Simon Says: Puzzle Hour!

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).

Kramnik and Gelfand train super-talents

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

The magic of 7-piece endgame tablebases

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...

Speelman's Agony: Playing up a class

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!

The Weekly Show: Gibraltar wrap-up

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.

Misha Tal: A tale of two fathers

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

February FIDE ratings

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

Dortmund returns to its roots in July

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.

Chess calendar: February 2020

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.

The Power Play Show: Navara in Gibraltar

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...

Carlsen named "Global Ambassador" for Unibet

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

David Paravyan wins Gibraltar Masters in thrilling playoff

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

The last hurdle

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?

Dark times for Ukrainian chess

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

Fast and Furious: A sharp concept against the Petroff

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!

Gibraltar Chess Festival 2020: Paravyan wins in a playoff!

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

Gibraltar: Crowded at the top as Maghsoodloo escapes

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

Game of the Week: Caruana vs Firouzja

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).

Endgame Magic with Arne Bracker

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!

No changes at the top in Gibraltar

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

Levon Aronian in South Africa

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

Strong pawn, helpless queen

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!

Four players share the lead in Gibraltar

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

Strategy Training: How to make a plan

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".