7/22/2019 – From July 20th to the 31st, the Swiss watch metropolis of Biel/Bienne will once again be a focus of chess activity in Europe. The festival features many interesting and young players as well as a new format that combines rapid, classical and blitz chess. Live games from 12:00 UTC (14:00 CEST / 8:00 AM EDT) with commentary by WGM Dina Belenkaya & GM Tal Baron.

7/18/2019 – In yesterday's 4th round of the Sparkassen Chess meeting, all games ended without a winner. Leinier Dominguez (pictured right) thus defended his lead in the tournament. Wojtaszek, Radjabov (pictured left) and Rapport remain a half point back in this short seven-round sprint. Thursday is the tournament's second (and final) rest day. Play resumes on Friday at 13:15 UTC (15:15 CEST, 9:15 AM EDT) | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

7/11/2019 – The 18-year-old grandmaster Lucas van Foreest was the unexpected winner of the Dutch Championship defeating none other than his big brother Jorden in a tiebreak. After seven rounds in Amsterdam, the brothers had each had 5.0 points. Lucas won one of the two blitz games and drew the other. Their little sister Machteld van Foreest did well in the Women's Championship making it a true family affair, but WGM Iozefina Paulet earned the Women's Champ title with 6.0/7. | Photo: Harry Gielen

7/3/2019 – Boris Gelfand turned in a strong second half in Netanya, and put himself in a tie for first with his victory in the eighth round against early-leader Luke McShane. Yesterday, a short draw against co-leader Leinier Dominguez was enough for him to win the tournament thanks to a better tiebreak score. Both finished with 5½ points. Mikhail Antipov won clear first in the Open with 7½/9. | Photos: Yoav Nisenbaum / imt.chess.org.il

7/3/2019 – With so many concurrent events, one thing's for sure: Chess fans around the world are not going to get bored! A strong tournament started in China on Sunday, the 10th Hainan Danzhou Tournament runs through July 7th with both top Chinese players and elite international guests. The Chinese are leading alongside Richard Rapport after four rounds. | Photo: sunnyhainan.com

7/2/2019 – A recent discovery from the estate of an antique dealer turns out to be worth a small fortune: A previously unknown chess piece found in the 19th century on the Isle of Lewis was sold at Sotheby's auction house this afternoon for 735,000 British pounds. Read on for details of the rare artefact. | Photos: Sotheby's

6/28/2019 – The Norwegian Chess Federation is facing a democratic dilemma. The betting company Kindred Group, registered in Malta and Gibraltar with offices in Stockholm, has offered the federation a sponsorship agreement worth about five million euros. The deal is controversial and the association wants to vote on the matter on July 7th. Magnus Carlsen is in favour of the deal and has now set up a chess club to gain direct influence on the vote.

6/26/2019 – The Norway Chess tournament ended not only with a Carlsen win but with music. At the prize giving ceremony Jason Kouchak and Juga di Primo showed off their grandmaster-class musical skills. Both musicians have dramatized chess motifs in their compositions and are great chess fans themselves.

6/25/2019 – The Netanya Chess Festival (June 23 to July 2) features a GM round-robin and an open. In the GM tournament, possibly the strongest tournament in Israel ever, five world-class grandmasters take on five Israeli GMs. The prize fund is $100,000, while in the open it is just under $50,000: Luke McShane started with two wins. Watch Round 3 LIVE! | Photos: Yoav Nisenbaum / imt.chess.org.il

6/25/2019 – Marco Bode is a German football legend, famous for his fair play and his loyalty to his club, Werder Bremen. Bode is also a passionate chess player who is keen to teach young kids the game and to make chess a subject in schools. Last week, Bode's efforts led 1,000 primary school students to play a huge tournament in the center of Bremen. | Photos: Pascal Simon/ Rainer Woisin

6/21/2019 – The Summer Classic 2019 in Saint Louis consists of three tournaments with six players each held from June 18th to 28th. Sam Shankland is the top seed in the A group, but lost his first round game to the tournament leader David Howell. Another 'Sam' — Sam Sevian — heads the B group but Surya Ganguly is off to a strong start with 2½/3. | Pictured: Swiercz vs. Jones via commentary webcast with GM Jesse Kraai and Caleb Denby

6/20/2019 – From June 16th to 19th, Prague hosted a chess festival featuring two attractive rapid matches: David Navara played against Ding Liren, and chess legend Jan Timman fought Thai Dai Van Nguyen, the best Czech junior. Both matches ended 7:3 with Ding and Nguyen dominating the final day of action to emerge victorious. Here are the highlights. | Photos: Prague Chess Society

6/5/2019 – Nana Dzagnidze is having a dream tournament in Kazan, as she now leads the Candidates Tournament on 3½/4 points — her victim in round four was Valentina Gunina. The other winner of the day was Kateryna Lagno, who defeated Mariya Muzychuk and is now in fourth place on a 50% score. Alexandra Kosteniuk drew Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychukk split the point with Aleksandra Goryachkina. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

6/4/2019 – The two grandmasters Niclas Huschenbeth (pictured) and Dmitrij Kollars were dominating the 90th German Championships which were part of the German Chess Congress 2019 in Magdeburg. Both players finished the tournament with 8/9 but Huschenbeth had the better tiebreak and became German Champion 2019. | Photos: German Chess Federation / Frank Hoppe

5/24/2019 – At the Polish national championships in Warsaw, the two Elo favourites only came in second place. The Open Championship was won by Kamil Dragun, who spent several years in the USA as a student at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Iweta Rajlich took the Women's Champion title, finishing a full point clear of Polish women's number one Monika Socko. | Photos: Marek Skrzypczak / mp2019.pzszach.pl

5/13/2019 – Last week saw the finale of the 2018/19 season of the 4NCL in Great Britain. Guildford 1 was dominant and won all bouts during the season. Second was the new team from the Isle of Man: chess.com Manx Liberty, a team that two years ago left the German Bundesliga ("Buexit"?). | Photos: 4NCL

5/12/2019 – The Kan Variation, also known as Paulsen Variation, is a popular line of the Sicilian. It is named after Ilya Kan, a Russian player who was born 110 years ago last week, on May 4, 1909. He lived most of his life in Moscow where he worked as a lawyer. Kan played in ten Soviet Championships and helped Botvinnik to prepare for his World Championship matches against Smyslov but outside of Russia he is still rather unknown.

5/10/2019 – In the penultimate round at the TePe Sigeman & Co tournament, Gawain Jones took the sole lead with a victory over Tiger Hillarp Persson, while Harikrishna could only draw. The final round was set for drama as Jones faced Harikrishna head-to-head. But the English GM played solidly with the white pieces and offered a draw on move 21, which Harikrishna accepted, securing first and second places respectively for the duo.