9/3/2026 – As early as the end of 2024, at the Blitz World Championship in New York, Alexander Grischuk played the piece sacrifice 9.Nd5! in the Sicilian Kan Variation – a move that had never before been played at Grandmaster level. To the surprise of our author, Petra Papp, this ‘brilliant idea’ has apparently remained virtually unknown to this day. In the ChessBase Online Database, you’ll find a grand total of five games with this move! Petra Papp has examined the variations following 9.Nd5! and presents her findings in the article ‘Grischuk’s stroke of genius’ in the new ChessBase Magazine #233. You can now read the full article, including all the game analyses, in this week’s CBM free sample!

9/3/2026 – ChessCare.com, a new player management agency dedicated to professional chess players, has been launched by grandmaster Sebastian Siebrecht and marketing expert Oliver von Wersch. The agency will offer services covering career planning, contracts, travel logistics, sponsorship, communications and talent development. Its stated aim is to support players as the chess world becomes increasingly professional, allowing them to focus more fully on competition while receiving structured commercial and operational support.

9/2/2026 – The Tirol Open 2026 featured eight days of high-level chess in Innsbruck. In the A Open, GM Harshit Raja successfully defended his title from the previous year, albeit only on tiebreaks ahead of FM Tobias Kolb, who finished level on points with the two-time champion. Philipp Schlosser, Timur Kocharin and Cedric Chassard ensured that three more German players finished in the top ten of the 57-player field.

9/2/2026 – The year 1926 was a major one for chess tournaments. Among the many outstanding events was the anniversary tournament of the Hannover Chess Club, which had already enjoyed a remarkable history and was now celebrating its 50th anniversary. The battle for first place developed into a close contest between the two favourites, Aron Nimzowitsch (pictured) and Akiba Rubinstein, with Nimzowitsch ultimately prevailing. Friedrich Sämisch proved to be the decisive factor.

9/2/2026 – Spanish Anti-Berlin: "Give me the f-file!": Christian Braun likes 4.d3 Bc5 5.Be3!? – "The Fortress" with opposite-coloured bishops and two connected passed pawns: Dorian Rogozenco shows how the defender should position himself – Do you know the Barendregt Variation? Robert Ris advocates 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 c5 5.d5 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 e5!? – "Attack with Qh5!" One move, many motifs: Oliver Reeh tests you in 32 example games with plenty of training exercises – Alekhine-Chatard Attack – as dangerous as 100 years ago: Sergey Grigoriants updates 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e5 Nfd7 6.h4! – The Isolated c-Pawn: Mihail Marin demonstrates the advantages of a fragmented structure, using two games of Kasparov-Karpov! – Grischuk's Stroke of Genius in the Sicilian Kan Variation: After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Qc7 7.Be2 b6 8.0-0 Bb7, Petra Papp considers the magnificent 9.Nd5!! and much more. Download version including a comprehensive and redesigned accompanying PDF (52 pages)! Take a look – an extract from the PDF is provided below.

9/2/2026 – The second edition of Legends & Prodigies will take place in Madrid from 7 to 12 September, with Faustino Oro (pictured) returning to the event he won last year. The Argentine teenager will face David Antón, José Martínez, Ivan Sokolov, Diego Flores and José "Pepe" Cuenca in a six-player double round-robin. | Photo: Mar Melero