Robert Ris vs. Fritz 19 - The Aggressive (Strong Club Player)

11/15/2023 – Fritz 19 leads with 1.5 to 0.5, against the humans, by beating Leon Mendonca, and drawing with Elisabeth Paehtz. Robert Ris is now facing the aggressive bull at strong club player level. And quickly, The Dutch IM has a piece more against Fritz 19! Unfortunately, the bull storms towards Robert with countless threats! Who will prevail?
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The Winning Academy 26: Shock!

11/15/2023 – In chess, blunders are inevitable. Of course, you might try to minimize them with tactical training, but you will never be able to get rid of them altogether. The same is true for unpleasant surprises. Whatever you do to be fully prepared for anything that might happen at the board, your opponent will still be time to time able to play a nasty unexpected move that gets you in a state of shock and horror. | Photo: A shocked Magnus Carlsen, analysing a game he played against Levon Aronian at the Grand Chess Tour tournament in Zagreb 2019 | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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Euro Teams: Armenia catch leaders, Carlsen wins again

11/15/2023 – No more teams have perfect scores in either section of the European Team Championships. In the open tournament, Armenia joined Germany and Poland in the lead thanks to a 3-1 victory over Israel. In the women’s tournament, Germany joined Azerbaijan and France thanks to a 2½-1½ victory over Hungary. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen scored his third win of the event, as he helped Norway to grab 2 match points in their match against Finland. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
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St. Louis Rapid and Blitz, Day 1: Wildcard Le Quang Liem takes sole lead

11/15/2023 – The 2023 Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz kicked off on Monday with the first three rounds of rapid action, as the Grand Chess Tour makes its fourth stop of the year. After the first day of play, wildcard GM Le Quang Liem leads the field with 5.0/6, with GMs Alireza Firouzja and Ray Robson tied for second with 4.0/6. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes
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Fritz 19: Pick your sparring partner!

11/14/2023 – Fritz 19 comes with six sparring partners, each representing a completely different type of player. There is the aggressive attacker (Bull), the swindler (Fox) or the endgame crack (Turtle) and a few more. And those who train well will be rewarded. Stefen Liebig took a look at the brand new Fritz.

Elisabeth Paehtz vs. Fritz 19 - The Positional (Strong Club Player)

11/14/2023 – After Leon Mendonca lost against the GM Dog, it's Elisabeth Paehtz's turn to win a point for the humans! Unfortunately, the positional player, the owl, is programmed to play stable and solid. And even at strong club player level, the nocturnal bird can be a threat! However, Elli quickly gains a huge advantage with a well-known London System opening trick, which you can watch on one of her Fritztrainer's. But will it be enough? There is always the club chess player, and co-host Arne Kaehler to stir up weird move suggestions ...
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New: The Databases 2024: Mega, Big and Corr

11/14/2023 – With over 10 million games the Mega Database 2024 is the indispensable chess database for every chess player, for preparation or chess training in all conceivable facets - now available in the updated 2024 edition, also as Big Database without annotated games and update service. Also new: the Corr Database 2024 Correspondence Chess Database with 80,000 tournaments and 2.3 million correspondence games - for players who want to know even more.
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Euro Teams: Poland and Germany share the lead

11/14/2023 – Poland and Germany scored 2½-1½ victories on Monday to go into round 4 of the European Team Championship as co-leaders. Both teams had to compensate for an individual loss with two victories to keep their perfect scores. Meanwhile, Norway suffered a second upset loss in a row, this time against Iceland — despite Magnus Carlsen winning on the top board. In the women’s championship, France and Azerbaijan are tied for first place with 6/6 match points. | Photo: Paul Meyer-Dunker
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Leon Mendonca vs. Fritz 19 - The Allrounder (GM level)

11/14/2023 – Leon Luke Mendonca fears nobody, not even the Grandmaster level of the brand new Fritz 19! The Indian Grandmaster faces the allrounder, which is one of six new player types, that Fritz 19 has to offer. Does Leon even have a tiny chance against the powerful GM-Level? Can the allrounder score, just by maintaining an innocent demeanor? You can find out in the video.
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Presenting: Fritz 19

11/14/2023 – The engine that drives this program has just won the Computer Chess World Championship – in July it defended its title by winning it a second year straight. But the new software is not just super-strong: it also introduces a new era of chess training. It will help you maintain a repertoire, practice playing against it, teach you how to deal with different kinds of opponents. Let the programmer tell you exactly how this works.
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Mega Database 2024: More than 700,000 new games

11/14/2023 – The new Mega Database now contains over 10 million games and over 700,000 new games. With 112,000 annotated games, the Mega Database is also the largest annotated game collection in the world. The Mega Player Encyclopaedia contains 60,000 player names with over 40,000 player photos. Wow! All this is constantly being edited and expanded, e.g. with the automatic Mega Update!
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A (very) strong king

11/14/2023 – In the diagram position White just played 53.g4+. Should Black take the offered pawn with 53...Kxg4 or should he ignore the potentially dangerous g-pawn and go for the white pawns on the queenside with 53...Ke4? What would you do?

