12/19/2022 – The 2022 European Rapid & Blitz Championships took place on December 16-18 in Katowice, Poland. All 22 rounds of blitz were played on Friday, while the 11 rounds of rapid took place over the weekend. Jaime Santos (open) and Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (women’s) won in the rapid section, while David Navara (open) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (women’s) got first place in the blitz section. | Photos: Michal Walusza
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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.
In this video course experts examine the games of Steinitz. Let them show you which openings Steinitz chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
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Returning to Katowice
The capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland has become a well-known place for European players and fans, as Katowice once again hosted the European Rapid and Blitz Championships. In 2021, the city saw local hero Jan-Krzysztof Duda winning the blitz section, while even amid the pandemic, the 2020 edition of the blitz event, which took place online, was inaugurated with a press conference at the city’s International Congress Centre.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Viktor Korchnoi. Let them show you which openings Korchnoi chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
The organizers of this year’s edition proudly described the host city as “a metropolis worth visiting”, emphasizing the fact that the young city combines tradition and industriousness:
Katowice is one of the fastest growing Polish cities. The capital of a province of almost 5 million people, it is well connected with the rest of Europe and the world.
It is the centre of the metropolis, which has undergone deep restructuring in a short period of time, and the dominant elements of the economy have become high-tech services. Another pillar is culture, as evidenced, for example, by the title of UNESCO Creative City in the field of music. The young city, 150 years old, promotes itself with the slogan: “Katowice. For a change.”
The heart-shaped logotype combines, as it were, two faces of the city: the traditional one, with its industrial heritage, and the modern one, creative and economically strong.
The European Rapid and Blitz Tournaments this year were played on a three-day span. Day one, on Friday, saw the more than 800 participants playing 11 double-rounds of 3-minute games with 2-second increments per move. Throughout the weekend, an even larger contingent of players battled it out in the 11-round rapid section, which had a time control of 15 minutes for the game plus 10-second increments per move.
Both events included men and women players. The highest-ranked woman participant in each tournament was declared champion in the women’s category.
Rapid: Santos and Maltsevskaya
Remarkably, in such a large field of players, the winner of the rapid section managed to secure first place without needing tiebreak criteria to decide who takes home the gold medal. Jaime Santos clinched overall victory by beating David Gavrilescu with the black pieces in the final round. No fewer than seven players were tied for first before round 11.
Santos patiently converted his advantage from an advantageous queenless position with rooks and knights still on the board.
Besides having a mobile pawn majority on the kingside, Black has a perfectly placed knight on c4 attacking White’s weak pawn on a3. From this position, after 43 moves, Santos needed over 20 moves of manoeuvring to get the all-important win.
Polish IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya collected 8/11 points to claim the women’s title. A draw with black against her compatriot Jakub Kozakowski in the final round was enough to secure first place.
These video courses feature a black repertoire against 1.d4, 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.
The podium (open section): David Navara (2nd), Jaime Santos (1st) and Daniel Fridman (3rd)
The podium (women’s section): Alexandra Kosteniuk (2nd), Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (1st) and Jolanta Zawadzka (3rd)
Czech star David Navara had the overall strongest performance in Katowice. After winning the blitz section with 17½/22 points — and a better tiebreak score than Maciej Klekowski and Shant Sargsyan — he was among the co-leaders going into the final round of the rapid. A draw with black against Daniil Yuffa on Sunday was what prevented him from getting an unthinkable double win in such a massive event. The close miss does not take away from his excellent showing, though!
Navara’s last rival in the blitz was Lithuanian GM Valery Kazakouski, who in fact defeated him in their first confrontation, and then missed a mate-in-one in a drawn rook endgame.
Grabbing the h-pawn at once with 77.Rxh2 loses immediately to 77...Ra4#. Capturing the passer was the right idea, but only after 77.Rh6+ Kc7, and there is no mate threat any more. But the contenders had already played 77 moves in a 3-minute blitz encounter with everything on the line. It was all about nerves at this point!
Among the women, former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk was the top scorer, as she collected 15½ points throughout the 22 rounds of fast-paced action.
Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of King’s Indian and Pirc structures with colours reversed, often arising from the French or Sicilian.
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