8/6/2022 – Team India B, four debutants still in their teens, created the biggest and most sensational upset of the 44th Chess Olympiad today by routing the top seed and star-studded USA Team 3-1. The sensation of the day – and of the entire Olympiad so far – was the performance of Dommaraju Gukesh. The sixteen-year-old had won all of his first seven games, and now faced former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana, with the black pieces. So what did the lad do: he outplayed and actually mated his illustrious opponent! You can watch it all unfold in an exciting video report | Photo Stev Bonhage

8/6/2022 – Germany beat Serbia in round 7 of the Chess Olympiad, but only after Vincent Keymer successfully defended an imbalanced position against Aleksandar Indjic. Keymer had a queen against Indjic’s bishop pair and two dangerous connected passers. Zoran Petronijevic sent us instructive annotations to an intriguing endgame battle! | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/6/2022 – In the diagrammed position, White put all his pieces on light squares. A stable position? Not if you swing the wrecking ball with Black - I wish you massive pleasure!

8/6/2022 – Armenia defended its lead in the open section of the Chess Olympiad after drawing the favourites from the United States in round 7. The match was incredibly eventful, with Wesley So playing a brilliant sacrifice, Gabriel Sargissian upsetting Fabiano Caruana, and Sam Shankland losing after mistakenly touching his king. In the women’s section, India beat Azerbaijan to remain in the sole lead with a perfect score. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/5/2022 – Today, Lawrence and Arne are joined by German WIM Lara Schulze. She loves tactics, and we need help to reach the next chapter in our ChessBase tactics section - 2600. But sometimes, nightmares cross our path, and we have to think for much longer than expected. Join us in our Friday training, and sharpen your skills!

8/5/2022 – The young Indian Gukesh is one of the stars of the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai. In the first six rounds he won all of his games, which adds up to an Elo-performance of 3329. But Gukesh is not the only player who started with 6 out of 6 in Chennai. Oliwia Kiolbasa from Poland (pictured) and the young FM Kazybek Nogerbek from Kazakhstan also achieved this feat. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/5/2022 – At the beginning of August, FIDE published the new world ranking list. With a rating of 2864, Magnus Carlsen remains the undisputed number 1 in the world. Ding Liren follows in second place with 2808, 56 points behind, Ian Nepomniachtchi is in third place with 2792. Numeber one on the women's list is Hou Yifan (2650), who is more than 70 points ahead of Aleksandra Goryachkina (2579). Best junior is Alireza Firouza, best female junior Zhu Jiner.

8/5/2022 – After a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19 restrictions on international travels and over-the-board chess, one of the longest-running chess festivals in Asia is back! It is a mix of Classical, Rapid as well as Blitz events in a multi-day spectacle, rather than the narrower focus on Classical time formats at other long-running chess festivals. Cash prizes in excess of US $28,000 are up for grabs, titled chess players are given exemptions of entry fees.

8/5/2022 – Over 650 games are being played daily at the record-breaking Chess Olympiad in Chennai. GM Karsten Müller is attentively following the games, looking for instructive endings. Naturally, all sorts of setups and typical patterns show up with so many encounters running concurrently. Go over our in-house expert’s analyses, and you are sure to find something to learn or, at the very least, something to enjoy! | Pictured: Teodora Injac (Serbia) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/4/2022 – This week Robert Ris will have a look at a spectacular game from the Olympiad match Czech Republic vs. Mongolia, in which David Navara played a model game that shows White's possibilities in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/4/2022 – The game was invented in the 6th century in north-western India, from where it migrated to the west and conquered the world. In the country of origin, however, chess descended into mediocracy – until it in the 1980s it suddenly produced its first grandmaster and World Champion. Now India is on the verge of becoming the ultimate super-power of chess. Our report includes a nice video summary of the performance of the Indian teams at the Chennai Olympiad so far.

8/4/2022 – New York won the state versus state championship at the national tournaments of state chess champions held July 30–August 2, 2022. Each state could send five representatives, and each representative played six games. Individual champions were also crowned. Woman International Master Alexey Root reports from the Rancho Mirage, California site, which also hosts the U.S. Open. | Photos: Alexey Root