Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
After the 2020-21 Candidates Tournament came to an end, Wang Hao shocked the audience by announcing his retirement from competitive chess. The Chinese GM struggled in the double round-robin which faced many difficulties due to the pandemic, and noted his health issues had prompted him to make such a drastic decision. Since then, he played only two classical tournaments: Norway Chess and the Abu Dhabi Masters, both in 2022. Now, the 33-year-old from Harbin entered the Prague Masters as the top seed.
Middlegame Secrets Vol.1 + Vol.2
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
In the first round, Wang faced Vincent Keymer, who in contrast has been very active in the grandmaster circuit. The young German entered a sharp variation of the Slav, castling long and thus creating a double-edged battle. Following complications, Keymer emerged with a superior endgame position. The final, technical phase of the game was not a walk in the park, but Keymer managed to outplay his opponent to grab an early lead in Czechia’s capital.
All four remaining games finished drawn. Out of the eight players who collected a half point on Wednesday, Sam Shankland is the one that missed the biggest chance, as he got a favourable structure against Boris Gelfand in an endgame position with queens and knights.
Sam Shankland has played in all five editions of the Prague Festival | Photo: Petr Vrabec
In this DVD, Erwin l'Ami guides you through the fascinating Benko Gambit. As early as move three Black starts a fight for the initiative, a strategy that has proved to be successful in countless amateur and master level games.
Peter Leko played the ceremonial first move in the game between Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Pentala Harikrishna — the Czech player went for 1.e4 as ‘suggested’ by Leko | Photo: Petr Vrabec
FM Vaclav Finek, aged 13, is the lowest-rated player in the Challengers. The youngster, a promising talent representing the host country, managed to start off on the right foot, as he got the better of Indian GM Akash G to grab an early lead in the 10-player single round-robin.
Attack like a Super Grandmaster
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM†with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Vaclav Finek, the early leader | Photo: Petr Vrabec
