5/2/2019 – We often see top chess players not looking at the board while calculating. It seems that their attention is somewhere else, yet after a few minutes they make the move without having even glanced at the position. What do you think they were doing for the last few minutes? Well, they were thinking about the position. How do these super GMs calculate without a chess board? How are they able to make complex decisions in their mind, which normal players cannot fathom. Well, on 2nd of May 2019, we have Vidit Gujrathi to tell us all about how to calculate better in blindfold. At the same time Vidit will be available online for live interaction.

5/2/2019 – Regular ChessBase contributor GM DANIEL FERNANDEZ got major déjà vu while playing the newly revamped Sydney International Open, which a decade ago regularly saw the participation of distinguished overseas guests like Li Chao and Gawain Jones. The event, which ran from the 24th to 28th of April after a 5-year break, returned under a mix of old and new management with a 1st prize of A$3000. It was won by FM Raymond Song, an ex-prodigy (=1st at World Youth U10 2004) returning to the game after his own (even longer) break. | Photos: Helen Milligan/New Zealand Chess News

5/2/2019 – Two EMs in one week, oh my! Karsten is joined by Grandmaster and prolific ChessBase FritzTrainer author Simon Williams. Live at 13:00 UTC (15:00 CEST; 9:00 AM EDT) and on-demand for ChessBase account holders. Don't have an account yet? You can register a free 90-day account to watch!

5/2/2019 – ChessBase Magazine regularly offers high-class training materials by top players and coaches — material that helps you to improve your strategic understanding. The following tutorial shows how to make the most of these training materials. | Drawing: ChessBase

5/1/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen has gained 40 Elo points in the 27 games of his last three tournaments. But the Grenke Chess Classic unfortunately did not make the cut-off for FIDE's May ratings. Still, at 2861 he's put considerable distance between himself and #2 Fabiano Caruana. Hou Yifan and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun retain a huge lead in the Women's World rankings as the upcoming Candidates tournament for the next challenger is set to start at the end of May. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

5/1/2019 – The Sicilian Najdorf is one of the most popular openings in chess! But what do you do if you wish to enter the Najdorf universe for the first time? What would be the right way to learn such complex opening? Grandmaster Victor Bologan proposes this repertoire to answer all the main lines, and sidelines. The Najdorf is a dynamic opening which matches those players who like to play with intensity. But a less well-known rationale is that if one wants to become stronger as player, then the Najdorf is a gym for the budding chess mind! Thanks to a wealth of ideas, strategic themes and tactical patterns, the Najdorf has all one needs to learn how to play the middlegame.

5/1/2019 – On the last weekend of May an unusual tournament will be played in Scotland. Four top players, Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Ding Liren, and a fourth player who is not yet known, will play a rapid tournament in the Lindores Abbey Distillery, once a famous monastery and perhaps the place where Scotch whisky had its origins. | Photo: Lindores Abbey Distillery

4/30/2019 – On the show today, IM Lawrence Trent looks at the monstrously good performance of World Champion Magnus Carlsen at the Grenke Chess Classic. Live at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

4/30/2019 – "A bit of sun and five degrees" — that's how IM ALINA L'AMI begins her photographic tour through the GAMMA Reykjavik Open 2019. In her characteristic way she blends beautiful photography and highlights from the chessboard to paint a picture of one of the most visually stunning tournaments in the world. | Pictured: IM Tania Sachdev who finished with 5½/9 | All photos: Alina l'Ami

4/30/2019 – Which is the most popular chess video on the Internet? How many people watched the record-breaking YouTube video? And who is the star of the show? Magnus Carlsen? Garry Kasparov? Neither. It is a 13-year-old boy named Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. Really! A single video of him beating a 2650 GM in blitz chess was watched by close to 21 million viewers — chalking up 82 million watch minutes. And that's not all: other games by Pragg have been watched many millions of times as well.

4/30/2019 – Knights can be very agile and strong but against far advanced pawns they are sometimes surprisingly helpless.

4/30/2019 – Magnus Carlsen scored a fourth straight win to claim clear first place at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic. The world champion knew in advance that he would win the tournament, as Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian signed a 43-move draw, but kept on pushing to convert his extra pawn against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Arkadij Naiditsch and Francisco Vallejo Pons also finished the tournament with wins. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis