7/27/2023 – There is a new celebrity chess couple: Atousa Pourkashiyan and Hikaru Nakamura announced their wedding and now join the list of prominent chess couples. Given their playing level, they are surely near the top of the unofficial couples’ rating list. | Photo: Atousa Pourkashiyan’s Instagram profile

7/27/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at 2...Nf6 in the Sicilian, the Nimzowitsch Variation. By analysing games played by Aleksandr Rakhmanov, we learn about Black’s objectives — and how things could easily go wrong for White as well! | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/27/2023 – Explore the mysteries of the powerful Janowski Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined with this brand-new video course! Immerse yourself in this fascinating chess opening and learn how to exploit it to destabilise your opponents. To approach the Janowski Variation, which arises after the moves 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 (or 3.Nc3) a6, it is essential to understand the stakes of the position rather than accumulate a large amount of theory.

7/27/2023 – FIDE had given Vasyl Ivanchuk a wildcard to take part in the upcoming World Cup, but the Ukrainian grandmaster did not, initially, receive permission from the Ministry of Sport to take part. Six top grandmasters, including former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, signed a petition. Now the Ukrainian Ministry of Sport has granted permission — with conditions. | Photo: FIDE

7/27/2023 – The junior chess championships of various age categories serve a very important purpose. The talented medal winners get the limelight they need — with the adequate amount of support, these kids can go on to do great things in the chess world! One such example is 2014-born Thehas Rithmitha Kiringoda, gold medallist in the Under-9 World Schools Championships 2023. Starting off as the 21st seed among 61 players, Thehas went on to score a dominating 7½/9 and win the event! In this article, we ask Thehas a few questions about his chess journey so far, his performance in the World Schools, future goals and much more. Get to know the mindset of a young chess talent.

7/27/2023 – Going into the final round of the Grandmaster Triathlon, three players still have chances to win the event: Vincent Keymer, the sole leader, Le Quang Liem and David Navara. Two rounds are still left to go in the Master Open. | Follow the games live with expert commentary from 14.00 CEST (8.00 ET, 17.30 IST)

7/24/2023 – In this week's show, Karsten Müller continues to look at endgame highlights from the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz tournament in Croatia, where there was no lack of instructive ending positions! | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/24/2023 – Melikset Khachiyan and Alice Lee secured victories at the US Seniors Championship and the US Girls Championship respectively. In the Junior Championship, five players still have a chance to win the title. On July 20, the Saint Louis Chess Club celebrated its 15th anniversary with a big party. | Pictured: Alice Lee at the anniversary celebration | Photo: Crystal Fuller

7/24/2023 – Of course, Viswanathan Anand isn't the topic at hand! But the Underdog Vignesh Anand Junior from the US was the player, who is more than 500 ELO points weaker than his opponent, GM Zaven Andriasian. In the Sicilian game, both players committed little errors that allowed the Armenian Grandmaster to gradually get the upper hand until everything went wrong. Yet another intriguing and fascinating instance of an underdog who shocked both his adversary and most likely himself.

7/24/2023 – One of the essential chess assets that FIDE oversees is FIDE ratings. In the past decade, certain innovations have caused rating deflation, a concern that has been raised by professional players and mathematicians and did not go unnoticed by FIDE. The International Federation encourages the chess community to express their thoughts on this proposal and send them comments, suggestions, ideas, and mathematical calculations.

7/23/2023 – The inaugural edition of the Global Chess League took place last month in Dubai. The Triveni Continental Kings, led by Levon Aronian, emerged victorious, with Jonas Buhl Bjerre scoring the deciding win in an exciting tiebreaker. GM Karsten Müller followed the games closely, looking for interesting positions to analyse. Find here five instructive endings, all featuring women players! | Pictured: Nino Batsaishvili. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

7/23/2023 – World Chess Day is celebrated annually on July 20. It is the date when FIDE was founded, 99 years ago. The idea to celebrate this was proposed by UNESCO, and its purpose is to raise awareness of the game and its benefits (improving cognitive skills, problem-solving abilities, and strategic thinking). In an article in a German science portal mathematics professor Christian Hesse, who has written quite extensively about chess, tells us how chess offers a profound intellectual duel with a surprising thrill factor. | Image Süleyman Kayaalp