8/1/2021 – While players and enthusiasts took a day off from the highly tense World Cups in Sochi, the online Chessable Masters kicked off with an eye-catching lineup, as 12-year-old GM Abhimanyu Mishra, women’s world champion Ju Wenjun and Indian star Humpy Koneru join the likes of Wesley So and Levon Aronian in the 9-day event. After five rounds, So is the sole leader on 4 points, with a 3-player chasing pack a half point behind. | Pictured: Wesley So and Pentala Harikrishna at the 2019 Riga Grand Prix

7/31/2021 – Sergey Karjakin knocked out Sam Shankland in the only match of the quarterfinals that was decided in a rapid and blitz playoff at the open section of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured) advanced to the final in the women’s section after knocking out Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk respectively. Saturday is a rest day for both categories. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

7/30/2021 – Jan-Krzysztof Duda will face Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup. The Polish grandmaster knocked out Vidit after the latter erred in a sharp endgame. Russian GMs Vladimir Fedoseev and Sergey Karjakin also won on Thursday — the former moved on to the semis, while the latter levelled the score in his match against Sam Shankland. In the women’s section, both semifinal encounters finished drawn. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/28/2021 – Magnus Carlsen and Sam Shankland made a big step towards reaching the semifinals of the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi, as they kicked off their matches against Etienne Bacrot and Sergey Karjakin with victories. While Carlsen displayed excellent dynamic feel for the position to win with the black pieces, it was Shankland’s endgame technique which allowed him to make the most of an unlikely blunder by his opponent. | Expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/28/2021 – Only after an extremely tense struggle did Magnus Carlsen manage to knock out Andrey Esipenko to reach the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup in Sochi, where he will face Etienne Bacrot. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vladimir Fedoseev, Amin Tabatabaei and Sergey Karjakin also went through. In the women’s section, Anna Muzychuk knocked out Nana Dzagnidze and qualified to the Candidates. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/27/2021 – In the open section of the World Cup, 2 players secured a spot in the quarterfinals on Monday, as Sam Shankland (pictured) and Vidit Gujrathi knocked out Peter Svidler and Vasif Durarbayli. Meanwhile, in the women’s tournament, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Tan Zhongyi and Alexandra Kosteniuk made it to the semifinals. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/26/2021 – Day 1 of the fifth round at the World Cups in Sochi saw Haik Martirosyan and Alexandra Kosteniuk (pictured) getting off to winning starts in their matches, as they beat Amin Tabatabaei and Valentina Gunina respectively. The remaining 7 matches in the open section and 3 matches in the women’s category finished drawn. | Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova

7/25/2021 – Two sets of tiebreaker rounds were enough to find a winner in all 12 matches that were played on Saturday at the World Cups in Sochi. The top seeds in both sections moved on to the next round, as Magnus Carlsen and Aleksandra Goryachkina got the better of Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Antoaneta Stefanova, respectively. A big upset was seen in the open, as Serbian GM Velimir Ivic knocked out Dmitry Andreikin. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/24/2021 – Exactly half the matches in both sections were decided on Friday at the World Cups in Sochi. Among those needing to return to the playing hall for Saturday’s tiebreaks is world champion Magnus Carlsen, who got a winning position but could not break through against Radoslaw Wojtaszek. | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/23/2021 – Half the matches in the open section of the FIDE World Cup finished decisively on Thursday, with Kacper Piorun, Vidit Gujrathi, Vasif Durarbayli and Sam Shankland scoring crucial wins with the black pieces. The biggest upset rating-wise was Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) beating Harikrishna with the white pieces. In the women’s section, Antoaneta Stefanova and Polina Shuvalova won their first games in the round-of-16. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/22/2021 – After half the players returned home and the other half had a rest day before continuing the fight to reach the Candidates Tournament, the World Cup has resumed today with 32 players still going in the open section and 16 players battling it out in the women’s category. This seems to be a good time to take stock of what might happen in the next two weeks or so. | Pictured: Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/21/2021 – Upsets continue at the FIDE World Cups in Sochi, as Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov were knocked out by Nodirbek Abdusattorov (pictured) and Haik Martirosyan in the rapid and blitz playoffs of round 3. Meanwhile, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vidit Gujrathi and Mariya Muzychuk won lengthy, exciting matches. The players will have a rest day on Wednesday. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/20/2021 – Fabiano Caruana was surprisingly knocked out of the FIDE World Cup in round 3, as Kazakhstani GM Rinat Jumabayev beat him with the black pieces in a hard-fought game. Other upsets from the third round include Vasif Durarbayli knocking out David Navara and Amin Tabatabaei leaving Yu Yangyi out of contention. A total of 17 matches (in both sections) will be decided in Tuesday’s rapid and blitz playoffs. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/19/2021 – More than half the games in both sections of the World Cup finished decisively on Sunday, which means plenty of players need a win in the second classical encounter of round 3 to remain in contention. In the biggest upset of the day, Haik Martirosyan (pictured) beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/19/2021 – Thanks to a final-round win over Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Pavel Eljanov took clear first place at the Deutschland Grand Prix in Dortmund. The Ukrainian grandmaster had been in the sole lead until round 7, when he was beaten by Dmitrij Kollars. Kollars, who lost his penultimate game against Kasimdzhanov, finished in shared second place, together with Daniel Fridman.

7/18/2021 – Two matches, one in each section, went the distance in the playoffs of round 2 in Sochi: Ivan Cheparinov and Olga Badelka (pictured, right) scored wins with white in Armageddon to advance to round 3 in the longest matches of the event so far. Alireza Firouzja and Leinier Dominguez were knocked out by two Uzbek players, Javokhir Sindarov and Jakhongir Vakhidov respectively. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/18/2021 – Vishy Anand is still leading the No Castling chess match against Vladimir Kramnik. The Indian took the lead in game 1 and could have secured match victory in game 3, as he had a much better position with the white pieces. However, Kramnik managed to hold the draw in the end. The last game is set to take place today at 13.00 CEST.

7/17/2021 – Day 5 of the World Cups in Sochi saw four players withdrawing from the competition due to health-related issues — including third seed Levon Aronian. Plenty of exciting chess was also seen, with eight players winning on demand to take their matches to tiebreaks. | Pictured: An (extremely young) Indian contingent: Nihal, Aravindh and Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: Eric Rosen