Tata Steel Chess: Three leaders, four rounds to go

1/23/2019 – Early leader Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Vidit Gujrathi's Petroff Defence to join Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand at the top of the standings. Round nine also saw Vladimir Fedoseev bouncing back to 50% after tricking Teimour Radjabov in a rook endgame and Jorden van Foreest holding Anish Giri to a draw from a complex middlegame. In the Challengers, Maksim Chigaev is still the sole leader. Expert analysis by GMs DANIEL FERNANDEZ and DANIEL KING. | Pictured: Pia Sprong | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

The Weekly Show: Tata Challengers highlights

1/22/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments ever Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST). This week he follows the highlights from the Challengers group in Wijk aan Zee. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Tata Steel Chess - Round 9 Round-up

1/22/2019 – The 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 12th to 27th in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands (and two "on tour" locations). The "Masters" has an average Elo of 2753. The "Challengers" weighs in at 2582. Both are 14-player round-robin tournaments. Round-up show live at 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET, 3:00 PM EST) Live commentary by IMs Sopiko Guramishvili and GM Robert Hess from 12:30 UTC (13:30 CET, 7:30 am EST) | Photo: TataSteelChess.com

Review: The Aggressive Classical Dutch

1/22/2019 – Today is the birthday of English Grandmaster Nicholas Pert, whose next video series on a 1.d4 repertoire will be released in a matter of weeks. Today, reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a look at his most recent opening salvo, in which Pert examines the black side of the Classical Dutch. He presents the key lines, the latest theory, adding his own interpretation, and inserts new moves to refresh old lines. While covering the main tactical and strategic ideas, Pert provides a repertoire which can help us fight against 1.c4 and 1.Nf3.

Endgame Magic with GM Sergei Tiviakov

1/22/2019 – Karsten is joined by Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov. This week's show is live at 15:00 CEST (13:00 UTC; 9:00 AM EDT) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!

Stalemate helps

1/22/2019 – Some endgames contain surprising possibilities to save seemingly lost positions. And sometimes these possibilities are not difficult to find — because there are hardly any alternatives left. Black to play and draw...

Gibraltar: Another January tradition

1/22/2019 – The Gibraltar International Chess Festival 2019 kicks off Tuesday at Hotel Caleta on the East coast of Gibraltar. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave leads the starting list along side Top 20 players Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Yu Yangyi and Hikaru Nakamura. Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun is the top female player in the field. | Photo: John Saunders

The most recent opening trends

1/21/2019 – The World Rapid and Blitz Championships in St. Petersburg at the end of 2018 offered interesting insights into the openings. After all, some of the strongest players took part and many games were played over the five-day event. THORSTEN CMIEL had a closer look to see what opening trends may be in store for 2019.

Turbo charge your endgame knowledge

1/21/2019 – Perfect endgame analysis and a much better engine performance: the new Endgame Turbo 5 is more than perfect! It comes on an USB 3.0 flash drive (128 GB), covers the most important six piece endgames, all endgames with less than six pieces, and helps top engines such as Fritz, Komodo Chess and Houdini to play these endgames perfectly. Here's a short tutorial on how to install the Endgame Turbo and set up the tablebases. | Drawing: ChessBase

Tata Steel Chess: The usual suspects

1/21/2019 – Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand defeated Richard Rapport and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov respectively to share the lead on 5½/8 at the Tata Steel Masters. Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Vladimir Fedoseev also won in Sunday's eighth round and received a boost of confidence before the second rest day. In the Challengers, Maksim Chigaev got his third straight win and is the sole leader. GM ADHIBAN BASKARAN sent expert analysis. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

A dubious Greek gift

1/20/2019 – Fittingly, since the Netherlands is the focus of the chess world this week, a Dutchman is featured in this week's Agony/Ecstasy column. Both games feature bishop sacrifices to attack the castled king. Feel free to send in your own games! Jon can always use more material from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account! | Image: ChessBase 15 Raytracing

Tata Steel Chess: Yermolinsky on Round 7

1/20/2019 – The youngsters in both the Masters and Challengers scored wins in Round 7, but GM ALEX YERMOLINSKY also focuses on the first victory of Wijk aan Zee veteran Teimour Radjabov. "The traditional Tata Steel tournaments are in full swing, and I'm grateful for an opportunity to share my impressions." | Pictured: Andrey Esipenko and Jorden van Foreest | Photos: Alina l'Ami

Tata Steel Chess: Anand wins derby and joins the lead

1/20/2019 – On a day filled with remarkably fighting chess in Wijk aan Zee, Vishy Anand defeated his old rival and friend Vladimir Kramnik to join the leading pack on 4½/7 — the Indian now shares first place with Carlsen, Giri, Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. Meanwhile, Teimour Radjabov and Sam Shankland grabbed their first wins this year. In the Challengers, Maksim Chigaev won and caught up with Vladislav Kovalev on 5/7. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site