7/21/2024 – After five rounds of classical chess at the GM Triathlons, the final phase is quickly approaching. Le Quang Liem defended his lead in the Masters with a draw against Haik Martirosyan, while Praggnanandhaa kept his chances of qualifying for the final phase by beating Sam Shankland. In the Challengers, it seems clear who will progress to the final phase: Saleh Salem, Vaishali, Alexander Donchenko and Jonas Bjerre. | Photos: Biel Chess Festival
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
€49.90
A memorable world record
Press release by the Biel Chess Festival
On 20 July, International Chess Day, the World Chess Federation FIDE announced a world record attempt - the most chess games played within 24 hours, at one of the more than 800 registered tournaments, or on the major online platforms.
FIDE's technical centre, where all the registered games from the various events were recorded, was located in Biel. As the day progressed, it became clear that a record number of games had been played. The representative of Guinness World Records was therefore able to officially announce the record at around 9 pm in the Biel Congress Centre and present IA Laurent Freyd, the FIDE Operational Director for this event, with the corresponding certificate.
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
At this point, 5.4 million games had been played worldwide, 361 of which were played on Saturday at the Biel Chess Festival. The count continued until midnight CEST.
Masters: Pragg defeats Shankland to stay in the race
Before blitz, the third of the Triathlon categories, starts on Sundat, the fifth round of classical chess was on the programme on Saturday.
Praggnanandhaa celebrated the only win of the day in the Masters, against Sam Shankland. This was desperately needed for the Indian to have a chance of making it into the top four who qualify for the final phase. To do so, he now needs a good result in the blitz to catch either Vincent Keymer, who is 1½ points ahead of him, or Haik Martirosyan, 2½ points ahead. In the event of a tie, Pragg will benefit from his victory in the ACCENTUS Chess960, which will be used as a tie-breaker.
The other games of the day in the Masters ended in draws: between Vincent Keymer and Abhimanyu Mishra, and between leader Le Quang Liem and Haik Martirosyan. The draw allowed the Vietnamese GM to defend his lead, but after a mistake by Martirosyan, a win was even possible for a short time - but Le was unable to find the winning idea.
At best, there are still 10 points to be won in Sunday's blitz games. Nevertheless, after the fifth round of classical chess, it already seems clear which four players will qualify for the final phase of the Challengers. Thanks to victories against Marc'Andria Maurizzi and Ihor Samunenkov, Alexander Donchenko and Jonas Bjerre (the highest-rated players in the Challengers) have all but secured their spots in the final stage.
Saleh Salem and Vaishali, who drew their round-5 encounter, remain at the top. A result that should be doubly annoying for Vaishali. On the one hand, she had a clearly winning position and completely lost her advantage while in time trouble, with the 40th move granting 60 minutes of extra time. Secondly, she will probably play with the disadvantage of the black pieces twice in the three games of the final phase, which will make the path to victory in the Challengers doubly difficult.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
The two top seeded Indian favourites in the Master Tournament MTO are living up to their reputation so far: after six rounds, Leon Luke Mendonca leads with 5½ points, ahead of Aryan Chopra with 5 points. Both were able to win their round-6 games on boards 1 and 2 against Alexander Moiseenko and Yahli Sokolovsky, respectively.
On the next boards, the closest pursuers only managed to score draws, so that no fewer than thirteen players with 4½ points stand a half-point behind Aryan. Among them is, IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, the world's highest-rated female junior player.
The Leningrad Dutch Defence is a dynamic and aggressive opening choice for Black, perfect for players who want to add some adventure and spice to their repertoire.
When so many games are played daily, it is inevitable that a few particularly outstanding encounters take place. To highlight these games, the organisers of the Biel Chess Festival have created the Beauty Award.
Every evening after the rounds are over, the most attractive game from the MTO, HTO and ATO can be voted for on the festival's social media channels. The winners will present their game on the live stream the following day and receive a small gift.
Replay the games that have so far won the awards below.
In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
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.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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