Prague Masters: Navara beats Vidit in roller-coaster game

2/21/2020 – Just when it seemed like Vidit would coast to victory at the Prague Masters Tournament, a series of turnarounds left the fight for first place wide open. After getting a completely winning position, Vidit first reached a drawn rook endgame and then lost the thread and the game against David Navara. Meanwhile, David Anton defeated Nils Grandelius with Black and Nikita Vitiugov failed to find a win against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Going into last round, Vidit has a half-point lead over Anton, Vitiugov and Alireza Firouzja. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

Lagarde à la Lasker

2/21/2020 – 27...Kc7!! in the diagram is very cool, especially since the attempt to pin down the black knight on d7 with 28.Qh7 runs into an elegant refutation. Do you see it?

Chess for Easter: GRENKE Open and GRENKE Classic

2/20/2020 – Easter is still a bit less than two months away, but it is already clear that the Easter holidays will be a boon for chess fans. From April 9th ​​to 13th the GRENKE Chess Open, the largest open tournament in Europe, takes place in Karlsruhe, Germany. And on Easter Saturday, April 11th, the GRENKE Chess Classic begins — with Carlsen and Caruana leading the field. To get in the mood for the tournament, the organizers have prepared a small video with the highlights of the past years.

NEW: Mastering the Sicilian Najdorf

2/20/2020 – The Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian has been one of the most popular openings for decades. Players of every level like it and it also was an important part of the Black opening repertoire of two legendary World Champions: Bobby Fischer and Gary Kasparov. GM YANNICK PELLETIER explores the latest theoretical developments.

Prague Masters: Firouzja and Shankland score

2/20/2020 – Vidit could not get his fourth straight win with White at the Masters section of the Prague Chess Festival, but nonetheless kept his one-point lead with two rounds to go. The winners of the day were Alireza Firouzja, who beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a swashbuckling tactical struggle, and Sam Shankland, who defeated Nils Grandelius to get his first win of the event. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

Your Spanish is Fab! (Part 2)

2/20/2020 – Many people aim for perfection in their chosen field. However, only a select few ever reach the pinnacle of achievement. As far as chess is concerned, Fabiano Caruana is one of the rare few who has, giving the chess world new ideas and beautiful games for years. TANMAY SRINATH reviews the second volume of Caruana’s FritzTrainer trilogy, and comes out amazed, yet again! | Photo: David Llada

400 weeks of great games!

2/19/2020 – The Prague Masters is in the crosshairs for this anniversary edition of Game of the Week. IM Merijn van Delft explores the third round win of the tournament leader Vidit Gujrathi. 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).

Grand Chess Tour confirms 2020 schedule

2/19/2020 – The Grand Chess Tour, which was announced one month ago, is a standard-bearer for world-class events. In the latest press release, the organizers have now announced dates, confirmed participants and venues for this year's tour. There will be two tournaments with classical time controls and three rapid and blitz tournaments. The three best players in the world — Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren — all take part. | Picture: Grand Chess Tour

Prague Masters: All draws, Vidit still ahead

2/19/2020 – Round six of the Prague Festival saw all games of the Masters finishing drawn, which means Vidit Gujrathi is still leading on 'plus three'. The one closest to get a win was Sam Shankland, who got an edge in the middlegame but could not convert it into a full point against Markus Ragger. During the rest day before round six, Boris Gelfand gave a simul and the Aero Cinema Film Festival kicked off, featuring documentaries about chess, among others. | Pictured: Jan Novak, Lubomir Kavalek and David Navara. | Photo: Petr Vrabec

The Weekly Show: A Prague Masters battle

2/18/2020 – IM Lawrence Trent looks to Prague for inspiration this week. | Puzzle time: In the diagram, it's White to move! How did he break through? | Lawrence is live 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.

The right step ahead

2/18/2020 – In chess a "candidate" is a pawn that is part of a majority and that is not obstructed by an enemy pawn on its file. When mobilising your pawn majority, Nimzowitsch's rule "candidate ahead" is usually good and right. But not always!

Endgame Magic with Andrew Martin

2/18/2020 – International Master and prolific ChessBase author Andrew Martin returns to join 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!

Grandmaster tips on how to fight time-pressure

2/18/2020 – When we learn the rules of chess as a youngster we are told about the chess board, the chess pieces and how each of the pieces move. Once we master these basics, we can proudly tell everyone that we have learnt the game of chess. However, when you go to a tournament, there is one more element that is added, one which plays just as important a role as the board and the pieces: the chess clock! Time is one of the most crucial factors when playing a game, and somehow this is one of the things that chess players pay the least attention to. It doesn't come as a surprise that many strong chess players handle the clock and time in a very poor manner, losing several games due to time pressure. How do we avoid this problem? In this article GM SWAPNIL DHOPADE tries to acquaint you with the causes and solutions of this perennial problem.

Speelman's Agony: California dreamin'

2/17/2020 – Two games with "considerable violence" quips GM JON SPEELMAN as he takes a look at his latest submission. | 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!

Simon Says: Highlights from the Cairns Cup

2/17/2020 – The Cairns Cup has just concluded in St. Louis with Humpy Koneru taking top honours. GM Simon Williams examines the highlights. | Puzzle time: In the position below it's White to play and win! | Watch for free live and on-demand (for a limited time, or forever with a ChessBase Premium account) starting at the usual hour: 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET / 12 Noon EST).

