50th Biel: Round 6 - Three wins for White

7/30/2017 – Leader Etienne Bacrot drew against Peter Leko to remain on top with 4.5 / 6. The closest pursuers are now Pentala Harikrishna and Ruslan Ponomariov. The Ukrainian former FIDE World Champion overcame of David Navara's Najdorf, as the Czech's slide continues. Rafael Vaganian got a win to pull himself out of the cellar. | Photos: Pascal Simon

Chess in Guadeloupe: the butterfly effect (part two)

7/30/2017 – In this second part of the report on the Guadeloupe Open, you will be treated to more gorgeous scenery, all captured in large high-res imagery, together with instructive chess analysis, including one game that brought up memories of.... Bogoljubow against Lasker. It is just one more example of why knowing one's classics can never be repeated enough. Enjoy this scenic chess lesson!

Greet is great at 150th Dundee Anniversary

7/29/2017 – Scottish IM Andrew Greet won the grandmaster tournament with 6 points from 9 games. GMs Simon Williams, Martin Petr, Spyridon Kapnisis and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant shared 2nd-5th places, a half point back. At look at the back story of the tournament. | Photo: Brendan O'Gorman

Chess in Guadeloupe: the butterfly effect (part one)

7/29/2017 – Being the Elo favorite in an event is one thing, but having your name and photo as part of a tournament's main promotional material and poster is another. At least for most common mortals. This was what IM Alina l'Ami faced as she arrived in the gorgeous Caribbean island, Guadeloupe, which lived up to its postcard reputation. Enjoy this lovely high-resolution pictorial.

50th Biel: Round 5 - Hou Yifan chases Bacrot

7/28/2017 – Etienne Bacrot has had a convincing performance in Biel. In round 5, he won with Black against the Swiss IM Noel Studer and is now at the top of the field with 4.0 / 5. A half point behind is Hou Yifan, who won with White against David Navara. Alexander Morozevich, who overpowered Rafael Vaganian in yet another French, was the third winner of the round. | Photos: Pascal Simon

Attagirl!

7/28/2017 – It's obvious that in the diagram position White cannot really castle short (black bishop a7!). So a queen move should be played. 16.Qd3 or 16.Qe4 - which of these two passes your stress test?

Match of the Millennials: World leads US 13-11

7/28/2017 – Part of a "summer of chess" at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the Match of the Millennials, is a wonderful idea, pitting top US Juniors against a selection of international juniors representing the ‘World’ team. The US brings some of it hottest names such as Jeffery Xiong, Samuel Sevian, and Awonder Liang, while the World includes Praggnanandhaa, Bibisara Assaubayeva, and more. At the midway point, here is the illustrated report. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

50th Biel: Round 4 and four winners

7/28/2017 – In today's fourth round there were four decisive games in the GM tournament of the Biel chess festival. In three games, the white knights took were the key factor. In the fourth Black's passed pawn made all the difference. Etienne Bacrot now leads the field with Pentala Harikrishna and others a half point behind. | Photos: Pascal Simon

Exercises in Style (2/4): Solutions

7/27/2017 – The "Exercises in Style" are an invitation to playfully have a closer look at the style of the 16 World Champions. In each of the four parts of the series the reader is shown four games without data and is asked to guess which World Champion played which game. Part 2 showed games by Max Euwe, Mikhail Botvinnik, Vassily Smyslov and Mihail Tal. Here are the answers to which World Champion played which game.

Bobby Fischer in Iceland – 45 years ago (6)

7/26/2017 – In the sixth installment of our series we offer readers a glimpse of what had been happening behind the scenes of “The Match of The Century”, especially in the Russian camp. A tense Boris Spassky, cajoled by seconds Efim Geller and Nikolai Krogius, nevertheless failed to perform to the dismay of his friends and admirers. It’s also the story of a gamble that could have hurtled Bobby down the precipice in that fateful Game 6 of the match. A cautionary tale and object lesson for aspiring players.

Review: Understanding the French!

7/26/2017 – Rustam Kasimdzhanov was FIDE World Champion in 2004, a renowned opening expert and a successful trainer. He was a long-time second of Vishy Anand and helped him to prepare for several World Championship matches. For ChessBase, Kasimdzhanov has published a number of popular opening DVDs. Fiona Sieber had a close look at his DVD about the Main Line of the Classical French.

Match of the Millennials pits USA vs. the World

7/26/2017 – Yet another interesting new event put on by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the Match of the Millennials sees eight young American players face off against some of the best juniors from around the world. World Junior Champion Jeffery Xiong leads the USA squad, and Haik Martirosyan from Armenia heads the World team.

