3/6/2019 – A “golden age” for tournament players ages 50 and older has arrived in the United States. In the past three years, US Chess has authorized new tournaments and prizes restricted to seniors. However, women ages 50 and older have not been affected. That may change in March 2019, when US Chess begins grant applications for women’s chess programs. WIM ALEXEY ROOT explains... | Photo: Alex Yermolinsky (with Dmitry Gurevich)

3/5/2019 – Hou Yifan played her first rated classical game since December, as she led her team from Oxford University to their third consecutive win over varsity rivals Cambridge. It was the first time the top-rated woman in the world participated, and the 137th such match overall. Cambridge clings to a tiny (and shrinking) lead of 59-56 wins (with 22 draws). Cambridge alumnus GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ takes a look at the games. | Pictured: Oxford's team Andrew Rogozinski (reserve), Daniel Abbas, Hou Yifan, Joris Gerlagh (captain), Benjamin Foo, Lisa Schut, Gordon Scott, Filip Mihov, Isaac Sanders | Photo: John Saunders

3/5/2019 – 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 ongoing 11th dMP Batavia Amsterdam Chess Tournament. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

3/5/2019 – As easy as 123! Endgame Magic #123 that is! This week Karsten is joined by Dutch Grandmaster Jan Werle. The show is live at 14:00 UTC (15:00 CET, 9:00 AM EST) and FREE to watch on-demand (for a limited time)!

3/5/2019 – Two connected passed pawns are strong but a good bishop is often stronger.

3/5/2019 – The Swedish town of Skara enjoys a good reputation among chess players. The European Team Championship 1980 took place in Skara, and in this tournament English Grandmaster Tony Miles defeated World Champion Anatoly Karpov with 1...a6. Skara's chess tratition is still alive, though on a smaller scale. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund

3/4/2019 – When you think about popularizing the game of chess, a lot of ideas may cross your mind, but few could be crazier than what Timur Gareyev did in collaboration with US Chess Federation last year: Sky-diving for the Chess Life magazine cover. Watch the amazing video and read a new interview along with recollections from IM Sagar Shah on Gareyev's trip through India. Next stop: The U.S. Championship in St. Louis!

3/4/2019 – It was an eventful weekend in the Bundesliga, as leaders and clear favourites OSG Baden-Baden lined up their best squad but ended up giving up two crucial match points, allowing SG Solingen to catch up with them in the standings. It was giant-killing season in Berlin for Peter Leko, Gata Kamsky and Anton Korobov, who took down top-ten stars Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Vishy Anand. Games, standings and great video content from the organisers below. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

3/3/2019 – This week, JON SPEELMAN takes a gander at the games of an Indian junior rated 1628. The Agony is a London System that turned into a difficult rook endgame. Send in your own games! Jon can always use more material 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!

3/3/2019 – From Friday to Sunday the German capital of Berlin is also the capital of chess. Then the central rounds of the "Schach Bundesliga" and the women's Bundesliga are to be played and many global stars will be there. ChessBase will also be present with a booth from Friday onwards. Live games of Round 10 at 13:00 CET (12 Noon UTC, 7:00 AM EST) plus a preview from GEORGIOS SOULEIDIS. | Photos: Georgios Souleidis

3/3/2019 – The Open and Women's World Team Championships will take place on March 4th-14th in Kazakhstan's capital, Astana. Both events will be nine-round single round robin tournaments. The open section will have Russia and China as the clear front-runners, while the women's meeting is much harder to call in advance, with rating favourites Russia having to contend against strong squads from Ukraine, China, Georgia and India. | Photo: Official site

3/2/2019 – Chess fans tend to focus on the FIDE ratings of the top players in the world which are updated monthly. But the Elo system wants to reflect the strength of the chess players of all strengths all over the world. Since its introduction in 1970 it has become immensely popular and important for the chess world. However, it is not without problems. Why, for example, are junior players from Russia or India continuously underrated and how does this affect other players? To answer this and other questions, WALTER WOLF took a close look at the development of some ratings over time. | Photo: Junior players from India, courtesy ChessBase India