7/22/2022 – In the third episode of the series "Olympiad stories with Saravanan", IM Sagar Shah and IM Venkata Saravanan discuss Judit Polgar's flabbergasting 12½/13 performance in the 1988 Thessaloniki Olympiad. Judit was rated 2365 FIDE at the time, with rating lists coming out every six months. Not only did Hungary sweep the championship to take gold and defeat the all-powerful Soviet chess team, but Judit had an incredible 2694 performance, and she was barely twelve years old. To better put this in perspective, you need to realize that, in 1988, only two players in the world had 2700+ ratings: Kasparov and Karpov. | Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

7/22/2022 – Le Quang Liem drew Andrey Esipenko in the final round to clinch first place in the Grandmaster Triathlon. Esipenko and Gukesh reached the podium. | The Triathlon included classical, rapid and blitz chess. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/22/2022 – Both the Grandmaster Triathlon and the Women’s Quadriathlon in Biel will feature direct encounters between the first and second placed participants in final-round battles for the respective titles. Le Quang Liem has a 3-point lead over Andrey Esipenko (a win is worth 4 points) in the GM Triatholn, while Iris Ciarletta has a 1-point lead over Zhuang Yongzhe in the ladies’ Quadriathlon. | The final round kicks off four hours earlier than usual, at 10.00 CEST. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival

7/21/2022 – On Thursday, there was only one game on stage in the Golden Hall: the two winners from the previous round, Dmitrij Kollars and Viswanathan Anand, met in the NC World Masters. Kollars had a slight advantage in a rook endgame, but Anand managed to keep things under control and drew his younger opponent to keep the lead. Lara Schulze and Max Warmerdam won and are still leading the Women’s Sportland NRW Cup and the A-Open respectively. | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/21/2022 – This week Robert Ris discusses a sharp variation of the Sicilian Defence, explored this week by none others than Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Sometimes short draws can be very exciting! | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/21/2022 – In what can be only described as a wonderfully inspiring 'comeback' story, the 2022 Fields Medal was awarded, among others, to June Huh for his work in chromatic polynomials, stemming from a chess puzzle involving four knights. The Fields Medal is one of the most prestigious awards in Mathematics, given out only once every four years, to the brightest minds in the field. | Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

7/18/2022 – What, you may well ask, is the 'Two Plus Club'? Is this some country club for lonelyhearts, or something of that ilk? Nothing like that. By winning the Candidates tournament for the second straight time, and thus qualifying himself for a second shot at the World title, Ian Nepomniachtchi has joined a very exclusive group of repeat challengers. Let's take a look at who they are. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

7/18/2022 – Arne and Karsten look at a number of deep pawnless endgames. The attacker usually needs an extra rook to get a sure win. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

7/18/2022 – The two German representatives, Matthias Blübaum and Rasmus Svane, at the Deutschland Grand Prix started with defeats in Sunday’s first round, as they lost their games against Luke McShane and Pavel Eljanov. Romanian rising star Bogdan-Daniel Deac defeated David Navara. McShane shared his thoughts on his remarkable win. | Photos: Michelle Lassak

7/18/2022 – Levon Aronian beat Wei Yi in the finals of the FTX Road to Miami online tournament. By reaching the finals, both Aronian and Wei gained a ticket to the upcoming FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, where the players will meet in-person but will play their games online from individual computers.

7/17/2022 – In recent months, our columnist Jon Speelman had a couple of run-ins with technology, which have necessitated speaking to help lines, and in both cases he initially asked the wrong questions. A perfect excuse to reflect on those times when there are no forcing moves to make in a chess game — when asking ourselves the right questions is crucial. Games by Anatoly Karpov and Fabiano Caruana (pictured) are used to illustrate this topic. | Photo: Anna Shtourman / FIDE

7/17/2022 – 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 87th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why playing the Benko Gambit might be a good choice for club players. | Photo: Pascal Simon