History of top chess players over time

2/27/2019 – Which are the commonest words in the English language, which are the most common girls' and boys' names? Today it is possible to calculate these things fairly easily, but it becomes really useful if you are able to present the results in a comprehensible way. Like with dynamic graphs and bubbling. This was done very nicely for historical chess strength in 2016 by Abacaba, a site that makes videos about data and math. Now a YouTube channel called TheRanker has published a 10-minute video visualisation tracking official FIDE ratings from 2000 to the present. It is informative, interesting and even relaxing to watch.

The Weekly Show: Aeroflot Open

2/26/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments every Tuesday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST). This week he looks at games from the Aeroflot Open. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

Aeroflot Open: Sasikiran's streak stalls

2/26/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran, who had led the Aeroflot Open confidently after six rounds, lost in the seventh round to strong Armenian youth GM Haik Martirosyan and was overtaken by GM Kaido Kulaots. The trio now has a half point lead over four other grandmasters with two rounds left to play. | Photo: Mohammad Kheirkhah / ruchess.ru

Opening the way

2/26/2019 – In the endgame passed pawns are particularly strong. They can queen, of course, but often they have even more to offer.

McShane bags Bunratty Masters 2019

2/26/2019 – GM Luke McShane took top honours in the Masters group at the 26th Bunratty Chess Festival — the annual fun-filled tournament in Ireland held this year from February 22nd to 24th. Organiser GERRY GRAHAM gives a round-by-round account of the festivities. | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

Simon Says — Tales from Bunratty

2/25/2019 – Simon was once again a guest of Bunratty Castle Hotel this weekend, and lived to tell the tale! And he will tell it live today at the usual time: 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC). If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch! | Photo: Gerry Graham / Irish Chess Union

Kramnik's challenge: Find the mate in three

2/25/2019 – Here's a very tough problem which was given to Vishy Anand by Vladimir Kramnik — a challenge from one World Champion to another. Anand was in the city of Pune, India for a two-day workshop for players from all over the country. At one stage he showed them a chess problem that his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik had given him. A crowd, including three GMs and seven IMs racked their brains, more or less unsuccessfully. We ask you to do the same.

Champions Showdown: Topalov beats Dominguez in closest match

2/25/2019 – Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura were dominant in their blitz matches against Pentala Harikrishna and Jan-Krzysztof Duda; Richard Rapport got the better of Sam Shankland; David Navara tied with Wesley So in the blitz but lost the match nonetheless; and Leinier Dominguez actually edged Veselin Topalov in the 3+2 games, but could not surmount the lead Veselin had achieved in the rapid section. Two days of quick-paced fun wrapped up this year's Champions Showdown. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

Champions Showdown in St. Louis - Day 5

2/24/2019 – From February 20 to February 24 the Saint Louis Chess Club hosts the Champions Showdown, an exhibition event in which ten top players show their skills in five matches in blitz and rapid chess. The games start at 1 pm local time (20:00 CET, 19:00 UTC). Live and with commentary by Maurice Ashley, Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade. | Picture: Saint Louis Chess Club

Aeroflot Open: Sasikiran still supreme

2/24/2019 – Saturday was a double-round in Moscow but that didn't faze Indian veteran GM Krishnan Sasikiran who remains perfect with five out of five and a full point lead! ALEX YERMOLINSKY takes a look at the highlights of a chess-packed day. | Photo: Eldar Mukhametov / ruchess.ru

The Life and Times of Mark Liburkin

2/23/2019 – Composer Mark Liburkin is the focus of "Study of the Month" author SIEGFRIED HORNECKER. Little is known of this study composer born in 1910, but his "chameleon echo" is sure to delight and we fill in the biographical gaps as best we can. And, as usual, don't miss the instructive studies!

