6/25/2023 – All five games ended decisively in the first round of the Sportland NRW Cup in Dortmund. WGM Dinara Wagner (pictured), IM Georgios Souleidis and 12-year-old FM Hussain Besou had a dream start: they beat the three participating grandmasters. In the A-Open, most of the favourites won their games, although the accelerated Swiss format made for interesting fights on the very first day of action.

6/25/2023 – Bogdan-Daniel Deac scored a crucial win over former co-leader Ray Robson in round 4 of the Prague Masters to join Vincent Keymer in the lead of the standings. Keymer held David Navara to a draw in a 100-move game, while Wang Hao returned to a fifty-percent score by beating Haik Martirosyan. In the Challengers, three games ended decisively, with Benjamin Gledura winning to join Mateusz Bartel in the lead. | Photo: Anežka Kružíková

6/24/2023 – Ganges Grandmasters maintain their sole lead by beating Balan Alaskan Knights 3-0 (11-6). Leinier Dominguez's win over Teimour Radjabov certainly set the tone for the team. Bella Khotenashvili and Andrey Esipenko ensured the team gets some more valuable game points. Triveni Continental Kings started the day by losing their match against SG Alpine Warriors 0-3 (7-8). However, they bounced back by finishing the day with a victory over Balan Alaskan Knights. Both TCK and SGAW have the same match points (9) currently, the former having one more match played than the latter. The week ends with four matches tomorrow, starting with upGrad Mumba Masters vs Ganges Grandmasters from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

6/24/2023 – After a two-week holiday, the Fast & Furious show is back with a spectacular game from the Prague Challengers event. The encounter features a sharp English opening and the two top seeds of the event, Benjamin Gledura and Erwin l’Ami. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/24/2023 – In the diagram position Black's 17...0-0?? allowed White a classical raid featuring two clever continuations. Can you calculate the lines?

6/24/2023 – Ray Robson joined Vincent Keymer in the lead of the Prague Masters tournament after beating Boris Gelfand in what turned out to be the only decisive game of round 3. Both Robson and Gelfand are known for favouring principled, theoretical lines, and that is precisely what they did in their direct encounter. The young US grandmaster prevailed following an engaging strategic battle. In the Challengers, Mateusz Bartel beat Vaclav Finek and is now the sole leader with 2½/3 points. | Photo: Anežka Kružíková

6/23/2023 – The highly anticipated match of the day was between SG Alpine Warriors and Ganges Grandmasters. The sole reason could be deduced: it featured the battle between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand. We got a glimpse of the Carlsen we are familiar with — one tiny positional inaccuracy and he will punish you. However, that win did not turn out enough for the team as Richard Rapport and Bella Khotenashvili scored important victories over D Gukesh and Elisabeth Paehtz, which meant SG Alpine Warriors had lost to Ganges Grandmasters (6-11). Balan Alaskan Knights bounced back after their loss against SGAW by defeating upGrad Mumba Masters by a huge margin (5-14). Four matches will be played tomorrow, starting with SG Alpine Warriors vs Triveni Continental Kings from 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. | Photo: Tech Mahindra Global Chess League

6/23/2023 – The Saint Louis Chess Club announced the appointment of Grandmaster Yasser Seirawan as its Chief Commentator and Spokesperson. Now a Saint Louis resident, Yasser joins more than twenty other grandmasters who call the city home, one of just a few cities in the world with as many grandmasters in residence. Yasser is a four-time U.S. champion, a former world championship candidate and an inductee to the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.

6/23/2023 – In his new Power Play Show, GM Daniel King tests the viewers’ killer instincts. In the last-round game from Norway Chess between Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, a position arose which was highly tactical and could have led to a swift conclusion! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

6/23/2023 – All five games in the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival finished drawn, leaving Vincent Keymer in the sole lead. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Matuesz Bartel and Benjamin Gledura both won with white to join Vaclav Finek in the lead with 1½/2 points. Bartel obtained a fine win over Czech IM Richard Stalmach, whose approach in the French Defence proved ineffective against Bartel’s energetic play. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

6/23/2023 – The last time Vishy Anand played a rated tournament game was on 9th October 2022 at European Club Cup. After eight months, the maestro did not show any rust on the board. In fact, he felt very optimistic about his position against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. He felt that his queen and rook were flooding towards the kingside. The other former world champion in his team, Yifan Hou scored the second decisive game of the match against Alexandra Kosteniuk. Thus, Chingari Gulf Titans lost to Ganges Grandmasters 0-3 (4-10) without conceding a single match. Four matches will be played tomorrow starting with SG Alpine Warriors vs Balan Alaskan Knights from 2 p.m. local time. Photo: Jio Cinema live stream

6/22/2023 – In his Game of the Week show #573 Merijn van Delft takes a close look at a line of the Catalan that has recently become popular and seems to offer Black good chances. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.