021 – In Dortmund Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik tried a new variant of chess: they played a four-game match, in which castling was not allowed. After four interesting games Anand won the match 2.5-1.5, and both players, the organizers in Dortmund and the public agreed that the experiment was a success.

7/22/2021 – 20 July was International Chess Day and it was celebrated all over the world. With "Chess Unlimited" Kineke Mulder (pictured, on the left) celebrates chess in Vienna throughout the year and brings the game to the streets and to the people. During the lockdown this was impossible, and Mulder was happy to share her chess enthusiasm on International Chess Day - with a lot of amateurs and German Grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht (pictured, on the right). | Photos: Sebastian Siebrecht/ Kineke Mulder/ Erste Bank

7/21/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look a close look at a stunning game with a brutal rook sacrifice from the World Cup: Michal Krasenkow's fine attacking win against Kirill Alekseenko. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/21/2021 – 50 years ago, on 20 July 1971, Bobby Fischer (pictured) and Bent Larsen played the sixth and final game of their semi-final match of the Candidates. Fischer had won the first five games and he also won the sixth. It was Fischer's 19th win in a row against some of the world's best players, a sensational and unrivalled winning streak. In his new book "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman takes a close look at this winning streak and Fischer's dominance in the years 1970 to 1971. Confident, entertaining, and with new insights about Fischer's strengths and weaknesses.

7/21/2021 – An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set's value lies in just one piece: the knight. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than ten people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. It is fascinating to watch the high-end pieces being made.

7/21/2021 – Upsets continue at the FIDE World Cups in Sochi, as Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were knocked out by Nodirbek Abdusattorov (pictured) and Haik Martirosyan in the rapid and blitz playoffs of round 3. Meanwhile, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi and Mariya Muzychuk won lengthy, exciting matches. The players will have a rest day on Wednesday. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/20/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will continue recapping the World Cup and the focus game will be Jumabaev's surprising win with Black against world number two, Fabiano Caruana, which eliminated Caruana from the tournament! | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/20/2021 – The 2021 U.S. Senior, U.S. Junior, and U.S. Girls’ Junior Championships kicked off on Friday, July 16, at the Saint Louis Chess Club. After four rounds, Gregory Kaidanov is leading the seniors’ event, Hans Niemann tops the standings in the juniors’ tournament, while three players are sharing first place in the girls’ championship. | Photo: Crystal Fuller

7/20/2021 – Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the 7th world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time!

7/20/2021 – In the diagram position White is a pawn up but can she win? And how? Should White push her h-pawn to break through with her pawns? Or her f-pawn? Or should White wait and bring the king into a better position?

7/20/2021 – On 20 July 1924 the FIDE was founded in Paris, and in 1966 the UNESCO proposed to celebrate this date as "International Chess Day". Of course, you can celebrate chess every day but FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and David Llada, the FIDE Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, still have some ideas how chess players all over the world can help to make today a very special day for chess.