8/8/2024 – Hans Niemann has started a series of matches against world-class players. Within a short period of time in August, he will play matches in the blitz, classical and rapid disciplines against Anish Giri, Nikita Vitiugov and Etienne Bacrot. The competition against Anish Giri began with 12 blitz games - and a convincing victory for Hans Niemann.

8/7/2024 – This is really taking thing too far. At the Dagestan Chess Championship one participant tried to poison a specific opponent by smearing mercury on her board. The substance was noticed and the arbiter called the police. The placing of the poison was caught on surveillance video, and the perpetrator has admitted to the deed. She said she had acted to get revenge on the player, whom she has known since childhood, bur who had "seriously offended her."

8/7/2024 – IM Oliver Reeh continues to inspire with the third edition of his Master Class Tactics. Once again he has selected some real gems to put your brain to the test.

8/7/2024 – Alireza Firouzja obtained a clear 14½-8½ victory over Fabiano Caruana to reach the semifinals of the Speed Chess Championship, set to take place in Paris next month. In a lopsided match, Firouzja prevailed in all three segments (5+1, 3+1 and 1+1). The youngster will face the winner of the match between Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi in the semifinals.

8/6/2024 – Chris Ward gathered not one, not two, but three beautiful Dragon examples for us. The key features in this episode are the d5 break, the Rook on the c-file, and the explosive c4 square! In typical fashion, Chris explains his thoughts, plans, ideas and more about the most recent Sicilian games. | Photo: John Upham

8/6/2024 – During the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships in Astana, a player from the all-Chinese team, Decade China, made headlines: Pang Bo! The 26-year-old dominated the amateur board, winning every single Rapid game and excelling in the Blitz section. His official FIDE rating is 1400, but he has yet to play an international tournament and is virtually unrated. However, he has successfully played strong tournaments and opponents in China and is much stronger than players with a real rating of 1400. No wonder, his pawn-pushing style gave his opponents in Astana a hard time. Robert Ris shows an interesting example of how Pang Bo tackles the London System!

8/3/2024 – Two of the big favourites to win the British Championship clinched crucial victories on Saturday to go into the final round in shared first place - top seed David Howell and third seed Gawain Jones. Only the co-leaders or Matthew Wadsworth, who is the one player standing a half point back, have chances of grabbing the title, as Howell and Jones will face each other in Sunday's final round. | Photo: Dennis Dicen

8/3/2024 – White just played 15.Rf3!?, an exchange sacrifice that Magnus Carlsen and other other have tried with success. After 15...Nxf3 16.gxf3 you can really let off steam with White - have fun!

8/3/2024 – The World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships kicked off in Astana, with four rounds of rapid chess taking place on Friday. Chessy, the team led by Richard Rapport and Haik Martirosyan, grabbed 4 wins in 4 matches, with Rapport stunning Magnus Carlsen in round 4. Decade China, led by Ding Liren, and Al-Ain ACMG UAE, led by Daniil Dubov, are sharing second place with 7/8 match points. | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

8/2/2024 – Grandmaster Krum Ivanov Georgiev was born in Pazardzhik (Bulgaria), May 24th, 1958 and passed away in Sofia (Bulgaria), July 31st 2024, after a short illness, at the age of 66. GM Kiril Georgiev wrote: >"Today is a sad day for Bulgarian chess! We lost Grandmaster Krum Georgiev. He was best known for beating the future FIDE World Champion Garry Kasparov in a wild game in the Malta Olympiad, 1980." You can enjoy the annotated game that spread around the globe.

8/2/2024 – "I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody" is a famous quote by ex-boxer Terry Malloy - played by Marlon Brando - in Elia Kazan's film "On the Waterfront" from 1954. In the film, Malloy regrets having squandered his boxing career by agreeing to fix a fight. But cheating aside, how much potential is wasted in chess, how many players could have become grandmasters had they been persistent enough? Psychologist and author Robert Howard, PhD, took a closer, analytical look. | Photo: Marlon Brando in 1950 | Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

8/2/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris takes a look at the Sicilian O'Kelly Variation (2...a6) which has recently become more popular again. Top theoretician GM Ivan Saric launched a new idea for White which seems to pose Black some serious problems. His opponent Icelandic GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson didn't manage to come up with a good antidote and was blown off the board in only 26 moves. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.