Vidit dismantles Firouzja, enters World Top 20

2/17/2020 – The 2020 Prague Masters has reached the half-way mark, and it has been a one man show so far! Vidit Gujrathi has exhibited amazing composure and concentration, drawing with Black and winning with White. Today he dismantled Alireza Firouzja in the Exchange Slav after the latter mistakenly grabbed a poisoned pawn and found himself resigning on move 24. David Navara also showed some fighting spirit to best Nils Grandelius in the symmetrical English. Sam Shankland missed too many opportunities, letting David Anton escape. Nikita Vitiugov was close to winning against Harikrishna, but missed some nuances that could have killed the game off and had to split the point. Markus Ragger confidently held J-K Duda to a draw in the Exchange Ruy Lopez. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

Humpy Koneru wins second edition of the Cairns Cup

2/17/2020 – Humpy Koneru comfortably held a draw with White against Harika Dronavalli and claimed first place at the Cairns Cup after Ju Wenjun defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk, the only player who had a chance to catch up with the leader. Ju's victory left her on clear second place, while Kosteniuk shared the third-fourth spot with Mariya Muzychuk. Meanwhile, Irina Krush got her first win of the event and Kateryna Lagno miraculously saved a half point for a second day in a row. | Photo: Austin Fuller

2nd Cairns Cup - Round 9

2/16/2020 – The 2nd Cairns Cup in Saint Louis is played from February 7-17. The field is led by World Champion Ju Wenjun, and features most of the world's best women chess players. The tournament winner will receive USD $45,000 from the total prize fund of $180,000. Rounds begin daily at 19:00 UTC (20:00 CET / 14:00 EST) and the games will be broadcast live with commentary by WGM Jennifer Shahade, GM Yasser Seirawan and GM Alejandro Ramirez. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Cairns Cup: Humpy takes the lead as Yip beats Ju Wenjun

2/16/2020 – A sensational win by 16-year-old Carissa Yip over world champion Ju Wenjun was the story of the day in Saint Louis. Humpy Koneru also won and would have got to the final round a full point ahead had Alexandra Kosteniuk not defeated Nana Dzagnidze with the black pieces. So, going into the last day of action (unless a playoff is needed to decide the champion), Humpy is on 5½ out of 8 and Kosteniuk is the only contender a half point behind. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Firouzja and Vitiugov in turbulent draw, Vidit maintains sole lead

2/16/2020 – When two sides play a perfect game of chess, the game more often than not ends up a draw. Today, while all the five games ended up as draws, three of them didn't follow the stated script. Alireza Firouzja exhibited passion and imagination, confusing Nikita Vitiugov with a speculative knight sacrifice to gain a decisive advantage, but made two inexplicable moves to gift the latter a draw. Duda was seriously worse after nine moves, but his opponent Anton failed to find the most incisive continuation, continuing his roller-coaster ride in the tournament. Harikrishna played the forgotten Sozin Attack, and had to soon defend for a while to see out the game to a draw. Markus Ragger was tortured by the exchange down by David Navara for a while before concluding the game in peace, and Nils Grandelius signed a rather tame draw with the tournament leader Vidit, who retains sole lead. | Photo: Official site

ABC of the English Opening, a review

2/16/2020 – The English is an opening which can transpose into many others. It is definitely a must for those who want to improve middlegame play, thanks to the huge variety of middlegame themes which can arise from it. One can play very aggressively, or positionally; it's clearly an opening which can satisfy everyone interested in learning strategy and tactics. World Champion Magnus Carlsen is one of the players who has incorporated the English into his repertoire. In this FritzTrainer, IM Lorin D'Costa presents a complete repertoire for White explaining key pawn structures and ideas behind the moves. DAVIDE NASTASIO breaks it down.

Cairns Cup: Plot twists

2/15/2020 – Ju Wenjun and Humpy Koneru are still sharing the lead of the Cairns Cup after a seventh round in which things could have taken a different path. The only decisive result of the day saw Mariya Muzychuk beating Valentina Gunina — Muzychuk got a much better position, lost her advantage and ended up winning when Gunina overestimated her chances. Meanwhile, Ju Wenjun could not convert a clear advantage, and Humpy saved a half point in a difficult endgame. | Photo: Austin Fuller

Vidit's Gargantuan Grunfeld Genius!

2/15/2020 – After three hard-fought rounds of chess in Prague we finally have a sole leader! Vidit Gujrathi, after surviving a mega-scare against David Anton yesterday, found his rhythm and squeezed Markus Ragger in a Grunfeld endgame to go to world number 21 and 2½/3. Alireza Firouzja has found the going tough in the first two rounds, but he seems to have benefited from the close shave yesterday, as he outplayed Harikrishna in a Closed Ruy Lopez structure to score his first win of the event. David Anton was seriously worse, but David Navara's struggles continued as he missed numerous chances for an advantage with White to gift the Spaniard the point. Grandelius continued to falter in decisive moments, as Vitiugov escaped by a hair's breadth to maintain a plus score, and Shankland missed out on what could have been a brilliant win over Duda as Black. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

Candidates 2020 pairings announced

2/14/2020 – The Candidates Tournament 2020 is just over a month away and today FIDE announced the results of a ceremony to determine the pairing numbers for the eight players in this highly anticipated double round-robin. Radjabov, Ding, Giri, and Grischuk will start with the white pieces on March 17th in Yekaterinburg. Read the press release... | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili (CFR)