6/29/2026 – The President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and the founder and the majority shareholder of Freedom Holding Corp., Timur Turlov, has nominated himself for the post of the Deputy President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). The next elections to the FIDE leadership team will be held on September 26-27, 2026, in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), as part of the General Assembly of the International Chess Federation.

6/29/2026 – Welcome to The Initiative – a show dedicated to the relentless battle for momentum in chess! In every game, players fight to seize control, dictate the pace and keep their opponent on the back foot. But what does it really mean to have the initiative? How do the world's best players maintain pressure and transform small advantages into crushing attacks?

6/29/2026 – The second volume of the FritzTrainer Master Class series revisits the games and career of Mikhail Tal (pictured in 1959), the eighth world chess champion, combining biographical context with training material. The FritzTrainer examines Tal's openings, strategy, endgame play and tactical imagination through video lessons by Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller. Two examples, against Antonio Medina and Boris Spassky, show how Tal's calculation and attacking instinct shaped his best-known games. | Photo: Anefo / Dutch National Archive

6/28/2026 – The inaugural Naroditsky Memorial Rapid & Blitz will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina, from 3 to 5 July 2026, combining open tournaments with elite showcase events across a three-day festival. Featuring a guaranteed $50,000 prize fund and offering FIDE Circuit and US Chess Grand Prix points, the competition is open to players of all ratings, with participation limited to 300 entrants. Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov headline a programme that also includes a Creator Invitational and blitz finals.

6/28/2026 – The FIDE World Youth Chess Championships 2026 concluded in Montesilvano, Italy, with six new champions crowned across the under-14, under-16 and under-18 categories. The event brought together 758 players from 84 countries and produced several close finishes, including titles decided on tiebreaks and by final-round results. Azerbaijan, whose players won two individual gold medals, received the Best Federation Trophy ahead of Canada and Poland. | Photos: Mark Livshitz and Niklesh Jain

6/28/2026 – Do you know the powerful training tool in ChessBase´26? It's called "Replay Training"! This great feature lets you actively go through games move by move—sharpening your strategic and tactical understanding in a targeted way. Whether under time pressure or not, the choice is yours. Train in a realistic setting, get instant feedback, and systematically improve your play—whether you're a beginner or an ambitious tournament player. In this tutorial, we'll guide you step by step through how Replay Training works. Let's get started!

6/25/2026 – In the ChessBase training course "The Bulletproof 1.b3 Repertoire", GM Andy Woodward explains how White can meet King’s Indian setups after 1.b3. He presents two practical systems: a sharper setup with e3, Be2 and d4, where White challenges Black’s central play, and a quieter positional approach with c4 and a double fianchetto. The lesson shows the course’s main idea well: giving players a simple, practical and venomous repertoire that avoids heavy theory while still creating uncomfortable problems for Black.

6/25/2026 – From 25 to 28 June 2026, the Sheraton in Lima, Peru becomes the stage for one of the most unusual chess festivals of the year. Eight tournaments, elite simultaneous exhibitions, a top showdown, US$100,000 prize fund and a clock that essentially never stops for four days and nights for chess. Here is everything you need to know about the World Record Chess Marathon.

6/25/2026 – Peter Dankert was one of Hamburg's best players in the 1970s. He was Hamburg junior champion, German Cup winner, competed in German championships, played in the Bundesliga and was invited to international tournaments. His life came to a tragically premature end. Memories of a wonderful player and a great person. | Photos: Private collection

6/25/2026 – This week we'll have a look at the spectacular miniature played between two GMs at the UzChess Cup. Brandon Jacobson is known for his creative opening play, and he definitely surprised his opponent Jakhongir Vakhidov, by playing the Closed Sicilian with g2-g3. This variation used to be a very popular choice for White players avoiding loads of theory compared with the Open Variations. In this episode I'll bring an update on the latest trends in this variation and explain White's thematical ideas building up a kingside attack. Caught by surprise, the Uzbek GM failed to respond adequately and soon found himself in big trouble. White's pieces were flowing over the board and reached natural squares to contribute to the attack. An absolute modelgame for White how to play these positions as the thematical attacking ideas and sacrifices were perfectly carried out by the American GM.

6/25/2026 – The French league is usually a good source of exciting games and this week we are studying the highly entertaining and very complex game between Dutch number two Jorden van Foreest and the best French player of all time: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The World's former number two is known for this love of the highly theoretical and dynamic Grunfeld, but here he got seriously tested in the very sharp 5.h4 variation. The truely adventurous game ended with a very pretty finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

6/25/2026 – The World Youth Chess Championships 2026 are taking place in Montesilvano, Italy, from 14 to 27 June. Organised by FIDE, the Italian Chess Federation and UniChess, the event features under-14, under-16 and under-18 sections, with open and girls' tournaments in each category. With two rounds to go at the 11-round Swiss opens taking place at the Congress Center Pala Dean Martin, we bring a collection of photos from the multitudinous event. | Pictured: Jiang Tianyu from China | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde