8/6/2021 – In the first set of the Chessable Masters semifinals, Le Quang Liem and Wesley So took the lead in their matches against Levon Aronian and Vladislav Artemiev respectively. Le won twice with the white pieces, while So scored a single victory against his Russian opponent. Expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

8/6/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at games from the Chessable Masters Tournament and enjoys and admires the genius of Magnus Carlsen. | 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.

8/6/2021 – Gata Kamsky won the Grandmaster Triathlon of the Biel Chess Festival. But there were many more winners: the Master Open was won by Salem Saleh in a photo finish. The best woman player was Vaishali. In the Amateur Open, the juniors dominated and the youngest on the podium was eleven-year-old Neeraj Harish from the USA. On the rest day, the players got insights into parts of life in Switzerland. | Photos: Schachfestival Biel

8/6/2021 – In ChessBase Magazine #201 (May/June 2021) IM Robert Ris presented an interesting line in the Sicilian Four Knights Variation: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4 Qc7 9.f4 and now 9...Rb8. The rook move is an interesting alternative to the deeply analysed main line 9...Qb6. Meanwhile, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in particular has tried 9...Rb8 in a number of games, and Levon Aronian recently came up with an entirely new move: 9...Bb7. In the current issue of ChessBase Magazine Extra #202 Robert Ris analyses these new developments on a video. Take a look!

8/6/2021 – Thanks to a 30-move victory over Sergey Karjakin, Jan-Krzysztof Duda was crowned champion at the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi. The Polish grandmaster had an undefeated performance in the 24-day event and knocked out none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals. Carlsen, who had high praise for Duda, beat Vladimir Fedoseev for a second day in a row to claim third place. | Photos: David Llada

8/5/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look how Sergey Karjakin won a must-win game in spectacular fashion against Sam Shankland at the FIDE World Cup - with the King's Indian Attack as a surprise weapon. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/3/2021 – In October 2010, on the initiative and with financial support of London-based French pianist, composer, singer-songwriter, and chess fan Jason Kouchak, a large chess set was installed in Holland Park in London. Recently, and with a long Corona-related delay, Kouchak celebrated the ten-year anniversary of this event with a few friends. It was not the only public celebration of chess in London this summer: In July, Trafalgar Square saw a big chess festival with references to Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland who was also a big chess fan. | Photos: Julian Paix (if not otherwise indicated)

8/3/2021 – After analysing her first game of the World Cup in the last episode, today Svitlana Demchenko takes a more in-depth look at the second game. The game starts with the Petroff, which is considered one of the most drawish opening choices out there. After most of the pieces have been exchanged, a couple of pawns, two knights and two kings remain on the board. Now the endgame is very difficult for Svitlana. But luckily, we all know, she has some smart moves in her repertoire.

8/3/2021 – Wesley So continued his excellent run at the Chessable Masters and was the clear winner of the preliminary stage with an 11/15 score. There was not much of a fight to make it into the quarterfinals, as all but one favourite had almost fully secured their spots in the knockout with two rounds to go. | Pictured: Hikaru Nakamura | Photo: Amruta Mokal

8/3/2021 – In round 5 of the Grandmaster Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival, Gata Kamsky won with Black against Alan Pichot and extended his lead as his closest rivals Kirill Alekseenko and Nihal Sarin both drew: Alekseenko against Noel Studer, Sarin against Vincent Keymer. In the MTO Master Open the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan defended his lead. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/3/2021 – In the diagram position both sides have dangerous passed pawns. But it is Black to move and he faces a choice: should he try to stop the white pawns with his king or should he push his g-pawn ahead? What would you do - and why?

8/2/2021 – A draw with white was enough for Alexandra Kosteniuk to claim victory at the first edition of the Women’s World Cup in Sochi. Aleksandra Goryachkina could not create imbalances in her must-win game and ended up agreeing to a draw in a lost position. In the match for third place, Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk drew again and will decide their match in tiebreaks. Meanwhile, in the open section, Sergey Karjakin moved on to the final, where he will face either Magnus Carlsen or Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who will return to the playing hall on Tuesday to face off in rapid and blitz tiebreakers. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova