Biel: Nihal and Alekseenko the strongest in blitz

8/1/2021 – Nihal Sarin and Kirill Alekseenko had the strongest performances at the blitz tournament, one of three events that make up the Grandmaster Triathlon at the Biel Chess Festival. Gata Kamsky is still leading the overall standings, but is now only 1½ points ahead of Nihal and Alekseenko. | Photos and report: Official site

Chessable Masters: So leads, newcomers struggle

8/1/2021 – While players and enthusiasts took a day off from the highly tense World Cups in Sochi, the online Chessable Masters kicked off with an eye-catching lineup, as 12-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra, women’s world champion Ju Wenjun and Indian star Humpy Koneru join the likes of Wesley So and Levon Aronian in the 9-day event. After five rounds, So is the sole leader on 4 points, with a 3-player chasing pack a half point behind. | Pictured: Wesley So and Pentala Harikrishna at the 2019 Riga Grand Prix

Kaleidoscope II

7/31/2021 – In a multifaceted column, Siegfried Hornecker looks at a young Austrian chess player who went missing in the Alps and never returned, how geometry on the chessboard is vastly different from a Euclidean two-dimensional plane, a curious episode from the 1951 World Championship match between Botvinnik and Bronstein, and a couple of endgame studies created by women composers. | Pictured: Julius Perlis

World Cup: Russians prevail

7/31/2021 – Sergey Karjakin knocked out Sam Shankland in the only match of the quarterfinals that was decided in a rapid and blitz playoff at the open section of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured) advanced to the final in the women’s section after knocking out Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk respectively. Saturday is a rest day for both categories. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

Biel, Round 4: Kamsky and Gelfand draw

7/31/2021 – Two legends met yesterday at the Biel Chess Festival: Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand, both former World Championship runners-up and World Cup winners. With a draw, Kamsky defended his lead in the overall standings. Frenchman Maxime Lagarde is the new runner-up, as the Frenchman defeated Kirill Alekseenko in round 4. | Photos: Official site

Rollercoaster

7/31/2021 – Rarely was a headline more appropriate - this is a crucial position of one of the most exciting games I have seen recently. In the diagram position White continued with 25.Rxe6 Rxe6 26.exd5 which gave Black a chance to win. Enjoy!

News Review - Fedoseev's winning gesture, Karjakin's GM title and Niemann's GM privilege

7/30/2021 – In the summer, "ChessBase News Review" with Lawrence Trent will have a couple of breaks here and there. One of them was last week. Back on time, IM Trent takes a more profound look at the Arkhangelsk Ruy Lopez game between Vidit and Duda. Furthermore, Lawrence and Arne talk about The beautiful Fontainebleau chess festival, and the tournament in Biel. They also mention the "winning fist gesture" of Fedoseev, the New York Post article about Karjakin's GM title, and the behaviour of Niemann as a GM.

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: World Cup action and an answer to the London System

7/30/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at games from the World Cup, including a a decent answer to the London System, and offers tactics and endgames. | 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.

Texas Chess Champions at National Invitationals

7/30/2021 – Alongside the U.S. Open are five tournaments of state chess champions, for different age and grade categories. Each state affiliate may nominate one player for each tournament. Participants in the five tournaments compete together in blitz. Woman International Master Alexey Root previews the state champions tournaments from a Texas perspective. | Photos: Niki Riga / Texas Chess Association

New: CBM Extra #202

7/30/2021 – The new ChessBase Magazine Extra #202 again contains a wealth of material, e.g. opening videos presenting new ideas in the Sicilian Four Knights and in the English Opening (almost an hour total playing time), plus 29 extensive analyses by Peter Heine Nielsen, Praggnanandhaa, Mariya Muzychuk, Elisabeth Pähtz, Michal Krasenkow, Igor Stohl and others. ChessBase Magazine Extra is available on DVD or for download – as a single issue or as an annual subscription (6 issues per year).
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Biel, Round 3: Keymer loses against Gelfand

7/30/2021 – Three years ago Vincent Keymer defeated Boris Gelfand at the Isle of Man Open in a sensational game. In round 3 of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Gelfand, Vice World Champion 2012, now took a form of revenge and outplayed the young German Grandmaster. In the second decisive game of the round Noel Studer won against Maxime Lagarde. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

World Cup: Duda knocks out Vidit

7/30/2021 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda will face Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup. The Polish grandmaster knocked out Vidit after the latter erred in a sharp endgame. Russian GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Sergey Karjakin also won on Thursday — the former moved on to the semis, while the latter levelled the score in his match against Sam Shankland. In the women’s section, both semifinal encounters finished drawn. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Robert Ris’ Fast and Furious: Fighting the King's Indian with 3.h4!?

