4/23/2019 – Daniel Fridman won the Grenke Open 2019 thanks to having the best tiebreak score among eight players finishing with 7½/9. Three other German grandmasters shared the same score as did the 12-year-old Indian phenom D. Gukesh. Yuliya Shvayger was the top scoring woman. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
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.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
€21.90
The German #3 will have a shot in the Classic
Daniel Fridman took top honours in Karlsruhe on Monday evening. Seven grandmasters, besides Fridman, finished the tournament with 7½ points: Anton Korobov, Andreas Heimann, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Gukesh, Matthias Bluebaum, Alexander Donchenko and Tamas Banusz. Of these, Daniel Fridman had the best tiebreak score and was declared the tournament winner with the option to participate in the Grenke Chess Classic next year. In addition, he can look forward to the first prize of EUR €13,000.
Fridman's victory was convincing, but sometimes he got a little helf from his opponents. To wit, the following situation against the Hamburg IM Malte Colpe in round three:
Black played powerfully 35...♜c3 and after 36.♗xc3 ♛xc3 37.♖d1 ♞xd3 White was finished.
Instead, Malte Colpe could have posed a few problems with 36.h7+ ♚h8 37.♕h2 f6 38.♗xc3 ♛xc3 39.♖d1 and now Black can not afford 39...♞xd3: 40.♕b8+ ♚xh7 41.♖h1 + and mate in a few moves.
The Open Games begin after the moves 1.e4 e5. The name results from the fact that the position often opens quickly which might lead to an early clash of the enemy pieces. Typical examples are the Scotch Opening, the Two Knights Defence or the venerable King’s Gambit. But the most important openings after 1.e4 e5 are the Italian Game and the Ruy Lopez, and here the game often develops more slowly. On this DVD the International Master Georgios Souleidis presents these and all other relevant openings arising after 1.e4 e5 in 36 videos.
In a post-tournament interview (in German) with ChessBase contributor Georgios Souleidis, Fridman said this was one of his best individual tournament results in his career, and he was looking forward to competing with the likes of Magnus Carlsen in front of a global audience next year. He notes that he had a little luck in Karlsruhe, but a player needs a little luck to win such a large and strong tournament.
Interview with Georgios Souleidis (in German)
The German chess fans have a lot to be happy about. In addition to Fridman, GMs Andreas Heimann, Matthias Blübaum and Alexander Donchenko also shared first place. Other young talents GM Rasmus Svane, GM Dennis Wagner and IM Luis Engel finished just a half point behind with 7.0/9, leaving many strong international grandmasters in their wake.
Engel scored a GM norm — his second in the recent past after the Hamburg student also earned a norm in the German League.
The young Indian D. Gukesh performed especially well, also reaching the eight-way tie on 7½ points. The twelve-year-old has been in the news for becoming the second youngest player after Sergey Karjakin to be awarded the Grandmaster title.
The scene of the Open | Photo: Gerd Densing
Alizera Firouzja also finished with seven points. The young Iranian young star hot off a second place finish in the Reykjavik Open arrived as one of the Elo the favourites. But he torpedoed his tournament chances in the third and fourth rounds when the 15-year-old grandmaster didn't turn up for his game rather than play against the Israeli FM Or Bronstein, and risk upsetting the political leadership of his country.
This was presumably still weighing on him the next morning when he blundered a rook against Antonia Ziegenfuss, a class-A player.
Alireza Firouzja and Antonia Ziegenfuss | Photo: Bernd Vökler
After these back-to-back losses, Firouzja won all his remaining games, but of course he did not have to compete against top players.
The special prize for the best woman went to Yuliya Shvayger — the wife of German GM (playing for Azerbaijan) Arkadij Naiditsch — thanks better tiebreak in front of Klaudia Kulon, Alexandra Obolentseva and a few others.
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
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
