7/19/2024 – In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike, because nothing is more annoying than missing a winning combination in the decisive situation, thus giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game. So it is vital to train tactics properly - and Master Class Tactics offers you the perfect tool for this purpose!

7/19/2024 – 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: Jasmine Su, the sole leader in the Girls' Championship | Photo: Crystal Fuller

7/19/2024 – Day 2 of the CrunchLab Masters saw players fighting to enter the double-elimination knockouts in the Division Placement stage. At the end of the day, five well-known names qualified to the Division I knockout, where they will join Magnus Carlsen and co. as they battle for a spot in this year's end-of-season Tour Finals. A few elite GMs were unable to make it to the top division, though, including online-chess expert Hikaru Nakamura. | Photo: FIDE / Mark Livshitz

7/19/2024 – All three games finished drawn in round 3 of the Masters Triathlon at the Biel Chess Festival, which means Abhimanyu Mishra remains as the sole leader in the 6-player event. In the Challengers section, the lowest-rated participant, Vaishali R, continues to perform flawlessly, as she won her third classical game in a row. Vaishali thus grabbed the sole lead in the tournament. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/18/2024 – Ziaur Rahman, the second grandmaster of Bangladesh and the player to have reached the highest rating in his country (2570), passed away on 5 July while playing a game of chess at the Bangladeshi National Championships. He suffered a heart attack and collapsed to the ground. Ziaur was just 50 years old. In this article, we look back at his life and remember what a gem of a person he was both on and off the board, and we also share heartfelt messages from some of the top Indian GMs. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

7/18/2024 – 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: Jesse Kraai | Photos: Lennart Ootes

7/16/2024 – Running from July 17 to July 24, the highly anticipated third event of the 2024 Champions Chess Tour will feature the world's top chess players competing for a $300,000 prize pool and a coveted spot in the CCT Finals. Fans can count on the presence of last year's Tour champion GM Magnus Carlsen, chess.com Classic winner Alireza Firouzja and elite GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Wesley So.

7/15/2024 – The Maroczy structure - named after Hungarian star Geza Maroczy (pictured) - is one of the most popular setups against the Sicilian: White has pawns on e4 and c4 which guarantee a space advantage. Black, on the other hand, has a solid position and good counter-chances, often based on breaking through with ...b5 or ...d5. Jan Markos takes a closer look at this structure, focusing on the role of the "inconspicuous hero" of these positions. | Photo: Cuba News

7/15/2024 – The 57th Biel Chess Festival kicked off the past weekend, this year extended with a Challengers Tournament. Chess960 and rapid chess were the first events. In the Masters, Armenian GM Haik Martirosyan was the top scorer in the rapid section, while German GM Alexander Donchenko prevailed in the Challengers. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

7/15/2024 – In the Endgame Magic Show #275 Karsten Müller and ChessBase author and streamer Svitlana Demchenko look at three interesting endgames from Svitlana's practice. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/15/2024 – In chess literature, there is one topic - and a very attractive one - that has surprisingly never been dealt with systematically: Fortresses! Dorian Rogozenco sets out to fill this gap with his new column in ChessBase Magazine. In each issue, Rogozenco will introduce you to a fortress in a video. "There are fortresses that are important to know. In my new column, I will start with the simplest ones," says the former coach of the German national team. The presentation of the fortress is followed by a series of interactive videos to help you memorise the motif in a fun way. Do you know the fortress with knight and bishop against queen? Take a look at our first sample of the new ChessBase Magazine #220! Simply load it with your web browser in the ChessBase Books format. Have fun!

7/15/2024 – Fabiano Caruana was simply unstoppable at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Tournament in Croatia. The US star claimed his second consecutive victory in a Grand Chess Tour event with five rounds to spare, after entering the final day of action with a 4½-point lead and scoring 3½ points in the first four rounds played on Sunday. In a close battle for second place, Wesley So, Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ended up tied with 23 points each. | Photo: Lennart Ootes