8/12/2022 – Recently, the Exzelsior Verlag published the third and final volume of their huge biography of Emanuel Lasker, mathematician, philosopher, writer, and World Champion from 1894 to 1921. Richard Forster, Michael Negele and Raj Tischbierek edited the three volumes. Like its predecessors, the third volume sheds light on many aspects of Lasker's personality and his wide ranging intellectual interests, and it is a beautiful, carefully designed book well worth reading.

8/11/2022 – The French composer and pianist Jason Kouchak is an enthusiastic amateur chess player with considerable playing strength. He has taken part in various Opens, including the Open in Gibraltar in 2009, where he met a famous contemporary.

8/9/2022 – Uzbekistan grabbed gold in the open section of the Chess Olympiad after defeating the Netherlands, ahead of Armenia and India 2. In the women’s tournament, India gave away the lead in the last hurdle with a loss against the United States. Gold thus went to Ukraine thanks to a final-round win over Poland. Georgia and India completed the podium. | Photo: Stev Bonhage

8/6/2022 – Armenia defended its lead in the open section of the Chess Olympiad after drawing the favourites from the United States in round 7. The match was incredibly eventful, with Wesley So playing a brilliant sacrifice, Gabriel Sargissian upsetting Fabiano Caruana, and Sam Shankland losing after mistakenly touching his king. In the women’s section, India beat Azerbaijan to remain in the sole lead with a perfect score. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/27/2022 – The Queen of England celebrated her Platinum Jubilee this year: she has been Queen of England for 70 years. Musician Jason Kouchak took this event as an opportunity to celebrate chess and the “Queens of Chess”, together with his friend Pattie Boyd, who was muse and queen for both Eric Clapton and George Harrison.

7/26/2022 – At the European Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships, the German players had a great performance. Tykhon Cherniaiev won two gold medals, Luisa Bashylina one gold and one silver. Ruben Köllner and Tobias Kölle also won gold, while Marius Fromm took home a silver medal. | Photos: Dorian Rogozenco

7/26/2022 – At the start of the month, the Swedish National Championships took place in Uppsala (photo), which are traditionally held as a big festival with tournaments in different categories. The main event was won by Jonny Hector, who at 58 grabbed his second national title, twenty years after having won his first title.

7/25/2022 – On the final day of action at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Tournament in Zagreb, world champion Magnus Carlsen never relinquished his lead. It did not matter that the World Champion lost his game against Alireza Firouzja shortly before the end of the tournament. Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave shared second and third place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/13/2022 – On Monday, Vincent Keymer won the Accentus Chess960 tournament in Biel, on Tuesday Le Quang Liem won the Rapid GM tournament. He finished with 5.5/7 or 11/14 as players received 2 points for a win and 1 point for a draw. Keymer finished second to last with 2.5/7 or 5/14. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/12/2022 – In the Accentus Chess960 tournament at the start of the 55th Biel Chess Festival Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov both finished with 5.0/7 and tied first. However, as Keymer won more games with Black, he won the tournament on tiebreak. | Photos: Schachfestival Biel.

7/8/2022 – From 28 July to 10 August the Chess Olympiad will be played in Chennai, India. 188 teams start in the Open, 162 in the Women's Olympiad, that's a new record of participants. However, two of the strongest federations will not come to Chennai. The Russian federation was excluded because of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and the Chinese federation decided not to participate, as protection against the pandemic. Thus, the USA is clear favourite in the Open while India is favourite to win the Women's Olympiad. | Photo: FIDE

7/7/2022 – The Russian rave band "Little Big" is known for provocative music videos. In June, the band released the video "Generation Cancellation", in which it takes a critical stance on Russia's war against Ukraine, using chess as a metaphor. | Photo: Little Big

6/17/2022 – Today, the most important tournament of the year starts - the Candidates Tournament. The winner will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship and can become new World Champion. But who will win? We will know in three weeks but we still dare a prediction now, based on the games the eight candidates have recently played against each other. And the winner is...

6/3/2022 – The International Chess Festival Prague will start on 7 June and promises to be a highlight in this year's chess calendar. The event includes three invitational tournaments, the Masters, the Challengers and the Futures and several Opens, and the line-ups of these tournaments are exciting. | Photo: Vincent Keymer | Photo: Grenke Chess

6/2/2022 – Viswananathan Anand is the man of the hour. He got his second three-point win at the Norway Chess tournament on Wednesday, as he beat Veselin Topalov and now leads the standings table with 6 points. Wesley So won in Armageddon after drawing his classical encounter against Magnus Carlsen. | Photos: Norway Chess

5/31/2022 – The Hamburg Chess Club hosted a GM tournament and an IM tournament last week. Leon Mendonca from India won the GM tournament. Frederick Svane scored a GM norm — 24 hours later Svane's third and last GM norm in the Bundesliga was also official. In the IM tournament, Brandon Clarke was the clear winner. | Photo: Hugo Schulz, Vasilios Kotronias, Leon Mendonca, Frederik Svane and Frank Bracker (Frank Bracker)

5/31/2022 – This year's Norway Chess Tournament in Stavanger started on Monday evening with a blitz tournament. After five rounds Magnus Carlsen led the field but then lost against Wesley So - after trying 1.a4 - and Vishy Anand. So, who had started the tournament with a loss against Wang Hao, used his chance and won the tournament with 6.5/9, one full point ahead of Carlsen who finished second with 5.5/9. | Photos: Norway Chess

5/30/2022 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov (pictured) won the strong 5th Sharjah Masters in the United Arab Emirates. After nine rounds Abdusattorov and local hero Saleh Salem shared first place with 7.0/9, but thanks to his better tiebreak Abdusattorov won the tournament. The best woman player in the 80-player field was Valentina Gunina. | Photos: Tournament page