Emanuel Lasker and his successors

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

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

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.

Did you take enough Vitamin KID this year?

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.

The imprisoned bishop

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.

Life Lessons from Chess

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

Simon Says — Finding the right middlegame plan

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

Aeroflot Open 2018 starts in Moscow

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

Meeting Karsten Müller

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

The game that Bobby remembered

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.

Play the Dubai Open 2018

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

Alexandr Fier wins second Brazilian title

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

Study of the Month: February, 2018

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.

Vlastimil Hort: More about the man who was Doctor Zhivago

2/17/2018 – Fedor Bohatirschuk was a strong Ukrainian chess player and a doctor by profession. He inspired Boris Pasternak to parts of his character of Doctor Zhivago. In 1944 Bohatirschuk played a handicap simul in Prague against eight Czech players. Vlastimil Hort shares memories of the eight players and translates a passage of Bohatirschuk's autobiography in which the chess master meets Nikolai Krylenko, prosecutor for Stalin and promoter of Soviet chess.

Chess960 revisited: Grandmaster analysis

2/16/2018 – Grandmasters Daniel King and Daniel Fernandez each looked at the Chess960 rapid games between Hikaru Nakamura and Magnus Carlsen in some detail, and we present all eight of those games for review at your leisure. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / frchess.com

Pavlo Vorontsov wins St. Louis Norm Congress

2/16/2018 – The Saint Louis Chess Club hosted the 2018 Saint Louis Norm Congress, from February 8th to 13th. The tournament features invited players from outside the USA to ensure Grandmaster and International Master title norm opportunities. Pavlo Vorontsov (Ukraine, 2548), the top seed in the GM tournament (pictured left), won clear first, while the IM tournament Sergei Matsenko (pictured right) dominated! | Photos: Austin Fuller

"Be Prepared" says Matthew Sadler in New in Chess

2/16/2018 – Courtesy of our friends at New in Chess: The eternal question remains: how do I get myself in good shape before a tournament? Matthew Sadler reviews books and DVDs that may help you to be in the right disposition.

Indjic wins major Open in Portugal

2/16/2018 – Portugal is rarely hosting large international tournaments, but at the beginning of February Lisbon hosted a well-publicized international open. Baadur Jobava led the seedling list, but came up a half point short and finished fourth. The tournament winner was Serbian GM Alexandar Indjic. | Photo: openportugal.fpx.pt

Clear goal

2/16/2018 – The bishop b2 is longing for action, and 19.fxe5 in the diagram position is the first step to activate it. Can you see the best continuation for White following 19...dxe5, and then, possibly, all five moves until the end of the game?

Solving studies is fun!

2/15/2018 – Solving endgame studies is a highly recommended method of making you a much more creative player by improving your endgame understanding, sharpening your tactical sense and calculative skills, equipping you with a whole arsenal of conventional as well as out of the box weapons. Yet first and foremost it is a great fun provided you face human and friendly challenges and keep your silicon monsters switched off for a change. | Pictured: The winner, GM Twan Burg (left) & IM P.Peelen | Photo: Harry Gielen

Opening training tips

2/15/2018 – What's the best way to study and train openings? It's a common question. Whether you use ChessBase 14, Fritz 16, the Web Apps or the Fritztrainer video series, you have tools at your disposal to make your opening work easier and more effective. Here's a short tutorial how to study and practice an opening with the help of ChessBase!
More...
 8

FIDE's bank account closed

2/14/2018 – Bad press for FIDE as Dr. Adrian M. Siegel, the organisation's treasurer, has informed all officials and members of the World Chess Federation via an open letter that the FIDE account has been closed by the Swiss UBS bank, due to the more than two year old sanctions of the US Treasury against FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. | Photo (of Dr. Siegel): GFHund (Sarah Hund) CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Carlsen adds a new title: Chess960 champion

2/14/2018 – Magnus Carlsen made up for the minor setback on day four in the eight game blitz portion on Tuesday, winning the match with three games to spare. Nakamura is known as a blitz specialist but he has lost several blitz matches against Carlsen in recent years, and the "weirdness" introduced by Chess960 was not enough to tip the balance in the American's favour.

TCEC 11: Premier Division starts

2/14/2018 – The "Top Chess Engine Championship", TCEC for short, is considered a kind of unofficial computer world championship. Currently the 11th season is played, now in the form of a league with promotion and relegation. After the preliminaries, the "Premier League" started on Tuesday with the eight top programs. S.O. Platz gives an overview of the history of this unofficial chess computer world championship.

The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

2/13/2018 – 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. This week features games from the 4NCl and the Carlsen-Nakamura Fischer Random Match.