8/29/2022 – Arjun Erigaisi won his final-round game against David Anton to clinch first place at the 28th Abu Dhabi Masters. He played with the sole purpose of winning the game, as he kept manoeuvring until his opponent broke and made a mistake. Javokhir Sindarov and Jorden van Foreest claimed second and third place, scoring 7/9 and 6½/9 points, respectively. Six out out of top ten places were claimed by Indians. | Photo: Rupali Mullick
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
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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An impressive Indian contingent
Indian players had outstanding performances in the Abu Dhabi Masters as they claimed six out of the top ten places. A total of five Indians obtained norms. Apart from Aditya Samant, IM P Shyam Nikhil is the only other IM to finish in the top 25. Shyam scored 6/9 to finish in 21st place. He is one GM norm away from becoming India’s next Grandmaster.
Arjun Erigaisi won his final-round game against David Anton to clinch first place. He played with the sole purpose of winning the game, as he kept manoeuvring until his opponent broke and made a mistake. Javokhir Sindarov and Jorden van Foreest claimed second and third place, scoring 7/9 and 6½/9 points, respectively.
The eventual champion, 18-year-old Arjun, opted for the Exchange Variation when he faced Anton’s Caro-Kann Defence.
Arjun’s knights are stronger than Black’s bishop pair, due to the almost grid-locked pawn structure. White slowly manoeuvred his king to a3 and then started rearranging his pieces to find the best squares and the best plan.
Black decided to give up the f5-pawn as it did not make a big difference. It was more important to control the h-file, thus 43...Qh8 preventing an immediate Rh1. The game continued 44.Nxf5+ Bxf5 45.Qxf5 Qh3 46.Qd3 Qg2 47.Re1 Qf2 48.Re3 Qg1 49.Ne1 preventing all possibilities of a queen invasion on the queenside.
Eventually Black crumbled: 63...Kf8 64.c6+- Rc4 65.Qb2 Rxa4+?? 66.Rxa4 Qxa4+ 67.Qa3+. Black resigned as the resultant pawn ending is completely winning for White. Thus, Arjun Erigaisi won the game and became the champion of 28th Abu Dhabi Masters.
The final moments of the deciding game
Arjun Erigaisi is currently the second-highest rated Indian player in the world. At 18, he has climbed to the world top 25 in the live ratings list!
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
The one who inspired the nation and beyond, Vishy Anand, congratulated Arjun.
In third place - GM Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) scored 6½/9 points | Photo: Rupali Mullick
Interview with Arjun Erigaisi
Final standings
A total of 148 players from 31 countries, including 43 GMs, 35 IMs, 7 WGMs and 3 WIMs, took part. The tournament was organized by the Abu Dhabi Chess Club & Mind Games from on August 17-25. The 9-round Swiss tournament had a time control of 90 minutes plus 30- second increments from move one.
In this video series, it's all about understanding middlegame strategies better. Pawn structures, manoeuvres and concepts are being shown through model games. New: now also available as stream!
Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
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