8/23/2020 – The Carlsen Chess Tour is over. What a pity, because the finals between Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura were outstanding! The most used opening by far was the Ruy Lopez, leaving the Sicilian opening behind. A clear sign of how much this opening is in fashion momentarily, and we all know that everybody will jump on the Ruy Lopez train sooner or later this year. To prepare you in the best way possible, I highly recommend taking a look at Fabiano Caruana's: Navigating the Ruy Lopez Vol. 1-3.

4/24/2017 – The Berlin Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6) is a very solid line for Black - so solid that players dubbed it "The Berlin Wall". But Alexei Shirov has some ideas "how to crack the Berlin Wall". Hedinn Steingrimsson liked these ideas - and so did Hou Yifan who used Shirov's recommendations to beat Fabiano Caruana in round 1 of the Grenke Classic.