The world's most expensive chess set: the Pearl Royale

7/16/2020 – The Australian artist and goldsmith Colin Burn has created a chess set that is currently considered to be the world's most expensive chess set. The pieces are made of 18-carat white gold, decorated with diamonds, sapphires and South Sea pearls. Purchase price: 4 million dollars. | Photo: Colin Burn

Live: the 53rd International Chess Festival Biel will begin on Saturday

7/16/2020 – The Chess Festival Biel has a long tradition which it will continue despite the restrictions imposed by COVID-19. On Saturday, 18 July, the Festival will start with the Accentus Chess 960 Tournament while the Grandmaster Tournament will begin one day later, on Sunday, 19 July. The Grandmaster Tournament has a strong line-up and is played as a "triathlon" with seven rounds of classical chess, seven rounds of rapid chess and 14 rounds of blitz.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly in conversation with Vishy Anand

7/16/2020 – Due to Covid-19 most of us are confined inside our home. Some people are creating content, while some are watching that content. So the question arises: what to choose and what to skip? Six-time consecutive National Champion GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly started his own series, and his first guest was none other than the one and only Vishy Anand. Ganguly is a former second of Anand, who helped him in numerous World Championships. But where did their journey begin? Four episodes, packed with stories and never-before-seen questions, make up the incredible series with the ‘Tiger of Madras’. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Game of the Week: W. Steinitz vs L. Paulsen

7/15/2020 – In his "Game of the Week" show Merijn van Delft takes a look at the classics and presents a game between Wilhelm Steinitz (pictured) and Louis Paulsen, in which Steinitz comes up with amazing positional concepts. | Merijn's show is available at 15.00 UTC (17:00 CEST, 11:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Young Stars Zooms to the Future

7/15/2020 – Many experts think that Garry Kasparov is the greatest chess player of all time, and though he retired from the tournament arena in 2005 he still tirelessly promotes chess and supports and trains promising young players. But how to train these talents in the times of corona? The Kasparov Chess Foundation found a way. | Photos: Kasparov Chess Federation

Masterclass with Peter Svidler

7/15/2020 – The Swiss Masters Chess Academy sponsored the production of twelve Masterclasses hosted by GM Yannick Pelletier. Some of them were given in German, others in French and a couple in English. One of those given in English had eight-time Russian Champion Peter Svidler as the guest. Among other topics, the extremely eloquent grandmaster from Saint Petersburg talked about his early successes, some of the pivotal moments in his career and that one painful match against Sergey Karjakin at the 2015 World Cup. | Photo: Harry Gielen

Chess in Indonesia: a portrait of Medina Warda Aulia

7/15/2020 – With a rating of 2360 Medina Warda Aulia is currently 11th on Indonesia's ranking list, and number two on Indonesia's women's ranking list - number one is Irine Kharisma Sukhandar. The 23-year old Aulia is an International Master, Indonesia's youngest Women Grandmaster, and in 2015 she had a peak rating of 2415. But as she told the Indonesian magazine "Tempo" she now studies chess harder than ever before. | Photo: Medina Warda Aulia's Instagram Account

The Weekly Show: Magnus Carlsen vs Anish Giri

7/14/2020 – In his weekly show IM Lawrence Trent takes a look Magnus Carlsen's convincing win of the Chessable Masters. The focus will be on Carlsen's win with White against Giri in the Semi-Tarrasch, a spectacular game which, to quote Lawrence, "might be the best game ever seen in such a tournament at these time controls". | Lawrence' show is available at 17:00 UTC (19:00 CEST, 13:00 EDT) on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here. | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)

Three books from Olomouc

7/14/2020 – Vlastimil Fiala's second love, besides his duties as a professor of political science, is chess history. In his Moravian Chess Publishing House he presents, in various series, relatively unknown events of chess history with astonishing depth.

A prize for everyone: the ACP-ChessBase Knock-Out

7/14/2020 – From July 23 to July 28 the ACP, the Association of Chess Professionals, organises an interesting event on the ChessBase server playchess.com: the ACP-ChessBase Knock-Out, including an open knock-out tournament and a knock-out tournament for women. The participants play 4-games matches in slow blitz (10+5). All members of the ACP are invited and eligible to play and almost all players will win a prize. Registration is open until July 15.

Stranded in Budapest (2) – Balaton

7/14/2020 – We want you to find a caption for this picture. It shows the Balaton tournament director IM Janos Rigo congratulating winner IM Leon Luke Mendonca, who is fourteen years old. Due to the pandemic Leon has been trapped in Budapest, together with his father, for almost four months now. Fortunately it is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, and fortunately the legendary Judit Polgar has helped make their stay more pleasant – this time by sharing a culinary adventure.

Too many pawns, too strong a king

7/14/2020 – Usually an extra bishop can easily draw against two pawns. But if the two pawns are supported by their king things might get tricky for the defender. Especially if his own king is too far away to help.

Hou Yifan youngest-ever full professor at Shenzhen University

7/14/2020 – Four-time women’s world champion and current highest-rated woman player in the world Hou Yifan has become the youngest-ever full professor at the University of Shenzhen. The 26-year-old is now a professor at the School of Physical Education where she will be heading the institution’s chess program. Another great achievement for one of the most talented chess players in the circuit! | Photo: mp.weixin.qq.com

Simon Says: Alekhine's influence on modernising attacking play - Part 2

7/13/2020 – In this "Simon Says" English Grandmaster Simon Williams continues to look at some of Alekhine's best attacking games and discusses how attacking play developed due to his influence on the game. | Watch "Simon Says" for free and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account). (Normally 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST / 12 Noon EST). | Photo: Portrait of Alekhine by Man Ray

"Karpov, not Kasparov" - Chess and music

7/13/2020 – Valeriu Borcos and Eduard Gabia from Bucharest make music that often alludes to chess, and it is no coincidence that the duo calls itself "Karpov, not Kasparov". In an interview the two Romanian musicians, who describe their music as "optimistic-oriental-intellectual-dancefloor nostalgia", talk about music and chess which "is an obsession for us". | Photo: Karpov, not Kasparov

Raunak beats Fabiano

7/13/2020 – Most of the top players cannot take part in over-the-board tournaments, due to the pandemic. But they are often seen in various titled online events. Like in an online blitz tournament on chess.com, where only titled players from all over the world are allowed to take part. Indian GM Raunak Sadhwani made the most of the opportunity and beat the former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana. The game is instructively commented by a video by IM Sagar Shah - with quiz questions and points.

Leinier Dominguez wins Leon Masters

7/13/2020 – The Leon Masters came to an end on Sunday, with Leinier Dominguez beating Jaime Santos in the final of the three-day knockout to win the event. Dominguez and Santos came from defeating Parham Maghsoodloo and Alexei Shirov in the semifinals. Dominguez won game 3 in the deciding matchup and drew the rest to get the title. | Photo: Justin Kellar

A quick chat with Rustam Kasimdzhanov

7/12/2020 – Leading opening expert Rustam Kasimdzhanov recently launched a FritzTrainer DVD on the Benoni. In a short interview, the former FIDE world champion answers seven questions, about the Benoni, his work as a second and the new challenges he has faced during the coronavirus pandemic. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Giants of Modern Studies - Steffen Nielsen Part II

7/12/2020 – In this second article about the life and work of the prominent study composer Steffen Slumstrup Nielsen, we will go through five of his studies, from a light miniature to his most outstanding creation till date. Sit back and enjoy! | See Part I | Photo: Niels Jørgen Jacobsen, Silkeborg

Grandmaster Chef: Boris Gelfand

7/11/2020 – Boris Gelfand is currently the top-ranked chess player in Israel. In the early 1990s, Gelfand was ranked third in the world. To show appreciation for Gelfand, this article has two recipes for dishes that he likes to eat and two of his wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Gelfand is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

It’s so easy to start a simul on PlayChess.com!

7/11/2020 – You probably already know how to create your personal virtual room on PlayChess.com. If not, we have a link included in this article on how to do it. In your virtual room, you can challenge friends, organize tournaments for your chess club, give valuable coaching lessons and play simultaneous games. The last point is what the 5-minute video in this article is all about!

Mamedyarov beats Sanal in hard-fought match

7/11/2020 – The 16-game match between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Vahap Sanal, played from Tuesday to Friday on the PlayChess platform, was won by the rating favourite, but not by a big margin. Mamedyarov defeated his Turkish colleague 9:7 in a hard-fought battle that saw Sanal winning four games against his famed opponent. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

Donchenko wins Clarion Congress GM Tournament

7/10/2020 – Alexander Donchenko was the rating favourite at the ten-player single round-robin GM tournament in České Budějovice, and he convincingly won the event. The German grandmaster secured tournament victory in style by defeating Jan Mikes in the last round. GM Peter Michalik and IM Karel Malinovsky, both from the Czech Republic, finished second and third respectively. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Spassky attacks

7/10/2020 – In this Power Play Show, grandmaster Daniel King focuses on an exciting attacking game played by tenth world champion Boris Spassky when he was merely 18 years old. He also looks at a mate-in-three problem that even had him confused for a while! | Power Play is on air most Fridays at 17:00 UK (18:00 CEST, 11:00 EST) on playchess.com. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.