1/31/2017 – Once again there was an impressive percentage of decisive games amongst the top boards – 14 out of the top 20 – and we now have four players on the leading score of 6/7: Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), David Anton Guijarro (Spain) and Yu Yangyi (China). However, the round belonged to Hou Yifan who stole the limelight with a queen sacrifice par excellence.

1/31/2017 – "The positional exchange sacrifice is one of the most powerful and fascinating strategic weapons in chess," states Sergei Tiviakov on his new ChessBase DVD "The Art of the Positional Exchange Sacrifice". Modern practice supports this claim. In a recent game between Levon Aronian and Anish Giri, played in round 8 of the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Giri misjudged the consequences of an exchange sacrifice by Aronian and lost without much of a fight.

1/31/2017 – The pawnless endgame rook against bishop is usually a draw if the defending king manages to reach the safe corner - that is, a corner which the bishop cannot reach. If the rook succeeds, play often follows the scenario seen in this game. If you want to learn more, follow Karsten Müller's Endgame Blog

1/31/2017 – On November 30 last year, in a tie-break game, Magnus Carlsen played the queen sacrifice 50.Qh6+!!, "the most brilliant final move of any world chess championship in history," as GM Lubos Kavalek puts it. "Chess players are always attracted to queen sacrifices. They symbolize victory of mind over matter, and bring mysterious twists into chess. Some are waiting to be discovered, stay behind the curtain and never show up." Kavalek pulls out a few from his rich knowledge of chess history.

1/30/2017 – The ChessBase Account is a useful tool for every chess player, whether solving tactics, analysing games, preparing against the next opponent or playing chess online. To show you everything we will be live on air with a Q&A on Youtube tomorrow, January 31. Join us at 4.30 CET to ask Matthias Wüllenweber, the developer of the web apps and creator of the ChessBase program, any questions you might have and let us show you how to get the most out of ChessBase Account.

1/30/2017 – Recently, the National Scholastic Chess Foundation, an organization specializing in chess education in the New York area, collaborated with European composer Jason Kouchak to create an event that would celebrate girls and chess. Entitled The Queen’s Journey: An Exploration of Music, Dance and Chess, the event featured a collaborative game played by girls from Executive Director Sunil Weeramantry’s programs in the region as well as original compositions, a ballet, and some chess history.

1/27/2017 – Michael Adams and Nikita Vitiugov are the only 2700+ player with a perfect score at the end of the third round of the Gibraltar Masters 2017. All the elite players who had drawn their games yesterday including Caruana, MVL and Gelfand were able to win. However, Svidler had to once again split the point and on the top board Nakamura was surprised by an excellent exchange sacrifice by G. N. Gopal. We have the full illustrated report from round four rich with analysis, pictures, videos and also information about the team blitz and Governor's visit to the event.

1/27/2017 – Studying and learning from Bobby Fischer's games is an arduous and laborious affair. Although Fischer quit playing chess when he was just 29 years old, the number of high quality games that he had played was already quite high. The Master Class Vol. 1 on the life of Bobby Fischer is a boon for players who would like to delve deeper into the life of the eleventh World Champion. Three grandmasters and an International Master dissect the play of one of the greatest players that the game of chess has ever seen. A review by Aditya Pai.

1/27/2017 – The coach-player relationship is one that goes back in time and has marked almost every great sportsman. It allows (hopefully) a player to achieve their goals and fulfill their potential. Wesley So has been on a tremendous streak, but has never worked with a coach. With his success, he now has the means to bring in a top coach, and he has partnered with veteran player and coach Vladimir Tukmakov. They explain how this came about and what a coach brings to a top player.

1/26/2017 – Using a computer to analyze, while important, needs to be balanced with understanding our limits. A solution or choice that demands we be able to calculate like a computer, in both speed and precision, can lead us to place unrealistic expectations on ourselves. In the following column, Jon Speelman examines the game by Tom Harley, who sends his analysis and computer results, and balances them with choices with what he would play regardless of the 'absolute truth'.

1/26/2017 – We mentioned it in our full Round Two report: 2752 rated Vassily Ivanchuk thought he had made the 40th move time control his white game against Israeli IM Ori Kobo, 2482, and let his clock run out – only to discover that he had left out a move on his scoresheet. A blackout on the part of the Ukrainian Super-GM that reflected the general power blackout that struck the island before play. John Saunders gives us his take of the fateful round two in Gibraltar.

1/26/2017 – There was some high voltage drama in the second round of the Gibraltar Masters 2017. Four super-GMs: Caruana, MVL, Topalov and Svidler were held to a draw. Meanwhile, Vassily Ivanchuk lost in a completely better position against IM Ori Kobo. 37 players including Hikaru Nakamura, Mickey Adams, Yu Yangyi, Nikita Vitiugov and Arkadij Naiditsch are on 2.0/2. In this report we bring to you didactic analysis, Topalov's instructive Masterclass and some lively video interviews by Tania Sachdev.