7/23/2024 – Pictorial portraits of ten chess players from many different countries, engaged in various sections (GMT Masters Triathlon, GMT Challengers Triathlon, Masters Open, and Amateur Open) at the 57th edition of the Biel Chess Festival. An unparalleled mix of chess activities! Our author, who lives in Biel, presents both known and unknown faces from the Festival | Photos: Organiser (Simon Bohnenblust, Peter A. Steffen)

7/23/2024 – Surya Ganguly, the experienced GM from West Bengal, is playing at the Masters Open Tournament in Biel. In an entertaining interview conducted by Arne Kaehler, Surya shares anecdotes from his lengthy chess career and responds to rather unexpected questions. Not to be missed!

7/23/2024 – The strongest junior and senior chess players in the United States have returned to Saint Louis. On July 16-26, the top 10 players across three divisions - juniors, girls, and seniors - are competing for more than $135,000 in prizes. Find here all games, standings and the daily recap produced by the Saint Louis Chess Club. | Pictured: Rose Atwell, who is now sharing the lead with Alice Lee in the Girls' Championship | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/23/2024 – Alireza Firouzja advanced to the Division I Grand Final in the online CrunchLab Masters by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the losers' bracket final. On Wednesday, following a rest day, Firouzja will face Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who had already defeated Firouzja in the winners' bracket final. In Division II, Alexander Grischuk and Vidit Gujrathi reached the Grand Final, while Arjun Erigaisi and Evgeny Alekseev will face off in the Grand Final of Division III. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes

7/23/2024 – Against bishops it is often a good strategy to build a blockade. In the diagram position it is Black to move - how could he have built a blockade and saved the game?

7/22/2024 – In the Endgame Magic Show #276 Karsten Müller takes a close look at two fascinating endgames from the Norway Chess Tournament. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/22/2024 – FIDE has published the official entry and starting lists for the Chess Olympiad in Budapest (11 to 22 September). In the open tournament, the USA, India and China are the top teams in the seeding list according to Elo. The German team is in tenth place. In the Women's Olympiad, Georgia leads the seeding list. The German women are eighth in the seeding list. | Photos: FIDE

7/22/2024 – “Finishing off the opponent's king is, and remains, the ultimate goal of a chess game, and in order to memorise the checkmating patterns and know how to use them successfully in your own games, only one thing helps: practise again and again!”. Oliver Reeh introduces his tactics column in the new ChessBase Magazine #220 with these words. Is there anything to add? Let's go! Take advantage of the CBM reading sample of the week and go king hunting with Oliver Reeh. Here and now and directly via your web browser!

7/22/2024 – The blitz section of the GM Triathlons at the Biel Chess Festival decided which players would qualify for the final phase and thus fight for the 2024 title. There was particular tension in the Masters, where the Indian superstar Praggnanandhaa had to work hard to make it through, as he had a strong showing to qualify in third place after all. In the Challengers, Saleh Salem has a huge advantage in the standings thanks to an outstanding performance in the blitz, as he scored 9 out of 10 possible points. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/21/2024 – With 5 out of 9 rounds played at the US Senior, US Junior and US Girls Championships, the three concurrent events have sole leaders atop the standings. In the Senior tournament, Vladimir Akopian leads with 4½ points, as only Gregory Kaidanov managed to hold him to a draw in the first 5 rounds of play. In the Junior event, rating favourite and 2022 champion Christopher Yoo leads with 4 points, while among the Girls, Jasmine Su leads with 3½ points despite having suffered a loss against Omya Vidharti in round 5. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club / Lennart Ootes

7/21/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 187th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and looks at the long career of Viktor Kortchnoi, one of the best players of all time who never became World Champion. | Photo: Pascal Simon

7/21/2024 – Two French representatives reached the final in the Division I winners' bracket of the CrunchLab Masters: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who defeated Magnus Carlsen, and Alireza Firouzja, who got the better of Jan-Krzysztof Duda. MVL needed to work hard to beat the world rapid and blitz champion, as their match, featuring all decisive games, went to Armageddon. Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi remain in contention in the losers' bracket. | Photo: Vincent Michel / Ouest France