Lausanne GP: Goryachkina wins, sets up showdown

3/13/2020 – World champion Ju Wenjun lost a second game in a row, this time against Aleksandra Goryachkina, who thus caught Nana Dzagnidze atop the standings table of the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. The co-leaders will face each other in Friday's deciding round (which kicks off three and a half hours earlier than usual!). Zhansaya Abdumalik is the only player a half point behind. | Photo: David Llada

So you want to be a (chess) writer?

3/12/2020 – With the Coronavirus in the news, chess players may avoid in-person tournaments and seek stay-at-home chess outlets. While some may livestream or coach, chess writing appeals to others. Writing may be more egalitarian than streaming or coaching, as both titled and non-titled players are published and paid at similar rates. WIM ALEXEY ROOT share four tips for chess writing.

Fast and Furious: French Advance Variation

3/12/2020 – Inspired by Alexei Shirov IM Robert Ris examines the latest in the French Advance variation. Live from 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 13:00 EST) and free to watch on-demand for a limited time (or forever for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat when Robert is live, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's Black to play!

Nutcracker tournament in Moscow: Tomashevsky and Esipenko best players

3/12/2020 – In the last round of the classical nutcracker chess tournament in Moscow, Semyon Lomasov defeated Evgeniy Najer and equalized for the young masters. The subsequent rapid round was decisive between the veterans and the young ones. The "kings" held the upper hand against the "princes" with 35-29.

Lausanne GP: Dzagnidze sole leader

3/12/2020 – With an impressive win over world champion Ju Wenjun, Nana Dzagnidze took the sole lead at the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. Two rounds are left to go and only Aleksandra Goryachkina stands a half point behind the leader — the latest World Championship challenger quickly drew on Wednesday. The other decisive result of the day saw Alexandra Kosteniuk beating Pia Cramling and ending the Swedish's run of eight consecutive draws. | Photo: David Llada

Preview on the Candidates: Daniel King on Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

3/11/2020 – In his candidates preview on YouTube, Daniel King takes a close look at all eight candidates who are fighting for a chance to challenge Magnus Carlsen in December. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wasn't even supposed to play in the "Candidates Tournament 2020" in Yekaterinburg, but he jumped in for Teimour Radjabov who surprisingly withdrew from the tournament a few days ago. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

Game of the Week: Van Delft vs Paulet

3/11/2020 – Dynamic themes from IM Merijn van Delft's recent efforts in the Dutch and Belgian leagues. Instructive examples for all! | 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).

Lausanne GP: Dzagnidze leapfrogs Kashlinskaya

3/11/2020 – Four decisive games on Tuesday resulted in a number of changes in the standings table. Nana Dzagnidze defeated Marie Sebag and now shares the lead with Aleksandra Goryachkina, as former co-leader Alina Kashlinskaya lost against world champion Ju Wenjun. Mariya Muzychuk joined the chasing pack with a win over Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Antoaneta Stefanova defeated Harika Dronavalli. | Photo: David Llada

Chess on the "island of dreams"

3/11/2020 – A successful tourist company in Tunisia has organized, for a second year, an impressive tournament promoting both chess and tourism in the country. The winner of the Master tournament, scoring 7½/9, was GM Maxime Lagarde (pictured receiving the prize of €2,500 euro and a medal from Anatoly Karpov). DIANA MAHAJLOVA has the details.

The Weekly Show: Grand Prix in Lausanne

3/10/2020 – IM Lawrence Trent is looking at the ladies today — the FIDE Grand Prix in Lausanne. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, Black has a clear path to victory. Did he see it though? | Lawrence is live his week from 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12 Noon EST) 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.

Undermining the defenses

3/10/2020 – In the endgame the pair of bishops is often a powerful weapon, as you can see in the example below.

Yermo's Travels: 2020 World Senior Team Championship

3/10/2020 – Our regular contributor ALEX YERMOLINSKY unexpectedly finds himself with the U.S. Team at the World Senior Championship in Prague. Battling fellow seniors (and avoiding viruses), he sent us an update on the first four rounds. | Pictured: Spring outside the US Embassy in the Czech capital.

Lausanne GP: Anna Muzychuk beats Kosteniuk

3/10/2020 – The players returned well-prepared after the rest day, which led to five out of six games finishing drawn in round seven. The only winner of the day was Anna Muzychuk, who defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk with the white pieces. This means Aleksandra Goryachkina and Alina Kashlinskaya are still sharing the lead on 'plus two', except that now four players make up the chasing pack, with Muzychuk joining Dzagnidze, Harika and Abdumalik on 4 out of 7. | Photo: David Llada

Simon Says: Bunratty 2020

3/9/2020 – The Bunratty chess tournament in Ireland has become famous among professionals and amateurs alike. Regarded as the 'most fun weekend chess party in the world' this event should be on every chess player list of tournaments to visit. | 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).

