1/18/2020 – Chilean singer Juga die Prima has enriched the music world with chess motifs and the chess world with her music. On the occasion of their visit to the Munich Chess Foundation, there was an opportunity for an interview. Franziska Kurz spoke to the musician. | Photos: Munich Chess Academy

1/17/2020 – Details of the upcoming season of the Grand Chess Tour are out. Ten full tour members and wild cards (TBD). Other than Viswanathan Anand, most of the usual suspects are returning to GCT action — except, that is, the London Chess Classic, which is going it alone this year, no longer a part of the tour that consists of two classical and three rapid/blitz events. Instead of a "Final", the tour culminates with the Sinquefield Cup, held in September. | Image: grandchesstour.org

1/17/2020 – Temur Kuybokarov was born on July 22, 2000 in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. In 2016, he moved to Perth, Australia, with his parents, and since 2018, the year in which he became a grandmaster, he has played for Australia. This year he became Australian Champion. The 18-year-old won the national championship, which took place in Sydney from January 2 to 13, with 9 out of 11.

1/17/2020 – In the diagram, after 21.Qh3! Rh8 there are still some power moves to find before the headline becomes a reality, but perhaps you can already outline the first contours. Enjoy!

1/17/2020 – Alireza Firouzja rejoined the leading pack at the Tata Steel Masters by taking down Anish Giri in their first-ever classical encounter. GM TIGER HILLARP PERSSON analyses. Fabiano Caruana could have also caught up with Wesley So, but he failed to finish off Jorden van Foreest from a position of strength. The other winner of the day was Vishy Anand, who bounced back to fifty percent with a victory over Jeffery Xiong. Meanwhile, an eventful round in the Challengers left Pavel Eljanov, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Erwin l'Ami sharing the lead. Round-up show by GM DANNY KING. | Photo: Official site

1/17/2020 – Chinese defending champion Ju Wenjun and her challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina from Russia are playing a twelve-game match at locations Shanghai and Vladivostok. Aleksandra Goryachkina wins the 8th game and leads the Women's World Chess Championship by one point: 4½-3½. The World Champion Ju Wenjun only has four games left to overturn the score and retain her title. The second half in Vladivostock starts two hours earlier with games commencing at 5:30 UTC (6:30 CET, 12:30 AM EST). | Photos: Zhang Yanhong (FIDE / official site)

1/16/2020 – All eyes on Tata Steel Chess this week, and IM Robert Ris has a theoretically significant game in the Catalan from the current leader of the Challengers group, Surya Ganguly. Tune into the live show at 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 1 PM EST) which is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's Black to play!

1/16/2020 – The new FritzTrainers for Mac are very popular and the new "Shop Assistant" in the ChessBase Shop helps you find them easily. The bestseller among the Mac-titles does not come as a surprise: a lot of chess players simply like how Fabiano Caruana explains the intricacies of the Spanish! | Pictured: The newest title in our ever-growing library, available for Mac as well, is GM Sergei Tiviakov on a weapon against the Sicilian.

1/15/2020 – In Shanghai on Sunday, the sixth game of the women's world championship between Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina ended in a draw. Goryachkina pulled out all the stops until the 105th move, but the fortress of the defending champion held fast. The match is all tied up at 3:3, and the action now moves to Vladivostok. Get up to speed on the first half's action in time for Thursday's Game 7. | Photos: Zhang Yanhong FIDE / Official site

1/15/2020 – Tonight's show will be recorded from Wijk aan Zee, very close to where the action happens. IM Merijn van Delft tackles the game from the Masters that was the talk of the town: Jorden van Foreest vs Magnus Carlsen. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is live this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

1/15/2020 – When top players try out a new opening idea, you will often find an article with analyses and recommendations in one of the next issues of ChessBase Magazine. In the current issue #193 GM Romain Edouard for example takes a closer look at Grischuk's 3.h4!? against Vachier-Lagrave's Gruenfeld. You'll find "fresh unexplored positions" like the aggressive 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4!? Enjoy!

1/15/2020 – Wesley So defeated Alireza Firouzja to leapfrog him in the standings table of the Tata Steel Masters and become the new sole leader before the first rest day of the event. Five players are a half point back, including Vladislav Artemiev, who took down Vladislav Kovalev on Tuesday. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen salvaged a draw from an inferior position again to set a new record of undefeated classical games. Surya Ganguly is now the sole leader in the Challengers. Expert analysis by GMs STEPHEN GORDON and DANIEL KING. | Photo: Alina l'Ami