3/6/2020 – Calculation training is the focus of today's Power Play Show with Grandmaster Daniel King. Power Play is live most Fridays at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) 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...

3/6/2020 – The general sense of uncertainty in the world due to the Coronavirus outbreak has reached the chess world, with plenty of open tournaments announcing they will not take place or have been postponed. It is not known whether it is specifically due to the virus but FIDE has cited Teimour Radjabov withdrew from the Candidates Tournament 'for personal reasons'. Radjabov denies the characterization and instead expressed a desire for the tournament to be postponed. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will be his replacement in Yekaterinburg. | Photo: FIDE

3/6/2020 – A one-move blunder by Nana Dzagnidze gave Harika Dronavalli a sudden win in round four of the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne. Harika is now sharing the lead with Aleksandra Goryachkina, who took down Antoaneta Stefanova with the white pieces. The third winner of the day was Zhansaya Abdumalik, who duly took advantage of Alexandra Kosteniuk's bad form to inflict her third straight loss in Switzerland. | Photo: David Llada

3/6/2020 – This non-everyday opening position saw 12...Nc6 13.Nxc8+ Ke6. Now White has only one continuation to give him an advantage. Can you follow in Shirov's footsteps!?

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.

3/5/2020 – In less than two weeks the Candidates Tournament 2020 will begin in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Eight of the world's best players fight for the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen in December and in his Candidates Preview on YouTube Daniel King takes a close look at all eight candidates. In his most recent episode he wonders how Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is unpredictable but knows how to put pressure on his opponents, might fare in Yekaterinburg. | Photo: Niki Riga / World Chess

3/2/2020 – Do you often encounter unnecessary mishaps in your tournament games? Do you sometimes panic, are you are sometimes too relaxed, over-confident in an endgame that needs special attention? There are research organizations developing AI systems to track and record human emotions – recently we came across one such initiative that is applying this to chess. Initial experiments with 2700 GMs are showing great promise. Maybe this will soon be one of your standard training tools?

3/1/2020 – This Agony and Ecstasy features some English games from an experienced club player from Wales, which GM JON SPEELMAN gives his usual pedagogic attention. As a bonus, Jon recorded a video version of his analysis. | Send in your own games! | Jon welcomes submissions from readers. If your games are selected for the Agony column, not only will you get free detailed commentary of your games by one of chess’s great authors and instructors, and former world no. 4 player, but you also win a free three-month ChessBase Premium Account!

3/1/2020 – With the 2020 Candidates looming, there were few tournaments held in February to attract the world's top grandmasters, with two notable exceptions in Prague and Saint Louis. Alireze Firouzja (pictured) was the winner at the Prague Masters and Humpy Koneru took the second annual Cairns Cup. Gibraltar was also rated in February and provides the only change to the top 10: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave notched up one spot back to number eight, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov slips to the tenth position after withdrawing prematurely due to illness. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

3/1/2020 – There will be plenty of action to keep chess enthusiasts entertained in March. The month will kick off with the third leg of the Women's Grand Prix in Lausanne, and four days after that event comes to an end the long-awaited Candidates Tournament will begin in Yekaterinburg. Team tournaments (Nutcracker and Senior Teams), strong opens (HD Bank and Dubai) and a couple of invitational events in Saint Louis will serve as first-rate complements. | You'll find all of these events and more covered in our live games broadcast area Live.ChessBase.com and we'll also be providing News coverage.

2/29/2020 – This Study of the Month column concentrates on the “Maestro of Practical Studies” (as he is called by Sergey N. Tkachenko), Tigran B. Gorgiev. SIEGFRIED HORNECKER takes you on a tour of the life of this microbiologist and composer, whose beautiful studies are described as "a perpetual adornment to the treasury of world composition.”

2/29/2020 – During the 90th FIDE Congress in Abu Dhabi, the President of the Federation Arkady Dvorkovich mentioned that this year's World Championship match will almost certainly take place in Dubai as part of the 2020 World Expo, clarifying that this is not yet a formal announcement. Dvorkovich also hinted that the match might be delayed until the end of December in order to better fit within the Expo's schedule. | Photo: Ahlawe, via Wikimedia Commons