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 – The 82nd edition of the chess festival in Wijk aan Zee takes place from January 11-26. Rounds start at 12:30 UTC (13:30 CET / 7:30 AM EST), except January 16th in Eindhoven when it starts 30 minutes later. Live games and commentary by GM Robert Hess and WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni. | Photo: Alina l'Ami / TataSteelChess.com

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)

1/15/2020 – 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!

1/10/2020 – New opening ideas is one of the main topics of ChessBase Magazine. In this small series we want to present three selected articles from the current issue #193. It starts with GM Krisztian Szabo's aggressive recommendation against the Scandinavian with 3...Qd6. Szabo recommends 6.Ne5 and 7.f4! Have a look!

1/9/2020 – The UN General Assembly, by consensus decision, adopted the resolution on December 12th 2019, put forward by Armenia’s permanent mission and co-sponsored by several countries, designating the July 20th as World Chess Day, marking the date in 1924 when the International Chess Federation was established in Paris.

1/3/2020 – At the end of 2019 ChessBase readers were invited to vote for the player, the female player, the game, the combination, and the endgame of the year. A lot of readers took part in the votes and here are the results — the favourites of our readers. | Photo: Maria Emelianova

1/1/2020 – A Women's World Championship match and two traditional elite events will keep chess fans busy during the first month of the new year. On the one hand, the Tata Steel Tournament, which has Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja among the Masters, and a nice mix of strong talents in the Challengers. On the other, the Gibraltar Chess Festival, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Wang Hao as top seeds. In parallel, Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina play a match in China and Russia. | You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.

12/30/2019 – It was a memorable final day of action at the World Blitz Championships in Moscow! Magnus Carlsen arrived as sole leader, but was caught up by an inspired Hikaru Nakamura. Two extra games were played to decide the champion, and the Norwegian prevailed. Carlsen won his third world blitz title and became the world champion in all three formats — classical, rapid and blitz! In the women's section, Kateryna Lagno defended her title from 2018. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/29/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. And finally: Endgame of the Year...

12/28/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. Next up: the Combination of the Year...

12/28/2019 – Magnus Carlsen and Humpy Koneru were crowned 2019 World Rapid Champions in Moscow. Carlsen all but secured first place with a round to spare, and then confirmed it with a 22-move draw against Hikaru Nakamura. Humpy, on the other hand, caught up with Lei Tingjie in the final round after the latter lost against Ekaterina Atalik — the Indian star would then go on to beat Lei in the Armageddon phase of tiebreaks. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

12/27/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. Now: Game of the Year...

12/26/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. Next up: The Female Player of the Year...

12/25/2019 – Another eventful chess year is behind us, with great events and tournaments, impressive personalities and fantastic chess games. Help us choose the player of the year, the female player of the year, the game of the year, the combination of the year and the endgame of the year in our annual ChessBase reader poll. First up: The Player of the Year...

12/23/2019 – Whether you're on the lookout for a last-minute (virtual) stocking stuffer, or looking forward to your New Year's (chess) resolutions, here's a rundown of some of our best FritzTrainers of 2019 with video samples and review links from DAVIDE NASTASIO. All are available as digital downloads.

12/23/2019 – In an open letter to the Russian Chess Federation on Monday, the manager of French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who narrowly missed out on multiple avenues to qualify for the 2020 Candidates tournament in Yekaterinburg next March, calls for a qualification match against Kirill Alekseenko. The RCF has already nominated Alekseenko. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

12/20/2019 – Magnus Carlsen likes to be number one all things. The Guardian recently announced that the chess world champion is one of the world's top players in the Fantasy Premier League. Now he's up to #3 in the world. A quick update from last Friday's account.