Endgame Magic #255 - with Ted Jewell: Highlights from the Qatar Open 2023

11/13/2023 – In the Endgame Magic Show #255 Karsten Müller and endgame aficionado Ted Jewell continue to analyse endgame highlights, this time they look at endgame gems from the Qatar Open. | You can watch the Endgame Magic Show on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account.

Sokolov: Understanding Middlegame Structures, Vol. 7, Vol. 8 & Vol. 9

11/13/2023 – Ivan Sokolov's long awaited "Understanding Middlegame Strategies" continues! The dutch Grandmaster and star coach released three new volumes on the French Winawer, Catalan Structures, and the French Tarrasch Variation.
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Luis Engel: Najdorf: A dynamic grandmaster repertoire against 1.e4 Vol. 1 & 2

11/13/2023 – The Sicilian Najdorf is one of the most popular openings after 1.e4 and is part of the repertoire of almost all top players. In two volumes, the young Hamburg grandmaster presents all of White's answers and shows how Black can aggressively realise his strategic plans. With exercises and tests.
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Euro Teams: Six leaders, Carlsen escapes against Dragnev

11/13/2023 – After two rounds in the open section of the European Team Championship, six teams are sharing first place with 4/4 match points: Germany, France, the Netherlands, Serbia, Poland and Israel. Among the six teams standing a match point behind is Austria, who stunned Norway despite Valentin Dragnev failing to make the most of an advantageous position over Magnus Carlsen. In the women’s section, Azerbaijan, France, Poland, Spain and Serbia are sharing the lead, with Spain joining the leading pack after beating the top seeds from Georgia. | Photo: German Chess Federation
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Understanding before Moving 151: Chess history in a nutshell (33)

11/12/2023 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 151st episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and continues to look at the legacy of Max Euwe. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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Euro Teams: Denmark upset Azerbaijan as Andersen beats Mamedyarov

11/12/2023 – The European Team Championship kicked off with a big surprise on the top board. Azerbaijan, the rating favourites, were defeated by Denmark, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Mads Andersen after his attempt at a winning attack backfired. Romania, the second seeds, only drew Austria, while Norway also got a draw against Slovakia despite Magnus Carlsen winning his game on the top board. In the women’s event, the most shocking result on the top boards was Greece holding Germany to a draw. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
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Interview with a legend

11/12/2023 – Raymond Keene OBE is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971 and was the first player from England to earn a Grandmaster norm, in 1974. In 1976, he became the second Englishman (following Tony Miles) to be awarded the Grandmaster title. Today we reproduce an insightful interview with Keene as it appeared in the current issue of the magazine CHESS.
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Argentine Championship: Fernando Peralta wins fifth title

11/11/2023 – Fernando Peralta defended his national title in the 98th Argentine Chess Championship. A native of Lomas de Zamora, he won this event for the fifth time, following his success in 2006, 2018, 2020 and 2022. Peralta defeated Federico Pérez Ponsa in a two-game rapid playoff to take the title. Leonardo Krysa and Pablo Actosta tied for third place, netting 7/11 points each. | Photos: Federación Argentina de Ajedrez
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Timeless technique

11/11/2023 – In the diagram position, four rooks are facing each other on the b-file, separated only by the white Nb3. Your task is to skilfully resolve this visavis in White's favour - liquidation is the keyword!

Chess as literary setting: "Gambit" by Rex Stout

11/10/2023 – Albin's Counter Gambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5) has been, and still is, a rare guest at top level tournaments, and is hardly ever seen in the practice of the world champions. The variation is considered theoretically dubious and as an overly aggressive attempt to gain counterplay in the rather solid Queen's Gambit. However, the opening has found its way into literature - in the novel "Gambit" by American crime writer Rex Stout.
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Daniel King’s Power Play Show: Tactics training

11/10/2023 – In his new Power Play Show, GM Daniel King tests viewers’ tactical and calculating skills using games from the FIDE Grand Swiss. Some exercises are very easy, and some the opposite — and there is some real beauty here too! | Power Play is on air most Fridays. Watch it on-demand with a ChessBase Premium account. All the usual puzzles, games and instruction will be on offer.

Grand Chess Tour final in St Louis

11/10/2023 – The first round of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz will take place on 14 November. This will be followed by three days of rapid chess and two days of blitz. After a short break, the Sinquefield Cup, a ten-player round-robin with classical time control, begins on 21 November. Last year's match between Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann caused quite a stir. Neither will be taking part this time. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour
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