8/7/2021 – In the diagram position 23.Nxf6! gxf6 leads to a winning advantage for White. Knowing this, can you remove possible obstacles on the way?

8/6/2021 – By a score of 23–22, Northern California triumphed over Texas at the national tournaments of state chess champions held July 31–August 3. 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 Cherry Hill, New Jersey site, which also hosts the U.S. Open. | Photos: Alexey Root

8/6/2021 – Messi left Barcelona, Grealish is going to Manchester City for 100 million pounds, but how is a "transfer" working for chess players, and does playing in a chess league grant you a enough income? Lawrence Trent states, the coronavirus was troublesome for many chess players, relying on playing league games. What about Duda, winning the World Cup and receiving 110000 dollars? Besides the money business, Trent takes a close look at the two last World Cup games, and obviously Carlsen's game against Fedoseev, shouldn't be missed by anyone.

8/6/2021 – In the first set of the Chessable Masters semifinals, Le Quang Liem and Wesley So took the lead in their matches against Levon Aronian and Vladislav Artemiev respectively. Le won twice with the white pieces, while So scored a single victory against his Russian opponent. Expert analysis by GM Karsten Müller. | Photo: Champions Chess Tour

8/6/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at games from the Chessable Masters Tournament and enjoys and admires the genius of Magnus Carlsen. | 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.

8/6/2021 – Gata Kamsky won the Grandmaster Triathlon of the Biel Chess Festival. But there were many more winners: the Master Open was won by Salem Saleh in a photo finish. The best woman player was Vaishali. In the Amateur Open, the juniors dominated and the youngest on the podium was eleven-year-old Neeraj Harish from the USA. On the rest day, the players got insights into parts of life in Switzerland. | Photos: Schachfestival Biel

8/6/2021 – In ChessBase Magazine #201 (May/June 2021) IM Robert Ris presented an interesting line in the Sicilian Four Knights Variation: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4 Qc7 9.f4 and now 9...Rb8. The rook move is an interesting alternative to the deeply analysed main line 9...Qb6. Meanwhile, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in particular has tried 9...Rb8 in a number of games, and Levon Aronian recently came up with an entirely new move: 9...Bb7. In the current issue of ChessBase Magazine Extra #202 Robert Ris analyses these new developments on a video. Take a look!

8/6/2021 – Thanks to a 30-move victory over Sergey Karjakin, Jan-Krzysztof Duda was crowned champion at the 2021 FIDE World Cup in Sochi. The Polish grandmaster had an undefeated performance in the 24-day event and knocked out none other than world champion Magnus Carlsen in the semifinals. Carlsen, who had high praise for Duda, beat Vladimir Fedoseev for a second day in a row to claim third place. | Photos: David Llada

8/5/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look how Sergey Karjakin won a must-win game in spectacular fashion against Sam Shankland at the FIDE World Cup - with the King's Indian Attack as a surprise weapon. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/5/2021 – Last week, on 28 July 2021, the Hungarian Grandmaster Istvan Csom died at the age of 81. In the 1970s he was one of Hungary's best players and he was part of the Hungarian team that sensationally won gold ahead of the heavily favoured Soviet team at the Chess Olympiad 1978 in Buenos Aires. | Photo: Obuda Media

8/5/2021 – Sergey Karjakin and Jan-Krzysztof Duda drew their first game of the final at the FIDE World Cup in Sochi — Duda has the white pieces in game 2. Meanwhile, Vladimir Fedoseev (pictured) needs to win with black to level the score against Magnus Carlsen in the match for third place. Follow the action live with expert commentary starting at 14.00 CEST (12.00 UT, 08.00 ET). | Photo: David Llada

8/5/2021 – Day 2 of the Chessable Masters quarterfinals saw Wesley So, Vladislav Artemiev, Le Quang Liem and Levon Aronian securing a spot in the semifinals. In the most exciting match of the day, Artemiev and Hikaru Nakamura went all the way down to Armageddon after trading wins with the white pieces both in rapid and blitz — fittingly, the Russian grandmaster won with white in the sudden-death decider to move on to the semis. | Photo: Eric Rosen / FIDE World Cup