Chess4Solidarity – The Missing Player

3/11/2024 – Five months after Hamas attacked the Israeli civilian population with hideous atrocities, 100 hostages are still being held captive by Hamas. At the invitation of German MP Marlene Schönberger, Judit and Zsofia Polgar will play a solidarity simul in the German Parliament. All chess fans are invited to take part, as spectators or players. Press release.
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New: CBM #218 - Linares 1992

3/11/2024 – This week we are once again offering you a free sample from the current ChessBase Magazine #218 in ChessBase book format: strategy expert Mihail Marin looks back on the 1992 Linares tournament - one of the strongest tournaments in chess history, which also marked an important historical moment: the end of the dominance of the two "Ks" - Kasparov and Karpov. In his article, Mihail Marin analyses games by Kasparov, Karpov, Ivanchuk, Short, Anand, Timman and others. Including many training exercises and two interactive training videos. Have fun!
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Aditya Mittal clear winner of the Werder Bremen Jubilee Tournament

3/11/2024 – The Jubilee Tournament of the Werder sports club in Bremen’s “Werder-Halle” came to an end on Sunday with a victory for India’s Aditya Mittal. For the 17-year-old, who is also a member of the Werder Bremen team in the Bundesliga, a draw against Czech GM Vojtech Plat was enough to win the tournament with a full-point advantage over Polish GM Pawel Teclaf. | Photos: Werder Bremen Sports Club
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The American Cup kicks off on Tuesday: Pairings and schedule

3/10/2024 – From 12 to 21 March, the American Cup 2024 will be held in Saint Louis, this time in the World Chess Hall of Fame, with an open and a women’s tournament. Most of the chess elite from the United States will take part in the knockout tournaments with a double-elimination format. | Photo: Austin Fuller
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Svitlana's Smart Moves - What is the Carlsbad Pawn Structure?

3/10/2024 – The Carlsbad Pawn structure, or formation, is normally deriving from the Queen's Gambit declined, London System, or the Caro-Kann. A common structure, which actually has some ideas, and plans to accomplish. Svitlana tells us, what the major plans are for White, and Black, by showing us two example games. One of them is Garry Kasparov vs. Nigel Short!
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Understanding before Moving 168: Chess history in a nutshell (49)

3/10/2024 – Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books on chess training and strategy. In the 168th episode of his ChessBase show "Understanding before moving" Herman continues his series "Chess history in a nutshell" and takes a look at the unique style of Tigran Petrosian, World Champion fro 1963 to 1969. | Photo: Pascal Simon
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Dorian Rogozenco: “Memorising variations is a thing of the past”

3/10/2024 – The ChessBase opening tutorials are a compact, quick introduction to opening theory. They will soon be available in full in the new ChessBase book format. Volume one on the open games (1.e4 e5) has already been published. In an interview with Stefan Liebig, chess trainer and grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco explains the concept: "Memorising variations is a thing of the past". | Photos: German Chess Federation
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In July: Biel Festival with Pragg, Keymer and a revamped format

3/10/2024 – The 57th edition of the Biel Chess Festival will take place on July 13-26 with its usual mix of elite tournaments, amateur events and attractive side activities. Remarkably, this edition will see two Triathlons taking place simultaneously: the Masters and the Challengers. Praggnanandhaa, Vincent Keymer and Le Quang Liem are the top seeds in the main event.
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Swiss Women’s Series: Fierro, Gunina and Bodnaruk among winners

3/10/2024 – The Swiss Queens Wednesday Series, launched in partnership with the International Chess Federation (FIDE), is an initiative aimed at boosting women’s participation in chess. With tournaments every Wednesday, the series has attracted some of the strongest players from around the world. Five editions were played in February, with Martha Fierro, Valentina Gunina, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Gunay Mammadzada and Polina Shuvalova emerging victorious in each of them.
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"I love the game" - An interview with Jaroslav Svoboda, chess fan and sponsor

3/9/2024 – Jaroslav Svoboda, the owner of Czech Inn Hotels and operator of the Hotel Don Giovanni, the venue of the Prague Chess Festival, is a passionate chess fan. In a short interview he reveals that he learnt to play chess rather late in life, talks about his friendship to Vlastimil Hort and explains why Bobby Fischer is not an ideal role model. | Photo: The Hotel Don Giovanni
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Game of the Century – a full summary

3/9/2024 – It is certainly one of the most famous games in chess history: the 13-year-old future FIDE World Champion Bobby Fischer played a spectacular combination against IM Donald Byrne, one that has been shown and analysed by generations of chess players and writers. Today on what would have been Bobby's 81 birthday, GM Efstratios Grivas gives us a comprehensive summary of all available analysis, including those of Garry Kasparov and GM Karsten Mueller of ChessBase. Many other sources were taken into account to make sure that no blind spots are remaining!

A splendid knight on f5

3/9/2024 – A closed Ruy Lopez, the board full to the brim: you might expect a long game, but after Black played 21...Kf7?? in the diagram position Black was suddenly busted. Have fun - with White!

