6/27/2022 – The PlusCity Rapid Open took place in the Austrian municipality of Pasching with a prize fund of 15,000 euros. Czech grandmaster Vojtech Plat won with a 7½/9 score. Plat had the same score as his grandmaster colleagues Anton Demchenko, Milos Jirovsky, Daniel Fridman and Andreas Heimann, but took home the first prize thanks to his tiebreak score. | Photos: Peter Kranzl

6/27/2022 – Vera Menchik (1906-44) was the first women's world chess champion, as well as the longest reigning champion, gaining the title at aged 21 and defending it multiple times until her untimely death. The European Chess Federation is staging a high-level ladies norm tournament that will end on the 78th anniversary of Menchik’s death, when she was struck down by a German V1 rocket in Clapham. The event takes place in th MindSports Centre, Dalling Rd, London W6 0JD, from Saturday 18th to Sunday 26th June 2022.

6/27/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura scored a crucial victory over Fabiano Caruana in round 8 of the Candidates Tournament. After getting a small edge in the middlegame, Naka slowly improved his position until getting a seemingly insurmountable advantage. Caruana tried to swindle his way to a draw, but was unable to escape in the end. Much earlier in the day, Richard Rapport had obtained a crashing victory over Jan-Krzysztof Duda. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

6/26/2022 – 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 85th 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

6/25/2022 – In the small Armenian town of Jermuk, a round-robin tournament with a strong field of ten young participants is currently taking place. Among them are Hans Moke Niemann (photo), Nihal Sarin and Alexander Donchenko. After five rounds, these three players are only among the chasers with 2½/5 points each. At the top of the standings is a quartet with 3/5 points each: Armenians Haik Martirosyan, Shant Sargsyan and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and the Iranian Amin Tabatabaei. Daily rounds will be played until Tuesday. | Photos: Official website

6/25/2022 – Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana have done it again. For a second day in a row, the frontrunners to take the title scored full points in Madrid. Nepo still leads Caruana by a half point, while Hikaru Nakamura now stands 1½ points behind Caruana in sole third place. It has become hugely unlikely for a player other than the tournament’s two protagonists to bounce back and win the whole thing. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

6/25/2022 – Free association is an interesting mechanism to make up introductions for articles. Let us try: "Music was my first love and it will be my last", John Miles sang many years ago. The "Children" of Caissa rather would see their "Circle of Life" in Chess, where the WCCT-7 theme might have been predicted by Phil Collins in "Against All Odds" (who also performed the song named in the previous quotation): "Take a look at me now! There's just an empty space!", the bishop in the Kozłowski study might say this. | Photos: Pixabay

6/25/2022 – In the diagrammed position White just played 35.Qa3!, and after 35...Qxd4 White has a beautiful win - can you find it?

6/24/2022 – Eight of the strongest players in the world are fighting in Madrid to get a shot in the next match for the world crown. Deep opening preparation and maximum focus often lead to slightly better (or worse) endgames. GM Karsten Müller aims his attention at the last stage of the game, as he compiles the most salient and instructive endings from the Candidates Tournament. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

6/24/2022 – In his "Power Play Show" Daniel King takes Caruana vs Rapport from the Candidates as his starting point and discusses the fascinating variation of the Sicilian which appeared on the board — one that was also seen in a game by the legendary Ulf Andersson. | 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.

6/24/2022 – On Friday 24th June at 18.00 CEST (12.00 ET, 16:00 UTC) Daniel King will be hosting a special live broadcast on his YouTube channel to publicise a new book: "From Ukraine With Love For Chess" published by "New In Chess". Daniel will be joined by Ruslan Ponomariov (former FIDE World Champion) and Remmelt Otten (Publishing Director of New In Chess) to discuss the book. Join the broadcast to learn more about the book, Ukrainian chess, and to put your questions directly to Ruslan Ponomariov.

6/24/2022 – Each issue of the ChessBase Magazine offers a wealth of information and ideas for players who want to refine and sharpen their opening repertoire. In CBM #208, the next issue of the ChessBase Magazine, which will appear in a few days, GM Dorian Rogozenco offers a video in which he analyses a popular line of the Grunfeld in considerable depth, and in an article he now presents the most important lines and ideas of this variation. Here are the article and the video!