8/26/2016 – This year's Olympiad will be held in Crystal Hall in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (seating capacity: 25,000) and promises to be one of the finest in chess history. The budget is 13.3 million Euros and preparations reflect that commitment. ChessBase will be covering the event extensively. Here for starts is a preview of previous Chess Olympiads by someone who has attended them all since 1992. Enjoy a long interesting trip down memory lane.
new: ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2022
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training!
Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
ChessBase is a personal, stand-alone chess database that has become the standard throughout the world. Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it.
No other World Champion was more infamous both inside and outside the chess world than Bobby Fischer. On this DVD, a team of experts shows you the winning techniques and strategies employed by the 11th World Champion.
€359.90
2016 Baku Olympiad Baku preview
By Manuel Weeks
The traditional chess Olympiad is beginning on the 1st of September and
for chess players it is the true chess festival, an amalgamation of the
top elite players battling for the medals alongside amateur teams from some
of the smallest countries in the world. It is also the only major event
where the number of female participants is close to their male counterparts.
For two weeks everyone plays under one roof, making it a truly special tournament
that is held every two years.
Looking ahead to the Baku Olympiad it is more newsworthy to note who is
missing from the top teams participating. The real news was the choice of
the Armenian Federation to not send a contingent to Baku due to the political
climate between Azerbaijan and Armenia. It means that a team who in recent
times was twice champions of the Olympiad will not participate.
Such stars of the chess world as Vishy Anand, Peter Svidler, Vassily Ivanchuk,
Boris Gelfand are not representing their countries and with the absence
of Armenia, it means Levon Aronian will not be present. Vishy Anand has
often decided to give Olympiads a miss, with the randomness of the Swiss
system, the zero tolerance rule often been quoted as factors.
The Russian federation had ten 2700+ players to choose from, so the absence
of Svidler may not be felt. Ivanchuk, who has one of the best Olympiad records
in history, is not representing Ukraine reportedly due to his new passion
for draughts! A draughts tournament in Poland will be graced by the Ukranian
but the chess world hopes that one of its modern day geniuses will soon
be back pushing knights and bishops instead!
The absence of Boris Gelfand for Israel and for that matter Emil Sutovsky
seems to be due to a dispute with their own chess federation. For lovers
of chess it brings a touch of sadness to know these two great fighting,
creative players will not be there in Baku representing their country.
The Russian team are the traditional favourites by rating but have not
been successful in recent years, they could put together various strong
teams and have gone for the lineup of Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin,
Alexander Grischuk, Evgeny Tomashevsky and Ian Nepomniachtchi. It seems
incredible that the last time the Russian team was successful was in Bled,
2002. In that event the team comprised of Garry Kasparov, Alexander Grischuk,
Alexander Khalifman, Alexander Morozevich, Peter Svidler and Sergey Rublevsky.
In recent editions of the Olympiad teams with a great team chemistry have
been successful, like Armenia and China, so it will be interesting to see
whether the Russian team can live up to top billing.
Someone is missing from this photo of the Russian
team that was victorious in Bled…
Ah yes, it was Garry Kasparov (above playing
Christopher Lutz) leading the way.
Bled 2002 was the last time the Russian team
won the Olympiad [Bled photos by Anna Dergatscheva]
The second seeds are the lads from the USA, the only team with three players
in the current top ten. Fabio Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Sam Shankland
and Ray Robson make up a team that have high expectations. A quick glance
shows why there is a rise in chess in the US with everyone on the team under
the age of thirty and Hikaru Nakamura being the eldest! It must be noted
that the “old head” will certainly belong to their captain John
Donaldson who was first captain of the US team in 1986!
The defending champions, China, are the third seeds with Wang Yue , Li
Chao, Ding Liren , Yu Yangyi and Wei Yi. This is another team dominated
by youth with no player over the age of thirty. No one can forget their
outburst of emotion after winning the last Olympiad in Tromso, Norway.
To see such supposedly inscrutable players hug each other with tears of
joy will always be remembered as an iconic moment in the chess Olympiad
history. China has showed in recent years that they are the new superpower
in world chess with many of the world’s risings stars as well as the
current women’s world champion being Chinese.
The young Chinese team won the 41st Chess Olympiad
in Tromsø, Norway
The home nation Azerbaijan are the fourth seeds with a make-up of Shakh
Mamedyarov, Teimour Radjabov, Rauf Mamedov, Eltaj Safarli and Arkadij Naiditsch
and the familiar name of Alexey Dreev as their captain. Azerbaijan as host
nation are entitled to enter more than one team and are in fact fielding
three in the open tournament.
