3/2/2018 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Martin Fischer! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about calculation training!

3/2/2018 – An only move is usually not so difficult to find — provided one has enough time and knows that there is one, of course! In the diagram position, White fired away with 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 20.Nf6+ gxf6 21.Bxf6, ripping open the enemy king position and threatening checkmate on the dark squares. How did Black prove him wrong?

3/2/2018 – The Tal Memorial 2018 begins on the 2nd of March 2018. It consists of two events - nine rounds of rapid and thirteen rounds of blitz. The Candidates tournament is about to begin in a week, yet four of them are playing here: Kramnik, Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Grischuk. Competing with them are Anand, Gelfand, Nakamura, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi and Dubov. It is going to be a wonderful event and we have Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal present at the venue to bring you high-quality coverage. In this first report apart from the opening ceremony we bring you a very interesting experiment that was conducted with the players using Tal's famous games.

3/2/2018 – Practicing openings is best done by playing openings. And with a Powerbook, Fritz 16 turns into an ideal sparring partner to play, test and practice openings. He plays the openings you want to practice again and again. When you are ready you can test your knowledge against human opponents!

3/1/2018 – In the final round of the Aeroflot Open, Belarusian GM Vladislav Kovalev secured a comfortable draw against GM Gabriel Sargissian to clinch the title prize. With his full point lead over the rest of the field, it was no surprise that Kovalev settled for peace just 15 moves into the game. Decisive games were seen on boards four and five where SP Sethuraman and Dmitry Gordievsky defeated Victor Bologan and Amin Tabatabaei respectively. Both were tied for second with a score of 6½ / 9 but Sethuraman, due to a better tiebreak, took the higher spot on the leaderboard. | Pictured: Top three finishers in Group A: (L to R) SP Sethuraman, Vladislav Kovalev & Dmitry Gordievsky | Photo: Niklesh Jain

3/1/2018 – FIDE just published the new ratings and the official world ranking list. Compared to March there are some slight changes among the top ten, but World Champion Magnus Carlsen is still clear number one. Number two in the world is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, followed by Vladimir Kramnik on three. Hou Yifan leads the women's list.

3/1/2018 – After the Aeroflot Open there is more high class chess in Moscow: a strong blitz tournament with top players such as Karjakin, Nakamura, Artemiev, Andreikin, Nepomniachtchi, Mamedayrov, and many others. Though the organisers do not offer a live-transmission of the games, they offer a live-video of the tournament.

2/28/2018 – Two weeks ago there was a World Championship — in Chess960, a variant that symmetrically shuffles the position of the pieces behind the row of pawns. The game has gained some popularity since it eliminates the staggering amount of preparation that is required in regular chess. But Chess960 has a few problems that probably prevent it from really taking off. We discuss some possible solutions to these problems.

2/28/2018 – The Aeroflot Open 2018 is held in Moscow from February 20th to 28th. In the A-Open, 60 grandmasters are among the 92-player field, lead by last year's winner Vladimir Fedoseev. Live games from 13:00 CET (7:00 AM EST).

2/28/2018 – In the penultimate round of the Aeroflot Open, Vladislav Kovalev put himself in sole lead after defeating his co-leader, IM Amin Tabatabaei. With this win, the Belarusian GM has made himself a clear favourite to win the event with a full point lead over his nearest rival. But a league of 9 players will be rooting for his opponent in the final round and if Kovalev loses his final game, as many as five players could catch up with him for shared first. Round 8 report.

2/28/2018 – Bent Larsen was born 83 years ago, on March 4, 1935, in Tilsted, a small village in Denmark. He never had a trainer but became one of the best players in the world. "If in hell, then first class," was his motto. Vlastimil Hort knew him well. | Photo: Harry Pot/ Nationaal Archief NL

2/27/2018 – Knights are tricky and can bring kings, queens, rooks and bishops into trouble. But knights are afraid of outside pawns - with good reason!