ChessBase

• Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz - Live!

  The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is taking place on 2-6 August at the Saint Louis Chess Club. The 10-player event sees three days of rapid chess (single round-robin) followed by two days of blitz (double round-robin). A stellar lineup features, among others, World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov, Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer. Follow the games live starting at 19.00 CEST (13.00 ET, 22.30 IST) | Photo: Lennart Ootes

• British Chess Championship - Live!

  The 112th edition of the British Chess Championship is taking place on 1-9 August at the University of Warwick in Coventry. The main event is a 9-round Swiss open with a classical time control. Topping the starting rank are Luke McShane, Michael Adams and Shreyas Royal. Also noteworthy is the presence of 11-year-old prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan, already the highest-rated woman player in this year's edition. | Follow the games live starting at 15.30 CEST (9.30 ET, 19.00 IST)

• Dortmund: Dinara Wagner and Matthias Bluebaum grab crucial wins

  In the International Women's Tournament at the Dortmund Chess Festival, Dinara Wagner (pictured) moved into first place after defeating the previous leader, Nataliya Buksa. As Klaudia Kulon, who had been level on points with Wagner, lost to Song Yuxin, Wagner now holds a half-point lead after three of six rounds. In the A Open, defending champion Matthias Bluebaum also looked well-prepared and defeated the previous sole leader, Amilal Munkhdalai. Bluebaum now shares the lead with Kacper Piorun and Yu Tian Poh. | Photo: Official website

• Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: Pragg still leads, Sindarov keeps up the pace

  Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu retained the lead after the first nine blitz rounds of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, scoring 6/9 to extend his advantage over Javokhir Sindarov to 1½ points. Sindarov remained the closest challenger after three consecutive wins, while Wesley So lost ground. The direct encounter between Sindarov and Pragg proved pivotal, as Sindarov failed to convert a winning pawn ending and had to settle for a draw. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

• Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: Pragg wins rapid section despite final-round loss

  Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu finished the rapid section of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz in first place with 12/18 points, despite losing to Jorden van Foreest in the final round. Javokhir Sindarov trails by one point, with Wesley So another point behind. Praggnanandhaa recorded four wins, four draws and one defeat across nine rounds, while also entering the top ten of the live rapid world rankings for the first time in his career. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

• History being made in Almaty

  ... as the Inaugural FIDE World University Team Chess Championship gets underway, bringing together university teams from across the globe for the first-ever edition of the competition. Hosted by Al-Farabi Kazakh National University as part of FIDE's Year of Chess in Education 2026, the championship celebrates not only sporting excellence, but also the growing role of chess in higher education.

• ChessBase Summer-Special! – Part 5

  Dear chess friends! We’ve got another great offer for you: this week (until August 9th, 2026), you can get over 25% off all Fritz Trainer courses by Ivan Sokolov!

• Review: My "Sokolov-Strategy" - Part 3

  Do you know the feeling? You often come out of the opening with a promising position, only to struggle to convert your advantage because you do not fully understand the resulting middlegame. Jochen Schwarz, a club player from Bremen, wants to improve this aspect of his game and has enlisted Ivan Sokolov as his "coach" through the video series Understanding Middlegame Strategies. In the third and final part of his review, he looks at three courses (12 to 14) devoted to reversed-colour openings and their strategic characteristics, hoping to gain a better understanding of how to meet these systems with the black pieces.

• Help us build the next ChessBase

  We're planning the next chapters of ChessBase and we want input from the people who actually use it, before we decide what to build first. Help us by taking part in a survey that asks how you work day to day: your setup and hardware, how you use engines and databases, and which parts of the interface help or get in your way. Filling out the survey takes around three minutes. If you fill it out we will send you a thank-you voucher gift.

• Shifts and mirrors in a chess problem

  A year ago problem composer Werner Keym issued a challenge: compose a study in which White is winning – but one that can be shifted and mirrored vertically and horizontally, with all vertically shifted and mirrored positions drawing, and all horizontally shifted and mirrored positions losing. Here is the elegant solution, which reminds us of the famous Babson task.