The Weekly Show with Lawrence Trent

3/6/2018 – Tuesdays at 18:00 CET (5 pm UK time, Noon EST) Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show, Lawrence will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from elite chess tournaments. Today, Lawrence continues his look at classic Candidates tournament games.

Reykjavik Open 2018 begins

3/6/2018 – The Gamma Reykjavik Open 2018 is all about Robert Fischer, who would have turned 75 this year. In Reykjavik he celebrated his greatest success, and he's also buried in Iceland. Among the participants are over 30 grandmasters. Richard Rapport and Pavel Eljanov lead the ranking list. Live games and commentary, plus a preview and photos by Gerd Densing.

A powerful queen

3/6/2018 – Who is stronger? The queen or two rooks? This (of course) depends on the concrete position. However, the queen is always happy if she gets help.

Endgame Magic with guest Yannick Pelletier

3/6/2018 – Yannick Pelletier is a Swiss Grandmaster and well known DVD author for ChessBase. He's in Hamburg to record a DVD. He's in the organising comitee for the Biel Chess Festival and still very active on the chess board. Today he joins Karsten to look at some fascinating endgames from recent tournament praxis! Live at 15:00 CET (9:00 AM EST)!

Unstoppable Sergey Karjakin, too hot to handle at the Tal Memorial Blitz!

3/6/2018 – 13 rounds of blitz is tiring. If you are not playing well you want to get over with it as soon as possible. But if you are winning like Sergey Karjakin was at the Tal Memorial Blitz 2018, you would want to keep playing forever! Sergey was in top-notch form as he mustered up 10.0/13 (+8,=4,-1) and finished 1½ points ahead of second-placed Nakamura. The American tried hard but couldn't keep up with Karjakin's pace. Third place was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi. We have the full coverage with interesting games, positions and lot of videos!

What engines calculate

3/5/2018 – Nodes, and lots of them! When you analyse with an engine do you understand all the data in the engine window? Fritz calculates with 2317 kN/sec and a cloud engine with 121 MN/sec? Sure, this has to do with the speed and the performance of the engine but what exactly are nodes? | Photo: Nadja Wittmann (ChessBase)
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I know what I did last weekend

3/5/2018 – Bunratty's 25th Anniversary is over, but it's still on the mind of ChessBase photographer Alina l'Ami, who sends this retrospective from her own (quite successful) visit to the Irish hamlet. Fun for all and all for fun! | Pictured: A sampling of the 362 players | Photos: Alina l'Ami

Tal Memorial 2018 in Moscow: LIVE

3/5/2018 – In memory of Mikhail Tal, the 11th Tal Memorial takes place in Moscow from March 2nd-4th, with a blitz tournament on March 5th. The venue is the Museum of Russian Impressionists in Moscow. Participants are Mamedyarov, Kramnik, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi, Anand, Dubov, Nakamura, Gelfand, Karjakin and Grishuk. Watch live with video updates and more from the venue by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal

The secret of Vishy Anand winning the Tal Memorial Rapid 2018

3/5/2018 – Chess is considered as a young man's game, but a 48-year-old gentleman from India is changing that perception! Vishy Anand seems to be on a mission - to win just about every rapid event that he plays. Gold at the World Rapid Championship 2017 was difficult, but winning the Tal Memorial Rapid was tougher. The field had some of the best rapid players on the globe and Vishy simply cruised to the finish line with 6.0/9, one point ahead of the rest. In this article we try to analyze the reason for his spectacular performance. | Photo: Eteri Kublashvili

Speelman's Agony #71

3/4/2018 – This week's games are from David Lovejoy who lives in Mullumbimby, in northern New South Wales, Australia. Fancy Jon taking a look at your games? Send them in! If you appear in 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!

Tal Memorial 2018: Anand joins Mamedyarov at the top

3/4/2018 – We are heading towards an exciting final day at the Tal Memorial 2018. Vishy Anand won his sixth round game against Hikaru Nakamura and came back to the lead along with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov with 4.0/6. Two players: Kramnik and Grischuk follow them on 3.5/6. In this report, you can find a wealth of instructive content including videos, analysis, interviews and much more. We also discuss the question of whether chess in museums is a good idea or not? Report from Moscow by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal.

"Beating top players is a part of my destiny"

3/3/2018 – Positivity, ambition, a never say die attitude and an enterprising style of play make Adhiban Baskaran one of the best and most loved chess players in India today. Recently, at the Indian National Team Championship, he proved his mettle yet again. After a rather dismal performance at the Tata Steel Masters which concluded a few weeks ago, Adhiban made a strong comeback scoring an unbeaten 8.0/9. In this interview, he talks about how he keeps himself motivated, his first ever head to head encounter with his idol Vishy Anand, his recent gold medal-winning performance at the National teams and a lot more!

