3/20/2019 – The European Championship got underway in Skopje on Monday. The defending champion Ivan Saric is back — as the fifth seed — but Russian players are the top three Elo favourites. Being highly rated does not mean an easy time in a tournament like this, however, as Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov found out in round one. Two rounds in, 39 players still have a perfect score. | Photos: eicc2019.mk

3/19/2019 – The U.S. Chess Championship and U.S. Women's Chess Championship will take place for an eleventh time at the Saint Louis Chess Club starting on Wednesday. The opening ceremony was held on Monday March 18th. Two concurrent twelve-player round robin events will determine the new chess champions of the United States. The open section has a stellar line-up, with five 2700+ players for the first time in the national tournament, as Leinier Dominguez will make his debut as an American representative. Fabiano Caruana (pictured) is the top seed. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Saint Louis Chess Club

3/19/2019 – IM Lawrence Trent brings you the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments every Tuesday at 17:00 UTC (18:00 CET, Noon EST). This week he looks at a game from the first round of the European Championship in Skopje. Free to watch on-demand for a limited time with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

3/19/2019 – Umbrellas are useful, in real life and in chess. In chess endgames pawns often work as an umbrella and protect the king from checks by the enemy rook.

3/19/2019 – Amateurs hope to learn the secret to magically becoming good at chess. But the secret is already known: learn endgames! The benefits can become obvious, even from a superficial study. One learns how to coordinate different pieces and this can lead to stunning victories. But there's much more — improvements in calculation and visualization come from endgame study which are essential qualities that differentiate the great players from the mediocre ones. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO thinks GM Karsten Mueller's last book on understanding endgames with minor pieces is one everyone should read in order to improve at chess.

3/18/2019 – Vassily Ivanchuk is a fixture in the international tournament chess scene. It feels like the Ukrainian has always been there among the world's elite. In July 1991, almost 30 years ago, the he first reached number two in the world with and Elo of 2735. Today Ivanchuk celebrates his 50th birthday. Congratulations! | Photo: Nugzar Kereselidze

3/18/2019 – In this Simon Says Simon Williams will take a look at some highlights from the Batavia chess tournament in Amsterdam. A unique tournament that combined Blitz and Classical chess. Live today at the usual time: 18:00 CET (17:00 UTC). If you miss the show, you can watch it in the archive with a ChessBase Account. Don't have an account? You can register a free 90-day account to watch! | Photo: Gerry Graham / Irish Chess Union

3/18/2019 – In January our editor emeritus Frederic Friedel took a trip to India, to visit our partners at ChessBase India, to visit two big GM Opens, and to meet some of the incredible young talents the country is currently producing. There was a preteen grandmaster, a number of candidate GMs in their very early teens, and a delightful U12 girl's world champion. Frederic made many new friends, but he also used the opportunity to conduct his famous talent test on them. Here are the results and a biographical video.

3/18/2019 – He beat two legends — Capablanca and Alekhine in succession on their way to the world championship. In those days, 'Capa' was invincible and Alekhine irresistible. This son of Barcelona made his city proud even if it those victories came about “only” in simultaneous displays. But it is not on these chance victories that this player’s claim to fame rests. Valentin Marin y Llovet (1872-1936) was a composer with more than 250 problems to his credit. If the name rings a bell, we showed a challenge from Vladimir Kramnik and a solution with Vishy Anand last month. Here is a tribute to the great master. Don’t miss the problems in the end. They are for you.

3/17/2019 – Venezuela is going through a devastating economic crisis, with hyperinflation, hunger, disease, massive emigration and death rates rising dramatically. Among the millions of emigrants is Juan Blanco, a PhD in Education that has worked with chess as a learning tool for over twenty years. He is now living in Peru and in conversation with ChessBase he talked about his current projects, the situation of chess in Venezuela and some of the reasons for this crisis. | Pictured: Protests from January 23rd, 2019 | Photo: Agencia Uno

3/17/2019 – Chinese GM Wang Hao finished first in the 9th HD Bank Open in Vietnam's most populous city and most popular tourist destination, Ho Chi Minh City. IM IRINA BULMAGA was there and reports on this strong traditional Open tournament, which saw a star performance by the second youngest Grandmaster ever, the Indian prodigy D. Gukesh. | Pictured: Stanislav Bogdanovich, Wang Hao, Nandhidhaa P V, Wen Yang | Photo: chess.hdbank.com.vn

3/16/2019 – Nikita Vitiugov won the 1st Prague Masters with a last round draw against Richard Rapport, that was enough to keep his half point lead intact. The 'Polish derby' between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek ended drawn, and so with a last round win Vidit snuck into second place. It was the centrepiece of a new chess festival in Prague that proponents hope will continue for many years to come. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr