2/23/2020 – Traps, tricks, pattern recognition, all in one FritzTrainer! And of course a deeper understanding of the London system! Finding the right ideas for each position starts with knowledge of the typical tactical patterns. But equally important is to anticipate Black's plans and be able to neutralize them! DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a first look at a FritzTrainer on his iPad!

2/23/2020 – Just under twenty-three years ago Garry Kasparov made history by losing a match against a computer named Deep Blue. Today smartphones are capable of running chess engines as powerful as IBM's giant mainframe in 1997. More significantly, thanks to recent progress in artificial intelligence, machines are learning and exploring the game for themselves. So what does the legendary World Champion think about the progress of AI in chess, and its effect on humanity in general? He told Wired Magazine that he has made his peace with AI.

2/22/2020 – Creating a good and reliable opening repertoire is a difficult task. Fritz 17 offers an alternative: premade opening repertoires, on four levels, from "Easy" to "Professional". All of them are solid repertoires that have stood the test of practice and will give you a good (though not necessarily better) position after the opening.

2/22/2020 – After an exciting final round in which two key encounters finished decisively, five players ended up tied in first place on 5 out of 9. Vidit and Alireza Firouzja had the best tiebreak scores and decided the championship in a blitz playoff. 16-year-old Firouzja won both quick-play encounters to take the title. Jorden van Foreest got clear first place in the Challengers and qualified to next year's main event. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/21/2020 – Here's an opportunity to support chess research. Tom Koolen bills himself as an "interdisciplinary data scientist" and a chess player, who's attempting to get a research project off the ground using the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. Commentator WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni has promoted the project on social media. | Photo: Michal Vrba on Unsplash

2/21/2020 – The Power Play Show returns live this week. Grandmaster Daniel King looks back to a couple of games from Wang hao. 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...

2/18/2020 – International Master and prolific ChessBase author Andrew Martin returns to join Karsten in the ChessBase Studio. 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!

2/18/2020 – When we learn the rules of chess as a youngster we are told about the chess board, the chess pieces and how each of the pieces move. Once we master these basics, we can proudly tell everyone that we have learnt the game of chess. However, when you go to a tournament, there is one more element that is added, one which plays just as important a role as the board and the pieces: the chess clock! Time is one of the most crucial factors when playing a game, and somehow this is one of the things that chess players pay the least attention to. It doesn't come as a surprise that many strong chess players handle the clock and time in a very poor manner, losing several games due to time pressure. How do we avoid this problem? In this article GM SWAPNIL DHOPADE tries to acquaint you with the causes and solutions of this perennial problem.

2/17/2020 – Two games with "considerable violence" quips GM JON SPEELMAN as he takes a look at his latest submission. | 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!

2/17/2020 – The Cairns Cup has just concluded in St. Louis with Humpy Koneru taking top honours. GM Simon Williams examines the highlights. | Puzzle time: In the position below it's White to play and win! | Watch for free live and 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).

2/17/2020 – The 2020 Prague Masters has reached the half-way mark, and it has been a one man show so far! Vidit Gujrathi has exhibited amazing composure and concentration, drawing with Black and winning with White. Today he dismantled Alireza Firouzja in the Exchange Slav after the latter mistakenly grabbed a poisoned pawn and found himself resigning on move 24. David Navara also showed some fighting spirit to best Nils Grandelius in the symmetrical English. Sam Shankland missed too many opportunities, letting David Anton escape. Nikita Vitiugov was close to winning against Harikrishna, but missed some nuances that could have killed the game off and had to split the point. Markus Ragger confidently held J-K Duda to a draw in the Exchange Ruy Lopez. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

2/17/2020 – Humpy Koneru comfortably held a draw with White against Harika Dronavalli and claimed first place at the Cairns Cup after Ju Wenjun defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk, the only player who had a chance to catch up with the leader. Ju's victory left her on clear second place, while Kosteniuk shared the third-fourth spot with Mariya Muzychuk. Meanwhile, Irina Krush got her first win of the event and Kateryna Lagno miraculously saved a half point for a second day in a row. | Photo: Austin Fuller