Why has the team from Russia not been as successful as in years gone past
when they were seemingly invincible? Many factors can be discussed but it
should be noted that in 1990 it was still the era of the Soviet Union where
players could be chosen from what are now many countries. An interesting
fact is that the 1990 Novi Sad Soviet Union Champions comprised of (in board
order) Ivanchuk (now Ukraine), Gelfand (Belarus then Israel), Alexander
Beliavsky (Ukraine, now Slovenia), Artur Yusupov (now Germany), Leonid Yudasin
(now Israel) and Evgeny Bareev (now Canada).
In the 1992 Manila Olympiad the Soviet Union had broken up and various
new strong countries appeared on the scene. The Russian team was playing
officially for the first time and I allow myself a memory since it was my
own first Olympiad where I was a young arbiter. Before the second round
I was told to go to the stage to help a senior Spanish speaking official,
and before I knew it I was given the Russia vs Switzerland match to look
after. The first player to arrive was a young, tall, long haired kid with
glasses who had the temerity to sit down where the Russian team would be
sitting. I did not have the team compositions, but he was certainly not
one of the many Russian players I knew. The young man made himself feel
comfortable and a few minutes later GMs Dolmatov and Dreev arrived and gave
him a nod of recognition. I had heard rumours that Garry Kasparov had demanded
the inclusion of a young kid who was not even an International Master on
the fabled Russian team. Little did I know this was 17-year-old FM Vladimir
Kramnik! During my recent visit in Hamburg Frederic Friedel told me the
following story:
I visited the Dortmund tournament in Summer 1992, arriving during round
three. The players were in a kind of boxing ring in the middle of the
hall, with the spectators surrounding them. Garry Kasparov was playing
against Gata Kamsky. When I entered he spotted me and nodded. A while
later, while the game was in full progress, he got up, went to the side
and spoke with his wife. After a few minutes she got up, went to the back
where I was sitting and took me by the hand, leading me out of the hall.
A local newspaper journalist saw it all transpire and wrote about the
incident the next day, speculating what Kasparov could have told his wife
to do ("Take Fred out of the hall, I have a bad position against
Kamsky"?).
Well, this is what actually happened: she led me to the B section of
the tournament, down the aisles of chess games under way, scanning the
name signs. At last she stopped and pointed to a player. "That's
Kramnik," she whispered. "Really?" I replied, "Okay,
but why are you showing him to me? Who is he?" "I have no idea,"
she said. "Garry told me to do so."
Later that evening Garry explained that this lad, who had just turned
seventeen a few days earlier, was destined for greatness. He insisted
I quickly learn his name by heart, and write about his progress in the
top levels of chess. When he got back to Moscow Garry proposed that Vlady
Kramnik be included in the Russian Olympiad team – to the horror
of the chess authorities, who had a list of at least a dozen players who
were stronger and more senior to the boy. But Garry insisted, even threatening
to abandon the team if his wish was not horoured. They relented and Kramnik
got to play in Manila.
I myself wondered whether bringing such a young boy to play on the team
a smart idea. Imagine if he got nervous, was ground down a few times by
some more experienced players and became a liability? As the arbiter of
the match I paid a little extra attention to the game versus IM Jean Luc
Costa. As Black in a Slav Meran the young Kramnik played a nice attacking
game where he sacrificed a piece for a devastating kingside attack. I wondered
what would happen once he started to meet stronger opposition? Would he
draw and allow his more experienced teammates to bring home the full point?
Against a field that included the young Loek Van Wely and experienced GMs
like Lanka, Nunn and Seirawan he scored 8.5/9! Only GM Helgi Olafsson escaped
with a half point! Now Vladimir Kraminik is yet again leading Russia but
as the elder statesman of the team, a man in his forties!
Kramnik during the 1992 Manila Olympiad...
... and discussing a game there in his ChessBase
DVD My
Path to the Top (2007)
Vladimir
Kramnik
My Path to the Top
Born in 1975 in Tuapse on the shores of the Black Sea, Vladimir Kramnik
studied at the Botvinnik-Kasparov chess school. At 17 he was included
in the Russian Olympiad team and scored a sensational 8.5/9, the best
result at the Olympiad. After that followed a string of great tournament
results, culminating in a World Championship in 2000. Kramnik played
the chess legend Garry Kasparov and beat him to take the title, which
he successfully defended in 2004 against Peter Leko and 2006 against
FIDE champion Veselin Topalov, whom he defeated to take the unified
world championship title.
On this DVD Vladimir Kramnik retraces his career from talented schoolboy
to World Champion in 2006. With humour and charm he describes his
first successes, what it meant to be part of the Russian Gold Medal
team at the Olympiad, and how he undertook the Herculean task of beating
his former mentor and teacher Garry Kasparov. Kramnik dissects his
wins against Leko and Topalov, giving us a vivid impression of the
super-dramatic final games of the 2006 match. His commentary is full
of useful advice and provides a fascinating insight into the thought
processes that govern top level play.
