ACP Golden Classic starts today

7/12/2014 – Seven players, three with 2700+ ratings (and two top-ranking Italians) are playing this seven-round tournament in a spectacularly beautiful city in Lombardy, Italy. Correct us if we are wrong, but for the first time in this millennium the games will be adjorned if they last for more than five hours. The event starts on Saturday at two p.m. European time. You can watch it on Playchess.

A Fresh Look at Robert the Eleventh

7/11/2014 – "I have always been an admirer of Bobby Fischer the chess player," writes Chris Wainscott, "and also of the ChessBase FritzTrainer DVDs. So it was with some delight that I sat down with Volume One of the Master Class series, the subject of which is none other than Robert James Fischer." He gives this product the maximum six stars ("Everyone should own") in his Chess Cafe review.

Tactics please: First rank versus seventh

7/11/2014 – Endgames with Queens and Rooks can be tricky. With so much firepower around both Kings tend to feel uncomfortable, and pawns, if there are any left, do not always offer reliable protection. No wonder tactics abound in such endgames. Oliver Reeh shows a fine recent example from the European Women’s Championship in Plovdiv.

Visa problems for the Chess Olympiad

7/10/2014 – In order to travel to the Olympiad in Tromsø many players require a visa. But in countries without Norwegian embassies this can pose a problem. European laws require biometric data to be supplied personally, forcing players to travel to a different country. In an open letter FIDE President has complained to the Norwegian Prime Minister, and the Olympiad CEO has replied.

Mihajlova: Chess Pieces and the Art of Etching

7/10/2014 – With the advent of printing, various techniques were developed by artists in Europe and the Far East to facilitate the duplication of images – and at the same time to reach the highest level of artistic achievement. Diana Mihajlova, a chess player, writer and artist, explains how one technique, etching, works and how she used it to generate a series of wonderful chess images.

Two teams top Chengdu

7/10/2014 – It was the teams of Zhu Chen and Yasser Seirawan and Yu Shaoteng and Xu Yuhua. The rating favorites, Hou Yifan and Nigel Short, took a stumble on day three as they were able to score only 0.5/2 in rounds three and four, something that put them too far behind in a tournament that was only five rounds long. We bring you final impressions of a fun and unique event.

Entertaining and informative: New in Chess

7/9/2014 – 106 pages in A4 format, that's the size of "New in Chess", enough material for a small book. The Dutch magazine, which is published in English, appears eight times per year, and the current issue has a lot to offer. For example, an interview with Magnus Carlsen and an extensive portrait of director and chess enthusiast Stanley Kubrick.

Coincidence in Chengdu: Part Two

7/9/2014 – The games are still under way in Chengdu. Some surprising results have happened and the tournament favorites, Hou Yifan and Nigel Short, don't seem to be in route to win anymore. However today's report will focus on another attraction of Chengdu: Pandas! This endangered species is now only native to this region, the players and reporters got a beautiful tour.

Master and Amateur explain the Queen's Gambit

7/8/2014 – IM Lorin D'Costa and Nick Murphy are a strong team. As a club-level player Nick has a sound basic knowledge, but of course he does not know all crucial variations and the latest nuances. Lorin has the chess knowledge, and by asking the proper questions, he guides his co-presenter to discover the answers for himself. Enjoy the show!

Yes2Chess: team finals in London

7/8/2014 – It is one of the most inspiring events we have attended in years: eight teams of elementary schoolchildren from eight different countries, who qualified in a massive Playchess tournament, are now in London for a face-to-face showdown. The hosts, Barclaycard, have put in a tremendous effort to make it a memorable stay for the visitors, all of who are now sure to say Yes2Chess. More...

Novak Djokovic wins Wimbledon!

7/7/2014 – On Sunday, right in the middle of the World Cup fever that has gripped the globe, another sporting event of superlatives took place: the Wimbledon finals. In an immensely exciting match that spanned five sets, Novak Djokovic defeated Roger Federer, winning his seventh Grand Slam title and second Wimbledon. So what does this have to do with chess? Read on to find out.

Coincidence in Chengdu: Part One

7/7/2014 – The 2014 edition of the International Star Mixed Pair Tournament has begun in Chengdu, China. The tournament brings a mix of top Chinese women players and strong foreign grandmasters in a unique pair format: two players per team alternate moves in a single game, no communication allowed between them! A coincidence allowed us to have a report straight from Chengdu, China!

