8/5/2021 – Last week, on 28 July 2021, the Hungarian Grandmaster Istvan Csom died at the age of 81. In the 1970s he was one of Hungary's best players and he was part of the Hungarian team that sensationally won gold ahead of the heavily favoured Soviet team at the Chess Olympiad 1978 in Buenos Aires. | Photo: Obuda Media

8/5/2021 – Gata Kamsky, the leader of the Grandmaster Triathlon in Biel, finished the tournament in style. In the last round he won with Black against Vincent Keymer to win the classical tournament and the triathlon. Kirill Alekseenko and Nihal Sarin finished second and third in the triathlon, Boris Gelfand was third in the classical tournament. Salem Saleh won the Master Open on tiebreak. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/4/2021 – In the penultimate round of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Kirill Alekseenko (pictured) and Vincent Keymer came to victories, while Gata Kamsky defended his lead with a draw against Nihal Sarin. In the Masters Open, the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan remains sole first. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

8/3/2021 – In October 2010, on the initiative and with financial support of London-based French pianist, composer, singer-songwriter, and chess fan Jason Kouchak, a large chess set was installed in Holland Park in London. Recently, and with a long Corona-related delay, Kouchak celebrated the ten-year anniversary of this event with a few friends. It was not the only public celebration of chess in London this summer: In July, Trafalgar Square saw a big chess festival with references to Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice in Wonderland who was also a big chess fan. | Photos: Julian Paix (if not otherwise indicated)

8/3/2021 – In round 5 of the Grandmaster Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival, Gata Kamsky won with Black against Alan Pichot and extended his lead as his closest rivals Kirill Alekseenko and Nihal Sarin both drew: Alekseenko against Noel Studer, Sarin against Vincent Keymer. In the MTO Master Open the Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan defended his lead. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/30/2021 – Three years ago Vincent Keymer defeated Boris Gelfand at the Isle of Man Open in a sensational game. In round 3 of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel Gelfand, Vice World Champion 2012, now took a form of revenge and outplayed the young German Grandmaster. In the second decisive game of the round Noel Studer won against Maxime Lagarde. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/29/2021 – All four games of the Grandmaster Tournament in Biel ended with a draw, but Noel Studer and Alan Pichot played for almost eight hours and made 138 moves before they agreed to share the point. The young German Grandmaster Vincent Keymer had no easy task against Kirill Alekseenko, but solved it. In the Open, Salem Saleh and Surya Ganguly share the lead with 3.0/3 each. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/28/2021 – In round 1 of the classical part of the GM Tournament at the Biel Chess Festival three games ended with a decision. Alan Pichot won against Boris Gelfand, Kirill Alekseenko defeated Nihal Sarin and Gata Kamsky won against Noel Studer. Vincent Keymer and Maxime Lagarde drew. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/19/2021 – Online chess helped a lot of players to cope with the corona lockdown. But some players simply do not like to play online and they particularly enjoy the return to over-the-board chess. The German top player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu is such a player, and he recently won the Benasque Open with the sensational result of 9 points from 10 games. Jesper Sondergaard Thybo (Denmark) and Gergely Kandor (Hungary) finished with one point less and shared places two and three. | Photo: Raluca Scircea (Tournament page)

7/15/2021 – Wednesday afternoon "No Castling" chess premiered at the highest level in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle. In the first game of their "No Castling" match Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik engaged in an uncompromising fight in which Anand eventually had the better of it. In the Deutschland Grand Prix Dmitrij Kollars and Pavel Eljanov share the lead with 2.5/3 each, but the big news of the day was the torrential rain that currently is causing havoc in large parts of Germany and also affected the players in the Westfalenhalle.

7/14/2021 – Yesterday, 13 July 2021, the 48th Schachtage Dortmund began in Dortmund's Westfalenhalle. In the opening round of the Deutschland Grand Prix the young German Dmitrij Kollars (pictured) defeated the even younger German Vincent Keymer. Pavel Eljanov (against Andreas Heimann) and Daniel Fridman (against Mateusz Bartel) also won their games. | Photos and video: The Organiser

7/13/2021 – Pia Cramling had the best start at the Swedish Championships in Helsingborg, but she could not keep up the pace. This allowed the young (born in 2002) IM Jung Min Seo to catch up and to become Swedish Champion 2021. | Photo: Swedish Chess Federation

7/9/2021 – The French Chess Federation has announced that Alireza Firouzja will be naturalized in France. The current number 1 player in the junior rating list will represent the French Federation in the future. It will take some time for the change of federation to be completed.

7/9/2021 – After five rounds at the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour, Ian Nepomniachtchi had a 2-point lead in the standings table (a win is worth 2 points in this phase of the event). But then local representative Ivan Saric defeated the leader in a beautiful game. Nepomniachtchi remains in first place, nevertheless. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

7/8/2021 – After beating former co-leader Igor Kovalenko in round 8, Nihal Sarin only needed a draw in the last round to win the Serbia Open in Belgrade. The 16-year-old Indian prodigy scored 7½/9 points. A group of 9 players finished a half point behind. | Pictured: Vladimir Fedoseev (3rd), Nihal Sarin (1st) and Manuel Petrosyan (2nd) | Photo: Official site

7/8/2021 – For more than 40 years, Pia Cramling has regularly played in the Swedish Championships, but has never been able to win the title. In April, the best woman player in the country celebrated her 58th birthday. There is no sign of age fatigue. Cramling obtained an impressive win in round 4 and is now the sole leader in Helsingborg. | Photo: FIDE

7/7/2021 – A very strong open is currently being held in Belgrade. Over 280 players are taking part in the Masters event, including over 30 grandmasters. One of the favourites to win the tournament is Nihal Sarin, who travelled from the Silver Lake Open to Belgrade with a group of Indian players.

7/3/2021 – The chess world mourns the passing of Yury Dohkoian. The successful coach and long-time second of Garry Kasparov died on July 1 in Moscow due to a Covid-19 infection. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation