Vallejo gets lucky break to reach the final in Leon

7/8/2018 – An incredible case of mutual blindness allowed Paco Vallejo to tie the match against Jaime Santos in the rapid section of Saturday's second semi-final in Leon. Paco then went on to defeat his young compatriot in the blitz tiebreaks to reach the final, where he will face Wesley So. Both Santos and Praggnanandhaa proved to be worthy opponents of their higher-rated colleagues. | Photo: Official website

Pal Benko – eleven twins

7/7/2018 – In problem chess "twins" are two or more problems, normally composed by a single author, that are slight variations of each other. This is usually brought about by moveing pieces slightly or subtly, or adding, removing or exchanging a piece. Sometimes the position is moved to another location on the board. The solutions should be different. Now our dear and faithful friend Pal Benkö has sent us a record-setting eleven twins. Have fun solving these unique problems. | Photo: Diana Mihajlova

So beats Pragg by the slimmest margin in Leon

7/7/2018 – The second youngest grandmaster in history, R. Praggnanandhaa came close to beating the second highest rated rapid player in the world Wesley So in the first semi-final of the Leon Masters. Pragg actually won the first game with Black and had a chance to obtain a big edge in the opening of the second. The Indian impressed both So and the audience. | Photo: Official website

Dutch Championship: Tiviakov leads

7/6/2018 – Sergey Tiviakov got a full point Wednesday at the Dutch Championships in Amsterdam from Ivan Sokolov. In the Spanish game Sokolov committed suicide on the 23rd move and had to give up two moves later. Tiviakov is alone in the lead. In the women's tournament Peng Zhaoqin and Anne Haast lead ahead of Tea Lanchava. | Photo: Harry Gielen / official site

A chat with Pragg

7/6/2018 – R Praggnanandhaa recently qualified for the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meeting with Vishy Anand and his preference for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome on his return to India | Photo: Arun Sekhar

NEW: Andrew Martin: Meeting the Gambits Vol. 2 – Gambits after 1.d4

7/6/2018 – Squashing counterplay is a favourite pastime of strong chess players and in meeting the Gambits Vol 2 we see plenty of that. When facing gambits the most important thing is not to panic, a feeling usually induced by lack of knowledge. Keep calm, learn the antidotes and face the aggression with renewed confidence. This DVD, ideal for players up to 2200 level, will help you to do just that.

Tune your tactics - Rooks paving the way

7/6/2018 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Pascal Simon! (Normally) Friday's at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about Tactics!

Football fever: Swedes pause chess clock

7/6/2018 – Sweden is currently in football fever. In the face of the game against England on Saturday even the kick-off time for the rounds of the Swedish Championships in Ronneby was brought forward to 10:00 CEST, but not for championship group. There, Hans Tikkanen leads by one point. On Wednesday he defeated Jonny Hector. Ingemar Falk gives an insight into the soul situation of the country before "the big game". | Photos: Lars O. Hedlund

Alexey Sarana wins grueling Russian Higher League

7/6/2018 – An impeccable start and a cruise-control finish was enough for young Alexey Sarana to win the Russian Higher League. Grigoriy Oparin obtained back-to-back wins in rounds six and seven to tie in points with Sarana, but had to settle for second on tiebreaks. The women's section did have a clear winner in Oksana Gritsayeva, who finished on 7/9. The real bounty, however, was a spot in the Russian Superfinals, a reward received by five players in each section. | Photo: Dmitry Kryakvin / Russian Chess Federation

Reversals of fortune in Jerusalem

7/5/2018 – Fierce chess battles at the Gideon Japhet Memorial rapid cup have led to the first place being up for grabs going into the last two rounds on Friday. Not only are Ian Nepomniachtchi and Georg Meier currently ahead by half a point, they face each other in the final two games! In the ACP Open group, Arkadij Naiditsch conceded his first draw but has 5½ out of 6 with one round to play, and is poised to win the tournament. | Photo: Ritvo Photography

Karthikeyan and Sachdev are Commonwealth Champions

7/5/2018 – It was an exciting final day at the Commonwealth Championships 2018. At the end of penultimate round we had four leaders with a score of 6½ / 8. P. Karthikeyan was the only one who won his game. With 7½ / 9, he became the Commonwealth Champion. Tania Sachdev scored 6.0 / 9 and took the women's title. Report by SAGAR SHAH, for ChessBase India. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Postcards from El Ksiba

7/5/2018 – Chess life continues in Morocco, reports DIANA MIHAJLOVA, who sends this photo report looking back at the El Ksiba Open won by Spanish GM David Larino Nieto in May, and previews the upcoming Chefchaouen Open. | Pictured: The famous Moroccan mint tea was always at hand | Photo: cosmopolitana.blog

