3/18/2019 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams will take a look at some highlights from the Batavia chess tournament in Amsterdam. A unique tournament that combined Blitz and Classical chess. Live today at the usual time: 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC). If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch! | Photo: Gerry Graham / Irish Chess Union

3/18/2019 – The 20th European Individual Championship is an 11-round Swiss tournament taking place from March 18th to 29th in Skopje, Macedonia at the five-star DoubleTree by Hilton, located along the river Vardar. The top seed is Vladislav Artemiev (2736) from Russia. Live games beginning at 14:15 UTC (15:15 CET, 10:15 EDT) Official site: eicc2019.mk

3/18/2019 – In January our editor emeritus Frederic Friedel took a trip to India, to visit our partners at ChessBase India, to visit two big GM Opens, and to meet some of the incredible young talents the country is currently producing. There was a preteen grandmaster, a number of candidate GMs in their very early teens, and a delightful U12 girl's world champion. Frederic made many new friends, but he also used the opportunity to conduct his famous talent test on them. Here are the results and a biographical video.

3/18/2019 – He beat two legends — Capablanca and Alekhine in succession on their way to the world championship. In those days, 'Capa' was invincible and Alekhine irresistible. This son of Barcelona made his city proud even if it those victories came about “only” in simultaneous displays. But it is not on these chance victories that this player’s claim to fame rests. Valentin Marin y Llovet (1872-1936) was a composer with more than 250 problems to his credit. If the name rings a bell, we showed a challenge from Vladimir Kramnik and a solution with Vishy Anand last month. Here is a tribute to the great master. Don’t miss the problems in the end. They are for you.

3/17/2019 – Venezuela is going through a devastating economic crisis, with hyperinflation, hunger, disease, massive emigration and death rates rising dramatically. Among the millions of emigrants is Juan Blanco, a PhD in Education that has worked with chess as a learning tool for over twenty years. He is now living in Peru and in conversation with ChessBase he talked about his current projects, the situation of chess in Venezuela and some of the reasons for this crisis. | Pictured: Protests from January 23rd, 2019 | Photo: Agencia Uno

3/17/2019 – Chinese GM Wang Hao finished first in the 9th HD Bank Open in Vietnam's most populous city and most popular tourist destination, Ho Chi Minh City. IM IRINA BULMAGA was there and reports on this strong traditional Open tournament, which saw a star performance by the second youngest Grandmaster ever, the Indian prodigy D. Gukesh. | Pictured: Stanislav Bogdanovich, Wang Hao, Nandhidhaa P V, Wen Yang | Photo: chess.hdbank.com.vn

3/16/2019 – Nikita Vitiugov won the 1st Prague Masters with a last round draw against Richard Rapport, that was enough to keep his half point lead intact. The 'Polish derby' between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek ended drawn, and so with a last round win Vidit snuck into second place. It was the centrepiece of a new chess festival in Prague that proponents hope will continue for many years to come. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

3/16/2019 – He became an IM at the age of 19. The next logical step would have been to work towards his GM title. But Armin Juhasz from Hungary had different plans. He decided to devote his time towards becoming a trainer. Working hard on the subject he was able to create a World under-12 champion, a Hungarian champion and much more. What attracted the youngster to the field of training at such a young age? How does he prepare and what according to him are the qualities that a good coach must have? IM SAGAR SHAH decided to find out. | Photo: www.theophoto.hu

3/15/2019 – The Challengers tournament of the Prague Chess Festival ended yesterday with a victory of Spanish GM David Anton, who drew his last round game with Praggnanandhaa. Runner-up was Jan Krejci from the Czech Republic while Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun came third. In the Masters, Nikita Vitiugov coasted to tournament victory today. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

3/15/2019 – Friday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) Daniel King will go on air on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

3/15/2019 – Every once in a while you have a fairy tale story at a world class event where a player who was given absolutely no chances of winning the tournament, comes out, plays his heart out and takes home the first prize! Something similar happened at the Aeroflot Open 2019 when the 62nd seed Kaido Kulaots scored 7.0/9 and with a rating performance of 2873 won the Aeroflot Open A, a prize of €18,000 and got himself an invitation to the Dortmund super-tournament which will take place later this year. How did Kulaots achieve this phenomenal performance? Sagar Shah caught up with the man of the moment for a detailed interview.

3/15/2019 – With hindsight it's easy to claim that 30.Qxf3! in the diagram position is the right way to recapture for White, but can you also spot the downside of the actual game move 30.Bxf3?