34. Torneo Magistral Ajedrez Ciudad de Leon

6/30/2021 – The traditional Chess Masters Tournament of the city of Leon goes online again. The four participants are Leinier Dominguez, Boris Gelfand, Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun and Jaime Santos, who represents the host. The tournament starts today at 15:30 CEST (9:30 ET, 13:30 UTC) and will end on Sunday.

Nihal Sarin leads at the Silver Lake Open

6/30/2021 – After eight of nine rounds the young Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin leads at the Silver Lake Open Veliko Gradiste with 7.0/8 and is half a point ahead of his countryman Raunak Sadhwani and the Serbian GM Branko Damljanovic, against whom Sarin has to play with Black in round nine. | Photos: Rupali Mullick

FIDE reports: "The Queens' Festival goes big"

6/30/2021 – Over 460 female players from 82 countries participated in the individual and team tournaments within the Queens’ festival global chess tournaments run from June 11 to June 27. The ambitious global project aiming at connecting women chess players from around the world of all ages and all rating groups was organized by FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess in cooperation with FIDE Events Commission and with the support of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), as well as Asian Chess Federation, African Chess Confederation, European Chess Union, and Confederation of Chess for Americas. | Pictures: FIDE

Goldmoney Asian Rapid QF: Artemiev stuns Giri, Carlsen beats So

6/30/2021 – The first sets of the quarterfinal matches at the Goldmoney Asian Rapid Tournament were played on Tuesday. Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev got off to a good start, with the former obtaining a 2½-1½ victory over Wesley So and the latter defeating Anish Giri by a convincing 3-0 score. The remaining two mini-matches finished drawn. | Photo: Alina l’Ami / Tata Steel Chess

The Weekly Show: Arjun Erigaisi surprises at Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament

6/29/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Asian Goldmoney Rapid tournament (part of Meltwater Chess Tour). He will particularly focus on the performance of another new young star – the Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi who qualified for the knockout stage and defeated Hou Yifan in round 10 in crushing style. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Episode 7

6/29/2021 – Svitlana Demchenko is a 17-year-old, Canadian WIM, and chess coach. Here and now, she will teach us plenty of smart moves on the board, ranging from tactics, strategies, openings, and anything else chess related. In the process, I'm happy to be available as a student at club player level, and pester the female international master with questions. Anyone who wants to strengthen their chess skills is welcome to watch, and actively replay the positions from the video, on our chessboard.

New: ChessBase Magazine 202

6/29/2021 – ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! DVD with several hours of video + booklet. Also available for download including the booklet in pdf!

The king is a strong piece

6/29/2021 – It was Steinitz who claimed that the king is strong, even in the opening and the middlegame. However, the more enemy pieces on the board, the greater the danger for His Majesty. But in the endgame the king can often show its power. In the diagram position Black is a pawn down but is still able to draw. How?

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: Firouzja, Svidler and Dubov miss the cut

6/29/2021 – Levon Aronian won the preliminaries of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament after scoring two wins and three draws on Monday to get a 10½/15 score. Eight out of the sixteen participants made it into the knockout stage, with 17-year-old Arjun Erigaisi surprisingly qualifying, while Alireza Firouzja, Peter Svidler and Daniil Dubov were left out of contention. | Don’t miss the instructive analyses by GM Karsten Müller! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Swedish chess legend Ulf Andersson celebrates his 70th birthday

6/28/2021 – Ulf Andersson is the best Swedish chess player of all time and at his peak he was the world's number four. Andersson is also a correspondence chess grandmaster and one of the best correspondence chess players in the world. Yesterday, 27 June, he celebrated his 70th birthday. | Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo / CCO

Robert Ris: "How to Make a Plan" - A review

6/28/2021 – Planning in chess is a fine and important art. On his DVD "Strategy Training: How to Make a Plan" Robert Ris shows how to master this art. Jana Schneider, one of Germany's top women players, had a look at the DVD and liked what she saw.

