7/30/2019 – The British Championship is in its early rounds in Torquay, England, and IM Lawrence Trent looks at some of the highlights thus far. Free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

7/30/2019 – He's done it! Vidit Santosh Gujrathi dominated the Biel Chess Festival 2019, winning with a round to spare! On Monday he pressed for 41 moves against Abdusattorov, but decided to take a draw after his tournament victory was assured by Shankland's draw against Bogner. The American was considerably worse out of a Gruenfeld, but his opponent Bogner seemed to be in a peaceful mood, and they ended up splitting the point. Leko took no time in recovering from yesterday's loss, crushing Cori with an elegant exchange sacrifice in the late middlegame. Georgiadis missed a huge chance to put Maghsoodloo under pressure, and had to fight to split the point. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

7/30/2019 – Eight years have passed since the creation of the DVD "No Fear of 1.d4 (Volume 1)" in which Sergei Tiviakov, among other things, explained how to play the Queen’s Indian Defence with Black. Now the moment has come to update the readers with the latest news and trends in this important opening. In his new video series, Tiviakov presents a complete repertoire for Black against the Queen’s Indian Defence.

7/30/2019 – The duel of bishop against knight can be fascinating. The bishop often strives for dynamic play while the knight prefers more static positions.

7/30/2019 – The rapid section of the Paris Grand Chess Tour was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who drew twice and beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda on day three. Alexander Grischuk ascended to sole second place, and stands a full point behind the leader before the eighteen rounds of Blitz kick off on Wednesday — the participants will get a rest day before the tempo speeds up in the French capital. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/29/2019 – Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO noticed a flaw in many chess biographies of world champions. They all have an index for the opponents, they have an index for the openings, but there is no index for the interesting endgames. Often we find a 400 or 500 page biography with tons of games, yet no idea how to find typical middlegame themes or endgames to learn from. In the latest FritzTrainer from GM Karsten Mueller, however, you'll find the world champions' best endgames, each deconstructed using Mueller's great endgame insight and teaching experience.

7/29/2019 – Change is never pleasant, but when one succeeds in expanding his skill set the results are often staggering - ask Vidit Gujrathi! His attacking masterclass over Bogner sees Vidit just 3 points away from his 1st Biel title! Sam Shankland was a surprise victim today - Jorge Cori played splendidly in a reversed French structure to hand the American a potentially decisive loss and come closer to the coveted 2700 mark. Abdusattorov came back from the brink to stun Georgiadis, while Leko blundered deep into the endgame to switch places with Maghsoodloo in the points table.

7/29/2019 – The second day of the GCT Paris tournament at the Head Office of mass media conglomerate Vivendi saw local hero Maxime Vachier-Lagrave climb to first place after collecting two wins and a draw between rounds four and six. Vishy Anand and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are trailing a point behind the leader with three more rounds of rapid chess left for Monday. Eighteen rounds of Blitz will wrap up the event on Wednesday and Thursday. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/28/2019 – 41 years ago Wolfram Runkel, (1937-2019) wrote a piece in the prestegious Hamburg weekly "Die Zeit". It was the first major article on computer chess in a German broadsheet. A young science journalist, Frederic Friedel, read it and, with Runkel's help, produced two science documentaries on the subject. And he went on to co-found the chess software company ChessBase. Today, with kind permission of Die Zeit, we bring you the historic article that set everything off.

7/28/2019 – After the rapid tournament, one felt that Vidit was not playing his best chess. But his play improved towards the end of rapid and in the classical event! After dominating the first four rounds of the classical, he now razed the field in Blitz with a powerful 11.0/14! His victory in this section followed a well-known pattern: ruthless against the bottom half with 8.0/8(!) and holding his own against the remaining three by breaking even (3.0/6). Sam Shankland played superbly as well, but a last round loss from a completely winning position ruined his chances, and he now trails the two-player race by a point with three Classical games left to play. TANMAY SRINATH has an exhaustive report. | Photo: Simon Bohnenblust / Biel Chess Festival

7/28/2019 – Exciting chess was the norm in the first three rounds of Rapid at the Paris Grand Chess Tour. Fabiano Caruana and Viswanathan Anand kicked off with wins in rounds one and two and drew their direct encounter to share the lead on 5 out of 6 (wins in Rapid are worth two points). Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are their closest chasers, on 4 out of 6. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/27/2019 – Study of the Month columnist SIEGFRIED HORNECKER outdoes himself this month with a tour de force including eight studies! You can truly spend the entire month with this one. Featured first is Sergiy Didukh (pictured), a Ukrainian studies composer who invented the term “thematic wrong try”. Enjoy! | Photo: Arves.org