Alex Averbukh wins in Tokyo

2/29/2020 – CM Alex Averbukh of Japan, scored a perfect 5.0/5 to win Tachikawa Chess Open 2020. He finished a full point ahead of the competition. Wang Hao was on hand to give the winner his trophy (pictured)! Four players finished at 4.0/5. Koji Noguchi and top seed Atsuhiko Kobayashi secured second and third place respectively according to their tie-break score. The tournament was organized by Tachikawa Chess Club at two different venues in Tokyo, Japan on February 8th and 9th, 2020. Two rounds were played at Hamamatsucho on the first day and on second day the final three rounds were played in Tachikawa. Photos and Tournament report by one of the participants, Seiji Nakagawa.

The Power Play Show: A beautiful attacking game

2/28/2020 – The Power Play Show with Grandmaster Daniel King reviews a highlight from the recently concluded Aeroflot Open. 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...

NEW: ChessBase Magazine 194

2/28/2020 – Top tournament Tata Steel 2020: Comment on Duda, Firouzja, So, Giri, Van Foreest, l'Ami and many more, opening videos, new ideas for your repertoire with Romain Edouard, Roven Vogel, Petra Papp, Viktor Moskalenko, and more, plus tactics and endgame training for your chess improvement.

14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli stuns by winning Aeroflot Open

2/28/2020 – Current under-14 world champion Aydin Suleymanli was declared winner of the strong Aeroflot Open after getting the best tiebreak score among four players tied atop the standings on 6½ out of 9. Second place went to Rinat Jumabayev, who defeated Alexander Shimanov on Thursday, while former sole leader Rauf Mamedov got the bronze medal. The last player to end on 6½ was Aravindh Chithambaram, who got the better of Sanan Sjugirov in the final round. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

The best rook move

2/28/2020 – In the diagram position, 26...Red8! is the correct way for Black to attack the white queen, with the knock-down argument showing after 27.Qc3. Which is?

A rich chess life: Berlin Chess Cafés 1920–1933

2/27/2020 – Berlin has always had a vibrant chess history, but there was a particularly interesting period in the years following World War I that highlighted the richness of the city’s chess life. Alan McGowan, author of a widely acclaimed biography about the German master Kurt Richter (1900-1969), took a close look at the history of those chess cafés.

Fast and Furious: Najdorf with 6.Be3 and 8...h5

2/27/2020 – Returning to the Sicilian Najdorf, IM Robert Ris examines an early h5 idea. On-demand and free to watch from 18:00 UTC (19:00 CET / 13:00 EST) for a limited time (or forever for ChessBase Premium account holders. To chat when Robert is live, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. In the diagram, it's Black to play!

Aeroflot Open: Suleymanli catches up with Mamedov

2/27/2020 – A young gun from Azerbaijan caught up with his more experienced compatriot Rauf Mamedov in the lead of the very strong Aeroflot Open. 14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli won three games in a row to reach a 6/8 score and will have the black pieces against the former sole leader in round nine. Eight players are a half point behind the Azerbaijani duo. | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky

Game of the Week: Reinderman vs Feuerstack

2/26/2020 – This week IM Merijn van Delft is wearing his "tournament director" hat in Amsterdam at the 12th Batavia tournament. He also gets to be an eager spectator | The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). Merijn is live this week starting at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 4 PM EST).

The Weekly Show: Batavia battles

2/26/2020 – On the rest day at the 12th Batavia tournament in Amsterdam, IM Lawrence Trent reflects on his tournament so far and shows one of his own wins. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's Black to move! | Lawrence is on-demand this week from 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, 12 Noon EST) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can always register a free 90-day account to watch.

Café Batavia hosts 12th chess tournament

2/26/2020 – The 12th edition of the Batavia Tournament is taking place from February 20th to March 1st at Café Batavia 1920 in Amsterdam. The event is a ten-player single round robin and gives participants the opportunity to earn a grandmaster norm. After five rounds, top seed Dimitri Reinderman is the sole leader with 4½ points. As usual, a cosy environment and top-notch organization are the main attractions of the yearly event. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Bonus Endgame Magic with Nihal Sarin and Srinath Naranyan

2/25/2020 – Über-talent Nihal Sarin (and his coach) trains with GM Karsten Mueller in Hamburg, and you can too! On-demand for ChessBase account holders (but free this week!). Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

A powerful king

2/25/2020 – Usually, the rook endgame with f- and h-pawn is a draw but the side with the pawns has good chances to win when the defending king is cut off on its back rank.

