2/4/2020 – Do you lack the time to follow the latest and most aggressive developments in the main lines of the Sicilian but still want to be able to obtain comfortable positions with White? With its solid but venomous main and sidelines, the Rossolimo Variation is just the ticket.

2/4/2020 – Endings with opposite-coloured bishops are often a draw. But in the diagram position Black has a really bad bishop and that allows White to win.

2/3/2020 – "63 years, 7 months and 27 days", is how long English chess columnist Leonard Barden has been writing for the Evening Standard. Barden, who celebrated his 90th birthday last August, notes in the comments to his January 31st column in The Guardian, that only the Evening Standard column is ending, and the weekly Guardian column will continue as usual. Barden shared some thoughts on the milestone with ChessBase. | Photo: Linda Nylind for the Guardian

2/3/2020 – GM Simon Williams curates a selection of puzzles for your enjoyment and improvement. | 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).

2/3/2020 – Last August former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik trained six Indian super-talents in Geneva. They went on to score remarkable tournament success and GM norms, attributing their performance directly to the training session. The sponsor, Microsense PL, decided to stage another training camp, this time with fourteen players and in south Indian city of Chennai, with two super-GMs. FREDERIC FRIEDEL visited the camp and found it deeply impressive. Here is his pictorial report. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

2/3/2020 – The latest 7-piece tablebases are now available in the ChessBase web app "Let's Check". Our endgame expert, Grandmaster Karsten Mueller recently took a look at the latest development in endgame theory by comparing his pre-7-piece-tablebase analysis of several games with the latest computer-aided definitive conclusion, including an "analysis duel" with GM Mihail Marin. Video and analysis...

2/2/2020 – A hungry Hungarian A-player sent GM JON SPEELMAN two hard fought battles for your review and study. A mini-GM lesson! | 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!

2/2/2020 – In a rare "weekend edition" of the Weekly Show, IM Lawrence Trent offers a recap of the Gibraltar Masters. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's Black to move! | Lawrence is on-demand this week 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.

2/2/2020 – When Sally Landau published her reminiscences of her life with Misha Tal it created a controversy. Tal’s other wife, Angelina and daughter Zhanna slammed the work. One point that rankled them was the way in which Misha’s paternity was questioned in the book. This is a delicate issue and our columnist advises caution before drawing conclusions. | Photos: Svetlana Punte / Tal Family Apartment album / Original source(s) unknown

2/1/2020 – Fabiano Caruana did phenomenally at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and was able to reduce his Elo distance to World Champion Magnus Carlsen from 50 to 20 points — Carlsen now stands at 2862 and Caruana at 2842. Ju Wenjun remained Women's World Champion, and world number two. Firouzja won the Juniors battle in the Tata Steel Masters, and Zhansaya Abdumalik maintains a healthy lead in among the top girls. | Pictured: Caruana watches the game Firouzja vs Dubov | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/1/2020 – The annual chess festival in Dortmund is evolving. The Sparkassen Chess Meeting is now the Sparkassen Chess Trophy, and moves to a classic venue, the Westfalenhallen (Dortmund is a major city in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia). The first details of the 2020 events is now out, which will be supported by Vladimir Kramnik and organised by his former manager Carsten Hensel.

2/1/2020 – Two strong tournaments that are about to celebrate their second editions will take place in February — the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis, an elite-level tournament for top female players, and the Prague Festival, modelled after the Tata Steel Chess Masters and Challengers. The highly competitive Aeroflot Open, a massive festival in Graz and a fun-filled weekender in Bunratty will also keep chess fans entertained. | 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.

1/31/2020 – Due to a heavy schedule the Power Play Show is on-demand this week. Grandmaster Daniel King examines a sensational game played by David Navara in Gibraltar.. Power Play is live most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) on playchess.com. You can watch the episode live for free! All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer. Puzzle and the live video...

1/31/2020 – At a press conference in Stockholm, Magnus Carlsen announced his collaboration with Unibet, a provider of sports betting, online casinos, online bingo and poker. In 2020 and 2021, Carlsen will act as a "global ambassador" for the gaming provider, which will be Carlsen's main sponsor for the next two years. | Photo: Magnus Carlsen on YouTube

1/31/2020 – A lively playoff ended this year's edition of the Gibraltar Masters. 21-year-old Russian grandmaster David Paravyan took home the £30,000 first prize after beating Wang Hao in the final. Paravyan and Wang eliminated Andrey Esipenko and Daniil Yuffa in the semis of the tiebreaks. Among the women, Tan Zhongyi got clear first place for a second year in a row. We recap the action of an emotional final day on the Rock. | Photo: John Saunders

1/31/2020 – Following 29.Qe5 in the diagram position, Black's way to deal with the mate threat is obvious, but still it will leave one last defensive problem to solve. Can you lead the game to victory for him?

1/30/2020 – Two rating manipulators on the World Top-10 lists. A national team in disarray. And a federation President and Deputy President firmly keeping their silence. Ukrainian GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV shares his opinion on the sorry state of affairs in his home country. | Image: FIDE ratings

1/30/2020 – IM Robert Ris discusses the revival of a variation of the Petroff Defence to 1.e4 which has gained new life thanks to the work of World Champion Magnus Carlsen, among others. 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!