8/3/2024 – The World Rapid and Blitz Team Championships kicked off in Astana, with four rounds of rapid chess taking place on Friday. Chessy, the team led by Richard Rapport and Haik Martirosyan, grabbed 4 wins in 4 matches, with Rapport stunning Magnus Carlsen in round 4. Decade China, led by Ding Liren, and Al-Ain ACMG UAE, led by Daniil Dubov, are sharing second place with 7/8 match points. | Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

8/2/2024 – Grandmaster Krum Ivanov Georgiev was born in Pazardzhik (Bulgaria), May 24th, 1958 and passed away in Sofia (Bulgaria), July 31st 2024, after a short illness, at the age of 66. GM Kiril Georgiev wrote: >"Today is a sad day for Bulgarian chess! We lost Grandmaster Krum Georgiev. He was best known for beating the future FIDE World Champion Garry Kasparov in a wild game in the Malta Olympiad, 1980." You can enjoy the annotated game that spread around the globe.

8/2/2024 – "I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody" is a famous quote by ex-boxer Terry Malloy - played by Marlon Brando - in Elia Kazan's film "On the Waterfront" from 1954. In the film, Malloy regrets having squandered his boxing career by agreeing to fix a fight. But cheating aside, how much potential is wasted in chess, how many players could have become grandmasters had they been persistent enough? Psychologist and author Robert Howard, PhD, took a closer, analytical look. | Photo: Marlon Brando in 1950 | Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

8/2/2024 – In his new Fast & Furious episode, Robert Ris takes a look at the Sicilian O'Kelly Variation (2...a6) which has recently become more popular again. Top theoretician GM Ivan Saric launched a new idea for White which seems to pose Black some serious problems. His opponent Icelandic GM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson didn't manage to come up with a good antidote and was blown off the board in only 26 moves. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

8/2/2024 – Matthew Wadsworth defeated 15-year-old prodigy Shreyas Royal to join Gawain Jones and Ameet Ghasi in the lead of the British Championship. With three rounds to go in Hull, eight players stand a half point behind the co-leaders, including top seeds David Howell and Michael Adams, who drew their direct encounter on Thursday. | Photo: Melinda Wilde

8/2/2024 – Not long ago, ChatGPT received another update. Time for Arne Kaehler to check the AI's opinions about chess related questions. Who is the greatest player of all time? Who will win the world championship? Which nation will dominate chess in 2030? And finally, Arne challenges ChatGPT for a chess game over the board. But maybe he should wait for the next major update.

8/1/2024 – FIDE has just published the current World Ranking List. Magnus Carlsen is still the clear number one, followed by the two Americans Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. In the women's list the Chinese dominate: Hou Yifan is first, Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun is second and Lei Tingjie follows on place three. But the world's best juniors come from India: The world's best junior is World Championship challenger Gukesh, and the world's best female junior is 18-year old Divya Deshmuk.

8/1/2024 – On Friday, the event, which has been expanded into the World Rapid Chess and Blitz Team Championship, will begin in Astana after its premiere in Düsseldorf last year. Some teams are coming with absolute top line-ups. Defending champion WR Chess has strengthened its team with Magnus Carlsen.

8/1/2024 – Sixth seed Ameet Ghasi defeated Stuart Conquest to join the lead after five rounds at the British Championship. Ghasi is now tied for first place with Gawain Jones and Shreyas Royal, who signed a 28-move draw on Wednesday. Three players stand at a half-point distance: Michael Adams, David Howell and Matthew Wadsworth. | Photo: John Upham

7/31/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft takes a closer look at a game of Le Quang Liem, the winner of the Biel Tournament 2024. Fascinating and instructive! | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.

7/31/2024 – Vasyl Ivanchuk's first visit to Portugal was a complete sporting success. The former world number two now spends a lot of time in Spain. Stefan Löffler spoke to him. | Photos: Federico Marin Bellon (unless otherwise indicated)

7/31/2024 – The tenth game of the 1921 match saw challenger José Raúl Capablanca gain an advantage with the black pieces, but with limited material on the board, World Champion Lasker had chances of survival. We gave our readers several interesting riddles we want to solve. Here is the definitive solution to the historic game.