2/29/2020 – This Study of the Month column concentrates on the “Maestro of Practical Studies” (as he is called by Sergey N. Tkachenko), Tigran B. Gorgiev. SIEGFRIED HORNECKER takes you on a tour of the life of this microbiologist and composer, whose beautiful studies are described as "a perpetual adornment to the treasury of world composition.”

2/29/2020 – During the 90th FIDE Congress in Abu Dhabi, the President of the Federation Arkady Dvorkovich mentioned that this year's World Championship match will almost certainly take place in Dubai as part of the 2020 World Expo, clarifying that this is not yet a formal announcement. Dvorkovich also hinted that the match might be delayed until the end of December in order to better fit within the Expo's schedule. | Photo: Ahlawe, via Wikimedia Commons

2/29/2020 – CM Alex Averbukh of Japan, scored a perfect 5.0/5 to win Tachikawa Chess Open 2020. He finished a full point ahead of the competition. Wang Hao was on hand to give the winner his trophy (pictured)! Four players finished at 4.0/5. Koji Noguchi and top seed Atsuhiko Kobayashi secured second and third place respectively according to their tie-break score. The tournament was organized by Tachikawa Chess Club at two different venues in Tokyo, Japan on February 8th and 9th, 2020. Two rounds were played at Hamamatsucho on the first day and on second day the final three rounds were played in Tachikawa. Photos and Tournament report by one of the participants, Seiji Nakagawa.

2/28/2020 – The Power Play Show with Grandmaster Daniel King reviews a highlight from the recently concluded Aeroflot Open. 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...

2/28/2020 – Top tournament Tata Steel 2020: Comment on Duda, Firouzja, So, Giri, Van Foreest, l'Ami and many more, opening videos, new ideas for your repertoire with Romain Edouard, Roven Vogel, Petra Papp, Viktor Moskalenko, and more, plus tactics and endgame training for your chess improvement.

2/28/2020 – Current under-14 world champion Aydin Suleymanli was declared winner of the strong Aeroflot Open after getting the best tiebreak score among four players tied atop the standings on 6½ out of 9. Second place went to Rinat Jumabayev, who defeated Alexander Shimanov on Thursday, while former sole leader Rauf Mamedov got the bronze medal. The last player to end on 6½ was Aravindh Chithambaram, who got the better of Sanan Sjugirov in the final round. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

2/24/2020 – A subplot of the recent Women's World Championship in Shanghai and Vladivostok was the plight of accomplished arbiter Shohreh Bayat from Iran. She was the target of political and religiously-motivated media critiques in her home country when she was photographed, while working as the chief arbiter in Shanghai, wearing a loose-fitting hijab — too loose for conservative observers in the Islamic Republic. That led her to fear for her safety and forgo her return ticket home in favour of a detour to the U.K. In a tearful interview, she recently recounted her story for the BBC.

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