7/8/2021 – Two wins and a draw gave Ian Nepomniachtchi a commanding lead after day 1 at the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Not only was the World Championship challenger the only player to end the day with a plus score, but he also showed excellent form in the first three games of the rapid section. Plenty of exciting chess was seen in Zagreb, with living legend Viswanathan Anand showing that he still has what it takes to fight on an equal footing with the world’s elite. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/8/2021 – Grandmaster Dr Karsten Müller returns with his "Endgame Magic" show after a break of more than a year. With Episode 151, the endgame puzzles of the past year are once again revealed and solved! Be it that the famous game Fischer - Petrosian from 1971, thanks to Albert Silver and his Fat Fritz, gets the necessary kick, or the game between E. Torre against O. Jakobsen from 1973 is turned upside down by the diligent readers and solvers. There are quite a few groundbreaking surprises to examine.

7/7/2021 – The state of Kerala, India found a pleasant gesture from a land faraway, the Czech Republic, when ‘Chess Train’ organiser Pavel Matocha organised a charity chess simultaneous display at Prague to help in its vaccination drive, with the raised money going to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund of the Kerala Government. The motive behind this hearty gesture was no more than the attachment felt with the state of Kerala and its people, when Matocha participated in the ‘Chess Houseboat’ event held during early 2020. The event received support from the top echelons of the Czech Government, as well as the Ambassador of India to the Czech Republic. | Photo: Prague Chess Society

7/7/2021 – A very strong open is currently being held in Belgrade. Over 280 players are taking part in the Masters event, including over 30 grandmasters. One of the favourites to win the tournament is Nihal Sarin, who travelled from the Silver Lake Open to Belgrade with a group of Indian players.

7/7/2021 – If you are a true chess aficionado, you will want to stay updated with the latest games from tournaments all over the world! ChessBase 16 lets you do that with a single click. You can see all currently running tournament games, with machine analysis, the important novelties that were played, and even the most interesting tactical shots that occurred in the latest games. IM Sagar Shah explains it all to you in this tutorial video. It is just five minutes long, but will save you hours of tedious searching and copying.

7/7/2021 – Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand will play a special 4-game match in Dortmund starting on July 14, as castling will not be allowed. The event will be supported by world-leading AI company DeepMind. Online audiences will get to experience novel AlphaZero insights first hand in the post-match commentary of the no castling tournament.

7/7/2021 – A multiple Romanian champion, Mihail Marin’s first major international success was achieved in 1987, when he qualified to the Interzonal Tournament played in Szirák. A famed author, he was described by Jeremy Silman as “one of the world’s finest chess writers”. Marin shares with us his most memorable game, a fantastic win with the white pieces played at the 1996 Chess Olympiad in Yerevan.

7/6/2021 – In his "Weekly Show" IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Russian Higher League. He analyses a highly entertaining victory by Maksim Chigaev, one that included a spectacular finish. | Lawrence's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/6/2021 – Let us assume you are a chess amateur, who in pandemic times have become obsessed with improving your game. Wouldn’t it be nice to have one of the top ten players in the world coach you? If that is what you want it is of advantage to be a leading stand-up comedian. But even if you are not, you can still profit from this charming little lesson Anish Giri, rated 2776, gave Biswa Kalyan Rath, 1600, on how to best use a bishop pair to win a game. Learn and enjoy.

7/6/2021 – The English is becoming increasingly popular as White players avoid the heavy theory of 1.e4 or 1.d4 and hope to achieve a small advantage in a safe position. A lot of club players tend to focus on openings against 1.e4 and 1.d4 but neglect to study a response to the English. 1...e5 is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series, Grandmaster Nicholas Pert provides a complete Black repertoire based on this move.

7/6/2021 – The 34th edition of the “Magistral Ciudad de León” took place online from June 30 until July 4. A 4-player knockout, the event saw Boris Gelfand beating Leinier Dominguez in the final match played on Sunday. Dominguez had defeated women’s world champion Ju Wenjun while Gelfand had knocked out Jaime Santos in the semifinals. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

7/6/2021 – Knights that fight against pawns can be clumsy but sometimes they can also work magic. In the diagram position, Black's a-pawn wants to queen but the white knight can still stop him. On the other hand it is hard to see how Black can stop White's e-pawn from queening. But Black can help her knight to do some magic and win. Do you have an idea how?