8/9/2026 – One of the world's strongest women's super-tournaments returns to Saint Louis this summer as the 2026 Cairns Cup welcomes ten of the world's top women chess players to compete for a $250,000 prize fund - one of the largest in women's chess. The tournament will take place on 10-19 August at the recently expanded Saint Louis Chess Club (STLCC), where it will run alongside the prestigious Sinquefield Cup, creating one of the world's premier showcases of elite chess. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club

8/9/2026 – It’s often the small tricks that make training clearer and more effective. One such feature in ChessBase´26 is the ability to insert null moves. This can be especially helpful in chess training or analysis. In this short and concise tutorial, you'll learn how to use null moves effectively.

8/9/2026 – The 112th edition of the British Chess Championship is taking place on 1-9 August at the University of Warwick in Coventry. The main event is a 9-round Swiss open with a classical time control. Topping the starting rank are Luke McShane, Michael Adams and Shreyas Royal. Also noteworthy is the presence of 11-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan, already the highest-rated woman player in this year's edition. | Follow the games live starting at 15.30 CEST (9.30 ET, 19.00 IST)

8/9/2026 – Following three days of group-stage competition and Friday's quarterfinals of the inaugural FIDE World University Team Championship, the original field of sixteen universities had been reduced to four: Kazakh National University of Sports (KNUS), Ural State Mining University, Saint Louis University, and The University of Texas at Dallas. On Saturday, the finalists were confirmed: Saint Louis University and Ural State Mining University.

8/8/2026 – Shreyas Royal has taken the sole lead at the British Chess Championship after seven rounds in Coventry. The 17-year-old followed a draw against Svyatoslav Bazakutsa with consecutive wins over Bodhana Sivanandan and top seed Luke McShane to reach 6/7. Bazakutsa is among five players half a point behind. Royal will face nine-time British champion Michael Adams in Saturday's penultimate round. | Photo: Yury Krylov

8/8/2026 – Reversed-colour Benoni, Blumenfeld and Benko structures are the focus of Volume 14 of Ivan Sokolov's Understanding Middlegame Strategy series. Hannes Langrock, an International Master, editor at a fiction publishing house and player for ESV Nickelhütte Aue, reviews the course. | Photos: ChessBase

8/6/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu retained the lead after the first nine blitz rounds of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, scoring 6/9 to extend his advantage over Javokhir Sindarov to 1½ points. Sindarov remained the closest challenger after three consecutive wins, while Wesley So lost ground. The direct encounter between Sindarov and Pragg proved pivotal, as Sindarov failed to convert a winning pawn ending and had to settle for a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/6/2026 – Every summer, Ivan Sokolov visits the ChessBase studio in Hamburg to record new courses. Over the years, these recordings have developed into some of the most important middlegame training series in the ChessBase catalogue, aimed primarily at ambitious players rated 1800 and above. Sokolov is refreshingly direct about the level required: “1700 and below, please find a different course.” His lessons are demanding, practical and based on coaching methods he has refined while working with elite players and national teams.

8/5/2026 – "Playmakers on the chessboard" was the title of the high-profile blitz tournament used to determine the tie-break standings in the women's event. Song Yuxin won ahead of Nataliya Buksa and Klaudia Kulon. Dinara Wagner had to settle for fourth place. In the A Open, defending champion Matthias Bluebaum conceded his first half-point against IM Yu Tian Poh. The young German IM Luka Schwitkowski could have taken the outright lead after a strong game, but eventually lost a theoretically drawn endgame. As a result, his opponent Amilal Munkhdalai is the sole leader after four rounds. | Photos: Dariusz Gorzinski / Nils Rohde

8/5/2026 – Svyatoslav Bazakutsa took sole possession of the lead at the British Chess Championship after defeating nine-time champion Michael Adams in round four. The 18-year-old Ukrainian now has a perfect 4/4, half a point ahead of a five-player chasing group. Among them is 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, who continued her strong start by beating fifth seed Ameet Ghasi with the black pieces. | Photo: Yury Krylov

8/5/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu finished the rapid section of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in first place with 12/18 points, despite losing to Jorden van Foreest in the final round. Javokhir Sindarov trails by one point, with Wesley So another point behind. Praggnanandhaa recorded four wins, four draws and one defeat across nine rounds, while also entering the top ten of the live rapid world rankings for the first time in his career. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

8/5/2026 – ... as the Inaugural FIDE World University Team Chess Championship gets underway, bringing together university teams from across the globe for the first-ever edition of the competition. Hosted by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as part of FIDE's Year of Chess in Education 2026, the championship celebrates not only sporting excellence, but also the growing role of chess in higher education.