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: A tough field

6/28/2021 – Two thirds of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid preliminary stage have been completed. With five rounds to go, Ding Liren and Levon Aronian are sharing the lead on 7/10. Some strong players, such as Daniil Dubov, Alireza Firouzja and Peter Svidler are currently in the bottom half of the standings table. They will have to fight hard on Monday if they want to move on to the knockout stage of the tournament. | Pictured: Arjun Erigaisi | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Sunway Sitges

Judit Polgar on chess and politics at Monocle’s ‘The Foreign Desk’

6/27/2021 – In the latest episode of Monocle 24’s ‘The Foreign Desk’, host Andrew Mueller delves into the parallels between chess and the political arena. To do so, he was joined by Judit Polgar, the strongest-ever female chess player; David Edmonds, author of ‘Bobby Fischer Goes To War’; and Dana Reizniece-Ozola, the current Managing Director of FIDE.

Understanding before Moving 33: To trade or not to trade (2)

6/27/2021 – 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 33nd instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman asks again whether "to trade or not to trade". | Photo: Tommy Grooten

Goldmoney Asian Rapid: Five leaders after five rounds

6/27/2021 – The first five rounds of the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament were played on Saturday. Five players are currently sharing the lead on 3½/5 points: Vladislav Artemiev [pictured], Daniil Dubov, Levon Aronian, Ding Liren and Mangus Carlsen. The 16 participants are fighting to finish the preliminaries in the top half of the standings table, as 8 of them will move on to the knockout stage of the online event. | Photo: Vladimir Barsky

Summer knight city

6/26/2021 – In a fascinating look at the possibilities granted by knight moves in endgame studies, practical games and mathematical problems — exploring, among others, underpromotions, stalemates and magic squares — columnist Siegfried Hornecker demonstrates the width of potential finesses that can be created with one of the two types of minor pieces appearing on a chessboard.

Cold blooded defence

6/26/2021 – In the diagram position Black has a strong attack and threatens 30...Qxg2#. But with careful play White can defend and win the game. How?

Top 12: Bischwiller and Clichy still perfect

6/26/2021 – The French Team Championship, also known as Top 12, is taking place in Châlons-en-Champagne. Only two teams have managed to score victories in the first two rounds: Bischwiller, with Markus Ragger and Etienne Bacrot on top boards, and the team from Clichy, led by Jorden van Foreest. | Photos: Official site

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Play like Bobby Fischer

6/25/2021 – In this Power Play Show GM Daniel King looks at the game Fischer-Gheorghiu - a beautiful and typical strategic squeeze from the American World Champion, played in his golden period in 1970. | 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.

Players lists and full pairings of FIDE World Cups published

6/25/2021 – The final lists of the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Cup’s participants have been published. The knock-out events will be held from July 10 to August 8 2021 in the Gazprom Mountain Resort in Sochi. The two finalists of the open event will qualify for the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament, whilst the three best players of the women’s competition will get spots in the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. Top seed in the open section is World Champion Magnus Carlsen, top seed in the women's tournament is Aleksandra Goryachkina.

Top female players battle at the Women’s Speed Chess Championship

6/25/2021 – The 2021 Women’s Speed Chess Championship has reached its final stages. While Kateryna Lagno already made it into the semis after beating Nana Dzagnidze, six more players, including the likes of Hou Yifan and Anna Muzychuk, are set to play their quarterfinal matches on Friday and Monday. The semifinals are scheduled to take place on July 1-2 while the final match will be played on Saturday, July 3.

Throwback Thursday: Karjakin beats Svidler in rollercoaster World Cup final

6/24/2021 – In one of the most memorable finals played in a World Cup, Sergey Karjakin beat Peter Svidler in a match brimming with ups and downs. After winning the first two classical games, Svidler only needed a half point in the next two games to secure tournament victory — the player from Saint Petersburg went on to miss winning chances in game 3 before losing both that encounter and the next one. Blunders also played a big role in the tiebreaks, with Karjakin finally emerging as the winner.

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: MVL beats the French

6/24/2021 – This week, the well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look how Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won a spectacular game against Ian Nepomniachtchi and the French Defense. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

International top players take part in French Team Championship

6/24/2021 – The crème de la crème of French and international chess currently meet in Châlons-en-Champagne in France, where the French Team Championship will be played from 24 June to 4 July. Top Grandmasters such as Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamdyarov, Pentala Harikrishna, Alireza Firozja, Bassem Amin or Jorden van Foreest to name just a few will support their French teams. This afternoon the 1st round will be played.