NEW: Erwin l’Ami: The Benko Gambit Explained

3/9/2020 – Erwin l’Ami explains the Benko Gambit! Through model games l’Ami explains all topical lines of the Benko Gambit, occasionally asking the viewer interactive questions that help the viewer to grasp the ideas behind this opening. Pal Benko described in his autobiography that his gambit was initially regarded as a joke by his peers, but practice has shown it to be a dangerous weapon which is easy to learn.

Preview on the Candidates: Daniel King on Alexander Grischuk

3/9/2020 – The Candidates tournament starts on March 17th, where eight players will battle it out who will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World Championship in December. In his Candidates Preview on YouTube, Daniel King takes a close look at all the candidates. In the most recent episode, King reviews Grandmaster Alexander Grischuk, one of the few players who once reached an Elo rating of over 2800 just five years ago. The Russian, who is currently ranked number 4 in the world, is thus among the favourites to win in Yekaterinburg. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

Dorsa Derakhshani: From Iran to the USA (part 1)

3/8/2020 – Dorsa Derakhshani is an Iranian International Master who immigrated to the United States in 2017. She is a third-year student at Saint Louis University on a full chess scholarship, and plans to go to medical school. On this International Women's Day, the story of a young woman who made international headlines for her brave stance in favour of women's rights and personal freedom.

Revisiting "Chess for Novices"

3/8/2020 – New to the game of chess? While ChessBase is most well-known for its FritzTrainers aimed at strong club players, up through professionals, we also have content for beginners, including this video series by scholastic instructor Sabrina Chevannes. DIANA MIHAJLOVA explains who can benefit and what to expect.

Humpy Koneru and the mother of all comebacks

3/8/2020 – One player is conspicuously absent from the ongoing Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne, the current GP point leader, Humpy Koneru. Humpy's is an inspirational story — after two years of break from competitive chess, she is back to World no.2 with three huge titles in the last few months. It all began with the Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix, followed by the World Rapid Championship title and finally the Cairns Cup 2020 in February, the strongest ever tournament held in the history of women's chess, with a rating average of 2510. The event had all the top players in the world and Humpy scored 6.0/9, a half point ahead of World Champion Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club

Lausanne GP: Kashlinskaya catches Goryachkina

3/8/2020 – Round six's three decisive results produced important changes in the standings table. Alina Kashlinskaya beat Marie Sebag with the white pieces and caught up with Aleksandra Goryachkina on 'plus two', while Harika Dronavalli — who was co-leading until round five — was defeated by Alexandra Kosteniuk and is now among the chasers. Tied with Harika on 3½ is now Zhansaya Abdumalik, who defeated Antoaneta Stefanova. | Photo: Official site

CHESS Magazine: Augsburg Adventures

3/7/2020 – Welcome to Augsburg, the heart of Bavaria and one of Germany’s oldest cities. Words like cute and cosy come to mind, but for its modest size one could be quite amazed at the number of rush hour commuters: it is a town that has no inferiority complex towards its bigger brothers, the nearby Munich and capital Berlin. CARL STRUGNELL once again enjoyed a post-Christmas visit to Bavaria. PLUS try your combinative skills in Find the Winning Moves.

Lausanne GP: Dzagnidze bounces back

3/7/2020 – Despite the fact that most games were hard fought, only Nana Dzagnidze scored a full point in round five — she beat Anna Muzychuk with the black pieces. In the meantime, co-leaders Harika and Goryachkina signed a 31-move draw; Zhansaya Abdumalik versus Alina Kashlinskaya was a sharp fight throughout; and Mariya Muzychuk could not convert the winning advantage she got against world champion Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Official site

Nutcracker tournament in Moscow: Veterans vs. Juniors

3/7/2020 – At the traditional Nutcracker battle of generations tournament 2020 in Moscow, four veterans compete against four young chess players. After three rounds the "oldies" lead 13:11. Perhaps this is thanks to players like Alexei Shirov (pictured) and Boris Gelfand who form part of the senior elites — actually dubbed the Kings Team. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

The Power Play Show: Exercises in calculation

3/6/2020 – Calculation training is the focus of today's Power Play Show with Grandmaster Daniel King. 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...