8/22/2020 – On August 10, Praggnanandhaa turned 15 years old. On that day he received a message by IM Sagar Shah: "Would you like to test yourself today?" Without hesitation Pragg agreed. Normal 15-year-old kids would prefer to have a party or spend time with their friends on their birthday. But Pragg is different. He is ready to give up all that if he can spend some time learning a new trick or two on the chessboard. And, so the test began! Fifteen positions were solved in less than an hour. It turned out to be a tremendous test — give it a go! | Photo: Leon Masters website

7/31/2020 – How would you like to learn to play the King's Indian Defence (KID)? How about a 1½-hour lesson by a 2765 rated super-grandmaster, the number 9 in the world? Azerbaijani GM Teimour Radjabov is one of the finest exponents of the KID in the world, and illustrates this interactive lesson with games from his stellar career.

7/24/2020 – Are you a moderately strong chess player? More importantly: someone with real ambitions to go for the top? Well, here's a chance to do an online course with one of the best trainers in the world (he has worked with Caruana, Giri, Radjabov and Hou Yifan), together with on of the world's top grandmasters (Elo 2726). Normally a ten-day 50-hour course would cost a fortune, and involve travelling to Belgium. But in pandemic online times things are much more reasonable. Anyone in the world who is rated 2300 or higher can take part.

6/5/2020 – Today, young kids are becoming very strong very early and some even become grandmasters at the age of twelve and thirteen. They take to chess like a fledgling bird learning to fly. But can you start a serious chess career at the ripe old age of seventeen? Yes, you can, says one player, who managed just that. Let Shivananda tell you how this worked. Maybe you can do the same?!

6/1/2020 – The Maharashtra Chess Association is organizing the LetsUp Blitz Grand Prix 2020, which starts on June 3rd, 2020. Every Wednesday from June 3rd to July 1st five Blitz Grand Prix Open events will take place on Playchess. Participants are fully ID-ed, which reduces cheating attempts to a minimum. The tournament is open to anyone across the world – a lot of very strong players have already registered. You can too. Or you can watch some ChessBase India YouTube videos – like 100 million viewers before you!

5/21/2020 – The biggest two problems that every beginner faces in a game of chess are - starting out right and not blundering pieces! Openings and Tactics are truly the two most essential cornerstones of becoming better at chess. And there is no one better than WGM Qiyu Zhou to be your trainer! Qiyu is not just a WGM and a former World Under-14 champion, she is also doing her double major in Economics and Statistics, with a minor in Mathematics from the University of Toronto. Zhou is an intelligent and charming presenter and if you are a beginner then these two DVDs are just what you need to improve at chess!

5/18/2020 – Here's a very interesting analysis task for you during this lock-in days: imagine you have reached a fairly complex position where you spot a beautiful queen sacrifice. Before you play it you have to analyse all the lines, in your mind, and come to the conclusion whether it wins, holds a draw or loses. Try it with our challenge position. You can move pieces on the analysis board, but must not consult an engine. Have fun, test your analysis skills.

5/15/2020 – At his peak Mir Sultan Khan was one of the best players in the world. He was a three-time British Champion, and beat top players like Capablanca, Rubinstein, Yates or Tartakower. However, FIDE has never made him a Grandmaster while many other players were given the title. A petition now asks FIDE to honour Mir Sultan Khan and his achievements with the grandmaster title.

5/15/2020 – Would you like to learn the art of chess training from the Russian national team coach, or from the coach of the former Women's World Champion? Or would you like to learn from a former World No. 3? How about all of them? Wouldn't it be too expensive? No! From 29th to 31st of May 2020 you can do it, online. The seminar is open to trainers, and players (!), world-wide. A great opportunity.

5/7/2020 – Chances are you already own Fritz 17, which you may have bought because of it revolutionary Artificial Intelligence engine Fat Fritz, perhaps the strongest chess playing entity on the planet. But have you discovered the other features of Fritz 17 apart from Fat Fritz? How it can train and keep track of your openings, how it can analyse your games, show you your mistakes, play against you at your level of skill, and make you a stronger player. Let IM Sagar Shah show you all the features of Fritz 17 in this comprehensive video tutorial.

