8/26/2017 – What is the best way to pay tribute to a person who has passed away. Perhaps, it's finishing their incomplete dreams. Irena Warakomska had a dream - to make Suwalki the chess center of Poland. She was successful in her attempts, but her efforts were cut short when an accident took place in September 2016. Her children WIM Anna Warakomska and GM Tomasz Warakomski decided to make sure that their mother's efforts were not left incomplete. They organized a huge memorial tournament in Suwalki. This report cover Irena's story as well as some interesting personalities at the event.

8/25/2017 – After draws in games 14 and 15, Fischer still had a three-point lead in the World Championship match, and the Spassky side was getting nervous. The Champion was fighting hard but not getting any points. Suspicion arose that Fischer might be using secret weapons: hypnosis, devices planted in the lights or the chairs, and even perhaps assistance from an "IBM" (Russian for "computer" at the time). All this was formally investigated, while Fischer continued to coast.

8/25/2017 – In the middle 1970s/early 1980s British television used to stage the tournament "The Master Game" around Christmas, with the participants (great names!) accompanying their games with spoken commentaries - absolutely thrilling for me as a spectator! What do you guess Black thought (and played!) in the diagram position?

8/25/2017 – You've seen Queen of Katwe, the story Phiona Mutesi, now 20 years old, and her rise through chess from a life of poverty in a Ugandan village. Now meet Kitty, a seven year old girl who is representing Uganda at the African Schools Individual Chess Championships in Zimbabwe. | Photos: Bridge International Academies

8/25/2017 – On 29th of September 2007 Vishy Anand drew his game against Peter Leko in Mexico City and became the World Champion. This was Vishy Anand's first undisputed World title. It was a moment of great pride and glory for Indian chess. And now we are nearing the tenth anniversary of this brilliant achievement. The eleventh ChessBase India show will deal with Anand's performance at this Mexico World Championship and the guest is none other than his second at that very tournament Peter Heine Nielsen. Expect some very exciting stories and secrets to be revealed! Here's how you can watch the show live.

8/24/2017 – The Egyptian Grandmaster Bassem Amin won the strong 24th International Chess Festival in Abu Dhabi that was played from 14th to 22nd August in the capital of the United Arab Emirates. With 7.5/9 Bassem Amin came clear first, second place went to Nigel Short who scored 7.0/9 and was half a point ahead of seven players with 6½/9. Almost 500 players took part in the festival. | Photo: adchessfestival.ae

8/24/2017 – The annual Romanian event is back (November 24-29) and once again trying out a new format with eight players (four men, and four women) competing in two days of rapid and blitz. The tournament is held in memory of Elisabeta Polihroniade who helmed the event for its first nine years until her death in 2016 at age 80. | Photos: Kings Tournament Facebook page

8/24/2017 – A strong open tournament was held in the memory of Irena Warakomska from 11-18 August 2017. The small town of Suwalki became the centre of chess for those eight days as fifteen grandmasters fought for the first prize of €2,500. In the end 19-year-old Volodymyr Vetoshko from Ukraine became the champion with 7.0/9. In this report we game many interesting game analysis, interviews with participants and pictures. IM Sagar Shah and WIM-elect Amruta Mokal report from Suwalki.

8/24/2017 – In 2005 Garry Kasparov, World Champion from 1985 to 2000 and arguably the best player of all times, withdrew from tournament chess. At the Grand Chess Tour Rapid- and Blitz Tournament in Saint Louis in August 2017 he dared a comeback and played a serious tournament again. His final score of 13.0/27 indicates that he was not as dominant as he used to be - but how good did he play, how good was his opening repertoire and did he miss chances? Let's take a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

8/23/2017 – Modern top players are "universal players". They know and play a large variety of openings, they master brilliant attacks, difficult defenses and patient positional play equally well. However, the chess of Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen is still quite different. Can you recognize the style of these four World Champions?

8/23/2017 – The ever-active FIDE Trainers’ Commission is always shopping around for new ideas. In early February this Michael Khodarkosvky, USA, informed his colleague Efstratios Grivas, Greece, the possibility of staging a match between young players of two teams representing USA and The World, born on/after the year 2000 (U.17) and the year 2003 (U.14). It happened in late July and was a tremendous success. Grivas has written a book on it, 92 pages long, with commentary and analysis. You can download the PDF version free!

8/22/2017 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won the Sinquefield 2017 convincingly. In a very strong field he won three games, drew six and became sole winner with 6.0/9, half a point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian. But what distinguished his play, why was he so successful? Venkatachalam Saravanan took a close at his games and tries an answer. | Photo: Lennart Ootes