7/16/2018 – Live games and commentary by WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and GM Robert Hess at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis. After four rounds, Advait Patel leads the Open with 3½ / 4, a full point ahead of four players. Carissa Yip has a half point edge in the Girls also with 3½ / 4.

7/16/2018 – 35.855 games played between April and June 2018. Using his own game against Andrei Volokitin (Lvov 2016) Adrian Mikhalchishin explains a few ideas behind the English Variation with 6.a3 Bc5. It is only with best play that Black can equalise.

7/16/2018 – The United States is experiencing a new chess renaissance. There are top tournaments every weekend, with big prizes. Chess centres are also flourishing, and more top players are moving to USA for teaching and playing opportunities. Here, DAVIDE NASTASIO reports on one great tournament already in its third edition, the Carolinas Classic, and interviews one of the organizers, FM Peter Giannatos.

7/16/2018 – Seven out of eight games finished drawn in the first two rounds of the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund. The only player who managed to win was Jan-Krzysztof Duda, who beat Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in Sunday's round and now is the sole leader of the tournament. Despite the big number of draws, we saw a lot of fighting spirit and some very long battles. | Photo: Macauley Peterson

7/15/2018 – On his 90th birthday, which we celebrated with a major biographical article earlier today, we add to the congratulations: Happy 90th, Pal, please stay with us as long as you can, and remain as incredibly creative as you still are. It is also appropriate to present our readers with the solutions to Benko's record-breaking twin problems, which turned out to be harder than expected.

7/15/2018 – At the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund the four games of the first round ended drawn. However, if you think about symmetrical structures and a lot of early exchanges, you are completely wrong, because all boards were struggling hard for the full point. The only player with significant chances to win probably was the birthday boy Ian Nepomniachtchi (against Giri), but the position was pretty tricky. There was also a draw between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Vladislav Kovalev that went almost the full seven hours possible. The ceremonial first move was made by the mayor of Dortmund, Birgit Jörder. | Photo: sparkassen-chess-meeting.de

7/11/2018 – Looking for something new to play in your next tournament? Or in your next club game, or against your traditional holiday opponent. Here's a recommendation by a world-class grandmaster and leading chess author. GM JOHN NUNN explains the ideas behind the daring Evans Gambit and the strategy you should use to play it successfully. Most importantly: you can try out everything right there in your browser against an engine that matches the playing strength of your opponent.

7/11/2018 – The chess train continues this year, with the great route Prague-Ostrava-Warsaw-Krakow-Hradec Králové and back to Prague. During the ride, a rapid chess tournament is played. In the afternoon there is enough time to see the cities. Find out about this now-traditional and quickly-becoming-legendary tournament. | Photos: Pavel Matocha

7/11/2018 – ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel was cajoled into a conversation on Ben Johnson's Perpetual Chess podcast by summer guest-host Macauley Peterson. Here we bringing you some photos and other visual aids, video highlights and transcription of some of the stories and quotes for posterity. In this first part, Frederic talks about his introduction to chess players, meeting Nigel Short and Garry Kasparov, how he came to know his co-founder, ChessBase CEO Matthias Wullenweber, and got the project off the ground, with Kasparov's help.

7/11/2018 – Would you be able to sit in a dark quiet room for, say, two months, with nothing to read, nothing to do, nothing but your own thoughts? According to (I think it was) Goethe, that's the veritable test of a true man. But as a chess player, and under the influence of Stefan Zweig's "Schachnovelle", my surmise is that we could all do it! Philosophers should rebuild their furnace because the supreme test for a grandmaster — and an amateur alike — is to play (and play well!) at the Hersonissos Open. | Photos: Alina l'Ami

7/10/2018 – 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 featuresgames from the Porticcio Open and Dutch Championships!

7/10/2018 – Knights are generally unable to cover a lot of ground in a hurry, but sometimes they can get a boost from tactical stricks and hustle across the board.