7/19/2017 – Top Georgian player Nino Khurtsidze is fighting cancer. She underwent surgery in Germany and now has to undergo five rounds of chemotherapy. The total cost is beyond what she can afford. Her friends have asked the chess community to support her efforts to overcome the situation and return to the chess board. | Photo: Evgeny Surov, chess-news.ru
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Nino in Need
Nino Khurtsidze (born September 28th, 1975) is a Georgian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is one of the very few players who has won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship twice (in 1993 and 1995.)
Khurtsidze also won the World Under-16 Girls Chess Championship of 1991 in Brazil, the absolute Georgian Chess Championship in 1998 and is five times Georgian champion among women (in 1989, 1993, 2005, 2006 and 2013).
At the Istanbul Chess Olympiad in 2012 | Photo: Anastasiya Karlovich
Now Nino is suffering from a malignant tumour. She underwent surgery and is scheduled for chemotherapy in Germany. She has to endure five rounds of treatment, each costing €30,000 for a total of €150,000, and so her friends are reaching out to the chess community for help.
INTERMEDIARY: DEUTSCHE BANK AG FRANKFURT/MAIN, GERMANY SWIFT: DEUTDEFF BLZ: 50070010 BENEFICIARY'S BANK: HEAD OFFICE SWIFT: TBCBGE22 JSC "TBC Bank", Head Office SWIFT: TBCBGE22 BEN'S Account: GE59 TB39 1764 5063 6224 87 NAME OF BENEFICIARY: NINO KHURTSIDZE
Bank transfer in USD:
INTERMEDIARY: CITIBANK N.A. NEW-YORK, USA SWIFT: CITIUS33 ABA: 021000089 BENEFICIARY'S BANK: HEAD OFFICE SWIFT: TBCBGE22 JSC "TBC Bank", Head Office SWIFT: TBCBGE22 BEN'S Account: GE59 TB39 1764 5063 6224 87 NAME OF BENEFICIARY: NINO KHURTSIDZE
Bank transfer in Georgian Lari (GEL)
JSC "TBC Bank", Head Office BANK CODE: TBCBGE22 NAME OF BENEFICIARY: NINO KHURTSIDZE BEN'S Account: GE59 TB39 1764 5063 6224 87
Nino in Tehran | Photo: David Llada
Nino competed at the Women's World Championship in Tehran that ended a few months ago. She played really well and knocked out Natalia Zhukova in round one (annotated game below) and Nino Batsiashvili in round two, before losing to Antoaneta Stefanova in round three. Through her games and play it can be seen that she is a great fighter and we are sure that she will fight and overcome her health issues as well. All that she needs is our support.
Appeal by chess community on social media:
Emil Sutovksy:
Sopiko Guramishvili:
Anna Rudolf:
Here's the brief analysis of the very interesting game between Zhukova and Khurtsidze, where the latter was able to outplay her opponent and qualify for the next round.
[Event "Wch World Cup (Women)"] [Site "Teheran"] [Date "2017.02.11"] [Round "1.1"] [White "Zhukova, Natalia"] [Black "Khurtsidze, Nino"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E20"] [WhiteElo "2447"] [BlackElo "2383"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2017.02.11"] [EventType "k.o."] [EventRounds "7"] [EventCountry "IRI"] [SourceTitle "Mega2017 Update 20"] [Source "Chessbase"] [SourceDate "2017.03.10"] [SourceVersion "1"] [SourceVersionDate "2017.03.10"] [SourceQuality "1"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. f3 d5 5. a3 Bd6 $5 {A relatively rare line. Bxc3 and Be7 is much more common.} 6. e4 dxe4 7. fxe4 e5 8. d5 b5 $6 {This is already a novelty. Perhaps objectively not the best move, but it's surely an innovative attempt to snatch the initiative.} (8... Bc5 9. Nf3 O-O 10. b4 { and the bishop has no space on the g1-a7 diagonal.}) 9. Nf3 (9. cxb5 Bc5 10. Nf3 O-O 11. b4 Bb6 {Perhaps this is the reason why Nino played ...b5}) 9... bxc4 10. Bxc4 O-O 11. Bg5 h6 12. Bh4 Bg4 13. h3 Bh5 14. g4 Bg6 15. Qe2 Nbd7 16. Rg1 Qb8 {Black has all the pieces developed and now turns to the queenside for counterplay.} 17. Bb5 (17. g5 hxg5 18. Bxg5 Qb6 $13) 17... Qb6 18. Kf1 Rab8 19. Nd2 a6 20. Nc4 Qa7 21. Nxd6 $6 (21. Bxd7 Nxd7 22. b4 $16) 21... cxd6 22. Bf2 Qb7 23. Bxa6 Qxb2 $19 {Black is already winning.} 24. Qxb2 Rxb2 25. Re1 Ra8 26. Bb5 Rxa3 27. Bxd7 Rxc3 28. Bf5 Bxf5 29. gxf5 Rxh3 30. Bg3 Rb3 31. Bf2 Rhf3 0-1
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From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
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London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
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