7/8/2018 – In Amsterdam the last round Sunday was not to determine a winner; the Dutch Champion for 2018 was already set in the person of Sergei Tiviakov. Tiviakov had to deal with Loek van Wely, the top seed in the field, in round six, but after Van Wely made a serious mistake, Tiviakov pressed an extremely dangerous initiative and converted his advantage confidently to take an insurmountable lead over Erwin l'Ami, Erik van den Doel and Ivan Sokolov. | Photos: Harry Gielen / Official site

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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!

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

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

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

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