3/1/2019 – The organizers of the Olympic Games periodically consider proposals for new sports to be included. FIDE has applied for chess to be on the list. Just two weeks ago we reported "the Olympic dream is alive", but once more the sport did not make the cut. LA 2028 anyone?

3/1/2019 – Black can obtain a clear advantage after 26...f5! 27.Nxd4 Bxd4 28.Qxh6 with the right continuation at hand. Are you ready to follow in (five of) his footsteps then?

2/28/2019 – The surprise winner of the 17th Aeroflot Open is Kaido Kulaots who turns 43 today. The Estonian grandmaster was able to win his game in the final round and had more black games — the tiebreak — (not to mention better performance rating) after both he and Haik Martirosyan finished with 7.0/9. Kulaots is expected to receive an invitation to the Dortmund supertournament to be held in July. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

2/28/2019 – On Monday we told you about a very tough problem which was given to Vishy Anand by Vladimir Kramnik — and challenged you to solve it. A number of GMs and IMs had not succeeded, when Anand gave the problem to the players of Pune. In the end he discussed the moves that needed to be found, and Sagar Shah filmed it all for us to see. Don't miss Vishy showing you the solution.

2/28/2019 – The ChessBase Mega Database and other game collections contain fantastic examples for all important chess manoeuvres. However, they often remain hidden. The new search mask in ChessBase 15 can help find these hidden gems. A powerful function that is simply fun to use! Sagar Shah has prepared an instructive video.

2/28/2019 – In order to keep our chess brains sharp, we need to practice a wide variety of calculation exercises. Although many are looking for a way to become titled players without doing much effort, the only true path to reach master-level strength involves solving endless exercises. DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a look at the latest work by Robert Ris, which includes exercises that clearly mimic the positions we can find in tournament games. The video series takes us into the depth of calculation, showing once and again why we must not stop at the surface, but dig deep under!

2/27/2019 – In the 1930s and 1940s Arnold Denker (February 20, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was one of the strongest players in the US and in 1944 and 1946 he became US Champion. After the end of his chess career Denker became a successful businessman, chess promoter and chess official. He is also the co-author of "The Bobby Fischer I knew", a wonderful and charming collection of chess memories. On February 20, 2019 Denker would have celebrated his 105th birtday.

2/27/2019 – 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: Goganov vs Puranik from Round 8 of the Aeroflot Open. 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.

2/27/2019 – The Aeroflot Open in Moscow is one of the strongest open tournaments of the world. In the A-Group 101 players take part, and almost all of them are International Masters or Grandmasters. 76 participants have a rating of 2500+. Round 3 starts at 15:00 local time (13:00 CET, 12:00 UTC, 7:00 AM EST) and you can follow the games live.

2/27/2019 – The Chessbase Magazine Extra packs a lot of content, useful for tournament preparation. It's an easy way to update one's own opening repertoire. There are videos to give us new ideas, and a new "lucky bag", with many top master level games. The quality of the annotations rival all top chess magazines, but the electronic format gives more space to the authors than the paper version, giving the readers plenty of material to study. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a look...

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.

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.