3/8/2018 – The Pirc is an opening which can give White the false confidence of having the initiative. Black lets White build a huge central pawn structure, and then, like in a guerrilla warfare attacks those pawns, and the weak squares behind. Don't miss the chance to learn an opening which will deepen your understanding of many pawn structures! Davide Nastasio has the review.

3/7/2018 – On March 10th, the Candidates tournament 2018 will begin in Berlin. In November, the winner of this tournament will play a match for the world championship against Magnus Carlsen in London. Candidates tournaments have always been special, providing memorable moments in chess history, with scandals, drama and, of course, brilliant games. In the run-up to the start of this year's tournament, it's a good time to take a look at some previous classics. | Photo: Herbert Behrens (ANEFO) (Cropped from GaHetNa (Nationaal Archief NL)) [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons

3/7/2018 – The dMP Batavia tournament (made possible by main sponsor De Melker & Partners), was won by Brazilian GM Alexander Fier, who flew to Amsterdam fresh off his success in the Brazilian Championship last month. Fier also won the blitz tournament for the second straight year. Tournament director and ChessBase contributor, IM Merijn van Delft, sent this recap. | Photos: Lennart Ootes

3/7/2018 – In the modern game, a player has to be ready to play almost any opening variation at short notice. The plan is to interrupt the preparation of the opponent at every turn. A knowledge of dynamic and slightly unusual lines could well score many,many points for the resourceful player. The Kveinys Variation : 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Qb6! is surprisingly little-played, yet gives Black excellent chances and on this new ChessBase DVD, Andrew Martin explains how the system works.

3/7/2018 – New: Start a private tournament in your browser! Chess clubs, schools, companies, or any other collection of players, can also offer chess online — on their own chess server — for free! It is simple and does not does require much of any technical skill. In fact, all it takes are a few mouse clicks. It's a powerful and completely free self-service tournament system in your web browser! Here's how to get started in a few easy steps! | Photo: Hamburger Schachclub

3/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5 pm UK time, Noon EST) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Today, Lawrence continues his look at classic Candidates tournament games.

3/3/2018 – Chess has been presented in various art forms throughout the centuries. The chess surreal, mysterious quality has been embraced in the visual arts, literature, music and particularly the fashion. Our own chess queens (and sometimes kings, cavalry and soldiers), often make fashion statements with chess-themed garments and accessories. Diana Mihajlova explores the Spring-Summer collections and their chess inspiration. | Pictured: The interior stage, with chess patterns and hanging body parts, accentuated House of Dior's chosen theme: surrealism

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