Bu Xiangzhi wins Shenzhen Masters

3/9/2024 – Bu Xiangzhi, Yu Yangyi and Arjun Erigaisi finished the fifth edition of the Shenzhen Masters tied for first place with 4½/7 points each. The first tiebreak criterion was the number of points collected in their direct encounters, and it was Bu who had the best score, as he had defeated Arjun in the second round. Thus, Bu got the first prize, Yu finished second and Arjun finished third. | Photos: Liang Ziming / Chinese Chess Federation
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Candidates Tournaments to take place in Toronto after all!

3/8/2024 – FIDE has announced that all outstanding visa applications for the entry of the Candidates and their companions as well as organising staff have been approved by the Canadian authorities and the Candidates Tournaments will take place in Toronto starting from April 3, as was originally planned.
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How to handle Freestyle chess

3/8/2024 – Freestyle Chess, formerly known as Chess960 or Fischer-Random, has recently shot into spotlight after eight of the world’s top grandmasters played in a recent tournament conducted in Weissenhaus, Germany. But what made this so intriguing, and what parallels can be drawn between regular chess and Freestyle? And: how can I train Freestyle using my current ChessBase software?

Behind the board: An interview with GM Daniel Fernandez

3/8/2024 – Chess players have certainly heard of Daniel Fernandez, who has already published a couple of Fritztrainers for ChessBase. But recently, non-chess players also got to know him because of a YouTube video with the title - "We Used An Adult Toy To Beat A Chess Grandmaster". How did this video happen? Are chess players cheating more often nowadays? And why can Daniel speak at least five languages, and helped out in a koala sanctuary? This, and many more questions, you can see in the interview with the English Grandmaster.
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Prague: Ediz Gurel wins Challengers, grabs third GM norm

3/7/2024 – The sixth edition of the Prague Chess Festival came to an end in the capital of the Czech Republic. Nodirbek Abdusattorov had already secured tournament victory in the Masters after the penultimate round. Meanwhile, the Challengers saw Ediz Gurel, aged 15, beating Anton Korobov to win the tournament outright. The prodigy also became the youngest-ever Turkish player to get the GM title. | Photo: Anezka Kruzikova
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A Heart-Racing Experience! (4)

3/7/2024 – Magnus Carlsen has been the World #1, since 2011! Apart from his tremendous chess talent, he also has a relatively higher HRV: his heart rate is typically between 75 bpm – 95 bpm, which enables him to balance alertness (for tactical danger and opportunities) and calmness (to optimize logical thinking and decision-making)! Calm heartbeats during critical moments lead to better decisions!
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Prague Chess Festival - Abdusattorov triumphs, 1½ points ahead of the field

3/7/2024 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov is the sixth champion of the prestigious chess festival. In the process the the 19-year-old Usbek grandmaster rose to the fourth position in the world live ranking, ahead of the reigning world champion Ding Liren. All games of the final round were drawn, and can be replayed, with engine commentary, in this report. You can also watch the live commentary by ChessBase India, if you missed it.
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Prague Open: GM Kourkoulos-Arditis on the brink of victory

3/7/2024 – Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis is on the verge of victory at the Karel Janecek Open, which is being held as part of the Prague Chess Festival. With one round to go, he has 7.5 out of 8, and is one point ahead of six players with 6.5 out of 8. In round 8, Kourkoulos-Arditis scored an important win with Black in a theoretically interesting and tactically rich game. | Photo: Johannes Fischer
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Christian Bauer: The evergreen Philidor

3/7/2024 – The Philidor Defence is celebrated for its historical significance and varied tactical approaches, including the aggressive early f5 push and the more dubious line involving an early d4 pawn exchange and fianchetto. This video course, by GM Christian Bauer, shows the Philidor Defence's main positions and White's significant deviations, highlighting the nuanced manoeuvres in a semi-closed middlegame that challenge White's comfort.
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Game of the Week #609: D. Dubov vs A. Giri

3/7/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft delves into the depths of modern theory and looks at a Grünfeld line that Daniil Dubov and Anish Giri discussed at the Shenzhen tournament. | Merijn’s show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
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Nodirbek Abdusattorov wins Prague Masters with a round to spare

3/7/2024 – Nodirbek Abdusattorov claimed overall victory at the Prague Masters with a round to spare after prevailing in a wild encounter against Parham Maghsoodloo. The Uzbek GM’s 6/8 score in the Czech capital allowed him to gain 15.5 Elo points and climb to fourth place in the live ratings list. Round 8 also saw Gukesh beating Vincent Keymer. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, Jaime Santos defeated Anton Korobov and is now sharing the lead with Ediz Gurel. Gurel’s draw with Erwin l’Ami secured him a third and final GM norm. | Photo: Anezka Kruzikova / Prague Chess Festival
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Yevhenii Yelieiev: "Do you really need to buy ChessBase in 2024?"

3/6/2024 – Yevhenii Yelieiev is an International Master, German U25 Champion, and a short while ago he invited the public to join him on his "Journey to Grandmaster" on YouTube. As part of this journey he offers training and training advice and also checks training materials. In a recent video he wondered whether "Do you really need to buy ChessBase in 2024?" - and answered this question with a resounding "Yes".
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