12/11/2019 – Both Goryachkina and Humpy won their respective games to stay in the lead with 5.0/7. Harika trails behind the leaders by a half point. She made a short draw with Anna. Pia Cramling, Kateryna Lagno and Anna Muzychuk are tied at the fourth spot with 4.0/7 each. | Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

12/11/2019 – The International Chess Festival "Aeroflot Open 2020" will be held in Moscow from 18 February (the date of arrival) to 29 February 2020 (the date of departure). Details courtesy the organiser.

12/11/2019 – December 11th, 2019, is the 50th birthday of Viswanathan Anand, the subject of ChessBase's most recent Masterclass Vol.12. TANMAY SRINATH critically examines ChessBase's latest offering in this series, a foray into the mind of a chess genius who has influenced the game in countless ways. | Pictured: Anand and his wife Aruna in Kolkata. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/10/2019 – From London IM Lawrence Trent is on the scene at both the Grand Chess Tour Finals and the London Chess Classic ancillary events, and brings you his take in this Weekly Show. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's Black to move! | Lawrence is on-demand this week beginning at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / Noon EST) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

12/10/2019 – The first part of the "Opening training with Fritz 17 Tutorial" showed how to create an opening repertoire in Fritz 17 by using the "Move-by-Move" principle. The second part of the tutorial shows how you can upload and edit games or previous analyses to the Fritz 17 Opening Trainer.

12/10/2019 – Vlastimil Hort is a charming and elegant story teller and likes to share his memories of past and present masters. Now he published a book with 64 chess stories: "Meine Schachgeschichten" (My Chess Stories). The book is in German but maybe Hort will one day publish an English version. Till then, the non-German speaking Hort fans can find consolation by (re-)reading Hort's stories on ChessBase!

12/10/2019 – In chess, opposition means that the square around the kings has corners of the same colour. However, all four (or two) corners must have the same colour. Then the side which is not to move has the opposition.

12/9/2019 – From lay fans to top grandmasters, more or less everyone in the world of chess feels upset today about the significant number of draws that take place in virtually every classical elite tournament. Too much theory reinforced by extensive engine work is seemingly rendering the game of chess sterile and lifeless. One alternative is Chess960 and FIDE sanctioned the first Fischer Random World Championship this year. Recently the legendary Vladimir Kramnik has also proposed a solution to the problem that is simpler and more efficient than the Fischer Random, and which he believes will ensure more than 50% decisive games in top-level play.

12/9/2019 – Studies are once again in focus this week with GM Simon Williams. Solving and analysis. Watch live for free (or on-demand for a limited time) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

12/9/2019 – Kosteniuk held Humpy to a draw after missing a half chance in the opening. Goryachkina and Harika scored fine victories to join Humpy in the lead with 4.0/6 before heading to the rest day of the tournament. Kosteniuk and Anna Muzychuk are just a half point behind the leaders. | Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

12/9/2019 – Ding Liren defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the match for the title at the Grand Chess Tour in London. The Chinese star dominated the confrontation from start to finish, securing first place after the rapid stage. In the battle for bronze, Magnus Carlsen got the better of Levon Aronian despite blundering mate in the first encounter of the day. The world champion was the biggest earner in this year's tour nonetheless, collecting a little over USD 300,000 throughout the series. | Photos: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

12/8/2019 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. The current issue offers a bird’s eye view of three major events, the 7th Sinquefield Cup Tournament, the 72nd Russian Championship Superfinal and the FIDE World Cup. In a previous article, NAGESH HAVANUR analysed the performance of Ding Liren, who figured prominently in the magazine. Here he examines the performance of others. This issue includes 1949 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training; games annotated by Anand, Anish Giri and Peter Heine Nielsen, just to mention a few. | Photo: Austin Fuller / Grand Chess Tour