1/12/2018 – 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 Pascal Simon! Friday at 15:30 CET (9:30 AM EDT) it's all about Qd2 vs Qa5!

1/12/2018 – In the diagrammed position, White has two ways to make his static advantage (protected passed pawn e5) dynamic. The piece sacrifice 32.Nxc6!? is the first one. Can you see the alternative — and what would have been your choice?

1/11/2018 – There are a lot of firsts happening at the 16th edition of the Delhi International Grandmaster Open 2018. This year, for the first time, the tournament (all categories combined) has a total prize fund of 7,777,777 Indian Rupees (great number, which is equivalent at current rates to USD $122111!) It is also for the first time that a 2700+ player is competing in an Indian grandmaster event — Arkadij Naiditsch (2701). Also a record: nearly 2300 players from all over the world are competing at the Indira Gandhi Stadium. After four rounds, 43-year-old Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman was the only player with a perfect 4 / 4 score, but he was caught in the double-round action on Friday and is now tied with Naiditsch and Murali Karthikeyan with 5½ / 6.

1/11/2018 – Starting tomorrow, Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and their colleagues will be making a return trip to the Dutch hamlet of Wijk aan Zee. ChessBase will have daily round-up live shows, following each round starting with GM Yannick Pelletier for Round 1 which kicks off on Saturday. But earlier this week Anish Giri, visited the city of Hilversum to promote the "chess on tour" initiative, which will see the fifth round of the Masters group, held on Wednesday, January 17th, at the museum "Beeld en Geluid" ("Image and sound") | Photo: Tata Steel Chess

1/11/2018 – Tryfon Gavriel — a.k.a. Kingscrusher — will start a weekly banter series on blitz.chessbase.com. He will commentate while playing against ChessBase Account members in his live stream on YouTube, Wednesdays at 20:00 CET (2 pm EST). "I will try and give you greater enthusiasm for the game and in particular the dynamic aggressive aspects of playing chess", writes Kingscrusher. "If you want to be a dynamic aggressive player, I may be able to encourage you..."

1/11/2018 – In the fourth and final part of the "Exercises in Style" readers were asked to identify games by Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, and Magnus Carlsen. Not an easy task because three of these World Champions are still active and develop stylistically - only Kasparov withdrew from tournament chess. But though modern chess is becoming more and more universal each of these four World Champions has a unique style.

1/10/2018 – The results are in! Find out how ChessBase readers rated our nominations for Player of the Year, Female Player of the Year, Game of the Year, Endgame of the Year and Move of the Year. From Anand to Zhongyi, we look back at the highlights of 2017, as selected by ChessBase editors and voted on by members!

1/10/2018 – Three highlights from 2017 selected by 50 Moves Magazine editor GM Moulthun Ly and analysed by Australian GM Ian Rogers. Among them are "the most remarkable piece of opening preparation for 2017" (spoiler alert: it's Nepomniachtchi) and "the missed opportunity of the year" from Wei Yi, plus a look at some of the top young talents from Down Under.

1/10/2018 – FIDE Master Charlie Storey from Morpeth, Northumberland, shares his backstory and how he got into professional "sniping". In his pet opening, Black plays 1…g6 2…Bg7 and 3…c5 against most of White’s set-ups. "The Sniper fires up the imagination, just like The Dragon — but chess is a game of mediaeval war and I just updated it to modern warfare — rooks, tanks, queens, drones — you can figure the rest out."

1/9/2018 – Tuesdays at 5pm UK time Lawrence Trent goes on air on Playchess.com. In his show Lawrence Trent will be dealing with the latest trends, games and combinations from the elite chess tournaments. This week features games from players who have recently earned the coveted Grandmaster title.

1/9/2018 – 60 years ago this week, on January 7, 1958, to be precise, the tenth U.S. Championship came to an end with a sensation: the 14-year old Bobby Fischer won with 10½ / 13 ahead of a strong field. With this win Fischer qualified for the Interzonal tournament in Portoroz 1958, and won the first of his eight U.S. titles. | Pictured: Bobby Fischer in 1959 | Source: unknown (via D. Griffin)

1/9/2018 – It is nice if you can dominate and paralyse the enemy pieces. However, this alone often is not sufficient for a win. Particularly, if only a few pieces are left on the board. A nice example from a game of Timur Gareyev.