8/29/2020 – A few months ago we reported about Nakamura making a cameo in the award-winning and critically acclaimed series Billions. He did not stop there, he kept growing the game by involving more mainstream stars in chess. He even taught chess to World Strongest Man 2018, Hafþór J. Björnsson a.k.a. ‘The Mountain’ of Game of Thrones. Moreover, a few days before his impressive performance at the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour Finals, Nakamura crossed 500K followers on Twitch. With that rapidly-gaining momentum, the esports teams TSM tweeted about their signing with Nakamura. This is only going to be good for chess in every aspect one can fathom. | Photo: Amruta Mokal
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.
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.
€39.90
Nakamura continues to expand his horizon
A couple of days ago, Messi leaving Barcelona shocked Barça fans all over the world. When Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo or a cricketer switches teams/franchises, a lot of emotions are involved among the fans. Some get happy about the player’s wish and some feel sad that they have to make a difficult decision — either stick with their favourite team or support the new team where his/her favourite player is going. It can be both too. Last night when TSM (Team SoloMid) announced the signing of World no.1 in Blitz Hikaru Nakamura, it definitely generated a lot of positive reactions in both the chess and esports universes.
Starting out in chess is difficult, and this DVD aims to reduce that stress. Designed for beginner levels in openings, a brief introduction to the reasons we play some of the most common moves in popular openings like the Spanish and Sicilian is given.
Who is TSM?
Team SoloMid (TSM) is a professional esports organization based in the USA. It was founded in September 2009 by Andy “Reginald” Dinh. TSM currently fields players in League of Legends, Apex Legends, Valorant, Hearthstone, Super Smash Bros., Fortnite, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, PUBG Mobile, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege, Magic: The Gathering Arena and recently included chess. The organization previously had a Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team based in Denmark, which later became Astralis and also briefly owned an Overwatch team. TSM’s League of Legends team has won six of the total fifteen splits of North America’s League of Legends Championship Series (LCS).
TSM is sponsored by Lenovo, GEICO, Logitech, GrubHub and Twitch. Previous partners include Nerf and Dr. Pepper.
What does this signing mean?
Now you must be wondering what is the significance of this signing. Will Hikaru start streaming more Fall Guys, Fortnite or something? Well that's not the case. TSM asked the fans what kind of content they wanted to see.
So it is evident that Hikaru will be doing what he does best — something related to chess. However, it is not limited to chess only. Since TSM is a premier esports team, and they have professional teams in a number of famous games, a crossover from chess to any esports or vice-versa is highly likely.
Now you must be wondering if Hikaru is the first signing to a professional esports team. Well it is certainly one of the biggest acquisition among top chess players in the world, however, a few days ago Nakamura himself tweeted about WGM Qiyu Zhou signing with CLG.
I wanted to take a minute to congratulate the multi-hyphenate, wildly talented [Qiyu Zhou] on her signing with [CLG]. For those who don’t know her, she’s a WGM, a brilliant student, a former child World Champion in chess, and a true gamer. Catch her at http://twitch.tv/akanemsko
With over 2 million followers on Twitter, 2.3 million on YouTube, 3 million on Instagram, TSM is definitely a game changer. We can only hope for more people to start picking up chess, be it as a player, spectator, promoter or as a sponsor.
What’s the easiest way to win a chess game? We all know finding a good tactic in a game can let you win a point immediately. Therefore, Fundamentals of Tactics is an excellent choice for you if you wish to learn how to start finding tactics in your games!
Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
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.
EXPAND YOUR CHESS HORIZONS
It doesn't get any better than this: the premium equipment perfect for tournament players and professionals: with ChessBase program '26, Mega Database, CORR-Database and much more.
€499.90
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.