9 games out of 15 end decisively on day one of Tal Memorial 2018

3/3/2018 – The Tal Memorial 2018 is turning into one of the most exciting super tournaments. The rapid format is forcing the players to err and we had 9 out of 15 games end decisively. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov scored 2.5/3 and is the sole leader. He is followed by Vishy Anand, Alexander Grischuk and Hikaru Nakamura on 2.0/3. Few things that you will get to witness in this report are Dubov's brilliant opening prep, Kramnik's piece blunder, Mamedyarov's excellent endgame play and Vishy Anand's powerful start. Amruta Mokal and Sagar Shah bring you all the updates from Moscow.

Dior couture: surrealism and chess

3/3/2018 – Chess has been presented in various art forms throughout the centuries. The chess surreal, mysterious quality has been embraced in the visual arts, literature, music and particularly the fashion. Our own chess queens (and sometimes kings, cavalry and soldiers), often make fashion statements with chess-themed garments and accessories. Diana Mihajlova explores the Spring-Summer collections and their chess inspiration. | Pictured: The interior stage, with chess patterns and hanging body parts, accentuated House of Dior's chosen theme: surrealism

Tune your tactics: Open Games with ...Nxe4 and ...exd4

3/2/2018 – A solid tactical understanding is sure to help any chess player in critical situations. Whether it is a simple exchange or a mating attack, tactics are ubiquitous. Take advantage of the opportunity to develop your tactical understanding in this series with IM Oliver Reeh and Martin Fischer! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:00 AM EDT) it's all about calculation training!

Now it's easy

3/2/2018 – An only move is usually not so difficult to find — provided one has enough time and knows that there is one, of course! In the diagram position, White fired away with 19.Rxd7 Qxd7 20.Nf6+ gxf6 21.Bxf6, ripping open the enemy king position and threatening checkmate on the dark squares. How did Black prove him wrong?

Four Candidates feature at the Tal Memorial 2018 that begins today

3/2/2018 – The Tal Memorial 2018 begins on the 2nd of March 2018. It consists of two events - nine rounds of rapid and thirteen rounds of blitz. The Candidates tournament is about to begin in a week, yet four of them are playing here: Kramnik, Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Grischuk. Competing with them are Anand, Gelfand, Nakamura, Svidler, Nepomniachtchi and Dubov. It is going to be a wonderful event and we have Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal present at the venue to bring you high-quality coverage. In this first report apart from the opening ceremony we bring you a very interesting experiment that was conducted with the players using Tal's famous games.

Training openings actively with Fritz plus Powerbook!

3/2/2018 – Practicing openings is best done by playing openings. And with a Powerbook, Fritz 16 turns into an ideal sparring partner to play, test and practice openings. He plays the openings you want to practice again and again. When you are ready you can test your knowledge against human opponents!
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Aeroflot Open R9: Kovalev wins the title

3/1/2018 – In the final round of the Aeroflot Open, Belarusian GM Vladislav Kovalev secured a comfortable draw against GM Gabriel Sargissian to clinch the title prize. With his full point lead over the rest of the field, it was no surprise that Kovalev settled for peace just 15 moves into the game. Decisive games were seen on boards four and five where SP Sethuraman and Dmitry Gordievsky defeated Victor Bologan and Amin Tabatabaei respectively. Both were tied for second with a score of 6½ / 9 but Sethuraman, due to a better tiebreak, took the higher spot on the leaderboard. | Pictured: Top three finishers in Group A: (L to R) SP Sethuraman, Vladislav Kovalev & Dmitry Gordievsky | Photo: Niklesh Jain

March 2018 FIDE Ratings

3/1/2018 – FIDE just published the new ratings and the official world ranking list. Compared to March there are some slight changes among the top ten, but World Champion Magnus Carlsen is still clear number one. Number two in the world is Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, followed by Vladimir Kramnik on three. Hou Yifan leads the women's list.

The Aeroflot Blitz Tournament - Live Video

3/1/2018 – After the Aeroflot Open there is more high class chess in Moscow: a strong blitz tournament with top players such as Karjakin, Nakamura, Artemiev, Andreikin, Nepomniachtchi, Mamedayrov, and many others. Though the organisers do not offer a live-transmission of the games, they offer a live-video of the tournament.

The problem with Chess960

2/28/2018 – Two weeks ago there was a World Championship — in Chess960, a variant that symmetrically shuffles the position of the pieces behind the row of pawns. The game has gained some popularity since it eliminates the staggering amount of preparation that is required in regular chess. But Chess960 has a few problems that probably prevent it from really taking off. We discuss some possible solutions to these problems.

Aeroflot Open LIVE

2/28/2018 – The Aeroflot Open 2018 is held in Moscow from February 20th to 28th. In the A-Open, 60 grandmasters are among the 92-player field, lead by last year's winner Vladimir Fedoseev. Live games from 13:00 CET (7:00 AM EST).

Aeroflot Open R8 - Kovalev inches closer to the title

2/28/2018 – In the penultimate round of the Aeroflot Open, Vladislav Kovalev put himself in sole lead after defeating his co-leader, IM Amin Tabatabaei. With this win, the Belarusian GM has made himself a clear favourite to win the event with a full point lead over his nearest rival. But a league of 9 players will be rooting for his opponent in the final round and if Kovalev loses his final game, as many as five players could catch up with him for shared first. Round 8 report.