6/19/2017 – Day two of the FIDE World Team Championships saw a lot of hard-fought games with the favorites not always getting their way. After a surprise draw against Ukraine, Turkey was able to hold Russia to a draw as well, and it was not for lack of effort on the Russians' part. China overcame India in a match that could have gone either way. In the Women's section, Russia beat Vietnam easily, while China stumbled over Ukraine. Large illustrated report with many games analyzed by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

6/18/2017 – Chess as a sport needs become a commercially viable if it has to continue to become richer. ChessMine's vision is to make chess financially powerful. We are all about honouring great chess and great chess players. We do this by relying on a unique revenue model that we have developed after years of studying the sport. ChessMine's first tournament is a Rapid+Blitz tournament in August in India's IT hub Bangalore with some of the best Indian players in history. Combine tourism with chess!

6/18/2017 – The first round of the FIDE World Team Championship saw a few surprises from the get-go. The biggest one was Ukraine's inability to beat the much lower-rated Turkey, held to a draw, though top-seed China was in crushing form as they defeated Belarus 3.5-0.5. In the women's event, Russia and China were paired straightaway and the Russians scored an important win. Still, the most exciting match of the day was the epic bout between India and Poland, fully annotated by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

6/17/2017 – For the first time the Open and the Women's Championships are being held at the same time, from June 16–27, 2017, in Khanty-Mansiysk, the oil boom town in western Siberia. The opening ceremony took place on Friday, with some spectacular cultural stage presentations, all meticulously documented in an hour-long video you should not miss. We will be covering the event on Playchess – check our "Live Broadcast" list on the right.

6/17/2017 – When the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2017 was in progress in Moscow, a group of children with disabilities visited the playing venue at the Central Telegraph building on 19th of May. They saw all the top players in action and then got a chance to play the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and GM Alexander Motylev in a simultaneous exhibition."I believe that the meeting with the world top chess players will leave an indelible impression in their hearts", says Polina Torochkova, the person behind this program.

6/16/2017 – An exciting event until the end, Levon Aronian secured his gold with a draw against Wesley So, while Vladimir Kramnik bounced back for a second time in four rounds, defeating Anish Giri. Hikaru Nakamura, clear second, was not only unable to challenge Aronian for gold, but lost to Fabiano Caruana in the last round, leaving him with 5.0/9, the same score as Kramnik. Fortunately for him, he had the better tiebreak and took silver. Large illustrated report with analysis of all games by GM Alex Yermolinsky

6/11/2017 – Round four of Norway Chess was nothing short of amazing on all boards. Let's just start with Aronian, who delivered a classic Bxh7+ shot to ultimately beat Carlsen. Then Giri beat Anand in a strong game, while Nakamura scored his second win, against MVL, to take sole first. Caruana almost had Kramnik, who survived, and Karjakin escaped So in a finale Houdini, had he been a chess player, would have been proud of. Huge illustrated report with great analysis by GM Alex Yermolinsky.

6/10/2017 – The idea of learning to create and use techniques like the Memory Palace is both enticing and intimidating. Where to start? How exactly should one go about it? What are the mistakes one can make and should avoid? All this and more is answered in this next article in the series on Memory Techniques, teaching how to build a Memory Palace with some exercises to test yourself. The author also explains what is needed to apply these techniques to chess.

6/10/2017 – It should come as no surprise that after his run, and above all, victory at the US Championship, Wesley So has begun to catch the eye of mainstream media in ways that had eluded him somewhat until now. The Washington Post recently caught up with the young star, with an interview and profile, presenting him to the wider audience.

6/9/2017 – It was back in the 1920s that the Russian master Benjamin Blumenfeld invented his famous gambit 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5!?, and to the present day the opening retains great popularity. Black plays for the initiative and the win from the word go. We have a marvellous new Fritztrainer by the very popular English chess trainer Andrew Martin, 4 hours 44 min of intense training with interactive video feedback.

6/9/2017 – In the diagram White can win if he finds the right way to parry Black's mate threat ...Qh1++. The game continuation 36.Qc1 did not hit the bull's eye. Can you do better? Unleash your creativity!

6/9/2017 – The players continue to exhibit an incredibly high level of chess in Norway, but unfortunately it comes at the cost of a bit too many draws.Five equal results make the tournament seem rather dull, and truly it hasn't been a shell-shocker of a tournament. There was some action today, as Nakamura was pressured by Carlsen, and at least Aronian's game against Giri was quite wild.