9/8/2019 – The Polish Team Championship wrapped up this week with eight-time "Extraliga" champions WASKO Hetman Katowice and its star players GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, GM David Navara, GM Bartosz, GM Monika Socko and others winning yet another title. WGM KETI TSATSALASHVILI was there. | Photo: David Llada / ekstraliga2019.pzszach.pl
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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. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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Star power prevails
The Polish team championship is a ten team round-robin tournament held in Silesian region of Poland from August 28th to September 5th. Arsenal Palace Hotel in Chorzow hosted the first five rounds, then the tournament moved for the last four rounds to the beautiful office building of Silesian Voivodeship (the regional government) in Katowice.
Each team consisted of six players, including a mandatory female board. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one.
The favourites, WASKO Hetman Katowice, won the title, after scoring eight match wins and giving up only one draw.
The closing ceremony | Photo: Keti Tsatsalashvili
Katowice "city of chess" hosted the World University Chess Championship 2014, European Blitz and Rapid chess championship in 2017 and 7 editions of Polish-Hungarian friendship chess tournament.
The Red carpet was followed by Gala dinner with all players, city officials, sponsors, and local artists were invited for the opening ceremony. As a show of the support from the local community, the Mayor of city Katowice, Marcin Krupa, visited the Polish Extraliaga multiple times. He made the ceremonial move (1.c4) on the game between GM Monika Socko and WGM Jolanta Zawadzka.
Mayor Krupa playing the first move for GM Socko
The event was organized by local team WASKO Hetman Katowice and was supported by Coca-Cola Polska as a part of a cooperation agreement with FIDE; other main sponsors were WASKO, COIG and MOKATE.
The winning team, WASKO Hetman Katowice, gave up only one draw to the team of Wieża Pęgów in round eight, largely thanks to GM Wojciech Moranda's upset win — with the black pieces — against GM David Navara.
Grandmaster Daniel King presents ten exemplary attacking performances. At key moments he stops and asks you to play a move. King then gives feedback on the most plausible continuations. It’s the next best thing to having your own personal trainer!
Navara is on the attack but Moranda shuts it down with 26...e4! And it's White's kingside, with its weak point at h2 that is suddenly exposed! Black missed some key moves but eventually converted to a pawn-up rook endgame with a win in 62 moves.
Navara can certainly be an aggressive attacker when he wants to, as GM Daniel King recently explored in his Power Play Show, featuring another game from Katowice:
"VOTUM SA Polonia Wrocław" with GM Harikrishna Panpala (IND), GM Mateusz Bartel fought until the last rounds for the gold. In the most critical match in seventh round, they were defeated by WASKO Hetman Katowice by a score of 2½:3½.
"VOTUM SA Polonia Wrocław" | Photo: Keti Tsatsalashvili
GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2730) played four games, winning two and drawing two, for the winning team. The vital victory against his national teammate Mateusz Bartel was decisive for WASKO Hetman Katowice in round seven.
The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.
Duda gets set for action | Photo: David Llada
GM Mateusz Bartel (2612) played for "VOTUM SA Polonia Wrocław" and scored 6½/9 | Photo: David Llada
Indian number 2 player GM Pantela Harikrishna (2738) had fantastic performance on the 1st board; he scored 5½ out of 7 games | Photo: Przemek Nikiel
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation is one of the most important opening systems, having been played by most of the great players in history and from both sides of the board. The most outstanding specialists in this method of play include Garry Kasparov, Mikhail Botvinnik and Samuel Reshevsky. The Black side proponents include Anatoly Karpov, Boris Spassky and Paul Keres. It is truly an opening of champions!
Czech number 1 GM David Navara (2724) a member of champion team “WASKO Hetman Katowice” | Photo: David Llada
German GM Niclas Huschenbeth (2620) played on the 1st board for “KSz Silesia Racibórz” | Photo: David Llada
The bronze medal winner "Wieża Pęgów" was the only team which was capable of drawing against leader team | Photo: Przemek Nikiel
FM Antoni Szustakowski (2256) (right on the photo) achieved his IM norm in round 7, and GM norm in round 9 | Photo: Przemek Nikiel
Bologan: "If you study this DVD carefully and solve the interactive exercises you will also enrich your chess vocabulary, your King's Indian vocabulary, build up confidence in the King's Indian and your chess and win more games."
IM Iulija Osmak (2414) from Ukraine had terrific performance and scored 5 points out of 8 | Photo: David Llada
Special attention will be paid to Intermediate Moves, Quiet Moves, Sacrifices on Empty Squares, Mating Patterns, Ignoring Opponents Threat, Calculation in Defence and Method of Comparison. Plus 50 interactive examples to test your knowledge.
WFM Leks, Maria (2129) played for “KSz Dwie Wieże Kraków” but had a day off in round 8 and joined the live commentary team | Photo: David Llada
European Chess TV provided live broadcast on FIDE official YouTube channel with English commentary, interviews and daily reports.
Commentators: IM Piotr An Nguean (2409) also played one game for KSz Dwie Wieże Kraków, WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili (2372) from Georgia | Photo: David Llada
Keti TsatsalashviliKeti is a Georgian Woman Grandmaster and chess commentator. She is also a six-time medal winner at the European and World Youth Championships.
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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