7/9/2020 – The corona pandemic did not prevent the organizers of the Leon Masters (Magistral Ciudad de León) from launching the 33rd edition of the traditional yearly event. The main event, to be played on July 10-12, is a four-player knockout with two Spanish players and a couple of international stars. In the semifinals, Alexei Shirov will face local hero Jaime Santos, while Leinier Dominguez will play defending champion Parham Mahgsoodloo. Given the circumstances, the games will be played online. | Photos: Official site
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In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
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The tradition lives on
The “Magistral Ciudad León” will take place for a 33rd consecutive year, this time on the online platform chess.com. A long-standing tradition, it has seen some of the strongest players of our era winning the event: Veselin Topalov, Garry Kasparov, Vishy Anand (nine-time winner), Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So and two participants of this year’s edition — Alexei Shirov and defending champion Parham Maghsoodloo.
Alexei Shirov shows on this DVD how White can develop pressure and seize the initiative with 5.Re1 against the Berlin Wall.
Although the players will not meet at the “Auditorio Ciudad de León” for obvious reasons, the same format from recent years will be in place. Two Spanish players — Alexei Shirov and Jaime Santos — will be joined by Leinier Dominguez and Parham Maghsoodloo in a knockout tournament that will last three days.
Santos, who was born in Leon, is actually the second highest-rated player in the event if we go by rapid ratings. Both Shirov and Maghsoodloo ar higher rated than Santos in the standard ranking (classical), but the Leonese has proven that rapid chess is his forte — in fact, Santos drew Anand and Paco Vallejo in the rapid section of the semifinals in 2017 and 2018, but ended up losing on tiebreaks.
After Thursday’s drawing of lots, the pairings for the semifinals look as follows (all rounds start at 17:30 CEST):
Friday: Shirov vs. Santos
Saturday: Dominguez vs. Maghsoodloo
Sunday: Final
Each match will consist of four rapid games (20 minutes for the whole game, with 10-second increments from move one). In case of a draw, two blitz games will follow (5 minutes + 3-second increments), and if the tie has not been broken the match winner will be decided in Armageddon (White gets 6 minutes, Black gets 5 minutes and draw odds).
The games will be broadcast with commentary on the official YouTube channel. If you understand Spanish, you can also enjoy the 29-minute presentation of the event:
The Smith-Morra Gambit (1.e4 c5 2.d4!) is a great attacking weapon against the popular Sicilian . On move two White sacrifices a pawn for fast development and good attacking chances, and Black can easily fall into one of the many devious opening traps.
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.
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.
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The “Magistral Ciudad León” will take place for a 33rd consecutive year, this time on the online platform 
