2/15/2020 – Ju Wenjun and Humpy Koneru are still sharing the lead of the Cairns Cup after a seventh round in which things could have taken a different path. The only decisive result of the day saw Mariya Muzychuk beating Valentina Gunina — Muzychuk got a much better position, lost her advantage and ended up winning when Gunina overestimated her chances. Meanwhile, Ju Wenjun could not convert a clear advantage, and Humpy saved a half point in a difficult endgame. | Photo: Austin Fuller

2/15/2020 – After three hard-fought rounds of chess in Prague we finally have a sole leader! Vidit Gujrathi, after surviving a mega-scare against David Anton yesterday, found his rhythm and squeezed Markus Ragger in a Grunfeld endgame to go to world number 21 and 2½/3. Alireza Firouzja has found the going tough in the first two rounds, but he seems to have benefited from the close shave yesterday, as he outplayed Harikrishna in a Closed Ruy Lopez structure to score his first win of the event. David Anton was seriously worse, but David Navara's struggles continued as he missed numerous chances for an advantage with White to gift the Spaniard the point. Grandelius continued to falter in decisive moments, as Vitiugov escaped by a hair's breadth to maintain a plus score, and Shankland missed out on what could have been a brilliant win over Duda as Black. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/14/2020 – The Candidates Tournament 2020 is just over a month away and today FIDE announced the results of a ceremony to determine the pairing numbers for the eight players in this highly anticipated double round-robin. Radjabov, Ding, Giri, and Grischuk will start with the white pieces on March 17th in Yekaterinburg. Read the press release... | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili (CFR)

2/14/2020 – The top two seeds are sharing the lead with three rounds to go at the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis. Ju Wenjun was joined in first place by Humpy Koneru after the latter defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk from a very slightly superior knight endgame in round six. The other winner of the day was Carissa Yip, who beat Valentina Gunina to collect her second straight victory. | Photo: Austin Fuller

2/14/2020 – In the diagram White played 8.e6 fxe6 9.Ng5 threatening both 10.Nxe6 and 10.Qxg4. So, fire on the board — can you extinguish it as Black?

2/14/2020 – In chess, results are one of the most important factors, but what is also interesting to the astute reader is how the result came to be exactly. On a day when all games ended in draws, some point splits can be more interesting than wins, especially if two players of equal strength engage in a fist-fight to death! That is precisely what happened in round two of the Prague Masters 2020. Nils Grandelius fabulously outplayed Alireza Firouzja out of an Anti-Berlin, but when the time came to finish off his opponent just after the time control he faltered. Anton too endured disappointment, when Vidit Gujarathi suddenly blundered to gift him a winning advantage, which Anton didn't take advantage of. The remaining three games featured rather tame draws, with high-class opening preparation. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/13/2020 – The refutation of the Philidor? IM Robert Ris thinks so after 6.Bf4 (pictured). On-demand and free to watch for a limited time (or forever for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat when Robert is live, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's Black to play!

2/13/2020 – In Vienna, chess is back in the public space. People play on streets and squares, in the Main Library, and even in coffeehouses where chess once was very popular. The driving force behind this movement is the Dutch chess activist Kineke Mulder. Who is very active indeed.

2/13/2020 – It's only the second edition of the Prague Masters 2020, but everyone is already calling it the Czech Wimbledon! Jan-Krzysztof Duda is the top seed of the event and with a rating average of 2707, it is one of the strongest round robin events out there. At the last moment Wei Yi was replaced by Alireza Firouzja because the Chinese GM wasn't able to travel due to the Coronavirus. In the first round itself, three out of five possible decisive results meant that a lot of blood was spilled. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/12/2020 – ChessBase offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our thoughtful columnist NAGESH HAVANUR reviews issue #193 which offers a bird’s eye view of three major events, the FIDE Grand Swiss / chess.com IOM Open, European Team championship and World Chess Grand Prix in Hamburg. 1618 games, 11 opening surveys, demo lectures and exercises for training. Games annotated by Fabiano Caruana, Wang Hao and Peter Heine Nielsen, to mention a few. | Photo: Nadja Wittmann

2/12/2020 – The current season of the German League is in full swing and this week IM Merijn van Delft dives into an "insanely sharp Sicilian" from the most recent weekend's rounds. 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).

2/12/2020 – Joining Karsten for a live endgame training session is Ukrainian GM Anna Muzychuk. 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!

2/12/2020 – All five games of the Cairns Cup ended decisively on Tuesday, leaving Ju Wenjun and Alexandra Kosteniuk in the shared lead on 3½ out of 5. Humpy Koneru took down former sole leader Nana Dagnidze, Valentina Gunina scored a fine attacking win against Harika Dronavalli and Carissa Yip got on the scoreboard with a victory over compatriot Irina Krush. The players will rest on Wednesday before returning to the fray for the final four rounds. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/11/2020 – Today Evgeny Sveshnikov, a great personality in chess, celebrates his 70th birthday. Sveshnikov was, in his prime, among the leading grandmasters in the world and also breathed new life into a forgotten opening, one which came to be known as the Sveshnikov variation of the Sicilian. | Photo: Thorsten Cmiel

2/11/2020 – A round-up of the recent action including the watch forfeit controversy. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's White to move! What would you think about playing Bd5 here? | 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.

2/11/2020 – Nana Dzagnidze is still leading the second edition of the Cairns Cup after none of the chasers scored wins in round four. Ju Wenjun and Alexandra Kosteniuk (pictured) did get to join the players trailing a half point behind the Georgian though, after beating Valentina Gunina and Carissa Yip respectively. The rest of the games finished drawn, with Irina Krush missing a good chance to take down Harika Dronavalli. | Photo: Austin Fuller

2/11/2020 – Knights are tricky but sometimes that is not enough. In the diagram position, Black is able to win with the exchange and best play. Are you up to the task?

2/11/2020 – GM Nick Pert, a former World U18 chess champion and a member of the National English team, came up with an ingenious idea about helping the improving players. He composed three FritzTrainer DVDs in which he targets the "typical mistakes" committed by players in the lower rating brackets of 1000-1600, 1600-1900 and 1800-2000. DIANA MIHAJLOVA takes a look.