4/3/2021 – A 9-round over-the-board tournament is taking place in La Nucía, a municipality in the comarca of Marina Baixa, Alicante in Spain. No fewer than 180 players registered to participate, 11 of which have a 2400+ Elo rating. After 5 rounds, 58-year-old Armenian grandmaster Karen Movsziszian is the sole leader. | All photos: Patricia Claros Aguilar
new: Fritz 20
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
The “Semana Santa” over-the-board tournament is taking place in La Nucía, Alicante. Organized by Patricia Claros Aguilar with the support of the Valencian Chess Federation, the event is a 9-round Swiss open with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30-second increments from move 1.
Miguel Santos is the top seed, followed by Russian GM Daniil Yuffa and a trio of experienced Spanish grandmasters — Marc Narciso, Salvador del Río and José Cuenca. Former world senior chess champion Karen Movsziszian arrived in La Nucía as the sixth seed and is currently the only player to have won all five of his games.
With four rounds to go (two will be played each day over the weekend), six players are chasing the leader on 4½/5 points. Movsziszian will face his highest challenge so far in round 6, when he will have the black pieces against Narciso. Cuenca v Del Río and Santos v Yuffa are key encounters that will also take place on Saturday morning.
In the following video report, Movsziszian says: “It’s been a year since I last played a tournament, it’s the first game I’ve played in a year. I’m very happy”.
Movsizian, who won the Armenian Championship 30 years ago (in 1981), defeated Cristian Aranda in round 5. The experienced grandmaster played an Anti-Sicilian with g3, and the following position was reached after 14 moves:
Play like Carlsen, avoid theory but without being passive or losing the initiative.
Aranda did not sense the danger and played the developing move 14...Rac8. In hindsight, it’s clear that Black should go for either 14...h6 or 14...Qc7/14...Qe8, removing the queen from the d-file. The point is that White now has 15.c4
At this point, Black should cut his losses and give up a pawn with 15...Nf6 16.Bxf6 Bxf6 17.Nxc5. Instead, going for 15...Nb6 allows 16.cxb5 axb5 and yet another strong central pawn break — 17.d4
Again, the best alternative was to give up material with 17...cxd4 18.Qxb5 and the d-pawn will fall soon — of course, a sad continuation as White gets two connected passers on the queenside. Aranda instead opted for 17...c4, to which White responded with the forceful 18.Nc5
In this video series Pert gives a strong and practical Black repertoire against the Anti-Sicilians such as the Bb5 Sicilian, the Grand Prix Attack, the Alapin and many more, from my years of experience playing the Sicilian.
Now we see why removing the queen from the d-file was necessary a few moves ago. The game continued 18...Qc7 19.Bf4 Bd6
Black has kept the material balance, but his pieces are cramped and unable to deal with White’s attack after 20.Nxe6 fxe6 21.Qxe6 Kf8 22.Ng5
White threatens mate with Nxh7, while after 22...g6 he has 23.Qf6+ Kg8 24.Bh3, and the light-squared bishop is set to join the attack. Black resigned.
There are few names which, like that of Alexei Shirov, can be associated with fantastically imaginative and tactically influenced play. Now the Latvian grandmaster is presenting a DVD on precisely that element of the game of chess. And one that is completely based on his own games.
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 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
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
