6/4/2019 – On the show today Lawrence will have a look at a class positional display in N. Dzagnidze vs M. Muzychuk - how to squeeze a positional advantage with the two bishops. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

6/4/2019 – The 2019 Altibox Norway Chess Tournament officially kicked off Monday in Stavanger. The traditional Blitz Tournament, which takes place in lieu of the drawing of lots, was won by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman overpowered Magnus Carlsen in their final round deciding match-up and became the highest-rated player in the blitz ratings list. Levon Aronian and Carlsen shared second place. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / norwaychess.no

6/3/2019 – Our monthly look at the FIDE ratings for June 2019 starts with World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who has a chance to break his own all-time rating record this month. That would go a long way towards cementing a claim on the greatest-of-all-time honours. Pictured, however, is Cuban-born Leinier Dominguez, who now plays for the USA, and after a long hiatus is now knocking on the door of the Top 10 at 2760, just 8 points shy of his personal peak rating. That was set back in May 2014, when he briefly hit 2768. Do you know who else was at his peak that month five years ago? Magnus Carlsen! | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club

5/31/2019 – Who are the best players in the world? What ratings do they have? And what do they look like? The ChessBase Online Playerbase (players.chessbase.com) answers these and other questions. The database contains about 570,000 names and more than 40,000 pictures! You want to know the current Elo of an old friend or rival? Or find the best players of your age-group? Or games from the most promising juniors? Have a look! | Drawing: ChessBase

5/28/2019 – On the show today, the Lindores Abbey tournament was a fun little show up in Scotland and Lawrence will have a look at a key game plus review the important chess action of the past week. Live beginning at 16:00 UTC (18:00 CEST, 12 Noon EDT) and free for a limited time, or forever on-demand with a ChessBase Basic Account. You can register a free 90-day account to watch.

5/27/2019 – Magnus Carlsen won the fifth tournament of the year 2019. But things were not so simple for the World Champion. He struggled quite a bit in this tournament and was losing against Karjakin as well as Ding Liren in rounds 5 and 6. Through sheer fighting spirit and hanging in there, he was able to win the first place with 3½/6. IM Sagar Shah who was present at the venue, brings you all the action.

5/15/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday. On this week's show: Topalov vs Amin from the Grand Chess Tour rapid/blitz tournament in Abidjan. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows. Merijn is live at 18:00 UTC (20:00 CEST / 2 PM EDT).

5/13/2019 – After scoring five wins on the final day of action at the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour in Abidjan, Magnus Carlsen won yet another event, this time by a margin of three and a half points. Tied in second place finished Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura — the latter could have finished in sole second had he not lost from a rather equal position against the champion in the last round. | Pictured: Magnus Carlsen with Côte d'Ivoire's Minister of Sports Paulin Danho | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/12/2019 – Despite confessing at the end of the day that his play was below his expectations, Magnus Carlsen still leads the Côte d'Ivoire leg of the Grand Chess Tour by two and a half points. His closest chaser is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who started the blitz section with five straight wins and is currently the number one player in the live blitz ratings list. The Frenchman took down Carlsen in what was the world champion's first loss since December. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/11/2019 – Magnus Carlsen finished all three days of rapid chess in Abidjan with the same result — two wins and a draw. Now he goes into the blitz section with a three-point advantage over Hikaru Nakamura, although each game will now be worth only a point. Besides Naka, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So threaten to take down the Norwegian, as both had a great run on Friday — MVL won all three games, while So got two wins and drew Nakamura. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/10/2019 – World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader of the Côte d'Ivoire Rapid tournament after scoring two wins and a draw for a second day in a row. Hikaru Nakamura could be sharing first place with Carlsen had he managed to convert a winning advantage against Bassem Amin — 'Naka' even lost that game and now stands two points behind the leader. Plenty of exciting chess and missed opportunities were seen on Thursday in Abidjan. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/9/2019 – Three rounds of Rapid were played on Wednesday at the Pullman Hotel in Abidjan to kick off the first leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Chinese prodigy Wei Yi are leading the ten-player field after getting two wins and a draw during the first day of action. GCT defending champion Hikaru Nakamura is the closest chaser and the only player to avoid a defeat against Carlsen. | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

5/8/2019 – Ideas and strategies in Grandmaster games can be quite instructive. IM Merijn van Delft presents games like these every Wednesday. On this week's show: Svidler vs Carlsen from the Grenke Chess Classic. The live show is free to watch, and available on-demand for ChessBase Premium account holders (but FREE for a limited time!). To chat, please visit videos.chessbase.com/live or login via Playchess for Windows.

5/6/2019 – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would have remained undefeated in the recently concluded Grenke Chess Classic tournament had it not been for the final round loss against Magnus Carlsen. One of the most talked about points of their encounter was the French grandmaster's move 10...b5, a move that left many puzzled. In an exclusive interview with DHANANJAY KHADILKAR for ChessBase, the 28-year-old speaks on a variety of subjects from playing against Carlsen to his hopes of qualifying for next year's Candidates tournament. And, he also explains why he made that particular move.

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 – 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 – 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

4/28/2019 – After scoring his fifth win of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen almost secured yet another super-tournament triumph. His round eight victim was Peter Svidler, who allowed the world champion to mate him on the board. The only player with chances to catch Magnus is Fabiano Caruana — the American remained one point behind the leader thanks to a win over Georg Meier. Sole third place was taken by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, who defeated Vincent Keymer. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/28/2019 – A full point still separates Magnus Carlsen from his closest chaser, after the world champion beat Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana took down Arkadij Naiditsch in round seven of the GRENKE Chess Classic. Georg Meier also won — the German grandmaster recovered from a four-game losing streak to defeat Vishy Anand with the black pieces. Paco Vallejo and Vincent Keymer got good positions against higher-rated opponents but could not convert. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/27/2019 – The standings table at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic was seriously shaken up after Magnus Carlsen defeated Georg Meier and Vishy Anand lost against Arkadij Naiditsch in round six. Vishy gave up a pawn in the early middlegame and could never get enough compensation, while Magnus got a winning advantage before the time control but needed close to six hours to finally get the point. The rest of the games were drawn. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/25/2019 – After winning in Shamkir, Carlsen’s live rating was up to 2861, his best since June 2015. After five rounds in Grenke, that's exactly where he remains today (well 2861.6 to be precise!). IM SAGAR SHAH recently took a look at how he's climbing back towards his all-time peak. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis (author of The Open Games - A detailed overview)

4/25/2019 – Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen drew games of very different nature to maintain the lead at the 2019 GRENKE Chess Classic; Peter Svidler could not make the most of an opening edge against Paco Vallejo; while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Levon Aronian repeated the position three times in the early middlegame. In the meantime, after having lost four games in a row, Vincent Keymer got his first super-tournament victory, a welcomed reward for his uncompromising play so far in Karlsruhe. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis

4/24/2019 – Four out of five games saw the higher-rated player getting a win in round four of the GRENKE Chess Classic. Only Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen drew, after continuing the theoretical battle in the Sicilian Sveshnikov that began last year during their match in London. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand defeated Paco Vallejo and joined Magnus in the lead. Arkadij Naiditsch, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave also won. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis