6/21/2026 – The World Team Blitz Championship began in Hong Kong with 48 teams split into four pools, followed by the first knockout round on the same day. WR Chess, Endgame.AI, Hexamind and Mr Birdie and Friends both won their groups and reached the quarterfinals, while Dragon Chilling, Uzbekistan, Team MGD1 and Chessgurukul also made it to Sunday's final stages. Chessgurukul produced the main upset by eliminating Chess United, led by Viswanathan Anand. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

6/20/2026 – At the end of the 1980s, Soenke Maus, who was born on 11 June 1967 in Bad Schwartau and celebrated his 59th birthday last week, was regarded as one of Germany's greatest talents. But in 1995 he ended his chess career and became a successful marine researcher in Norway. Maus played his most famous game in 1989 at an open tournament in Lugano: he won in just 19 moves, in a theoretically important variation, against Dr Robert Hübner. | Pictured: Soenke Maus, 1994 | Photo: Torsten Szobries

6/20/2026 – An extraordinary fusion of chess and high culture was offered by the event "Chess at the Opera" at the Vienna State Opera on 12 June. Germany's superstar, GM Vincent Keymer, took on Austria's super-talents IM Lukas Dotzer, FM Peter Balint, IM Laurenz Borrmann and FM Robert Ernst in a clock simultaneous display. | Photos: Andreas Tischler

6/20/2026 – Dragon Chilling won the 2026 World Rapid Team Championship in Hong Kong after a tense final day, taking gold on tiebreaks ahead of Team MGD1 and Hexamind Chess Team. Ding Liren scored in the last round as the Chinese squad recovered from two consecutive match defeats. Mr Birdie and Friends narrowly missed the podium, while favourites WR Chess finished 17th after a difficult rapid event - Magnus Carlsen, suffered two losses on Friday and was not in the lineup in the final two rounds. | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza

6/19/2026 – Gukesh Dommaraju's recent results have brought a different kind of scrutiny to his reign as world champion. After a difficult Norway Chess campaign, the Indian grandmaster spoke candidly to Hindustan Times about expectations, ambition and the challenge of enjoying chess under pressure. His reflections offer a measured look at the psychological demands facing a young champion preparing for his first title defence. | Photo: ChessBase / Nils Rohde

6/19/2026 – The French league is usually a good source of exciting games and this week we are studying the highly entertaining and very complex game between Dutch number two Jorden van Foreest and the best French player of all time: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The World's former number two is known for this love of the highly theoretical and dynamic Grunfeld, but here he got seriously tested in the very sharp 5.h4 variation. The truely adventurous game ended with a very pretty finish. Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.