8/12/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wins the Sinquefield Cup, the first classical event of the 2017 the Grand Chess Tour. He settled the matter without consideration for tiebreak rules by winning over Ian Nepomniachtchi to reach 6 points. Magnus Carlsen gave it his best shot by beating and leapfrogging Levon Aronian to reach 5½ points. Viswanathan Anand earlier drew with So, and only reached 5½ | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/11/2017 – In game eleven of the World Championship match in Reykjavik, 1972, Boris Spassky had comprehensively outplayed the challenger in his favourite poisoned pawn variation of the Sicilian Defence. In game 12 he made a confident draw with black and Fischer realized his opponent was gaining ground. In the 13th game he abandoned the Sicilian and, to the chagrin of Spassky, played, for the first time in a top-level game – the Alekhine Defence. It turned into one of the most exciting battles of the match, and is beautifully annotated by GM Robert Byrne.

8/11/2017 – Anand is still in the joint lead after draw with Vachier-Lagrave, as Aronian drew with Svilder. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin are lurking a half point back and will have to win in round 9 to have any chance for tournament victory | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/11/2017 – In the diagram postion Black seems to be dead lost in view of the white threats 34.Rg8 and 34.Qf5+. And yet there is a way for him to save himself - all he has to do is trade queens. But how can that be achieved? More...

8/11/2017 – In the first part of the Charleroi Open 2017 we focused on the tournament, on the games and on the winners of the tournament. In the second part we will shift our attention to a great endgame expert playing at the tournament Aloyzas Kveinys. We try to find the reason on why he so good at the endgames and the author tries to acquaint you with a rule he has formulated in bishop vs knight endgames. The report also contains a lot beautiful pictures captured by Amruta Mokal of different personalities at the event.

8/10/2017 – We now have a three-way tie for first, after wins by Anand and Aronian. Vachier-Lagrave only drew, and Magnus Carlsen remains a half point back. Garry Kasparov arrived and delighted fans with an appearance on the live commentary webcast! | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/10/2017 – American Frank Marshall was born 140 years ago today. Marshall was an ingenious chess gentleman who enriched opening theory with gambits and immortalised himself with many splendid combinations.

8/10/2017 – Part three of the "Exercises in Style" showed games by Tigran Petrosian, Boris Spassky, Bobby Fischer and Anatoly Karpov, featuring patient maneuvering, tactical brilliance, impressive endgame technique and sophisticated positional play. However, it was not always easy to ascribe the games to the "right" World Champions. Here are the solutions.

8/10/2017 – The British Championships in Llandudno ended last weekend Sunday in the dead heat — a tiebreak between Luke McShane and Gawain Jones. After two rapid games, Jones emerged the 2017 British Champion. Jovanka Houska was the top scorer among female players and became the woman's champion. | Photo: David Thomas

8/9/2017 – Levon Aronian was the sole winner of the sixth round, impressively defeating Wesley So and moving into shared second place with Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen. The latter missed chances to beat Hikaru Nakamura in a long drawn-out rook endgame, but had to settle for a draw after six hours of play. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave remains in the lead. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

8/9/2017 – After ten games in the World Championship match in Reykjavik, 1972, the score was 6½-3½ for Challenger Bobby Fischer. The match seemed virtually over – in the last eight games Boris Spassky had only managed to score 1½ points. "If it had been the best of 12 games, as in the Candidates matches, Spassky would already have been on his way home..." wrote Garry Kasparov in his Great Predessors book. In game 11 Boris took on the Poisoned Pawn variation of the Najdorf Sicilian, even though he had obtained a lost position in game seven. Take a look at what happened.

8/9/2017 – Belgium's biggest open tournament took place in Charleroi from July 29th to August 5th, 2017. A total of 240 players gathered to play, enjoy and celebrate the game of chess. The top seed of the event Tigran Gharamian (2616) emerged as the winner on tiebreak edging out experienced GM Alexandre Dgebuadze. Read on for interesting positions plus a video interview with Tigran showing you some beautiful tactics from one of his games, and his work as a second of Levon Aronian. | Photos: Amruta Mokal