Endgame Magic with Jan Werle

2/25/2020 – Dutch grandmaster Jan Werle returns to Hamburg, and joins Karsten in the ChessBase Studio. Live at 14:00 UTC (15:00 CET; 9:00 AM EST) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

Rauf Mamedov leads Aeroflot Open

2/25/2020 – Rauf Mamedov is alone atop the standings of the annual Aeroflot Open after six rounds. In round five, Mamedov defeated 12-year-old Indian IM Bharath Subramaniyamin, who came from defeating three strong grandmasters in the first four rounds. Sanan Sjugirov, Mustafa Yilmaz and Manuel Petrosyan are sharing second place, half a point behind Mamedov. | Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky

Nigel Short tops Bunratty

2/24/2020 – The annual Bunratty Chess Festival was held for the 27th time over the weekend, at the Bunratty Castle Hotel in western Ireland, and ended with GM Nigel Short as the winner of the Masters. The top seed finished undefeated with two draws for a final tally of 5.0/6. GERRY GRAHAM is the tournament director and sent his post-tournament reflections.

Iranian arbiter Shohreh Bayat settles in the UK for now

2/24/2020 – A subplot of the recent Women's World Championship in Shanghai and Vladivostok was the plight of accomplished arbiter Shohreh Bayat from Iran. She was the target of political and religiously-motivated media critiques in her home country when she was photographed, while working as the chief arbiter in Shanghai, wearing a loose-fitting hijab — too loose for conservative observers in the Islamic Republic. That led her to fear for her safety and forgo her return ticket home in favour of a detour to the U.K. In a tearful interview, she recently recounted her story for the BBC.

Learn London tactics on iPad

2/23/2020 – Traps, tricks, pattern recognition, all in one FritzTrainer! And of course a deeper understanding of the London system! Finding the right ideas for each position starts with knowledge of the typical tactical patterns. But equally important is to anticipate Black's plans and be able to neutralize them! DAVIDE NASTASIO takes a first look at a FritzTrainer on his iPad!

Garry Kasparov: At peace with AI

2/23/2020 – Just under twenty-three years ago Garry Kasparov made history by losing a match against a computer named Deep Blue. Today smartphones are capable of running chess engines as powerful as IBM's giant mainframe in 1997. More significantly, thanks to recent progress in artificial intelligence, machines are learning and exploring the game for themselves. So what does the legendary World Champion think about the progress of AI in chess, and its effect on humanity in general? He told Wired Magazine that he has made his peace with AI.

Opening training with Fritz 17: 100 repertoire proposals

2/22/2020 – Creating a good and reliable opening repertoire is a difficult task. Fritz 17 offers an alternative: premade opening repertoires, on four levels, from "Easy" to "Professional". All of them are solid repertoires that have stood the test of practice and will give you a good (though not necessarily better) position after the opening.

Alireza Firouzja wins Prague Masters in blitz playoff

2/22/2020 – After an exciting final round in which two key encounters finished decisively, five players ended up tied in first place on 5 out of 9. Vidit and Alireza Firouzja had the best tiebreak scores and decided the championship in a blitz playoff. 16-year-old Firouzja won both quick-play encounters to take the title. Jorden van Foreest got clear first place in the Challengers and qualified to next year's main event. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

Investigating gender differences in chess pattern recognition

2/21/2020 – Here's an opportunity to support chess research. Tom Koolen bills himself as an "interdisciplinary data scientist" and a chess player, who's attempting to get a research project off the ground using the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe. Commentator WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni has promoted the project on social media. | Photo: Michal Vrba on Unsplash

The Power Play Show: The Imaginative Wang Hao

2/21/2020 – The Power Play Show returns live this week. Grandmaster Daniel King looks back to a couple of games from Wang hao. 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...

Prague Masters & Challengers: Firouzja beats Vidit in playoff to take the title

2/21/2020 – The "2nd Prague Chess Festival" in the Czech capital ran from February 13th to February 22nd. After an exciting final round in which two key encounters finished decisively, five players ended up tied in first place on 5 out of 9. Vidit and Alireza Firouzja had the best tiebreak scores and decided the championship in a blitz playoff. 16-year-old Firouzja won both quick-play encounters to take the title. Jorden van Foreest got clear first place in the Challengers. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr / praguechessfestival.com