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.

2/26/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran, who had led the Aeroflot Open confidently after six rounds, lost in the seventh round to strong Armenian youth GM Haik Martirosyan and was overtaken by GM Kaido Kulaots. The trio now has a half point lead over four other grandmasters with two rounds left to play. | Photo: Mohammad Kheirkhah / ruchess.ru

2/26/2019 – In the endgame passed pawns are particularly strong. They can queen, of course, but often they have even more to offer.

2/26/2019 – GM Luke McShane took top honours in the Masters group at the 26th Bunratty Chess Festival — the annual fun-filled tournament in Ireland held this year from February 22nd to 24th. Organiser GERRY GRAHAM gives a round-by-round account of the festivities. | Photo: Fiona Steil-Antoni

2/25/2019 – Simon was once again a guest of Bunratty Castle Hotel this weekend, and lived to tell the tale! And he will tell it live today at the usual time: 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC). If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch! | Photo: Gerry Graham / Irish Chess Union

2/25/2019 – Here's a very tough problem which was given to Vishy Anand by Vladimir Kramnik — a challenge from one World Champion to another. Anand was in the city of Pune, India for a two-day workshop for players from all over the country. At one stage he showed them a chess problem that his predecessor Vladimir Kramnik had given him. A crowd, including three GMs and seven IMs racked their brains, more or less unsuccessfully. We ask you to do the same.

2/25/2019 – Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura were dominant in their blitz matches against Pentala Harikrishna and Jan-Krzysztof Duda; Richard Rapport got the better of Sam Shankland; David Navara tied with Wesley So in the blitz but lost the match nonetheless; and Leinier Dominguez actually edged Veselin Topalov in the 3+2 games, but could not surmount the lead Veselin had achieved in the rapid section. Two days of quick-paced fun wrapped up this year's Champions Showdown. | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/24/2019 – From February 20 to February 24 the Saint Louis Chess Club hosts the Champions Showdown, an exhibition event in which ten top players show their skills in five matches in blitz and rapid chess. The games start at 1 pm local time (20:00 CET, 19:00 UTC). Live and with commentary by Maurice Ashley, Yasser Seirawan and Jennifer Shahade. | Picture: Saint Louis Chess Club

2/24/2019 – Saturday was a double-round in Moscow but that didn't faze Indian veteran GM Krishnan Sasikiran who remains perfect with five out of five and a full point lead! ALEX YERMOLINSKY takes a look at the highlights of a chess-packed day. | Photo: Eldar Mukhametov / ruchess.ru

2/23/2019 – Composer Mark Liburkin is the focus of "Study of the Month" author SIEGFRIED HORNECKER. Little is known of this study composer born in 1910, but his "chameleon echo" is sure to delight and we fill in the biographical gaps as best we can. And, as usual, don't miss the instructive studies!

2/23/2019 – The Saint Louis Chess Club organised yet another compelling event, as five rapid and blitz matches between top-notch competitors are being played from Wednesday to Sunday. With the exception of Jan-Krzysztof Duda v. Hikaru Nakamura, all the matches finished the rapid section with a clear winner. On the final two days of action, however, no less than 24 blitz games will be played, and anything can still happen in the 3+2 encounters! | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

2/23/2019 – Krishnan Sasikiran and Maksim Chigaev won their third games in a row and now share the lead at the Aeroflot Open. Eight players are in close pursuit a half point behind, though, with favourites Anton Korobov and Vladimir Fedoseev amongst the pack. The coming two rounds — four and five — will be played both on Saturday, and will very likely set the tone for the rest of tournament. | Photo: Eldar Mukhametov / Russian Chess Federation

2/22/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen will return to Azerbaijan for the 6th edition of the tournament in memory of Vugar Gashimov, a 10-player round-robin set to begin on March 31st. He'll be joined by Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Grischuk, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov and David Navara.

2/22/2019 – Friday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) Daniel King will go on air 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...