1/12/2022 – At the end of last year, ChessBase launched a Fritz 18 brilliancy competition, and the winners have now been drawn. We got games from 30 years ago, including photos of original documents, online blitz games and many games against the new Fritz 18 engine. The winners will receive private training with GM Kasimdzhanov, an online blitz tournament against a GM, and vouchers worth 25-50 euros.
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Why memorising endless theory might not be the best path - and how an idea-based repertoire can change your game.
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The Fritz 18 Brilliancy Winners
The first prize goes to:
Dominique C.
After only 14 moves the board is on fire with a brilliant queen sacrifice. Fritz 18 is visibly impressed by the ensuing combination and comments: "hot move!".
In the endgame we then see Dominique's two rooks, two bishops and five pawns fighting against queen, rook, knight and four pawns, where Fritz 18 then finally gives up.
And this is his brilliancy against Fritz 18
Dominique won the private training with Rustam Kasimdzhanov! The Uzbek Grandmaster's Fritztrainer fits Dominique's choice of opening quite well.
On top level the Benoni is a rare guest but with this DVD Rustam Kasimdzhanov this might change. New ways and approaches in most lines and countless improvements of official theory will show you how to play this opening at any level with success.
Thomas F.
Benjamin A.
Valerian G.
German S.
Gerald L.
Egbert S.
Andreas K.
Jorgen H.
Michael H.
Christian B.
Thomas F. won his brilliant game in 1996 against an opponent almost 400 rating points stronger after only 21 moves.
Thomas chose the Portuguese Variation in the Scandinavian. After a really nice textbook bishop sacrifice, White had to resign only eight moves later, as another sacrificial combination with the rook was simply too much.
And this was the brialliancy by Thomas F.
So, all ten players won a blitz tournament on our Playchess server with a surprise GM. Arne Kaehler will host the tournament as usual!
The third prize goes to:
Catharinus M.
Stan Y.
Federico V.
Andreas H.
Paul G.
Fernando M.
Christian W.
Daniel H.
Hay P.
Axel H.
Naushad R.
Catharinus' brilliancy was played in the Netherlands in 2020.
The opening is as hot as five flames, but was thoroughly studied by Catharinus the day before with the Megadatabase until move 10. It works, and White gets a sharp attack.
The nineteenth move Rb5 fulfils several functions, among others taking squares away from the opponent's queen, which also succeeded, because it was gone one move later. Shortly afterwards, Black gave up.
The brilliancy by Catharinus M.
All third prize winners can look forward to a voucher worth 50 euros!
The fourth prize goes to:
Tykhon C.
Carlos M.
Sahil T.
Jan Michael H.
Dennis M.
Valer D.
John H.
Matti P.
Yandy B.
Paul B.
Eleven-year-old Tykhon seemed to have had an easy time with the Grandmaster level of Fritz 18, and you can watch his games against the engine on his YouTube channel.
On move number 25, the Ukrainian CM takes a lot of time and finds the right development to a rook ending, but with three more pawns on his side.
Without "hints" he has dismantled poor Fritz 18.
The streamed brilliancy by Tykhon C.
All winners of the fourth prize can look forward to a voucher worth 25 euros!
The winners will be notified by email next week.
The ChessBase team and Fritz 18 want to thank you for all the great games!
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
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.
€59.90
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