Praggnanandhaa wins St. Louis Rapid & Blitz after leading from start to finish

8/7/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz after leading the tournament from start to finish. The Indian grandmaster secured the title with a round to spare by holding Javokhir Sindarov in their penultimate-round encounter, before finishing 1½ points clear. The result moved Praggnanandhaa into second place in the Grand Chess Tour standings ahead of the Sinquefield Cup. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour
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Game of the Week #734: Lahaye vs Harshavardhan

8/7/2026 – At the Dutch Open in Dieren many interesting games were played, including several GOTW candidates. Especially the seventh round was a bloody affair with decisive results at the first five boards. My old friend Rick Lahaye (2394) played a positional masterpiece against IM Harshavardhan (2508). Without wanting to spoil too much, it's the perfect example of playing with a classical Nimzowitsch blockading knight and its longterm power. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

Fischer's Fritz flop

8/7/2026 – Today, for a change, there's a little quiz on the Two Knights Defence - let's see if you know all the names!

Turkish Delight

8/7/2026 – In the diagram position White has a powerful knight e5, plus active rooks on the d- and f-file. Now all that's left is to bring the queen a6 into the attack - the question is, how?

World University Team Championship: Eight teams advance

8/7/2026 – The group stage of the inaugural FIDE World University Team Championship Finals came to an exciting conclusion on Thursday in Almaty, Kazakhstan, with the eight quarterfinalists now confirmed after three days of intense competition. With all sixteen participating universities in action for the final time, the last rounds determined which teams would continue their quest for the inaugural title and which would conclude their championship journey.

Henry Atkins: Brilliant amateur, nine-time British champion

8/7/2026 – In the early years of the British Championship, Henry Atkins won the title seven times in succession between 1905 and 1911, before adding two more victories later on. This made him the record holder until the 1960s. What makes this achievement especially remarkable is that Atkins was essentially an amateur player who rarely competed in other tournaments. | Photo: Theo F Gidden, Wikipedia
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Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz - Live!

8/6/2026 – The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is taking place on 2-6 August at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The 10-player event sees three days of rapid chess (single round-robin) followed by two days of blitz (double round-robin). A stellar lineup features, among others, World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer. Follow the games live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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British Chess Championship - Live!

8/6/2026 – The 112th edition of the British Chess Championship is taking place on 1-9 August at the University of Warwick in Coventry. The main event is a 9-round Swiss open with a classical time control. Topping the starting rank are Luke McShane, Michael Adams and Shreyas Royal. Also noteworthy is the presence of 11-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan, already the highest-rated woman player in this year's edition. | Follow the games live starting at 15.30 CEST (9.30 ET, 19.00 IST)
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Dortmund: Dinara Wagner and Matthias Bluebaum grab crucial wins

8/6/2026 – In the International Women's Tournament at the Dortmund Chess Festival, Dinara Wagner (pictured) moved into first place after defeating the previous leader, Nataliya Buksa. As Klaudia Kulon, who had been level on points with Wagner, lost to Song Yuxin, Wagner now holds a half-point lead after three of six rounds. In the A Open, defending champion Matthias Bluebaum also looked well-prepared and defeated the previous sole leader, Amilal Munkhdalai. Bluebaum now shares the lead with Kacper Piorun and Yu Tian Poh. | Photo: Official website
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Team line-ups confirmed for 46th FIDE Chess Olympiad

8/6/2026 – One month before the Chess Olympiad gets underway in Samarkand, FIDE has published the team line-ups. They reveal a number of significant changes since the 2024 Olympiad: the United States have included Hans Niemann, World Champion Gukesh will play on board four for India, hosts Uzbekistan once again rely on their young golden generation, and the battle for medals in the Women's event also promises to be fiercely contested.

Almaty day two: High-level competition, inspiring stories

8/6/2026 – The inaugural FIDE World University Team Championship Finals continued on Wednesday in Almaty as the battle for the knockout stage intensified, with university teams from around the world fighting for every point. Following another day of intense competition across the four pools, the championship once again highlighted the unique connection between elite chess, higher education, and international friendship.

Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: Pragg still leads, Sindarov keeps up the pace

8/6/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu retained the lead after the first nine blitz rounds of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, scoring 6/9 to extend his advantage over Javokhir Sindarov to 1½ points. Sindarov remained the closest challenger after three consecutive wins, while Wesley So lost ground. The direct encounter between Sindarov and Pragg proved pivotal, as Sindarov failed to convert a winning pawn ending and had to settle for a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Ivan Sokolov's ChessBase Training Courses on offer

8/6/2026 – Every summer, Ivan Sokolov visits the ChessBase studio in Hamburg to record new courses. Over the years, these recordings have developed into some of the most important middlegame training series in the ChessBase catalogue, aimed primarily at ambitious players rated 1800 and above. Sokolov is refreshingly direct about the level required: “1700 and below, please find a different course.” His lessons are demanding, practical and based on coaching methods he has refined while working with elite players and national teams.

Dortmund: Song excels at blitz, Munkhdalai sole leader in the Open

8/5/2026 – "Playmakers on the chessboard" was the title of the high-profile blitz tournament used to determine the tie-break standings in the women's event. Song Yuxin won ahead of Nataliya Buksa and Klaudia Kulon. Dinara Wagner had to settle for fourth place. In the A Open, defending champion Matthias Bluebaum conceded his first half-point against IM Yu Tian Poh. The young German IM Luka Schwitkowski could have taken the outright lead after a strong game, but eventually lost a theoretically drawn endgame. As a result, his opponent Amilal Munkhdalai is the sole leader after four rounds. | Photos: Dariusz Gorzinski / Nils Rohde
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British Championship: Bazakutsa leads, Sivanandan among chasers

8/5/2026 – Svyatoslav Bazakutsa took sole possession of the lead at the British Chess Championship after defeating nine-time champion Michael Adams in round four. The 18-year-old Ukrainian now has a perfect 4/4, half a point ahead of a five-player chasing group. Among them is 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan, who continued her strong start by beating fifth seed Ameet Ghasi with the black pieces. | Photo: Yury Krylov
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Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: Pragg wins rapid section despite final-round loss

8/5/2026 – Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu finished the rapid section of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in first place with 12/18 points, despite losing to Jorden van Foreest in the final round. Javokhir Sindarov trails by one point, with Wesley So another point behind. Praggnanandhaa recorded four wins, four draws and one defeat across nine rounds, while also entering the top ten of the live rapid world rankings for the first time in his career. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour
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History being made in Almaty

8/5/2026 – ... as the Inaugural FIDE World University Team Chess Championship gets underway, bringing together university teams from across the globe for the first-ever edition of the competition. Hosted by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as part of FIDE's Year of Chess in Education 2026, the championship celebrates not only sporting excellence, but also the growing role of chess in higher education.
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ChessBase Summer-Special! – Part 5

8/4/2026 – Dear chess friends! We’ve got another great offer for you: this week (until August 9th, 2026), you can get over 25% off all Fritz Trainer courses by Ivan Sokolov!

Review: My "Sokolov-Strategy" - Part 3

8/4/2026 – Do you know the feeling? You often come out of the opening with a promising position, only to struggle to convert your advantage because you do not fully understand the resulting middlegame. Jochen Schwarz, a club player from Bremen, wants to improve this aspect of his game and has enlisted Ivan Sokolov as his "coach" through the video series Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the third and final part of his review, he looks at three courses (12 to 14) devoted to reversed-colour openings and their strategic characteristics, hoping to gain a better understanding of how to meet these systems with the black pieces.
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