ChessBase

• León Masters: Le, Oro, Santos and Alekseenko face off in rapid knockout

  The 39th edition of the "Ciudad de León" Masters will take place from 3 to 5 July, with Le Quang Liem, Kirill Alekseenko, Faustino Oro and Jaime Santos in the four-player knockout. Le returns as defending champion, while Oro arrives with grandmaster-elect status and Santos once again represents the host city. The XI Open Internacional "Magistral de León" will be played alongside the main event. | Image: Official website

• KazChess Masters in Almaty: Shankland, Kovalenko start with wins

  The KazChess Masters Almaty has begun in Kazakhstan's largest city, with five established international grandmasters facing five rising local players in a ten-player single round-robin. The opening round produced two decisive results, as Igor Kovalenko defeated Alexander Donchenko with a strong attacking display, while Sam Shankland converted an endgame against Aldiyar Ansat. | Photo: Official website

• Elite field gathers in Zagreb for Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia

  The Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia, the third leg of the Grand Chess Tour, will take place in Zagreb from 1 to 5 July. The 10-player field includes six members of the world top 20, among them Gukesh Dommaraju, Vincent Keymer, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri (pictured) and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. After events in Warsaw and Bucharest, the tournament will offer another chance to gain ground in the overall standings. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

• Ganguly’s stunning a5 Attack - The Monthly Dragon

  Chris Ward looks at a sharp Dragon main line from the French League, featuring GM Surya Ganguly with Black. The focus is on the fashionable Bishop c4 system and Black’s fresh-looking plan with...a5, which helps activate the queenside pieces and create pressure before White can build a dangerous kingside attack. The game becomes a model Dragon victory, with Black taking over the b-file, pushing...d4 at the right moment, and finishing with a powerful interference tactic that forces resignation. | Photo: John Upham

• Georgia honours Nona Gaprindashvili with highest national sports award

  Georgia honoured Nona Gaprindashvili at a ceremony in Tbilisi marking her 85th birthday, with Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, government officials and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich among the guests. Held at the Rustaveli National Theatre, the event combined tributes to Gaprindashvili’s chess career with Georgian cultural elements. The former women's world champion also received Georgia's highest award for sporting achievement during the ceremony. | Photos: gov.ge

• Arkady Dvorkovich to seek third term as FIDE President

  Incumbent FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich has announced he will seek a third term as President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE). Dvorkovich has said he will focus on providing more practical support for national federations, digital modernisation, youth development, stronger commercial partnerships and bringing FIDE closer to those it serves.

• ChessBase´26 – Tips for beginners, part 21: Maximum Training Effect with the Power Tool "Replay Training" (Part 1)

  Do you know the powerful training tool in ChessBase´26? It's called "Replay Training"! This great feature lets you actively go through games move by move—sharpening your strategic and tactical understanding in a targeted way. Whether under time pressure or not, the choice is yours. Train in a realistic setting, get instant feedback, and systematically improve your play—whether you're a beginner or an ambitious tournament player. In this tutorial, we'll guide you step by step through how Replay Training works. Let's get started!

• Surrealists and chess

  The Lyon Olympique Échecs club has just sent out an alert to 17,500 chess players and 2,500 other contacts. The message reads: "Surrealists and Chess – for €40, help us save a 19th-century workshop right in the heart of Lyon!" A support committee has been set up, which comprises writers, poets, painters, photographers, gallery owners, doctors, politicians, lawyers, bankers and more. Now it's time for the chess community to join.

• A Game That Outlasted the Day (7)

  In the comments on Part 5 of the series, readers pointed out that this was not a “master game” (as stated on the Guinness page), since Arsović had an initial rating of 2200 (which by today’s standards may correspond to a rating of 1400), while Nikolić’s rating was only 15 points higher. Now in Part 7 the author examines the remaining “competitors” to the Gorkov–Golubenko game for the title of the longest game by number of moves.

• Under the Hammer

  It isn't easy to weave Sotheby’s, Queen Isabella of Spain, Fischer-Spassky 1972, Michael Caine and a vigilante killer into the same article. But that is exactly what John Henderson does, in this piece that appears in the June issue of CHESS magazine. He tells us how the vast collection of chess memorabilia of GM Lothar Schmid, considered to be the largest and most important of its kind in private hands, went under the hammer recently at Sotheby’s in London. You will not believe the prices they received.