2/19/2020 – The Prague Masters is in the crosshairs for this anniversary edition of Game of the Week. IM Merijn van Delft explores the third round win of the tournament leader Vidit Gujrathi. 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).

2/19/2020 – The Grand Chess Tour, which was announced one month ago, is a standard-bearer for world-class events. In the latest press release, the organizers have now announced dates, confirmed participants and venues for this year's tour. There will be two tournaments with classical time controls and three rapid and blitz tournaments. The three best players in the world — Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren — all take part. | Picture: Grand Chess Tour

2/19/2020 – The "2nd Prague Chess Festival" in the Czech capital features two top-class grandmaster tournaments, a junior tournament, an open and numerous side events. The opening ceremony took place on Tuesday. All games were drawn in round six, which meant Vidit Gujrathi kept the sole lead; Vitiugov and Duda still stand a half point back. The tournament runs through February 22nd. Live games and commentary from 14:00 UTC (15:00 CET / 9:00 AM EST). | Photo: Vladimír Jagr / praguechessfestival.com

2/19/2020 – Round six of the Prague Festival saw all games of the Masters finishing drawn, which means Vidit Gujrathi is still leading on 'plus three'. The one closest to get a win was Sam Shankland, who got an edge in the middlegame but could not convert it into a full point against Markus Ragger. During the rest day before round six, Boris Gelfand gave a simul and the Aero Cinema Film Festival kicked off, featuring documentaries about chess, among others. | Pictured: Jan Novak, Lubomir Kavalek and David Navara. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

2/18/2020 – IM Lawrence Trent looks to Prague for inspiration this week. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's White to move! How did he break through? | Lawrence is live this week from 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12 Noon EST) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can always register a free 90-day account to watch.

2/18/2020 – In chess a "candidate" is a pawn that is part of a majority and that is not obstructed by an enemy pawn on its file. When mobilising your pawn majority, Nimzowitsch's rule "candidate ahead" is usually good and right. But not always!

2/18/2020 – International Master and prolific ChessBase author Andrew Martin returns to join Karsten in the ChessBase Studio. Live at 14:00 UTC (15:00 CET; 9:00 AM EST) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

2/18/2020 – When we learn the rules of chess as a youngster we are told about the chess board, the chess pieces and how each of the pieces move. Once we master these basics, we can proudly tell everyone that we have learnt the game of chess. However, when you go to a tournament, there is one more element that is added, one which plays just as important a role as the board and the pieces: the chess clock! Time is one of the most crucial factors when playing a game, and somehow this is one of the things that chess players pay the least attention to. It doesn't come as a surprise that many strong chess players handle the clock and time in a very poor manner, losing several games due to time pressure. How do we avoid this problem? In this article GM SWAPNIL DHOPADE tries to acquaint you with the causes and solutions of this perennial problem.

2/17/2020 – Two games with "considerable violence" quips GM JON SPEELMAN as he takes a look at his latest submission. | Send in your own games! | Jon welcomes submissions 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!

2/17/2020 – The Cairns Cup has just concluded in St. Louis with Humpy Koneru taking top honours. GM Simon Williams examines the highlights. | Puzzle time: In the position below it's White to play and win! | Watch for free live and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

2/17/2020 – The 2020 Prague Masters has reached the half-way mark, and it has been a one man show so far! Vidit Gujrathi has exhibited amazing composure and concentration, drawing with Black and winning with White. Today he dismantled Alireza Firouzja in the Exchange Slav after the latter mistakenly grabbed a poisoned pawn and found himself resigning on move 24. David Navara also showed some fighting spirit to best Nils Grandelius in the symmetrical English. Sam Shankland missed too many opportunities, letting David Anton escape. Nikita Vitiugov was close to winning against Harikrishna, but missed some nuances that could have killed the game off and had to split the point. Markus Ragger confidently held J-K Duda to a draw in the Exchange Ruy Lopez. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/17/2020 – Humpy Koneru comfortably held a draw with White against Harika Dronavalli and claimed first place at the Cairns Cup after Ju Wenjun defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk, the only player who had a chance to catch up with the leader. Ju's victory left her on clear second place, while Kosteniuk shared the third-fourth spot with Mariya Muzychuk. Meanwhile, Irina Krush got her first win of the event and Kateryna Lagno miraculously saved a half point for a second day in a row. | Photo: Austin Fuller