Hort stories: Ludek Pachman (part 2)

7/5/2018 – Ludek Pachman was an important theoretician, an industrious author, and a controversial personality. In Czechoslovakia he was a staunch communist but after the "Prague Spring" he changed from Saul to Paul or, as some people think, from Saul to Saul. Vlastimil Hort shares memories of Ludek Pachman. (Part 1) | Photos: Archive Michalek

Light summer mate IV

7/5/2018 – In the diagram position White threatens to win the black queen with Bg4+. So far, so clear - but I bet you have already seen why after 30...Qf8 the bishop move leads to success as well!

Path to Gold recounts U.S. Olympiad team story

7/4/2018 – It's Independence Day in the United States, and therefore a day for cookouts, celebrating and fireworks. Or, why not take in a film? In this case, you only need spare 13 minutes to learn all about the 2016 Olympiad triumph of Team USA. Starring Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Sam Shankland and Ray Robson, with John Donaldson (as "captain") and Aleksandr Lenderman (as "coach"). Produced by the World Chess Hall of Fame.

FIDE presidential race is all set

7/4/2018 – During the next Chess Olympiad, a new president will be elected at the FIDE Congress. That much became clear after Kirsan Ilyumzhinov officially withdrew his candidacy last weekend. The three options, now officially confirmed by FIDE, are Georgios Makropoulos, Nigel Short and Arkady Dvorkovich. Let us bring you — even the FIDE political neophyte — up to date. Break out the popcorn folks, it's going to be an interesting three months!

NIC #4: Shankland's sprint

7/4/2018 – In the latest magazine issue #4 from New In Chess, you can find an in-depth story on the U.S. Championship by GM Alejandro Ramirez: "The tallest king In St. Louis". Sam Shankland's win kicked off a remarkable streak — in a matter of two months, he jumped from 2671 to 2727. He gained 59 Elo points in a span of just 60 days and raced to the rank of world number 27, jumping from being a strong grandmaster to a super elite player. NIC shares this excerpt from their feature story. Photo: Lennart Ootes

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

7/3/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CEST (5:00 pm UK time, Noon EDT) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. This week features GM Cristian Chirila's exploits in Las Vegas...playing chess of course!

Swedish Championship in Ronneby

7/3/2018 – On Saturday, the Swedish Championship started in Ronneby, embedded in a big chess festival. Hans Tikkanen leads after three rounds with 2½ points and showed himself as a virtuoso of the defence yesterday in his game against Nils Grandelius. The tournament has a long history going back over a century to 1917! | Photo: Lars O. Hedlund

Russian Higher League LIVE

7/3/2018 – Live games from the 2018 Russian Higher League, where top Russian grandmasters battle for one of five qualification spots to the 2018 Russian Championship Superfinal. The overall prize fund is 5 million rubles, or around 68,000 euros. | Pictured: Alexey Sarana | Photo: Dmitry Kryakvin / Russian Chess Federation

NEW: Victor Bologan: Winning with the King’s Indian Attack

7/3/2018 – 30 years ago the King’s Indian Attack was considered as an interesting and original way to avoid theoretical battles. But today’s theory sees the King’s Indian Attack in line with the modern approach to postpone the fight for the centre to the middlegame. The King’s Indian Attack is full of positional and tactical ideas and often an unpleasant surprise for the opponent. The opening is easy to prepare but it’s important to remember that the King’s Indian Attack is more about ideas and plans and less about forced and complicated lines. Since my junior days it has been a reliable weapon and it still serves me well today.

Sometimes a good team: rook and knight

7/3/2018 – Usually, the endgame rook and knight vs rook is a draw when no more pawns are left on the board. But when the defending king is caught in the corner the attacking side sometimes has winning chances.

Polgar and Hou on BBC The Conversation

7/3/2018 – The two best female players of all time recently came together for The Conversation, a BBC podcast interview. They spoke about their respective chess careers as the best women in the sport, the challenges they each faced, and how they chose to transition away from dedicated competition. These are subjects both have dealt with often before, but rarely have the two come together for a direct back-and-forth conversation like this.

Hort stories: Ludek Pachman (part 1)

7/2/2018 – Ludek Pachman was an important theoretician, an industrious author, and a controversial personality. In Czechoslovakia he was a staunch communist but after the "Prague Spring" he changed from Saul to Paul or, as some people think, from Saul to Saul. Vlastimil Hort shares memories of Ludek Pachman. | Photos: Archive Michalek