8/23/2024 – Vladimir Kramnik, known for his strong stance on fair play, took the test to address long-standing rumors and cheating allegations dating back to the 2006 World Chess Championship, as well as more recent accusations in online games. The test, conducted by Pinkerton, revealed “No Deception Indicated” on all key questions, including Kramnik’s role in the controversial “Toiletgate” scandal. Inspired by Kramnik’s example, World Chess is now introducing voluntary polygraph testing as an additional tool to combat cheating.

8/23/2024 – Spilimbergo is a pleasant little town of about 12,000 inhabitants, located about 100 kilometres north-east of Venice. The town is most famous for its over 100-year-old mosaic school - and for chess! The festival was held for the 22nd time this year and attracted 450 participants from 31 countries. Among them was Levy 'Gotham Chess' Rozman, who came to the Italian city to take another step on his way to becoming a grandmaster. In the end, however, the winner of the tournament was the Iranian IM Orimi Mahdi Gholami, who won with 7 out of 9 rating points. Bettina Trabert reports. | Photo: Old town centre of Spilimbergo | Photo: Wikipedia

8/23/2024 – Wesley So joined Alireza Firouzja in the lead of the Sinquefield Cup after beating former co-leader Ian Nepomniachtchi in Thursday's fourth round. So grabbed the full point by converting a minute advantage into a win in a pure rook endgame. Meanwhile, D Gukesh played a few astonishing moves to get an advantage out of a Berlin Defence against Firouzja - the French representative, however, managed to escape with a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/23/2024 – For a third day in a row, Hans Niemann scored a win (with white) and a draw (with black) in his match against Etienne Bacrot in Paris. These results leave Niemann 9 points ahead on the scoreboard going into the rapid section of the contest - 6 games of 15+10 games will take place on Friday at the Blitz Society Bar in Paris. | Photo: Frans Peeters

8/23/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft celebrates the Dortmund tournament victory of his good friend and Chessbase author Nico Zwirs. Since Zwirs' decisive final round win over Christopher Yoo will be covered by Karsten Müller in his Endgame Magic show, Merijn focuses on the tough Korobov-Zwirs battle. White was playing a model game until some rather unusual measures were required to make progress. Then things got rather messy. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/23/2024 – In a round full of dynamic, interesting chess only 1 of 5 games ended decisively at the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix. The one winner of the day was Bibisara Assaubayeva, who defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk to grab the sole lead with two rounds to go. Mariya Muzychuk could have joined the Kazakhstani youngster in the lead, but she missed a win in her game with black against Lela Javakhishvili. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

8/19/2024 – Nico Zwirs beat Christopher Yoo with white to become the outright winner of the A-Open in the 51st edition of the Dortmund Chess Festival. Out of a Sicilian Defence, the Dutch GM first defended resourcefully and then showed excellent technique in a rook ending. In the match between Elisabeth Paehtz and Dinara Wagner, a sixth draw (in six games) was signed on Sunday. | Photos: Hoogeveen Chess 2018 / Frans Peeters

8/19/2024 – In this week's Summer Special you can save a lot on our Fritztrainer packages. They are by Jan Markos, a Slovak grandmaster, coach, and author, a former European Youth Champion; and by Robert Ris, an International Master from The Netherlands, who nowadays is active mainly as an online chess trainer. You can get Jan Markos Middlegame Secrets Vol.1 +2 for €39.90 (instead of €59.80) and Robert Ris Calculation Trainingfor €79.90 (instead of €119.60). Don't miss your chance!

8/19/2024 – Alexandra Kosteniuk joined Stavroula Tsolakidou and Bibisara Assaubayeva in the lead of the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix after beating Sara Khadem in the fourth round. It was a single mistake by Khadem which gave Kosteniuk the win. Meanwhile, Nana Dzagnidze held a draw from an inferior position in a 102-move game against Anna Muzychuk. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

8/19/2024 – Hans Niemann defeated Nikita Vitiugov by a crushing 27½-14½ score in their 5-day match at the Gem Fitzrovia Hotel in London. The contest consisted of 6 classical, 6 rapid and 12 blitz games, with Niemann prevailing in all three formats. His 8-4 victory in the rapid was particularly important, as it forced Vitiugov to take too many risks in Sunday's blitz session - a strategy that badly backfired, as Niemann got a 9-3 win in the final segment of the match. | Photo: Frans Peeters

8/18/2024 – The final stage of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour, the Sinquefield Cup, will take place on 19-29 August in Saint Louis. Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana will be fighting for first place not only in the classical round-robin but also in the GCT overall standings. Meanwhile, chess enthusiasts will follow the performances of Ding Liren and D Gukesh closely, as they are set to play the World Championship match in Singapore in three months' time. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/18/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 191st episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the career of Jan Timman, world class player, study composer, renowned author and bohemian. | Photo: Pascal Simon