2/15/2019 – Immediately after the Cairns Cup (February 5 to 16) the Saint Louis Chess Club hosts another top class event: the Champions Showdown. From February 20 to February 24 ten top players show their skills in five rapid and exhibition matches. Press Release. | Picture: Saint Louis Chess Club

2/15/2019 – The Russian participants are the only ones with a chance to take home the first prize of $40,000 at the Cairns Cup. Valentina Gunina will enter her final round game against direct rival Alexandra Kosteniuk a half point ahead…but she will have the black pieces. Both players drew their Thursday games in Saint Louis, albeit through very different paths: Gunina was close to lost against Abdumalik while Kosteniuk had the upper hand during most of her encounter against Dzagnidze. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/15/2019 – Kramnik's sudden retirement from tournament chess caused great consternation among chess fans and his fellow professionals alike. Numerous players have commented on Twitter, and so have ChessBase readers. We sample the growing body of reactions, as we celebrate the release of a new entry in our Masterclass video series.

2/14/2019 – At the end of last year, co-authors Sergio Ernesto Negri and Enrique Julio Arguiñariz presented a book that recounts the history of Argentina's national chess team at the Olympiads that took place between 1950 and 1976. "The Silver Generation" is the second instalment of a four-book series that kicked off with "The Pioneer Generation" (spanning from 1924 until 1939). The period studied in the book includes big names such as Oscar Panno, Raúl Sanguineti, Miguel Quinteros and, of course, Miguel Najdorf. | Pictured: Donner and Najdorf in Wijk aan Zee, 1973. | Photo: Bert Verhoeff / Anefo

2/14/2019 – Work on your chess for fun and profit. But how, you ask? If you're searching for ideas, why not pay a visit to the ChessBase Shop: it offers video series (on DVD or for download) covering all areas of chess, presented by chess legends like Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand, and renowned opening experts such as Peter-Heine Nielsen and Rustam Kasimdzhanov, plus many other top players. Need help to find the videos that suit you best? This ChessBase shopping guide shows the way. | Drawing: ChessBase

2/14/2019 – Valentina Gunina, who started the inaugural Cairns Cup with a win and two draws, has now won four in a row — her latest victim was Anna Zatonskih — to grab the sole lead and overtake her compatriot Alexandra Kosteniuk. The other winner in round seven was Bela Khotenashvili, who was having a tough time in Saint Louis but recovered by taking down Irina Krush with the white pieces. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/13/2019 – 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: Gunina vs Sebag from the Cairns Cup. 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.

2/13/2019 – When, if not now? FIDE tries again to include chess into the Olympic Programme. In 1924 FIDE was founded when the Olympic Games took part in Paris, and in 2024 FIDE wants to celebrate this anniversary by making chess olympic. Conrad Schormann explains why the chances for this to happen are better than ever.

2/13/2019 – Courtesy of our friends at USChess.org. The new digital editor JOHN HARTMANN recently penned a "Books & Beyond" article featuring a look at the new ChessBase 15, and we share excerpts from his review, for your review. Of course, we can only agree with his conclusion, "ChessBase is a mature, best-of-class product, and I cannot imagine seriously studying chess without it"!

2/13/2019 – After Vladimir Kramnik's announcement to retire from tournament chess the Grand Chess Tour now revealed the names of the 12 players who will be competing as full tour participants in 2019. In an interview with Maurice Ashley, Michael Khodarkovsky, the GCT Spokesperson, talked about the new format of the GCT.

2/13/2019 – Fighting chess continues to abound at the Cairns Cup in Saint Louis. In round six, Valentina Gunina joined Alexandra Kosteniuk in the lead after beating Elisabeth Paehtz from a drawn rook endgame. In the meantime, both Harika Dronavalli and Nana Dzagnidze won games they could have easily lost had their opponents taken advantage of clear chances to round off the game in their favour. Three rounds remain. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/12/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments ever Tuesdays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST). This week he looks at games from the Cairns Cup. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.