50th Biel, Round 3: Five draws, two exciting games

7/26/2017 – The third round of the Grandmaster tournament in Biel ended with five draws, but two of them were exciting and varied. Once again it was Alexander Morozevich, with tactical and combative play who caused the most excitement, with an honorable mention to David Navara, who also impressed with many surprising ideas | Photos: Pascal Simon

2nd Stars Cup in Iran

7/26/2017 – The second edition of the Stars Cup recently took place, pitting once more a team of Iranian talents against experienced strong international players, to allow the Iranians a chance to learn and grow. This year, the international team included the likes of Shirov, Jobava, Bruzon Batista, and more, and Iran's lineup saw Maghsoodloo, who finished with a 2700+ performance, Firouzja, and more. Reporting on it, with a look into Iranian chess, is GM Elshan Moradiabadi. | Photos: chessstarscup.ir

50th Biel, Round 2: Wins for Bacrot, Ponomariov and Morozevich

7/26/2017 – The second round, like the first, provided viewers with ample entertainment value. Alexander Morozevich rebounded from yesterday's loss by beating David Navara. Ruslan Ponomariov sprung a trap on Peter Leko that netted a pawn and the game and Etienne Bacrot played the French against an Armenian playing the Armenian variation!

Grischuk beats Yu 3-1 in Russia-China match

7/25/2017 – The Chinese Chess Association has made no secret of its ambitions to see a Chinese player one day vie for the overall world title. In an effort to help its many talents, matches have been organized over the past years to allow them to face elite players in match conditions to acquire experience. The latest was a fascinating match between Alexander Grischuk and Yu Yangyi which saw the Russian take in a convincing 3-1. Here is the great in-depth report by Liang Ziming.

Sahaj Grover dominates South African Championships

7/25/2017 – The South African Open Chess Championships returned to Durban this year after a 21-year break. It was held from the 14th to the 22nd July and was won by GM Sahaj Grover from India. In fact he won not only the Classical, but Rapid and the Blitz Championships as well! | Photo: Rayven Moodley

His Majesty attacks

7/25/2017 – Mating attacks in the endgame occur less often than in the middlegame but if they occur it is often pleasing to see how the remaining pieces and pawns harmonize to mate the enemy king.

Magnus Carlsen plays in the World Cup

7/24/2017 – Today, FIDE announced the list of participants for the World Cup 2017, which will be played from September 2nd to 28th in the city of Tbilisi. One name on the list was particularly surprising — Magnus Carlsen. Two years ago the World Champion revealed that he is a fan of the knock-out-mode. Now he's gunning for one title he does not yet have. | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich, dubai2014wrb.com

50th Biel: Hou and Leko score in Round 1

7/24/2017 – Hou Yifan and Peter Leko won their games — both with Black — against Alexander Morozevich and Noel Studer to start the Biel GM tournament. Hou rebuffed Morozevich's sacrificial stab in a King's Indian Attack, while Peter Leko fought for victory in the endgame after a sharp Modern Benoni.

Russian Higher League won by Dubov and Sjugirov

7/24/2017 – The Russian Higher League concluded in a celebration of youth, with as much drama and excitement for the five qualifiers in each event as for the ones who failed to make the cut. The open section was won by Daniil Dubov and Sanan Sjugirov, with classy performances, and the women’s section was won by Marina Nechaeva, while 13-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva just barely missed out after a fantastic tournament. Report and analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

“Women’s chess”: A misleading and counterproductive label

7/24/2017 – The label has settled into chess parlance, but its usage is a disservice to the inherent meritocracy of chess that all players appreciate. FM ALISA MELEKHINA argues that it's time to let the term “women’s chess” fade into our patriarchal past. | Photo: Doug Morisoli

Radek rocks Dortmund final round

7/23/2017 – With a convincing victory against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, the Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtaszek secured victory at the Grandmaster Tournament of the 45th Sparkassen Chess-Meeting in Dortmund this afternoon. It turned out to be necessary, because with a draw, Wojtaszek would have been joined by Vladimir Fedoseev, who won today against Wang Yue, and could have edged him on the second tiebreak (most wins). In a remarkable contrast to rounds 1-6, today was a bloodbath — all four games where decisive!

The 50th Biel Chess Festival kicks off

7/23/2017 – On Saturday the 50th chess festival of Biel officially openedl. Today chess players such as Anatoly Karpov, Vlastimil Hort and Rafael Vaganjan participate in a rapid tournament. Monday sees the start of the GM-tournament, the main event in the annual festivities. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival (bielchessfestival.ch)