1/21/2020 – First the work then the fun, Karsten welcomes back repeat Endgame Magic guest GM Mihail Marin. 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!

1/21/2020 – Apparently simple pawn endings are often, in fact, surprisingly tricky. Is there a way for White to convert her extra-pawn in the diagrammed position?

1/20/2020 – Escaping the cold Romanian winter, IM IRINA BULMAGA returned home recently from a successful jaunt to the UAE where she shared first with fellow IMs Irine Sukandar and IM Olga Zimina, and GM Monika Socko, each scoring 7 out of 9. It was the tenth such tournament for women in Sharjah. | Photos: Official site: shjwomenchess.com

1/20/2020 – Ju Wenjun took the lead for the second time in the match with just two games before the end of the competition for the Women's World Championship. She defeated her challenger with the black pieces in today's tenth game in a Queen's Gambit Declined, and has excellent chances to retain her title. | Photos: Eteri Kublashvili (FIDE / official site)

1/20/2020 – GM Simon Williams wraps up his recent trip to the traditional Hastings Congress over the New Year with a few more highlights. | Watch for free 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).

1/20/2020 – Fabiano Caruana caught up with Alireza Firouzja atop the standings table of the Tata Steel Masters after beating Vishy Anand from a clearly lost position. In the meantime, Magnus Carlsen, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Vladislav Kovalev grabbed their first wins of the event. In the Challengers, Nils Grandelius and David Anton joined the four-player chasing pack that stands a half point behind sole leader Pavel Eljanov. Do not miss the thorough analyses provided by GMs DANIEL FERNANDEZ and YANNICK PELLETIER. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/19/2020 – In this week's column, GM JON SPEELMAN, brings you two of his own instructive games against grandmasters, played in a recent weekend of the Four Nations Chess League. | 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!

1/19/2020 – All the rules of chess remain the same, just that both the players cannot castle. How does removing this one rule alter the game? Well, we decided to put this idea to test by getting 13 of the strongest Indian youngsters (average Elo: 2457) and holding the first ever No-Castling chess tournament at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp in Chennai. Check out all the games, videos, analysis by IM SAGAR SHAH and some brilliant photos by Amruta Mokal.

1/19/2020 – 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja continues to stun as he defeated Jeffery Xiong to take the sole lead of the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Fabiano Caruana and Jorden van Foreest also grabbed full points and are now sharing second place with Wesley So on 4½ out of 7. In the Challengers, only Nihal Sarin got a win in round seven, which means Pavel Eljanov is still first on 5 points. Do not miss the thorough analyses sent by GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ and the round-up video by IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/18/2020 – With a convincing win in game eight, challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina took the lead in the Women's World Championship match against defending champion Ju Wenjun. After 8 of 12 games, it is now 4½ : 3½ to Goryachkina. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / wwcm2020.fide.com

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

1/18/2020 – Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana signed a draw on a day that saw Anish Giri and Daniil Dubov getting wins at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Thus, Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja are still co-leaders on 'plus two' — Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov and Jorden van Foreest are a half point back. In the Challengers, Pavel Eljanov took advantage of a blunder by Max Wardermam to take the sole lead. Expert analysis by GM TIGER HILLARP-PERSSON and IM LAWRENCE TRENT. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

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 19-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

1/16/2020 – 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.