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.

1/28/2020 – Queens are powerful, but passed pawns can be too. Here's an example of a material imbalance you don't see every day!

1/28/2020 – Chess players have taken over the Rock of Gibraltar once again and, as usual, the festival has proven why players and spectators alike have made it a fixture in their calendar. After seven rounds, four players share first place in the Masters — Wang Hao, Parham Maghsoodloo, Andrey Esipenko and David Paravyan (pictured) have all collected 6 points so far. Bela Khotenashvili and Zhansaya Abdmualik are the top scorers among the women. | Photo: John Saunders

1/27/2020 – There are two types of vision during a chess game. The first, which we use quite often, is to calculate variations in our head. We ask ourselves, "what happens if I move this and my opponent moves that...?" Often such vision is sharpened by the knowledge of common tactical motifs. The other type of vision is more abstract, and belongs to the realm of human imagination, we use the word "plan" to describe it. DAVIDE NASTASIO reviews IM Robert Ris' video series aptly titled "How to make a plan".

1/27/2020 – A new trainer for the new year. FC Barcelona, one of the strongest football squads in the world, recently appointed Enrique Setién as their new head coach. Known as 'Quique', Setién has a tough task ahead, as he is expected to succeed at the Spanish "La Liga", the "Copa del Rey" and the Champions League. But why are we talking about this? Has ChessBase turned into a football site? No. Besides being a highly successful coach, Setién is a huge chess fan and, in fact, quite a strong player. JESÚS BOYERO interviewed the Cantabrian back in 2016, focusing on his relation with the royal game. | Photos: Jesús Boyero / El Desmarque

1/27/2020 – Fabiano Caruana continued his astounding run at the second half of the Tata Steel Masters by grabbing the only win of the final round to end the event — a remarkable first out of 14 with a 10/13 score. Magnus Carlsen ended up in sole second place two points behind the American, while Wesley So, who drew the world champion in round thirteen, finished third. In the meantime, David Anton qualified to next year's Masters event by grabbing clear first in the Challengers. Expert analysis by GMs SAM SHANKLAND and DANNY KING. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/26/2020 – The second edition of the Prague Masters and Challengers round-robin tournaments are set for mid-February. The tournaments, which are modelled after the Tata Steel Chess Master and Challengers, aim to find a permanent home on the chess calendar, positioned as the second major round-robin event of the year, following these traditional Wijk aan Zee tournaments. | Photo: Vladimír Jagr