4/29/2020 – Covid-19 has changed the world of chess drastically. All over-the-board tournaments have been cancelled and the action has shifted to the online format of the game. But what is FIDE's online policy for the next few months? ChessBase India got in touch with FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky for an exclusive interview about the current situation and FIDE's response to it, the Candidates Tournament 2020, the Radjabov conundrum, the World Championship Match 2020, and much more.

4/18/2020 – Locked up at home? No visits to the chess club, no social gatherings? So how about taking part in a giant blitz tournament. It is all virtual on the Playchess server, where you can play against more than a dozen GMs, some of whom are the brightest young super-talents in the world, plus 25 IMs, WGMs and WIMs who have confirmed their participation so far. There is a prize fund of Rs. 10,000. Watching and playing is free of charge. Make this a Saturday full of chess!

4/16/2020 – Mir Sultan Khan was born in 1905 in India and worked as a servant when he came to England in 1929. In England Sultan Khan quickly established himself as one of the world's best players, beating Capablanca, Tartakower, Flohr and others, but in 1933 he returned to India and vanished from the chess scene. In his new book "Sultan Khan: The Indian Servant Who Became Chess Champion of the British Empire" Daniel King tells the story of this amazingly talented player. Sagar Shah spoke with King about his book and the fate of Sultan Khan.

4/12/2020 – In part II of the Frederic Chronicles, the co-founder of ChessBase, Frederic Friedel, recounts his experiences with Mikhail Tal, Boris Spassky and Bobby Fischer. Did you know that Tal won the World Blitz Championship in 1988 while being inebriated, for the better part of the tournament? Or that Fischer made plans to challenge Vishy Anand for a match in Fischer Random Chess? These and much more untold stories come to the fore with Frederic's singular accounts. Read this article and enrich yourself with nuggets of priceless chess history.

4/4/2020 – Statistics play a major role in any sport. More so in chess, where FIDE ratings have their weight in gold. FIDE does publish its rating list every month, but in between those 30 days a lot of action happens when some of the top tournaments are taking place. Where do we keep a track of all the live rating changes of top players? That's where the website 2700chess.com comes into the picture. It is the best resource to stay abreast of all the rating fluctuations of players above the rating of 2700. Who founded this website? What was the intention behind it? And how does he manage to keep it so well updated? Here's the interview with the founder of 2700chess.com — IM Artiom Tsepotan. | Photo: Artiom pictured with his wife Julia

3/8/2020 – One player is conspicuously absent from the ongoing Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne, the current GP point leader, Humpy Koneru. Humpy's is an inspirational story — after two years of break from competitive chess, she is back to World no.2 with three huge titles in the last few months. It all began with the Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix, followed by the World Rapid Championship title and finally the Cairns Cup 2020 in February, the strongest ever tournament held in the history of women's chess, with a rating average of 2510. The event had all the top players in the world and Humpy scored 6.0/9, a half point ahead of World Champion Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Saint Louis Chess Club

3/6/2020 – The year 2020 has begun well for youngster D. Gukesh. He won the Hillerød Chess Club open in Denmark, and went on to fly through the Cannes Open as well. In a field that had over ten grandmasters, Gukesh scored 7½/9 with a rating performance of 2667. While Gukesh's performance and live rating of 2565 is impressive, what is even more jaw-dropping is the fact that the youngster says he has never used an engine for his preparation! In this article, Gukesh sends us an annotated game from the Cannes Open which, like always, he has analysed all by himself. A detailed report on Gukesh's victory along with an interview with the winner.

1/19/2020 – All the rules of chess remain the same, just that both the players cannot castle. How does removing this one rule alter the game? Well, we decided to put this idea to test by getting 13 of the strongest Indian youngsters (average Elo: 2457) and holding the first ever No-Castling chess tournament at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp in Chennai. Check out all the games, videos, analysis by IM SAGAR SHAH and some brilliant photos by Amruta Mokal.