7/21/2023 – On Thursday, the strong Isbank Turkish Super League, Turkey’s team championship, came to an end in Ankara. The Turkish Airline Sports Club topped the standings. The best player on board one was Dommaraju Gukesh, who climbed to eleventh place in the live elite ratings list and became the youngest-ever player to cross the 2750-mark. | Photos: Turkish Chess Federation

7/21/2023 – Living legend Vasyl Ivanchuk received a wild card from FIDE to participate in the upcoming World Cup in Baku. According to current legislation, he needs permission from the Ministry of Youth and Sports to leave the country for sports purposes as he is under the age of 60. Such permission was not granted. To address this situation, some of the world’s top GMs — including Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand — signed an open letter to the Minister of Youth and Sport of Ukraine, Mr. Vadym Gutzeit. | Photo: sunwaychessfestival.com

7/21/2023 – Vincent Keymer won the duel of pursuers in the Biel Grandmaster Tournament on International Chess Day, as he defeated Le Quang Liem with the white pieces. Keymer is now sharing the lead with David Navara. Bassem Amin also won in round 4, as he got the better of Arjun Erigaisi to claim 4 points for the standings (in the classical section of the Triathlon, wins grant 4 points while draws grant 1½ points). | Photos: Official website

7/20/2023 – Melikset Khachiyan, a former coach of Levon Aronian, won the clash of co-leaders in round 5 of the US Seniors Championship as he beat Maxim Dlugy with white to take the sole lead in the standings. In the Junior Championships the leaders could not extend their leads. To the contrary, the fields are now closer together, both in the open and the girls’ sections. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

7/20/2023 – In his Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris analyses an outstanding game from the Geza Hetenyi Memorial. Eventual winner Praggnanandhaa lost with black against Amin Tabatabaei, as the rising stars fought in a wild middlegame out of a rare line in the Ruy Lopez. Unmissable! | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/20/2023 – The Austrian Chess Federation has a new top grandmaster representing their country. Kirill Alekseenko (photo) has joined the Austrian federation and with his 2674 rating is the new number one in the European country. The Spanish Chess Federation also reports a prominent addition, as Sara Khadem has completed her transfer. | Photo: Biel Chess Festival

7/17/2023 – Four games, four wins — that was Praggnanandhaa’s tally at the start of Geza Hetenyi Memorial in Budapest. Pragg thus became the eighth Indian to break the 2700-elamark. However, the Indian speed train was stopped in the fifth round when he lost to Amin Tabatabaei. The prodigy returned to his winning ways the very next round, as he defeated Peter Prohazka with black on Sunday. | Photo: Zoltan Fülöp

7/17/2023 – "KISS", which stands for "Keep it simple, stupid!", is a design principle first formulated by the US Navy in 1960, but which quickly caught on. KISS suggests that simplicity is preferable to complexity in most systems. Chess is no exception - Jan Markos knows more. | Photo: Jimee, Jackie, Tom & Asha on Flickr.

7/17/2023 – In the eighth game of the FIDE Women’s World Championship on Sunday, Ju Wenjun finally managed to score a win against challenger Lei Tingjie. A day earlier, the defending champion had failed to make the most of a big advantage in game 7. With four more games to go, the score is now tied. | Photo: Stev Bonhage / FIDE

7/16/2023 – Simen Agdestein recently won the Norwegian Chess Championship for a ninth time in his career. The 56-year-old outscored the likes of Aryan Tari and Jon Ludvig Hammer, but did not have to beat national hero and former student Magnus Carlsen, who does not participate in his country’s championships. In his column this week, Jon Speelman analyses recent games by both the master and the student! | Photo: VG.no

7/16/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 134th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and looks at the legacy of Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch. | Photo: Pascal Simon

7/16/2023 – What happens after a company sponsors a chess player? How does it find value in the sponsorship? This article puts down the story of Arjun Erigaisi and QuantBox. QuantBox is a High Frequency Trading company, which has made one of the biggest sponsorship deals in the history of Indian chess with Arjun. Recently Arjun met the members of QuantBox at their Bangalore office, and what happened is portrayed in the article below.