8/23/2026 – Indian grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi and Divya Deshmukh have been named among the 17 recipients of the Arjuna Award for 2025, India's second-highest sporting honour. The National Sports Awards were announced on 18 August 2026 by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Divya's selection follows her victory at the 2025 FIDE Women's World Cup, while Vidit is recognised for his sustained contribution to Indian chess. | Photo: FIDE

8/23/2026 – Dear chess friends! We’ve got another great offer for you: this week (until August 23rd, 2026), you can get up to 30% off all Fritz Trainer courses by Robert Ris and Felix Blohberger!

8/23/2026 – In the first classical games of the semifinals at the GCT Finals, Vincent Keymer faced Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Keymer gave up the exchange in the middlegame, after which enough pieces were traded off to leave him with an inferior position. In the end, he managed to save a draw. Fabiano Caruana was also on the defensive side in his draw against Wesley So. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/23/2026 – Use ChessBase´26 for training purposes: with smart use of the database functions and the training tool, you can quickly put together excellent training material. There’s no need anymore to pore over books, copy diagrams, or scan pages. In this second part of the tutorial, you’ll learn how easy it is to prepare your material in a didactic way and turn it into exercises. This saves you valuable time that you can use for your own training or for your students.

8/22/2026 – A legendary centre-back for FC Barcelona, a 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012 champion and one of sport's most restless entrepreneurs is now a stakeholder in a chess franchise. Gerard Piqué has come on board the Fyers American Gambits as a strategic shareholder, joining former India cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin in the ownership group, ahead of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League Season 4 in Bengaluru (3-13 September 2026). It is one of the biggest crossovers chess has seen between football and the 64 squares. | Pictured: A press conference to announce the partnership took place in Bengaluru

8/22/2026 – FIDE has opened nominations for the Svetozar Gligoric Trophy 2026, an award recognising exemplary fair play and sportsmanship in chess. Candidates will be assessed for actions or initiatives carried out between September 2024 and September 2026, including gestures of sportsmanship, promotion of fair play values and support for integrity in the game. Nominations must be submitted by 10 September, with the award ceremony to take place during the Samarkand Olympiad.

8/22/2026 – ChessBase’s new releases for July offer plenty of variety for your chess training: from strategic motifs such and dynamic openings such as the Dragon to established repertoires for Black in the Petroff and the Benko Gambit. The selection is rounded off by the new ChessBase Magazine 232, featuring analyses, opening articles and training material, as well as the accompanying Extra. | All photos: ChessBase

8/22/2026 – While it has become easier nowadays to find information on openings, main lines and sidelines, converting advantageous positions effectively remains a fine art. As is well known, winning a won position is no easy task. In the third volume of his “Master Your Technique” series, Grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin examines techniques that occur particularly frequently in practical play. Lukas Köpl has taken a look at the course and summarised his impressions.

8/21/2026 – The 2026 Grand Chess Tour reaches its concluding event this weekend, with the four highest-ranked full-tour players set to compete in the GCT Finals at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer will take part in the knockout tournament, with competition running from 22 to 27 August and a total prize fund of $450,000 at stake.

8/21/2026 – The Evans Gambit is one of the most famous gambits in chess history. It is named after William Davies Evans (1790–1872), a Welsh sea captain who, in the 1820s, came up with the idea of offering a pawn with 4.b4!? after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5. If Black accepts the sacrifice, White gains time to develop their pieces and attack the black king. The leading players of the 19th century were enthusiastic about this concept, and chess legends such as Paul Morphy and Adolf Anderssen played numerous spectacular games with the Evans Gambit. But what have modern world champions thought of the Evans Gambit? | Photo: Captain Evans (source: Wikipedia)

8/21/2026 – This month I am focusing on games played by Salo Flohr. I am a fan of Flohr's play in the 1930s: for the time he had a rare understanding of positional chess and technique, and we can see that in his game against Euwe - a classic. But there is another side to his play as I demonstrate with his game against Kashdan, where he sacrifices an exchange for long-term compensation.

8/21/2026 – Vincent Keymer played an absolutely phenomenal Sinquefield Cup: judging from the chances he created with his trademark opening play, he should have finished clear first. In times where 1.e4 and 1.d4 main lines are analysed to a draw, Keymer manages to create hyper flexible positions from the Reti, English, Neo London and Accelerated (!) Neo London. While the original plan was to talk you through Keymer-Caruana, this video talks you through the opening stages of all five Keymer games with White. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.