Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: Beating the World Champion

by Robert Ris
5/18/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at the encounter between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and World Champion Gukesh at the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. Gukesh tried a popular line in the Scotch, but things soon went wrong for the World Champion. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
This video course offers you a complete, clear repertoire for Black against the moves 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.

Robert Ris: "Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won his game against World Champion Gukesh in just 31 moves. The players followed a popular opening strategy in the Scotch, with Black quickly bringing the queen out to f6.

However, things soon went horribly wrong for Gukesh, who found himself in an absolutely hopeless situation. MVL demonstrated superb technique, converting his advantage seamlessly. In this episode, you will also learn how Black's play in this variation could have been improved."

Exercise: Exercise: Make a plan for White!

M. Vachier-Lagrave - Gukesh, Superbet Classic, Bucharest 2025
White to play

Feel free to move the pieces on the live diagram!

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Topics: Fast and Furious
Robert is an International Master who mostly spends his time training and coaching talented youngsters. On the PlayChess server The Fast and the Furious is a popular show where he explains sharp opening lines for a wider audience. He is also a well-known ChessBase author who produced numerous DVDs and regularly contributes to ChessBase Magazine as well. Since 2015 he is the organizer of the Dutch Rapid Championships in his home town Amstelveen. He has started a YouTube channel with chess analysis as well.
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Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: A tactical slugfest

5/8/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at the encounter between World Champion Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa in the first round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest. An interesting opening quickly turned into a complicated and highly entertaining tactical slugfest. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.
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Robert Ris' Fast and Furious: An interesting idea in the Reti

4/25/2025 – In his new Fast & Furious show, Robert Ris looks at an interesting, surprisingly tricky line in the Reti. | Fast & Furious is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can <a href="https://account.chessbase.com/en/create-account" target="_blank">register a Premium account here</a>.
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Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.

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