7/5/2023 – The first game of the Women's World Championship will be played today in Shanghai. Defending champion Ju Wenjun will take on challenger Lei Tingjie. The match consists of 12 games and lasts three weeks. It was officially opened with a press conference yesterday.| Photos: FIDE

7/5/2023 – In an exclusive interview for ChessBase, IA and WIM Tshepiso Lopang talks to chess journalist Tatiana Flores about her beginnings in chess, her path to becoming a sought-after international arbiter and the first woman to be elected President of the African Chess Confederation. She also shares her ideas for improving chess around the world. | Photo: Courtesy of Tshepiso Lopang

7/4/2023 – Svitlana recently played in the Canadian Transnational Tournament, where almost every opponent had a couple of hundred rating points more than her. Awonder Liang, Lazaro Bruzon, and Alexandr Lenderman were among the players in the tournament. The WIM was still able to show some smart moves, and even beat an IM with the Jobava-London. And due to this opening choice, Svitlana started a nice attack, which had some beautiful tactics.

7/4/2023 – Tony Ballard is a Kansas prison inmate who turned a 25-year sentence into a passion for chess. He used the game to teach other inmates critical-thinking skills, and became the Director of Prison Outreach. Tony partnered with The Gift of Chess, an initiative that is set to distribute one million chess sets all over the world by 2030. To date they have manufactured over 80,000, sending most to African nations. Read this report and prepare to be inspired.

7/4/2023 – As part of the chess festival in Bydgoszcz, Poland, two tournaments with an interesting format were played: six players took part in a round robin and competed in classical, rapid and blitz chess. Jorden van Foreest (pictured) won the open tournament, Meri Arabidze was first in the women's tournament. | Photos: Official site

7/4/2023 – Endgames, in which a rook fights against a bishop, can be complicated. In the diagram position Black is an exchange up and has a winning position. But what should he do?

7/2/2023 – Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzbekistan) and Divya Deshmukh (India) were crowned winners of the 2023 Asian Continental Chess Championships. The tournaments took place in Almaty, Kazakhstan on June 3-12. GM Karsten Müller followed the games and selected what he considered to be the most interesting endgame positions to share with us. Find here five remarkable endings with instructive analyses by our in-house expert!

7/2/2023 – Going into the final day of action at the Dortmund Chess Festival, Fabiano Caruana, Frederik Svane and Dinara Wagner are leading the standings in the No Castling Masters, the A-Open and the Sportland NRW Cup, respectively. Caruana defeated Vladimir Kramnik in style to get a half point lead over the former world champion and Dmitrij Kollars. Kollars beat Pavel Eljanov with white in Saturday’s fifth round. | Photo: Michelle Lassak

7/1/2023 – The final day of the double round-robin stage started with SG Alpine Warrior's loss against Chingari Gulf Titans 0-3 (7-8). Magnus Carlsen won the sole game for his team as he beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda. However, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov's win over Gukesh gave CGT a crucial victory as all the remaining games ended in draws. Then, Triveni Continental Kings eliminated Ganges Grandmasters by beating them 3-0 (11-6). Wei Yi, Sara Khadem and Jonas Buhl Bjerre scored key wins, which helped the team (TCK) secure a spot in the Finals. SG Alpine Warriors suffered a shockingly huge defeat by 0-3 (2-18) against upGrad Mumba Masters. Alexander Grischuk, Vidit Gujrathi, Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli's wins prompted the top seed and tournament favourite SGAW's elimination. In the last match of the stage, Chingari Gulf Titans went down in flames against Balan Alaskan Knights 0-3 (4-12). Thus, TCK will face uMM tomorrow in Sunday's finals, from 5:30 p.m. local time, 7 p.m. IST. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

7/1/2023 – Kazakhstan is gradually becoming a Mecca for chess. In April 2023 the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi took place in Astana, at the beginning of June the Asian Continental Championship was held in Almaty, to name just two of the biggest events. While looking back at the Asian Continental Championships, Diana Mihajlova describes the development of chess in Kazakhstan and wonders about the predicament of Russian chess players after Russia left the European Chess Federation to join the Asian Chess Federation. | Photo: Panorama of Almaty | All Photos: Kazakhstan Chess Federation

7/1/2023 – In the diagram position, White has just set his centre in motion with 15.e4?, having full confidence in his bishop on h4, which is looking at Black's queen on d8. But this move backfires - can you see how Black gains the advantage? Don't hold your horses!

7/1/2023 – Ray Robson won the 2023 edition of the Prague Masters tournament after beating Bogdan-Daniel Deac in blitz playoffs. Robson’s strong nerves served him well in the blitz encounters, as he never stopped looking for tactical chances despite having lost his advantage in the first of two 5-minute games. Meanwhile, Mateusz Bartel scored a final-round victory to win the Challengers section. | Photo: Petr Vrabec