Champions Showdown: Lopsided results in the rapid

2/23/2019 – The Saint Louis Chess Club organised yet another compelling event, as five rapid and blitz matches between top-notch competitors are being played from Wednesday to Sunday. With the exception of Jan-Krzysztof Duda v. Hikaru Nakamura, all the matches finished the rapid section with a clear winner. On the final two days of action, however, no less than 24 blitz games will be played, and anything can still happen in the 3+2 encounters! | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

Aeroflot Open: Chigaev and Sasikiran on a roll

2/23/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran and Maksim Chigaev won their third games in a row and now share the lead at the Aeroflot Open. Eight players are in close pursuit a half point behind, though, with favourites Anton Korobov and Vladimir Fedoseev amongst the pack. The coming two rounds — four and five — will be played both on Saturday, and will very likely set the tone for the rest of tournament. | Photo: Eldar Mukhametov / Russian Chess Federation

Shamkir Chess 2019 with Carlsen

2/22/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen will return to Azerbaijan for the 6th edition of the tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov, a 10-player round-robin set to begin on March 31st. He'll be joined by Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Grischuk, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov and David Navara.

The Power Play Show

2/22/2019 – Friday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) Daniel King will go on air 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...

Passed pawn vs. mate attack

2/22/2019 – Played only six years ago, to many this is already a WCh classic: after 26...b2 27.Rf4 b1D+ from the diagram position, Black got a fresh queen with check. But the challenge is to ensure the survival of his king afterwards. Up to it?

New: Nick Pert: Attacking Repertoire with 1.d4!, Vol 1 & 2

2/22/2019 – On his two DVDs "Attacking Repertoire with 1.d4" the English Grandmaster, renowned coach and author Nick Pert presents a repertoire for White based on 1.d4. Volume 1 deals with 1.d4 d5 2.c4, volume 2 with systems arising after 1.d4 Nf6. With these two DVDs Pert complements his previous DVD "Solid and safe against the wild Indians" which showed how to play against the King's Indian and Grünfeld.

Aeroflot Open: Indians on top

2/22/2019 – Four out of six players on a perfect 2/2 score at the Aeroflot Open are Indians, as fighting chess was the rule during Thursday's second round. Incidentally, none of the co-leaders are among the top-10 rating favourites, a rather expected fact given the strength of the tournament. However, some of the highest-rated players scored their first wins on round two, including Wei Yi, Wang Hao and Anton Korobov. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

Champions Showdown: Caruana and Rapport start best

2/21/2019 – The Champions Showdown in St. Louis features five exhibition matches in which five US players compete in rapid and blitz against five non-US players. With three wins and one draw Fabiano Caruana (who played against Pentala Harikrishna) and Richard Rapport (who played against Sam Shankland) scored best on day one. Caruana more than once showed superb endgame skills. | Photo: Saint Louis Chessclub

Encounters: Richard and Richard and Woody

2/21/2019 – Last year's World Chess Championship in London was an exciting affair. All twelve games were drawn, and not everyone was there for the final tiebreak day, to see Carlsen win three games and retain his crown. But Frederic Friedel did attend the spectacular opening gala and the first two rounds. He describes the many interesting people he met and the impressions they left. This is the first in a series on chess-related encounters.

Fast and Furious: Sharp and fun to play

2/21/2019 – Today's topic: The Carlsen Line (1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qd2!?) against the Sicilian. Thursday, at 16:00 UTC (17:00 CET, 11 am EST), IM Robert Ris shows sharp and double edged opening lines. If you fancy sacrificing or playing gambits, this show is a must see. Not only will you profit from specific opening ideas but you'll learn a lot of interesting general opening concepts too. The live show 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.

Organizing databases in ChessBase 15!

2/21/2019 – Keeping your chess databases in order, e.g. by arranging databases according to topics, players, openings, etc., makes training and improving easier and more fun. Database administration in ChessBase 15 is not difficult. Here's a little tutorial to help you. | Drawing: ChessBase
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Aeroflot Open: Better late than never

2/21/2019 – After a bomb threat forced the first round to be postponed, the Aeroflot Open kicked off on Wednesday at the Cosmos Hotel. A lot of the rating favourites only managed to score half points, but plenty of fighting chess was seen on the lower boards. The biggest surprises were given by Kaido Kulaots and Liu Yan, who defeated Parham Maghsoodloo and Jorden van Foreest, respectively. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / Russian Chess Federation

Game of the Week: P. Maghsoodloo vs S. Tiviakov

2/20/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET, 2 pm EST). On this week's show: P. Maghsoodloo vs S. Tiviakov from the 3rd Stars Cup in Iran. The live show 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.