7/31/2026 – Dear chess friends! We’ve got another great offer for you: this week (until August 2nd, 2026), you can get over 25% off all Fritztrainer courses by RB Ramesh, Surya Ganguly and Michael Prusikin!

7/30/2026 – With a large number of extremely successful students, not least the World Championship candidate Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Indian chess coach Ramachandran Ramesh is regarded as a remarkable coach, the Pep Guardiola of chess. In his recently launched FritzTrainer “Improve your pieces: A winning system you need to know”, he shares the secret of his chess training. Stefan Liebig reviews the course.

7/30/2026 – Argentine 15-year-old IM Francisco Fiorito won the 42nd Andorra Open, scoring 7½ points from 9 rounds to finish half a point clear of the field. After suffering his only defeat in round four, he recovered to win four of his final five games, including victories over GMs Egor Bogdanov and Andrey Sumets. Top seed Miguel Santos from Spain finished second on tiebreak. WGM Lile Koridze from Georgia, the 79th seed, had a remarkable performance, scoring 7/9 to obtain an IM norm. | Pictured: Francesc Rechi (President of the Andorran Chess Federation), Miguel Santos, Francisco Fiorito and Vladyslav Larkin | Photo: Andorra Open

7/30/2026 – Chris Ward turns this edition of the Monthly Dragon into a special exploration of the Accelerated and Hyper Accelerated Dragon. He explains how Black can respond to the Maroczy Bind, why move order details matter, and which active ideas can prevent White from establishing comfortable control. Several instructive sidelines and one of Ward’s own quick victories illustrate the tactical possibilities of the opening. The main example is a highly entertaining rapid game between Gukesh and Hikaru Nakamura, in which Nakamura creates remarkable counterplay and eventually wins a dramatic queen and rook ending. | Photo: John Upham

7/29/2026 – Alireza Firouzja has withdrawn from the remainder of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour after choosing to compete in the Esports World Cup in Paris, whose dates overlap with the Sinquefield Cup. His tour points have been annulled and contractual penalties will apply, while Samuel Sevian will replace him in Saint Louis. Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave faced the same clash but retained their Grand Chess Tour commitments. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

7/29/2026 – There is a lot of chess going on right now. While I'm playing in the first edition of the Amsterdam Chess Festival myself, there are elite events going on in Chennai and Biel. While Firouzja is leading in Chennai (beating Gukesh in the second round), Le Quang Liem is leading in Biel. Our Game of the Week is Martinez Alcantara vs Le Quang Liem, featuring the trendy 6...g5 in the Steinitz Deferred variation of the Ruy Lopez. For now the verdict seems to be: fully playable for Black. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/27/2026 – Last Thursday the current FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has abandoned his candidacy for reelection, after been sanctioned by the European Union. We were informed by ther Chess Federation of Russia that Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who had served as FIDE president for 23 years, received their full support as a candidate. And just as we were about to report this story we learn that he is not among the three candidates the FIDE Office received before the deadline. Turbulent times.

7/27/2026 – Vladimir Akopian won his second US Senior Championship in three years after defeating Alexander Onischuk in a playoff, while Anjelina Belakovskaia claimed the US Senior Women's title with an unbeaten 7/8 score. Both events were held at the Saint Louis Chess Club, where Akopian prevailed 3–1 in rapid and blitz games after sharing first place, and Belakovskaia finished a full point ahead of defending champion Natalya Tsodikova. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

7/27/2026 – In the early 1980s, as a fledgling TV journalist, I did a report on the fastest computer in the world. The Cray-1 cost eight million dollars and could do 130 million floating point operations per second. That was enough to calculate the weather, but also to win two consecutive world computer chess championships. How much faster are today's supercomputers? Take a guess – you are definitely not going to get it right.

7/26/2026 – Walther Freiherr von Holzhausen is not among the best-known players of the early twentieth century. Nevertheless, he was a very strong amateur and, above all, a chess problem composer of great importance. As a major in the Prussian Army, the First World War marked a profound turning point in his life.

7/26/2026 – The German Championship has been decided: Leonardo Costa is the German champion in the open category with 6/9. Bennet Hagner, in second place, and Luis Engel, in third, follow in the standings with 5½ points each. Jana Schneider became the German women's champion with 7/9. Lara Schulze finished second and Sarah Papp third. A draw against Dmitrij Kollars was enough for Leonardo Costa to secure first place, while Jana Schneider clinched the title with a victory over Kateryna Dolzhykova. | Photos: Finn Engesser

7/26/2026 – Welcome to The Initiative – a show dedicated to the relentless battle for momentum in chess! In every game, players fight to seize control, dictate the pace and keep their opponent on the back foot. But what does it really mean to have the initiative? How do the world's best players maintain pressure and transform small advantages into crushing attacks?