9/2/2026 – The Tirol Open 2026 featured eight days of high-level chess in Innsbruck. In the A Open, GM Harshit Raja successfully defended his title from the previous year, albeit only on tiebreaks ahead of FM Tobias Kolb, who finished level on points with the two-time champion. Philipp Schlosser, Timur Kocharin and Cedric Chassard ensured that three more German players finished in the top ten of the 57-player field.

8/31/2026 – GM Pranesh Munirethinam won Group A (2200+) of the 2026 Kanizsa Open with 7 points from 9 games. In the final round, Pranesh obtained a full point in his game against IM Vadym Petrovskiy. IM Or Bronstein, GM Andrei Volokitin and GM Karthik Venkataraman finished on the same score and took second to fourth places respectively on tiebreaks. Top seed Matthias Bluebaum could only manage 21st place. The 16-year-old German junior Mykola Korchynskyi finished ten places ahead of the Candidates Tournament participant. | | Photo: Tushar Damor / Chennai Grand Masters

8/30/2026 – How to use ChessBase´26 effectively in training — that is the subject of this three-part series in our tutorial line. Using it effectively also means being able to send your files to your training group, since the material you created in the earlier parts should, after all, be made available to your students in a useful way. ChessBase 18 offers several practical methods for doing this, which we explain in this part.

8/27/2026 – Bibisara Assaubayeva reached both finals at the WR Women's Chess Tour stop in Saint-Tropez, winning the rapid event before finishing runner-up to Anna Muzychuk in the blitz. Assaubayeva and Anna Muzychuk ultimately secured the last two places in November's Grand Final in Stuttgart. Elisabeth Paehtz again came close to advancing, but lost to Assaubayeva in an Armageddon decider in the blitz semifinals. | Photo: WR Chess

8/26/2026 – Bibisara Assaubayeva won the rapid tournament at the European qualifier for the WR Women's Chess Tour Finals in St Tropez. In the first round, she knocked out Elisabeth Paehtz in an Armageddon game. In the final, she defeated Mariya Muzychuk. Today, eight of Europe's strongest women players will compete in the blitz tournament. | Photo: WR Chess

8/24/2026 – GM Dominik Horvath successfully defended his title at the 2026 Austrian National Championship. With 6½ points, he edged out IM Laurenz Borrmann on tiebreaks, who also scored 6½ points and achieved a grandmaster norm. In the Oberbank Challenger Open, young German IM Ruben Gideon Köllner triumphed with 7½ points. Olga Badelka was the top performer in the Open and thus claimed the women's national title. | Pictured (from left): Laurenz Borrmann, Dominik Horvath and Valentin Baidetskyi | Photo: Peter Kranzl

8/24/2026 – Drama in the second game of the semifinals at the Grand Chess Tour Finals: Vincent Keymer had black against Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, and after a relatively quiet opening the position became increasingly complicated as both players ran short of time. Keymer reached a winning position, but in an almost hopeless situation Praggnanandhaa managed to capture the German star's rook with a king move and went on to secure the point. There was plenty of tension in the other semifinal as well. Wesley So found himself under severe pressure after a novelty by Fabiano Caruana, but Caruana allowed his opponent to escape with a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

8/23/2026 – Use ChessBase´26 for training purposes: with smart use of the database functions and the training tool, you can quickly put together excellent training material. There’s no need anymore to pore over books, copy diagrams, or scan pages. In this second part of the tutorial, you’ll learn how easy it is to prepare your material in a didactic way and turn it into exercises. This saves you valuable time that you can use for your own training or for your students.

8/22/2026 – ChessBase’s new releases for July offer plenty of variety for your chess training: from strategic motifs such and dynamic openings such as the Dragon to established repertoires for Black in the Petroff and the Benko Gambit. The selection is rounded off by the new ChessBase Magazine 232, featuring analyses, opening articles and training material, as well as the accompanying Extra. | All photos: ChessBase

8/20/2026 – Tan Zhongyi lost a game for the first time in the final round of the Cairns Cup. Thanks to her exceptionally strong performance over the first eight rounds and a draw by her only remaining challenger, Alice Lee, the Chinese player secured her second Cairns Cup title in Saint Louis, following her 2024 triumph. There is no reason for the 16-year-old Lee to be disappointed, however, as finishing second allowed her to earn her first grandmaster norm. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/19/2026 – Tan Zhongyi (pictured) is on course for her second Cairns Cup title in Saint Louis after her 2024 triumph. Following her win against Bibisara Assaubayeva in the eighth round, she needs just a draw to secure overall victory. The only player who can still catch her is Alice Lee. She defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu, and a draw against Carissa Yip in the final round would be enough for the 16-year-old to earn her first grandmaster norm. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/18/2026 – Can someone stop Tan Zhongyi? In round seven of the Cairns Cup, the Chinese star turned around a very poor position against Divya Deshmukh and, with two rounds remaining, now holds a full point lead and is in an excellent position. Alice Lee, meanwhile, missed an important winning chance against Anna Muzychuk, failing to convert a rook ending with an extra pawn. The other winner of the round was Bibisara Assaubayeva, who beat Stavroula Tsolakidou to draw level with Lee. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/17/2026 – Alice Lee turned around an important game to defeat Humpy Koneru in round six of the Cairns Cup. Carissa Yip, meanwhile, missed a significant winning opportunity against Bibisara Assaubayeva. Tan Zhongyi remains in the lead with 4½ points out of a possible 6 after drawing with Alexandra Kosteniuk, but Lee's victory has moved her to within half a point. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/16/2026 – Chess trainers love ChessBase´26 — and for good reason! With just a few clicks, you can create outstanding training material and even enrich it with interactive exercises. In this first part, we’ll show you how to set up a thematic database in no time — perfect for your own practice or for your students. In the upcoming parts, you’ll discover powerful ways to use it to boost training results quickly and effectively.

8/14/2026 – Today marks the halfway point in St Louis. Round five of the Cairns Cup gets under way today at 7.30 pm CEST, with Tan Zhongyi the sole leader. Yesterday, she defeated Vaishali Rameshbabu in a game that was not entirely error-free. Alice Lee, who had been level with Tan at the top after four rounds, lost to Stavroula Tsolakidou, while Carissa Yip and Divya Deshmukh, who were just behind them, drew their game. As a result, the Chinese representative now has a full-point lead. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/13/2026 – The World Championship match between Gukesh Dommaraju and Ding Liren demonstrated how important it can be to catch your opponent on the wrong foot in the opening. In her 60-minute course, Svitlana Demchenko shows how this can be achieved with both colours and very little theory. | Photos: Nils Rohde

8/13/2026 – After three decisive games in each of the first two rounds, things were a little quieter on the third day of the Cairns Cup: India's Divya Deshmukh was the only winner. She handed former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk her third defeat. Such a disastrous start must be hard to find anywhere else in the career of the Swiss representative. There was no change at the top of the standings: Alice Lee and Tan Zhongyi dropped their first half-points but remain in front. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

8/10/2026 – Elham Amar (pictured, right) won the main open tournament at the Dortmund Chess Festival. The Norwegian GM went into the final round with a half-point lead over two pursuers. He drew against one of them, Surya Ganguly, while the other, Sumiya Chinguun, lost to Amilal Munkhdalai. Amar's 7 points were enough to secure clear first place, half a point ahead of a group of five players. In the Women's International Tournament, a draw in the final round was enough for Song Yuxin to grab outright victory. The B Open was won by Max Pick on tiebreaks, ahead of Oleksandr Kasapchuk Jr. and Thomas Peter. | Photo: Dariusz Gorzinski