8/22/2026 – ChessBase’s new releases for July offer plenty of variety for your chess training: from strategic motifs such and dynamic openings such as the Dragon to established repertoires for Black in the Petroff and the Benko Gambit. The selection is rounded off by the new ChessBase Magazine 232, featuring analyses, opening articles and training material, as well as the accompanying Extra. | All photos: ChessBase

8/22/2026 – While it has become easier nowadays to find information on openings, main lines and sidelines, converting advantageous positions effectively remains a fine art. As is well known, winning a won position is no easy task. In the third volume of his “Master Your Technique” series, Grandmaster Adrian Mikhalchishin examines techniques that occur particularly frequently in practical play. Lukas Köpl has taken a look at the course and summarised his impressions.

8/21/2026 – The 2026 Grand Chess Tour reaches its concluding event this weekend, with the four highest-ranked full-tour players set to compete in the GCT Finals at the Saint Louis Chess Club. Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer will take part in the knockout tournament, with competition running from 22 to 27 August and a total prize fund of $450,000 at stake.

8/21/2026 – The Evans Gambit is one of the most famous gambits in chess history. It is named after William Davies Evans (1790–1872), a Welsh sea captain who, in the 1820s, came up with the idea of offering a pawn with 4.b4!? after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5. If Black accepts the sacrifice, White gains time to develop their pieces and attack the black king. The leading players of the 19th century were enthusiastic about this concept, and chess legends such as Paul Morphy and Adolf Anderssen played numerous spectacular games with the Evans Gambit. But what have modern world champions thought of the Evans Gambit? | Photo: Captain Evans (source: Wikipedia)

8/21/2026 – This month I am focusing on games played by Salo Flohr. I am a fan of Flohr's play in the 1930s: for the time he had a rare understanding of positional chess and technique, and we can see that in his game against Euwe - a classic. But there is another side to his play as I demonstrate with his game against Kashdan, where he sacrifices an exchange for long-term compensation.

8/21/2026 – Vincent Keymer played an absolutely phenomenal Sinquefield Cup: judging from the chances he created with his trademark opening play, he should have finished clear first. In times where 1.e4 and 1.d4 main lines are analysed to a draw, Keymer manages to create hyper flexible positions from the Reti, English, Neo London and Accelerated (!) Neo London. While the original plan was to talk you through Keymer-Caruana, this video talks you through the opening stages of all five Keymer games with White. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/21/2026 – 25...Qf4 (diagram position) led to the exchange of the white queen g3 - but not in the way Black imagined! How would you react?

8/21/2026 – Ukrainian grandmaster Vereslav Eingorn has died at the age of 69. A leading figure in Soviet chess during the 1980s, he won three USSR Championship bronze medals, qualified for the 1987 Zagreb Interzonal and later represented Ukraine at team events, including the 2000 Olympiad and the 2001 World Team Championship. Eingorn also became a respected coach and author, guiding Ukraine's women's team to Olympiad gold in 2006.

8/21/2026 – For twenty years, Harika Dronavalli was a fixture of every Indian team that walked into an Olympiad hall. Board one, board two, whatever the assignment, she was there, absorbing the pressure that comes with playing for a country rather than just for herself. So when the Indian squad for the Chess Olympiad 2026 was announced without her name on it, the news read, on the surface, like a changing of the guard: Humpy Koneru returning to the team and Savitha Shri B stepping in as a new addition along with a new captain: Swayams Mishra. Read Harika's thoughts on the decision. | Photo: Nils Rohde / ChessBase

8/20/2026 – The two-part FritzTrainer series "King’s Indian – A Complete Repertoire for Black" by Grandmaster Felix Blohberger is devoted to one of the most dynamic and at the same time complex openings in modern chess: the King’s Indian Defence. Lukas Köpl examines the series with regard to its structure, content, didactic quality and practical relevance.

8/20/2026 – Warning: this is a long read. Two weeks ago I wrote a piece on the increase of computer power in the last 50 years. A number of readers wrote me letters discussing my findings and commenting on what I had said. Then I asked myself: what does AI, what do ChatGPT and its colleagues think about the subject? Here's what I found out.

8/20/2026 – Tan Zhongyi lost a game for the first time in the final round of the Cairns Cup. Thanks to her exceptionally strong performance over the first eight rounds and a draw by her only remaining challenger, Alice Lee, the Chinese player secured her second Cairns Cup title in Saint Louis, following her 2024 triumph. There is no reason for the 16-year-old Lee to be disappointed, however, as finishing second allowed her to earn her first grandmaster norm. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club