7/15/2016 – Tactics can seem deceptively simple, particularly when seeing an engine analysing grandmaster games. Strange, however, how difficult it is to find the right move and to calculate variations properly when playing yourself. It is easier if you solve tactical puzzles regularly. In the ChessBase Magazine and his tactics column Oliver Reeh helps you to do so.

7/14/2016 – After his first round loss Magnus Carlsen was determined to strike back in round two. Playing with Black against Wei Yi he managed to reach a better endgame in which he finally overpowered the Chinese. Sergey Karjakin and Anish Giri threw it all at each other but after a long fight were forced to split the point in a basic pawn ending. The draw between Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So was much less exciting.

7/14/2016 – The Women's Grand Prix in Chengdu had a happy end for Indian Grandmaster Humpy Koneru when she won her last two games to finish shared first with Harika Dronavalli. Both scored 7.0/11 but Harika Dronavalli won the tournament on tie-break. With 6.0/11 Anna Muzychuk, Ju Wenjun and Antoaneta Stefanova shared places three to six. But though Koneru did not win the tournament she gained 145 Grand Prix points and is now first in the overall Grand Prix standings.

7/14/2016 – What happened? Magnus Carlsen lost with White against Hikaru Nakamura, who played strong and calm chess. But where did the World Champion go wrong, what could he have done better, when was he lost and what opportunities did he miss? In his "Powerplay" YouTube channel English Grandmaster Daniel King tries to find answers to these and other questions. See the video...

7/14/2016 – In 2007 an Italian study wanted to find out if and how gender affects performance in chess. The result surprises. According to the study women play better if they don't know whether their opponent is a man or a woman. But why is that so? And why is there such a marked gender gap in the non-physical sport of chess? The New York Times wanted to know more about this persistent puzzle.

7/14/2016 – Now into its ninth edition, this annual event is held in a city teeming with furious energy, one that never sleeps. The first three places in the ratings tournament were occupied by Indian player, the "best foreigner" was Russian GM Boris, 2639, in place four. Makes you wonder: which is the great super-power in chess these days? Priyadarshan Banjan's richly illustrated report contains a deadly dangerous song and some devastating advertising puns. Utterly butterly.

7/13/2016 – In round four of the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting Dortmund Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won against German grandmaster Rainer Buhmann. Long time Buhmann's Breyer looked solid but then the French grandmaster opened lines with a tricky pawn-break. The three other games ended in a draw: Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu could not convert an advantage against Evgeny Najer, Fabiano Caruana found no recipe against Leinier Dominguez' Petroff and Ruslan Ponomariov and Vladimir Kramnik also drew without too much excitement.

7/13/2016 – The first round of the Masters in Bilbao started with a bang. For the first time in his career Hikaru Nakamura won against Magnus Carlsen in a game with classical time control. World Champion Carlsen played too aggressively and an unimpressed Nakamura countered. The two other games were drawn. Wei Yi successfully defended a difficult ending against Anish Giri while Sergey Karjakin and Wesley split the point after some excitement in the middlegame.

7/13/2016 – The sixth round of the 7. Hainan Danzhou tournament was a round of draws. No game had a winner. For tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played against Wang Hao, it was his first draw after winning four and losing one game. The table, of course, did not change much: Nepomniachtchi now leads with 4.5/6 but is still one point ahead of Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue.

7/13/2016 – Today, 16.00 CEST the first round of the IX Bilbao Chess Masters Final begins, yesterday the opening ceremony took place. The players were presented to the press and the pairings were drawn. In round one Sergey Karjakin plays against Wesley So, Anish Giri faces Wei Yi and Magnus Carlsen plays against Hikaru Nakamura. You can follow the games live and with commentary on the playchess server.

7/13/2016 – In this week's "Agony Column" Jon Speelman enters into an analytical dialogue with Aaron Demby Jones, an amateur player from the US. Jones sent in two attacking games, one in which he agonizingly failed to finish a strong attack in style, and one in which he unleashed a brilliant sacrificial to initiate an ecstatic and entertaining king hunt.

7/13/2016 – Cimannacce, a village in the mountains of Corsica with a population of just 132 people (!), was host to a strong blitz tournament. World number four Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the top seed of the event and was up against strong players like Bacrot, Laznicka, Areshchenko, Jones, Grandelius, Zhigalko, etc. The French number one scored 8.0/9 and won the event in style. In this report we have two games sent to us by MVL from the event. We also show you how a high class blitz tournament is organized.