6/4/2017 – The 4th and 5th rounds of the European championship saw expected, yet exciting developments. After five rounds, four players stand at the top with 4.5/5: Cheparinov, Melkumyan, Kuzubov, and Fridman. All got there in slightly different ways, but all playing strong gritty chess. They are trailed by a huge pack of 27 players with 4.0/5, but with six rounds to go, the tournament is barely at the midway point. Report and analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

6/3/2017 – On June 1 2017, the signing ceremony of Jiayuguan·2017 China-Russia Chess Grandmaster Summit Match was held in China Qiyuan (China Chess Academy). This match between Russian GM Alexander Grischuk and Chinese GM Yu Yangyi will held during July 19 to 25 in the city of Jiayuguan, a very important city of the silk road economic belt in China's "Belt And Road" strategy. The players will battle over four classical games. Here is the opening report.

6/3/2017 – The Memory Palace is a name that has grown steadily into the mainstream of thought and culture. What not many realize, is that this system dates back over 2000 years and was written about in detail by intellectual giants such as Cicero, who was an enthusiastic proponent. In this first part on the Memory Palace, you will be introduced to what it is and its history (and how it can eventually be used with chess).

6/2/2017 – In an open tournament, the earlier rounds play as crucial role as the last rounds. Although, one can argue that every game has a point and one should remain focused and try to make the best of every round, we should accept that in a ‘giant swiss’, luck and turn of events play an important role in one’s result. The question becomes one of either giving a little to gain a lot, or trying to sprint ahead. Report and analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.

6/2/2017 – The Saint Louis Chess Club continued its quarterly strong GM invitational with three sections: the lowest with an average rating of 2530, the highest with 2640. These were created so strong grandmasters could test themselves against talent from around the world, and learn from the experience. In the top group, Akobian won convingly, in the C group Sevian cleaned out, but the true story was Awonder's annihilation...

6/2/2017 – Paul Keres was perhaps the best of all the top players who never became World Champion. For decades he was among the world's elite and he was also an excellent commentator and renowned theoretician. Vlastimil Hort remembers his encounters with the great Estonian.

6/2/2017 – 19.d6! Bxd6 in the diagram drags the bishop into the focus of the major pieces in the d-file, 20.Bxf6! gxf6 rips open the king's position, and then all White needs is... power move no. 3 which forces Black to resign. Have you spotted it already?

6/2/2017 – When Mihaela Sandu was given the results of the investigation by the FIDE Ethics commission on her complaint, the verdict seemed quite good: punishments were to be handed out to all the signatories casting doubt on her integrity. The problem is that even the most severe sanction, a 3-month ban, was a suspended sentence, not to be carried out. At best, this was a symbolic slap on the wrist. Mihaela Sandu protests in this letter to FIDE.

6/1/2017 – When fifteen grandmasters pledge their support to a chess tournament, chess players pay attention. The first Charity Chess Championship promised a tournament of epic proportions: a typical quad tournament, a tandem simul with GMs Robert Hess and Marc Arnold, a Grandmaster Blitz tournament, raffles, and silent auctions. Organization costs aside, all the proceeds went to a nonprofit called Band of Parents, which funds treatments and therapies for neuroblastoma at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the tournament was truly a charitable cause. | Photos: Vanessa Sun

6/1/2017 – There can be no question it was a busy month overall. Consider that no fewer than 29 of the Top 100 experienced swings of 10 Elo or more. The biggest winner was unquestionably Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who has had an amazing run, winning the Gashimov Memorial, scoring later 4/4 at the Russian League, and 2nd at the Moscow GP to finally reach 2800. Of note also was 14-year-old prodigy Awonder Liang, who earned 33 Elo and is now 2521. Report, stats, and more.

5/31/2017 – This week's games are by Romain Bernard, a Belgian in his late twenties. Born in Liège in 1990 (the same year as Magnus, but a month earlier), he began playing chess while in the second year at university, studying physics and engineering. and since February of this year has worked for Prevor as a junior material engineer. Breaking somewhat from tradition, Romain sent three games instead of two, with the third being described as 'Irony'.

5/31/2017 – It is all one could hope for in such a mega event as the European Individual Championship. Held in Minsk, Belarus, it is a field that is so strong that even the no. 50 in the starting list (GM Romain Edouard) is rated 2640. The top seeds are David Navara and Dmitry Andreikin, but incredibly both suffered a reversal in the opening round, and they were not the only ones! Illustrated report with plenty of analysis by GM Elshan Moradiabadi.