6/30/2023 – While the participants of the No Castling Masters had a rest day, the contenders in the A-Open and the Sportland NRW Cup played the sixth rounds in their respective tournaments. Alexander Donchenko defeated Matthias Blübaum for the first time in a classical tournament game to take the sole lead in the open, while Dinara Wagner caught Ruben Köllner in the lead of the Sportland NRW Cup. | Photo: Michelle Lassak

6/29/2023 – One might expect relatively quiet rounds after a day full of excitement. Well, that just does not happen at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League. In the first match, five out of six games ended decisively. Levon Aronian, Wei Yi and Sara Khadem scored crucial wins for their team, Triveni Continental Kings. Their 3-0 (10-9) victory over Chingari Gulf Titans ensured the team still has mathematical chances to win the event. Andrey Esipenko scored the crucial win for his team, Ganges Grandmasters. Thus, GG are once again atop the standings with 15/24. Tomorrow will be the penultimate day of the double round-robin stage. There will be four matches starting from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

6/29/2023 – In today's Fast & Furious show Robert Ris takes a look at a game, in which Jorden Van Foreest convincingly defeated Radoslaw Wojtaszek in a popular line of the Ruy Lopez. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/29/2023 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. The latest issue, CBM #214 is out. Meanwhile our columnist, Nagesh Havanur takes a look at a recent issue. 2651 games (47 annotated) from WR Masters and European Championship among others. 12 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, 9 demo. lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Levon Aronian, Alexey Sarana, Kirill Shevchenko, Vincent Keymer, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa among others. The icing on the cake is a feature on Viswanathan Anand with 26 annotated games.

6/29/2023 – On 3 July (first game on 4 July), the Women's World Championship match between defending champion Ju Wenjun and challenger Lei Tingjie will begin in Shanghai. The first half of the match will be played in Shanghai and the second half in Chongqing. The prize money is USD 500,000.

6/29/2023 – In the top match of the seventh round of the Masters at the Prague Chess Festival Ray Robson (pictured) beat Vincent Keymer and with this victory the American took the sole lead with 4.5 out of 7. The other four games ended in draws. In the Challengers, a draw against Jergus Pechac was enough for Benjamin Gledura to defend his sole lead. | Photo: Anezka Kruzikova

6/29/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #574 Merijn van Delft enjoys a fine technical game in the Ruy Lopez, which Vishy Anand won against Levon Aronian at the Global Chess League in Dubai. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/29/2023 – After his defeat in a spectacular game in the second round, Vladimir Kramnik bounced back on Wednesday with a brilliant positional performance. After the Mayor of Dortmund, Norbert Schilff, made the symbolic first move for him, Kramnik opted for a rather quiet approach with white and gained a small advantage against Fabiano Caruana. Slowly but surely, Kramnik increased his advantage and ended up scoring an important full point. | Photo: Michelle Lassak

6/28/2023 – Vishy Anand vs Magnus Carlsen games are always the highly anticipated encounter of the day, no matter the event. The rematch between two of the greatest was arguably the game of the tournament so far. The endgame seemed to be heading towards a draw when the world no.1 went for a break. It actually allowed Anand to salvage a draw. However, time trouble induced a human error, turning things once again towards the Norwegian's favor. After an exchange of smiles, tha avoidance of a stalemate trap and an underpromotion, Carlsen defeated Anand in a stellar game. His and Praggnanandhaa's win ensured SG Alpine Warriors knocking off Ganges Grandmasters from the top of the leaderboard. Tomorrow will be the last day to feature two matches in the double round-robin stage, starting at 5:30 p.m. local time, 7 p.m. IST. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

6/28/2023 – ... and calculations like a Super Grandmaster – which he is. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, born 1994, attained the GM title at the age of nineteen. In August 2022 he became the second highest rated player in India (behind Viswanathan Anand), crossing the Elo rating threshold of 2700. Today we are releasing his latest Fritztrainer, one in which he shares his secrets of success at the pinnacle of the chess world.

6/28/2023 – Dmitrij Kollars can celebrate having beaten a former world champion. In the No-Castling Masters, the German grandmaster defeated Vladimir Kramnik. Ruben Gideon Köllner leads the Sportland NRW Cup, while Alexander Donchenko won the all-important against Frederik Svane in the A-Open. | Screenshot: Former tournament director Jürgen Grastat makes the ceremonial first move

6/28/2023 – There was only one decisive game in round 6 of the Prague Chess Festival Masters Tournament: Wang Hao won with White against Boris Gelfand. Vincent Keymer missed good chances against Haik Martirosyan, but is still tied for first place with Ray Robson and Bogdan-Daniel Deac with 3.5 out of 6. Behind them are five (!) players with 3 out of 6 each - so with three rounds to go, eight players have a good chance of winning the tournament. In the Challengers, Benjamin Gledura is still the sole leader with 4.5 out of 6.| Photos: Petr Vrabec