2/20/2018 – Emanuel Lasker was born on December 24, 1868, in Berlinchen, which today is Barlinek in the northwest of Poland. This year Lasker would celebrate his 150th birthday — reason enough for the German Chess Federation to declare 2018 as Lasker-year. From 1894 to 1921 — 27 years — Lasker was World Champion, longer than any other player before or after him. Let's take a look at the legacy of the second official World Champion. | Photo: (left) public domain (right) Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-00457 / CC-BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

2/20/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5pm 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. In honour of the upcoming Candidates tournament in Berlin, this week's show features a classic game from the 1953 Candidates tournament.

2/20/2018 – Licensed chess professionals recommend patients take at least one DVD or book on the KID every year, in order to keep their combinations robust, and tactics sharp. If you are in doubt about the amount of vitamin KID you should take, Davide Nastasio provides a small dose, and a prescription for Victor Bologan's DVD, which is sure to cover all your tournament needs.

2/20/2018 – Endgames with opposite-coloured bishops are often paradoxical — sometimes they are drawn although one side is two or even three pawns up. This often leads to surprising tactical opportunities.

2/19/2018 – We often hear that chess is useful in other phases of life. While this is true for the ones who play the sport, it is still quite a big question to the uninitiated as to what exactly are the benefits of playing chess. Also, the benefits are so vast that sometimes it is difficult even for an experienced player to jot them all down. Dr. Shrirang Joshi is a well-known psychiatrist and counsellor based in Mumbai. He spent a lot of time studying the benefits of chess and now brings us the details of his findings. In this article you learn how lessons learnt from chess can be better applied to our day to day life. | Photo: Val Vesa

2/19/2018 – In this Simon Says, Simon Williams will be taking a look at some instructive manoeuvres that will help us improve our planning. Come and join the show for lots of entertaining chess! Watch live from 18:00 CET (12 Noon EST). Puzzles, free sample and information inside... | Photo: Alina l'Ami

2/19/2018 – Starting on Tuesday, February 20th, the Cosmos Hotel in Moscow (view from a guest room pictured) is once again the venue for the major annual Open sponsored by the Russian airline Aeroflot, which is already celebrating its sixteenth edition this year. There will three separate nine-round Swiss tournaments, and the top A Open is one of the strongest open tournaments ever — for a place on the starting list a player must have an Elo rating of at least 2550. The top seed is last year's winner Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia, Elo 2724), followed by Indian phenom Vidit Gujrathi, just one Elo point behind. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

2/19/2018 – As we are privileged with so many interesting visitors and authors coming to the ChessBase office in Hamburg and frequenting our studio, we often try to grab them for a few quick questions to see how they are and what's new. Recently it was GM Karsten Müller who was sitting in the studio for an (off-camera) impromptu interview. | Photo: Pascal Simon

2/18/2018 – In his book on Bobby Fischer the Icelandic author Garðar Sverrisson recalls how in his final years his friend shared his fascination for a little-known game with him, and sought an improvement on Black’s play. Fascinated by this reference our columnist Prof Nagesh Havanur retrieved the many decades old game and annotated it, wondering what Fischer would have found and how it would have enriched our understanding of the game.

2/18/2018 – The 20th Dubai Open 2018 will be held from April 1st to the 12th, 2018. It is one of the strongest open tournaments in the world and an ideal tournament for all ambitious players to gain their rating or score their IM/GM norms. All the details and a look at Dubai attractions. | Pictured: The famous Burj Khalifa with a height of 829.8 m is one of the tallest structures in the world since its topping out in late 2008. | Photo: www.gabisworld.com

2/18/2018 – In an effort to innovate and breathe some new life into the Brazilian Championship, the 84th edition, held in Rio de Janeiro, was structured as a knockout event like the World Cup. Bringing in an eclectic field headed by chess legend Henrique Mecking, it came down to a match between Krikor Mekhitarian and Alexandr Fier, won by the latter in a final thrilling game. | Photo: Albert Silver

2/17/2018 – At the World Congress for Chess Composition (WCCC) 2017 in Dresden it was decided to dedicate the second year of this “Study of the Month” series to the education about chess composition history. Following this, we look at the successors of Troitzky this time: The Platov brothers.