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!

1/30/2020 – Live games and commentary with GM David Howell and Fiona Steil-Antoni from 10:00 UTC (11:00 CET, 5:00 EST). The penultimate round produced a quintet of leaders. Now-familiar names like Esipenko, Wang, Maghsoodloo and Paravyan, joined by Mustafa Yilmaz top the standings with 7.0/9. After Round 10, the top four finishers with 7½ were Esipenko, Wang, Yuffa and Paravyan, who contested a four-way playoff. Paravyan and Wang reached the final match, and in a stunning upset Paravyan wins the Gibraltar Masters by defeating Want 1½ to ½. | Pictured: Live webcast

1/30/2020 – No runaway leader has emerged at this year's Gibraltar Masters as five players are tied on 7 points atop the standings with a large sixteen-player chasing pack on 6½ before the final round. The highlight of Wednesday's action was Andrey Esipenko failing to convert a clearly superior position in his game against Parham Maghsoodloo. In the meantime, a loss by Zhansaya Abdumalik left Tan Zhongyi as the top scorer among the women. | Photo: John Saunders

1/29/2020 – Closing out our coverage of the Tata Steel Masters 2020, IM Merijn van Delft delves into a game from the winner Fabiano Caruana, who defeated Alireza Firouzja to kick off his superb four-game winning streak in the last third of the tournament. 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).

1/29/2020 – Karsten welcomes back repeat Endgame Magic guest from the ChessBase office, Arne Bracker. 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!

1/29/2020 – The same four players that stood atop the standings table after seven rounds remain as co-leaders after only two decisive results were seen on the top sixteen boards at the eighth round of the Gibraltar Masters. The chasing pack has grown, however, with Ivan Cheparinov, Mustafa Yilmaz and Praggnanandhaa joining Daniil Yuffa and Mikhail Kobalia in the group a half point behind the leaders. The strongest among the women so far are Zhansaya Abdumalik and Tan Zhongyi. | Photo: Niki Riga

1/28/2020 – Levon Aronian was conspicuously absent from the latest field in Wijk aan Zee, for the second year in a row. The four-time Tata Steel Masters winner was instead a guest of honour at the South African Youth Championships, which was held in Johannesburg with well over 2,000 young players. There he gave a simultaneous display on 107 boards and played blitz with all comers in Joubert Park. | Photos: Levon Aronian

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