1/29/2019 – When a knight moves, it always moves to a square of the opposite colour and, in this sense, cannot lose a tempo. This is what makes "zugzwang" so crucial. It's black to play and draw...

1/28/2019 – One of the most popular side-events of the Gibraltar Chess Festival is the evening "masterclass", in which top stars are invited to give a moderated lecture from the live webcast studio. It's a relaxed atmosphere and a lot of fun, but also instructive. This year's guests have been Hikaru Nakamura, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh and — on Monday evening — Indian GM Adhiban Baskaran.

1/28/2019 – Sergei Tiviakov, grandmaster, diligent author and busy chess trainer, added new opening DVDs to his ChessBase oeuvre last week. Earlier this year, he ran a training camp in Belarus and described his impressions to the Belarus Chess Federation. We're giving his interview here in translation from Russian. | Photo: André Schulz

1/28/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won his seventh Tata Steel Chess title after holding a draw against Anish Giri despite all of the latter's attempts to keep the game going. Peace was signed after 30 moves as Anish contented himself with the second place. There was a three-way tie for third between Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren and Vishy Anand, who all scored 7½/13. In the Challengers, Vladislav Kovalev took the title with a staggering 1½ point margin after beating Stefan Kuipers in the final round. GM MIKHAIL GOLUBEV provided expert analyses of the most exciting games. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

1/27/2019 – Sharing can be fun — and sharing chess games can be fun but also helpful and instructive, e.g. if you teach chess or work with a trainer. In any case, sharing games with ChessBase 15 is easy. Here's a short tutorial covering your options. | Drawing: ChessBase

1/27/2019 – The 81st Tata Steel Chess Tournament takes place from January 12th to 27th in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands (and two "on tour" locations). The "Masters" has an average Elo of 2753. The "Challengers" weighs in at 2582. Both are 14-player round-robin tournaments. Round-up show live at 20:00 UTC (21:00 CET, 3:00 PM EST) Live commentary by IMs Sopiko Guramishvili and GM Robert Hess from 12:30 UTC (13:30 CET, 7:30 am EST) | Photo: TataSteelChess.com

1/27/2019 – At the conclusion of the penultimate round of the Tata Steel Masters, it became clear that the race for the title will be only between Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. With a win over Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the twelfth round, Carlsen has taken the sole lead. Giri remained half-a-point behind the World Champion after avoiding defeat thanks to a sudden draw offer by Teimour Radjabov. Other wins of the round were scored by Vladimir Kramnik (over Vladimir Fedoseev) and Sam Shankland (over Ian Nepomniachtchi), while the game between Vishy Anand and Ding Liren ended in an exciting draw. | Photo: Alina l'Ami / Official site

1/26/2019 – Vladislav Kovalev has won three in a row and takes a half point lead into Sunday's final round. Maksim Chigaev and Andrey Esipenko remain undefeated and a half point back. But Kovalev has the easiest pairing in Round 13 — White against the bottom seed Stefan Kuipers — while the young Russians both have Black against tougher opponents. We take a closer look at the past week in the Challengers. | Photo: Alina l'Ami

1/26/2019 – "Study of the Month" author SIEGFRIED HORNECKER returns to his deep dive into Czech chess composers with a fascinating column on Oldřich Duras. The fourth column in this mini-series builds upon his research from the second half of 2018. See also: Part 1: Prokop’s poetry, Part 2: Prokeš from Prague and Part 3: Miroslav Havel. Of course, don't miss the instructive studies!

1/26/2019 – A completely unexpected resignation from Sam Shankland allowed Anish Giri to catch up with Magnus Carlsen in the standings. A half point behind, the only chaser is Ian Nepomniachtchi, who grabbed an important win over Vladimir Fedoseev. In other news, Vladimir Kramnik got his first victory this year, while Vladislav Kovalev won the only decisive game of the Challengers and joined Maksim Chigaev at the top of the standings. Full report by ALEX YERMOLINKSY. | Photos: Alina l'Ami / Official site

1/25/2019 – Friday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST) Daniel King will go on air 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...

1/25/2019 – The Iranian IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh is the player of the hour at the Gibraltar Chess Festival. She defeated GM Alexander Donchenko in Round 3 and was one of the five leaders with a perfect score. The dream start for Nigerian expert Kolade Onabogun, who beat two GMs, came to an end in Round 3, as he lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. We take a brief look at these two outsiders. | Photo: John Saunders