7/29/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at Sam Shankland's spectacular victory against Peter Svidler at the World Cup. After 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 Shankland played 3.h4!?, a move that discourages Black from playing the Grunfeld. Svidler tried a King's Indian setup instead but without much success. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Biel, Round 2: Four draws, long games, lots of fight

7/29/2021 – All four games of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel ended with a draw, but Noel Studer and Alan Pichot played for almost eight hours and made 138 moves before they agreed to share the point. The young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer had no easy task against Kirill Alekseenko, but solved it. In the Open, Salem Saleh and Surya Ganguly share the lead with 3.0/3 each. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

Chess in Education: 3rd International Koltanowski Conference

7/29/2021 – The International Koltanowski Conference on Chess in Education is being held July 29 – 30, 2021 at the Crowne Plaza Philadelphia Cherry Hill. Audience will attend in person and online. The Conference will be streamed and available for later viewing. With panelists and speakers active in their specialties, the conference emphasizes praxis. | Official site

World Cup: Carlsen and Shankland strike

7/28/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Sam Shankland made a big step towards reaching the semifinals of the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi, as they kicked off their matches against Etienne Bacrot and Sergey Karjakin with victories. While Carlsen displayed excellent dynamic feel for the position to win with the black pieces, it was Shankland’s endgame technique which allowed him to make the most of an unlikely blunder by his opponent. | Expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Eric Rosen

Game of the Week 474: M. Carlsen - R. Wojtaszek

7/28/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a close look at the encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Radoslaw Wojtaszek at the FIDE World Cup 2021 - a game full of tactical blows and surprises. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

World Cup: Carlsen’s close call

7/28/2021 – Only after an extremely tense struggle did Magnus Carlsen manage to knock out Andrey Esipenko to reach the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi, where he will face Etienne Bacrot. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vladimir Fedoseev, Amin Tabatabaei and Sergey Karjakin also went through. In the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk knocked out Nana Dzagnidze and qualified to the Candidates. | Photo: Eric Rosen

World Cup Highlights – Part 1

7/28/2021 – The 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi, Russia has narrowed down the 206 starting participants to just 8 remaining players. Canadian FM Joshua Doknjas analyzes some of the most interesting games from the first half of the event. | Photos: Anastasiia Korolka (FIDE)

Biel: Lively start of the classical tournament

7/28/2021 – In round 1 of the classical part of the GM Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival three games ended with a decision. Alan Pichot won against Boris Gelfand, Kirill Alekseenko defeated Nihal Sarin and Gata Kamsky won against Noel Studer. Vincent Keymer and Maxime Lagarde drew. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

Svitlana's Smart Moves - Special World Cup Episode 8

7/27/2021 – Svitlana Demchenko is back to present us her smart moves, especially after playing chess constantly in the last couple of weeks. The 17-year-old WIM left Canada, to travel to Serbia, Sochi, Moscow, and finally to Mykolayiv, Ukraine. She competed in the Serbian Open, and fought hard in the World Cup in Sochi, against a more than 300 rating points stronger opponent. Finally, she is playing a tournament in the Ukraine. Nonetheless, she made some time for a new episode, in which we take a look at her whole travel experience, her World Cup game, and play three blitz games against each other. | Photos: Svitlana Demchenko

The Weekly Show: The World Cup

7/27/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will of course continue to talk about the World Cup but will also take a short look at the other big tournaments that are currently taking place. The game of the day is Vidit’s smooth win vs Durarbayli as Black, in which the Indian Grandmaster used a lovely little opening novelty. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

The first Fontainebleau chess festival

7/27/2021 – The week long Festival de Fontainebleau chess tournament which started on 18 July doesn't feature any Grandmasters or International Masters. While the Open section comprises players with ratings under 2000, competitors in the three closed tournaments - each of which has eight players - have Elo ratings ranging from around 1800 to 2200. But what makes this tournament unique is its location and the Covid-19 related health controls that have been put in place here. | Photos: Club d'échecs de Fontainebleau-Avon

Start of the open tournaments at the Biel Chess Festival

7/27/2021 – While the participants in the Grandmaster Tournament are enjoying a day of rest, the open tournaments at the Biel Chess Festival have started. The Master Tournament has an extremely strong field of participants: 27 Grandmasters are taking part, twelve (!) of them with an Elo rating of over 2600, furthermore 13 IM (International Masters) are present. The first round of the Amateur Tournament was also played today, which is completely booked up with 120 participants. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival