7/11/2026 – The second edition of the Sahel Chess Festival will take place in Monastir, Tunisia, from 24 October to 1 November 2026. After attracting more than 300 players in its inaugural year, the festival will again feature several classical tournaments divided by rating category, including a section for players aged fifty and above. The organisers also aim to draw more titled players, while highlighting Monastir's appeal as a Mediterranean chess destination. | Photos: Diana Mihajlova

7/11/2026 – Does this sound familiar? You often reach good positions from the opening, only to fail to convert your advantage because you do not understand the resulting positions well enough. Jochen Schwarz, a club player from Bremen, wants to improve in this area and has enlisted Ivan Sokolov as his 'coach' through the video series "Understanding Middlegame Strategies". In the second part of his series, the reviewer presents three courses dealing with opening-specific positions arising from the Sicilian, French and King's Indian. He has installed the Apple Mac OS X versions and describes how they differ from the Windows versions.

7/10/2026 – In July 1976, Viktor Korchnoi, then the second-best player in the world, used his participation in the IBM tournament in Amsterdam to defect from the USSR. A cat-and-mouse game worthy of a spy thriller began. The Soviet authorities responded with offensive statements and an almost total boycott - almost. | Photo: Viktor Korchnoi in 1976 / Dutch National Archive

7/10/2026 – This two-volume course presents a complete repertoire for Black after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 - the Hyper-Accelerated Dragon. In recent years, this dynamic line has grown significantly in popularity, with several of the world’s top players adding it to their repertoires. This variation has two main advantages for black, he does not have to face the Rossolimo or Moscower Variation after 3.Bb5 and in many lines he can play d5 in one go and save a tempo. This first volume covers the Open Sicilian with both the razor sharp lines from the dragon and the positional Maroczy Bind.

7/10/2026 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Nagesh Havanur takes a look at the recent issue, CBM 231. 2836 games, mainly from the Candidates Tournament and European Individual Championship. 27 annotated, 11 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, demo. lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Wesley So, Karsten Mueller and Vaishali Rameshbabu (pictured) among others. The icing on the cake is the Special feature on Magnus Carlsen offering 20 annotated games. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase

7/10/2026 – In the diagram position, White begins the hunt for the black king with 18.Rxe6+! And you can deliver the decisive blow three moves later – good luck!

7/10/2026 – Alexey Sarana won the KazChess Masters in Almaty after finishing level with Alexander Donchenko on 6/9 points and taking first place on tiebreaks. The ten-player round-robin, held from 30 June to 8 July, paired five established international grandmasters with five rising Kazakhstani players. Igor Kovalenko finished third on 5½/9, while Denis Makhnev achieved the best score among the local representatives with 5/9. | Photo: Official website

7/10/2026 – After six rounds at the African Continental Stage of the FIDE ISCF World Schools Team Championship in Stellenbosch, Uganda's Sr. Miriam Duggan Primary School and Kenya's Moi Nyeri Complex Primary School share the lead on 10 match points. Five teams remain two points behind before the final day. The third day also featured spotlights on Uganda's Ronald Wabwire and Zimbabwe's all-girls team, alongside educational workshops and activity sessions. | Photo: ISCF

7/9/2026 – Jon Speelman examines how computer-assisted analysis can sharpen the study of complex positions, using examples from Svidler-Lobron at the 1996 Yerevan Olympiad and recent Grand Chess Tour games in Zagreb. The article explores hidden defensive resources, zugzwang motifs and tablebase findings, while also posing several calculation challenges for readers. | Image: Centaur mosaic found in the 18th century on the site of the luxurious villa complex near Tivoli that once belonged to the Roman emperor Hadrian

7/9/2026 – Dear chess friends, from July 6–12 , you can get the entire Master Class Series for just €224.90 in our ChessBase Summer Special. Don't miss this opportunity to own all 20 volumes at an exceptional price. Already own part of the series? No problem! Missing one or more volumes? During this week only, you can also purchase individual Master Class titles with discounts of up to 33%.

7/9/2026 – Karsten shows 2 recent endgames with one "favorite" move. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/9/2026 – Jonathan Levitt is an English chess grandmaster, author, teacher, and composer of endgame studies. As a player, he competed successfully in tournaments, but health challenges led him to retire from regular over-the-board play in his forties. In recent years, he has pursued creative endeavors, including songwriting with chess themes dedicated to figures like Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov. Jon sent us the following thoughtful article on music and AI, with examples of his own endeavors.