7/23/2021 – In this Power Play Show, GM Daniel King takes a look at tactics from the World Cup with the main feature a brilliant attack by Adhiban 'The Beast' Baskaran. | 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.

7/23/2021 – Half the matches in the open section of the FIDE World Cup finished decisively on Thursday, with Kacper Piorun, Vidit Gujrathi, Vasif Durarbayli and Sam Shankland scoring crucial wins with the black pieces. The biggest upset rating-wise was Amin Tabatabaei (pictured) beating Harikrishna with the white pieces. In the women’s section, Antoaneta Stefanova and Polina Shuvalova won their first games in the round-of-16. | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/23/2021 – The Biel International Chess Festival takes place from 24 July until 04 August and offers a large variety of tournaments, and the prestigious Grandmaster Tournament impresses with an interesting format and an interesting line-up. Young players like Nihal Sarin and Vincent Keymer will meet veterans like Boris Gelfand and Gata Kamsky, and others, in a triathlon (Fischer Chess, Rapid, Classical). The tournament will begin on Saturday, 24 July, with the Fischerrandom event.

7/23/2021 – Frederick Gordon learnt chess at the age of six. After a week he started beating his parents, both PhDs in mathematics. Now, at the age of ten, Freddy has defeated a full-blown grandmaster, Bogdon Lalic, in a rapid chess game. But, the BBC reports, "the talented young Scottish player did not share his excitement with his school friends because he thought it would be boasting."

7/22/2021 – This week, well-known Dutch trainer Robert Ris takes a look at the Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3, a sharp system that has helped White in many games to mate the opponent quickly. | "Fast and Furious" is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/22/2021 – The International Chess Federation recently announced the FIDE Online Olympiad 2021, to be held between August 13 and September 15. The event will follow a format similar to one used last year, with member Federations being represented by their best players and top juniors. The national teams will compete in rapid chess matches played on six boards.

7/22/2021 – After half the players returned home and the other half had a rest day before continuing the fight to reach the Candidates Tournament, the World Cup has resumed today with 32 players still going in the open section and 16 players battling it out in the women’s category. This seems to be a good time to take stock of what might happen in the next two weeks or so. | Pictured: Bibisara Assaubayeva | Photo: Eric Rosen

7/22/2021 – In Dortmund Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik tried a new variant of chess: they played a four-game match, in which castling was not allowed. After four interesting games Anand won the match 2.5-1.5, and both players, the organizers in Dortmund and the public agreed that the experiment was a success.

7/22/2021 – 20 July was International Chess Day and it was celebrated all over the world. With "Chess Unlimited" Kineke Mulder (pictured, on the left) celebrates chess in Vienna throughout the year and brings the game to the streets and to the people. During the lockdown this was impossible, and Mulder was happy to share her chess enthusiasm on International Chess Day - with a lot of amateurs and German Grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht (pictured, on the right). | Photos: Sebastian Siebrecht/ Kineke Mulder/ Erste Bank

7/21/2021 – This week, Merijn van Delft takes a look a close look at a stunning game with a brutal rook sacrifice from the World Cup: Michal Krasenkow's fine attacking win against Kirill Alekseenko. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/21/2021 – 50 years ago, on 20 July 1971, Bobby Fischer (pictured) and Bent Larsen played the sixth and final game of their semi-final match of the Candidates. Fischer had won the first five games and he also won the sixth. It was Fischer's 19th win in a row against some of the world's best players, a sensational and unrivalled winning streak. In his new book "The Unstoppable American: Bobby Fischer's Road to Reykjavik" Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman takes a close look at this winning streak and Fischer's dominance in the years 1970 to 1971. Confident, entertaining, and with new insights about Fischer's strengths and weaknesses.

7/21/2021 – An inexpensive chess set can sell for $20, but a handcrafted wooden set certified for the World Chess Championship costs $500. Much of the set's value lies in just one piece: the knight. Making this one piece takes two hours, and there are fewer than ten people trained to carve knights for the championship chess sets. It is fascinating to watch the high-end pieces being made.