7/7/2024 – Trapping the pieces of the opponent has a particular charm. When thinking back to the first days of ChessBase and looking at a game Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja recently played at the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Jon Speelman (pictured) remembered a number of famous and entertaining games, in which pieces were caught. | Photo: David Llada

7/7/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 185th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the life and games of Garry Kasparov who many consider to be the best player of all time. | Photo: Pascal Simon

7/7/2024 – The new ChessBase Magazine #220 again provides plenty of ideas for your repertoire with ten opening articles, from the Reti Opening to the Jobava London System and the King's Indian! In his search for a weapon against the Semi-Slav (1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6), our author Yago Santiago came across the move 5.Qc2!? with which Matthias Bluebaum, among others, has achieved impressive results! The article in CBM #220 consists of an introductory text and nine extensively annotated games (with an outright 9:0 in favour of White!), including no less than five games by the German grandmaster. This week we invite you to take a look at the article with all our author's analyses as a free reading sample - directly via your web browser in ChessBase Books format.

7/6/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris takes a look at the game Firouzja-So, which featured the sharp Sämisch Variation (4.a3) against the Nimzo-Indian. In a relatively well-known position, it seemed like Wesley So got surprised by a spectacular pawn sacrifice (8.c5!?) and quickly lost control. In this episode we'll deal with the theoretical implications of this almost new concept. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/6/2024 – In the diagram position Black played 24...Nd7 to simplify things - but from what I know about you, you will find a way to put a spanner in the works with White!

7/6/2024 – An exciting final day of action at the Superbet Chess Classic saw Fabiano Caruana first losing his round-9 classical game against Anish Giri and then convincingly prevailing in a 4-way rapid playoff. Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja finished the classical section tied for first with Caruana after Firouzja failed to make the most of a considerable advantage in his game against Pragg. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/5/2024 – Hangzhou lead the Chinese Team Championships with 13 points after eight rounds of eleven in Fulin. Shenzhen and Jiangshu are one point behind. A number of top Chinese players are supporting their teams in Fulin, including Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun (pictured), who has scored 6.5/8 for Shanghai so far. | Photos: Sina Sport

7/5/2024 – The first leg of the 2024-2025 edition of the Women’s Grand Prix is set to start in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, from August 14 to 25. Ten players will participate in the inaugural tournament, including former women’s world champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Mariya Muzychuk.

7/5/2024 – The second event of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour is the Superbet Chess Classic, a 10-player single round-robin taking place from June 26 to July 5 at the Grand Hotel Bucharest. Defending champion Fabiano Caruana is the rating favourite, while Ian Nepomniachtchi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are the second and third seeds respectively. | Follow the games live with expert commentary, starting at 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

7/5/2024 – A second consecutive round with all games ending drawn took place on Thursday at the Superbet Chess Classic in Romania. Fabiano Caruana thus continues to lead the standings, with Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Alireza Firouzja sharing second place a half point behind the US star. The tournament’s final round will see Caruana playing black against Anish Giri. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/4/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft shows how Alireza Firouzja managed to win against Wesley So, a notoriously difficult player to beat, at the Superbet Romania Chess Classic 2024 in Bucharest. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/4/2024 – Recently, a Chinese chess player won the Arona International Chess Festival. Surprisingly, the winner has no title yet, and started at rank 29. Alan Pichot, Bartosz Socko, and Felix Blohberger couldn't keep up with Haowen Xue. Last year, the then 15-year-old, beat Hans Niemann in the Dubai Open 2023. Time to have a more profound look at this Underdog, before he has 2700+!