Chess · Worth knowing

The 2026 Sinquefield Cup, the fifth leg of the Grand Chess Tour, is taking place August 10-20 at the Saint Louis Chess Club as a 10-player single round-robin with classical time controls. The tournament features a $475,000 prize fund, with players also competing for four spots in the upcoming Grand Chess Tour Finals. Round 7 results show Wesley So drawing with Anish Giri, Vincent Keymer defeating Javokhir Sindarov, Levon Aronian drawing with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Jorden van Foreest drawing with Samuel Sevian. In the overall 2026 Grand Chess Tour standings, Fabiano Caruana leads with 25 points, followed by R Praggnanandhaa with 24.5 points and Wesley So with 23.5 points.

GM Chris Ward presents an analysis of the Sicilian Dragon opening through his new ChessBase series "The Monthly Dragon," focusing on themes and ideas in this first installment. The content examines a game between Durarbayli (2611) and Woodward (2638), featuring detailed opening variations and strategic plans specific to the Dragon defense. Ward, a British Grandmaster and passionate advocate of this opening, draws on his extensive knowledge from his books, blog, and FritzTrainer videos to explore the newest tactics and development in one of the world's most popular fighting openings for Black.

Bobby Fischer developed Fischer-Random Chess (later renamed Chess960) to combat what he saw as chess's over-reliance on memorization in opening theory. The variant randomizes piece placement on the first rank while maintaining specific rules—pawns stay on their starting ranks, kings must sit between rooks, and bishops must occupy opposite-colored squares—forcing players to think strategically from move one rather than rely on prepared variations. Fischer consulted with ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel about staging a match against Viswanathan Anand, seeking sponsorship, though the plan never materialized. Garry Kasparov later suggested a hybrid approach where spectators would select from ten pre-arranged positions before each round, allowing players limited preparation while maintaining unpredictability. The format has since been adopted in tournament play, with Chess960 offering 960 possible starting positions compared to traditional chess's single setup.