6/7/2021 – The first two decisive results of the Superbet Chess Classic were seen in Sunday’s second round, as the top seed and the bottom seed won their games and are now sharing the lead. Fabiano Caruana defeated Constantin Lupulescu, while Bogdan-Daniel Deac [pictured] stunned Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/7/2021 – When you play 1.d4, one of the most common openings that you will encounter is the King's Indian Defence. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 how do continue? GM Jan Werle of the Netherlands suggests 5.f3 – the Saemisch Variation. Guess what: you can also use the same antidote against the Benoni! Jan, who has published a ChessBase DVD on the subject, shows you how this works – in this video stream with ChessBase India. It is the perfect 1½ lesson to build your understanding of this opening.

6/6/2021 – Often times during a chess game you have to make a choice between waiting and initiating concrete action. Star columnist Jon Speelman notes that “this eerie silence before battle is perhaps the most difficult moment psychologically”, and goes on to show how even world champion Magnus Carlsen can take a wrong turn from time to time. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

6/6/2021 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 30th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to talk about the right exchange. | Photo: Tommy Grooten

6/5/2021 – A rather quiet round on opening day saw all five games finishing drawn at the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. The one exciting encounter of the round saw Anish Giri going for complications at every turn against late replacement Bogdan-Daniel Deac. In the end, it was the Dutchman who needed to tread lightly to save a half point. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

6/5/2021 – The 2021 African Continental Championships were held on May 17-28 at the Crossroads Hotel in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. The top players from the continent fought to get one of the fours spots granted to participate in the upcoming World Cup. Egyptian grandmasters Ahmed Adly, Amin Bassem, Fawzy Adham and Hesham Abdelrahman finished atop the standings. Diana Mihajlova reports from the ‘warm heart of Africa’

6/5/2021 – White's continuation in the diagram position truly belongs into the category "very special". How about a little test: how did White continue here and was this move among your first three candidate moves?

6/4/2021 – The European Qualifier to the World Cup was played as a hybrid tournament last week, with participants playing from approved venues monitored by foreign arbiters. A total of 36 players obtained spots in the World Cup, scheduled to take place from July 10 to August 6 in Sochi. Highlights from the massive event include a 14-year-old girl knocking out an experienced grandmaster, and a young Slovak player offering a draw after Boris Gelfand hung his queen due to a mouse slip. | Pictured: GM Jergus Pechac

6/4/2021 – The final of the FTX Crypto Cup, which ended on Monday, could hardly have been more exciting, as Magnus Carlsen and Wesley So fought a thrilling duel that Carlsen only won with a victory in the eleventh and final encounter, the Armageddon game. The stakes were high for both sides and Carlsen and So made a few more or less serious mistakes and allowed themselves some unpleasantly short draws, but all in all the level of the match was still high. Daniel King took a closer look at the "best game" of the final. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

6/4/2021 – Lawrence Trent and Arne Kaehler talk about what happened chess-wise last week. They give their opinions on various topics, and encourage you to think about the subject, analyse games, or read the articles thoroughly yourself. This week they discuss a lot of studies, and Lawrence does an impressive job trying to solve them. They also analyse a game from the Grand-Prix, and talk about the Isle of Man tournament, and the rather controversial idea to set candidate spots for the tournament winners.

6/4/2021 – The Global Women’s Online Chess Challenge "The Queens’ Festival", a series of continental and global women’s online chess tournaments and educative side events, starts on June 11, 2021. Female players from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas will first be able to participate in the Continental Online Blitz Qualification Tournaments and those who qualify will advance to the Queens’ Online Individual and Team Finals.

6/4/2021 – The ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. This issue offers games from two major events, the Magnus Carlsen Invitational and the Opera Euro Rapid, 547 games, 3 opening videos, 12 opening surveys, demo, lectures and exercises for training. It also includes games annotated by Anish Giri, Wesley So and Jan-Krzysztof Duda to mention a few. Prof. Nagesh Havanur takes a look.