The DVD contains more than six hours of video with narrative and
game analysis. There are also five additional segments from an exclusive
video interview on the intrigues that surrounded the 2006 world championship,
and on the state of the chess world in general.
Price: €39.99; €33.61 without VAT (outside
the EU); $36.30 (without VAT)
World Champion Magnus Carlsen will still be in Baku, but his Norwegian
team does not seem to have the strength to realistically challenge. With
both Peter Leko and Judit Polgar (retired, now captain) missing from the
team roaster it will be up to new star Richard Rapport to lead the Hungarian
team. Former champions Ukraine with the absence of perennial board one Vasily
Ivanchuk will have to rely on Pavel Elajanov to hold board one, with Ruslan
Ponomariov, Yuri Kryvoruchko, Anton Korobov and Andre Volokitin in support.
The French team has strength in depth and quality on board one with Maxime
Vachier Lagrave enjoying his 2800+ status, but it will be lacking Etienne
Bacrot, who reportedly is now the head coach of the Azerbaijani team. It
is interesting to ponder that the once wonderkind is now 33 and working
as a coach. It does show that with the addition of Alexey Dreev as team
captain that Azerbaijani are taking the Olympiad very seriously.
Azerbaijani team in a preparation session earlier
this year
The Women’s Olympiad has been won by the Russians in 2010, 2012 and
2014 so they should start favourites in Baku with the team of Alexandra
Kosteniuk, Valentina Gunina, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Natalija Pogonina and
Olga Girya.
The formal Russian women’s team, with
captain Sergei Rublevsky…
… and time for a selfie in nice clothes!
The top seeds are in fact China with the team of Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Ju
Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Guo Qi. If the women’s world champion, who
clearly out-rates the rest of her competitors, is on form then it will be
hard for anyone to resist. But in the Olympiads it is usually someone on
the lower boards who becomes the engine room of the team and continues to
bring in the points. Hou Yifan will need plenty of help from her teammates
in order to return the gold medal to China.
The new superpower in world chess last year
in Tromso picking up the Gaprindashvili Cup given to the best overall result
of open and women
The Ukraine team led by the Muzychuk sisters, above in a commemorative
stamp, would seem to be the dark horses but would need some luck in their
individual matches against China and the Russian team in order to be successful.
The venue of the 42nd Chess Olympiad is Baku's
Crystal Hall, an indoor arena
built in 2012 and located on the coast of Baku. The hall can hold 25,000
spectators.
Baku Crystal Hall (Baki Kristal Zali) at night
The budget for the Olympiad is 13.3 million Euros. Some 6.8 million Euros
are set aside for the first-class accommodation for the players and delegates.
Another one million Euros go to the FIDE Commission for World Championships
& Olympiads and intellectual rights.
This is how you advertise you Twitter hashtag
these days
Transportation in Baku in special Chess Olympiad
cars
A countdown electronic billboard on the highway
makes sure you don't miss anything
The Olympiad committe invited the renowned
Ukrainian 3D street artist Alex Maxiov to produce an image dedicated to
the 42nd World Chess Olympiad in the National Park (near the Puppet Theater)
It took Alex three days to complete the 3D
image with the venue of the Olympiad, Crystal Hall, and a chess board descending
into the playing area on an American roller coaster.
Baku Chess Olympiad promotional video with
professional computer graphics...
... with human images included ...
... and well-known players' faces – very
nice indeed. How many can you identify?
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on
the server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there
and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase
or any of our Fritz
compatible chess programs.
Manuel WeeksManuel has been an international arbiter, a national coach at various world Juniors, a press officer, the Director of various tournaments and has been to eleven Olympiads as captain of the Australian Open team. Straight after the last Olympiad a small group went immediately from Tromso to Mainz to see Manuel get married to his lovely wife Brigitta. They live in London.
Videos: Romain Edouard starts his series "Critical Lines in the Dragon", Leon Mendonca shows Caro-Kann (3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.N1e2). "Lucky bag" with 44 annotated games - analyses by Kapnisis, Mikhalchishin, Sasikiran and many others!
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!
Let us explore together how the rooks should enter the game in the early middlegame, how they operate on open files and how they sometimes join a deadly attack, being transferred in front of the pawn chain and many more topics!
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!
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 10947 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 1232 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes video course you will learn the ins-and-outs of the Grivas Sicilian which starts after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6!
€9.90
Fritztrainer in App Store
for iPads and iPhones
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.