Tactics please: Open Invitation

7/7/2014 – Oliver Reeh knows how important tactics are. After all, he's been writing the tactics column in the ChessBase Magazine for many years. From now on, he will challenge you every week with a tricky task. Go to "Challenge", take a look at the diagram and find the best move for White. If you think you got it, click on "solution". Challenge...

15th European Women's Championship starts

7/7/2014 – The 15th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship has just started, and is being held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria from July 5-18. 116 top female competitors in Europe will be competing over eleven rounds to determine the title. The top seeds are Nana Dzagnidze (2541), Mariya Muychuk (2521), Natalia Pogonina (2508), Valentina Gunina (2501) and more. Get up to speed in this opening report.

Ni Hua wins XXII Montcada Open

7/6/2014 – 17 grandmasters and players from nearly 20 countries participated in this Spanish open, which was won by the Chinese GM. If you wonder why so many strong players were there, in spite of the meagre first prize of €1,200 – there are a number of reasons, not the least of which is a series of four or five events that take place in the same local and temporal vicinity. Big pictorial report.

Ding Liren edges Bu Xiangzhi to top Hainan

7/6/2014 – Bu Xiangzhi's draw against Yu Yangyi, who was trying to stop the bleeding from his three losses in a row, guaranteed him a share of first place. Ding Liren, the only player that could catch him, took advantage of this opportunity and won a nice game with Black, edging Bu Xiangzhi in tiebreaks. We bring you a final round report on an interesting event and a fierce Chinese Olympic team.

Profile of a prodigy: Kayden Troff

7/5/2014 – Last May, and a few weeks after his 16th birthday, Kayden Troff became the youngest GM in the Americas and the second youngest grandmaster in the world. He is also the top ranked player U16 in the Americas and recently won the US Junior Championship a full 1.5 points ahead of his rivals. As part of the rising generation of American players, here is a profile by James Satrapa.

Chess Art Festival in Mayfair

7/5/2014 – A professional jazz singer who has made her name as a chess artist, Nette Robinson, was the centre of a special chess festival staged by Purling London, a company that sells unique hand-painted chess sets. There was a blitz tournament, a simultaneous exhibition and an unusual Chess Basque Championship, in which the opponents have to play two simultaneous games.

3rd HMC Calder Cup gets creative

7/4/2014 – The HMC Calder Cup celebrated its third edition, with a series of entertaining activities and events. Among them was a grandmaster tournament as befits it, but there was also a small very strong rapid round-robin with Anish Giri and Rustam Kasimdzhanov, a girl-guy team match, and even a sort of chessboxing competition in which the boxing was replaced by table tennis!

Chinese lead in Hainan

7/4/2014 – With only one round to go in the Hainan Daizhou super-tournament it is almost a given that a Chinese player will take the tournament. Bu Xiangzhi is half a point ahead of Ding Liren while the two foreign players, Ponomariov and Naiditsch, trail the leader by a full point. We bring you a report with some of the highlights of the last three rounds with some impressive chess.

Lopota GP: a fond farewell

7/3/2014 – The aftermath of a large tournament brings the necessary formalities such as the prize giving, and speeches, yet the Lopota Women's Grand Prix was a cozy affair held in a perfect mix of officialdom, and good cheer. Set in a beautiful backdrop with good wine, toasting, food, and more toasting, Alina L'Ami shares this final pictorial. One picture does require help from our readers.

Opening Encyclopaedia 2014: the ultimate reference

7/2/2014 – For years, no player could do without an opening encyclopedia, to provide quick and comprehensive answers on any and every opening line. Welcome to the Opening Encyclopedia 2014. In it you will find a massive 4.9 million game database, more commented games than Mega Database, thousands of surveys and hundred of articles. It may have no equal in terms of bang for the buck.

Nine-year-old rips through GMs!

7/2/2014 – When a 2600 GM loses a game to a player 550 points lower on the rating scale, this will cause us to take note. But if the winner is just nine years old, then surprise turns to stunned shock – especially if the win did not come through a fluke blunder by the GM, but was a gritty, square-by-square grind-down in which the youthful master prevailed. Akshat Chandra has carefully annotated the game.

Lopota Final: Fitting Finish

7/2/2014 – The tournament finished with a mixture of ferocious chess in some games and very subdued battles in others. Ju Wenjun finished tied for second with Danielian, who drew Hou Yifan in the last round, after her ultra-risky approach to chess backfired badly on her. Khotenashvili won an important moral victory by defeating Humpy. At the end of the day, Hou Yifan won by two full points.