8/5/2016 – The last piece of the Biel Chess Festival puzzle was finally completed: the prestigious Main Open. It saw the top spots fought over by dozens of grandmasters and masters hailing from all over the world. The top seed was Russian GM Nikita Vitiugov (2728), but the player in form who dominated it was US grandmaster Sam Shankland, scoring one of the best victories of his career.
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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The 49th International Chess Festival Biel is taking place from Saturday, July 23 until Wednesday, August 3 2016. The exact schedule and further information are now published on the official website. Here are the main links:
Sam Shankland first came into visibility during the campaign of the US team during the Tromso Olympiad, where he not only was a top scoring player, but was also enjoying a fantastic run of over 60 games undefeated. In spite of making it into the Top 100 and hovering around there, he had not been able to break past this peak. During the US Championships he said that he remained ambitious for more and optimistic. His victory at Biel, with 7.5/9 and a 2806 performance will rank as one of his best, and helps finally push him closer to the 2700 mark as he gains 18 Elo, and features at 2679 on the Live Ratings list.
Sam Shankland on the road to 2700
In the following game, Shankland faces yet another challegner to the gold: Ivan Saric (2660).
Shankland - Saric
[Event "49th Biel Master Open"] [Site "Biel SUI"] [Date "2016.08.01"] [Round "7.1"] [White "Shankland, Samuel L"] [Black "Saric, Ivan"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E11"] [WhiteElo "2661"] [BlackElo "2660"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2016.07.25"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Qe7 5. Nc3 b6 6. e3 O-O 7. Bd3 Bb7 8. O-O a5 (8... Bxc3 9. Bxc3 Ne4 10. Bxe4 Bxe4 11. Nd2 Bb7 12. e4 d6 13. f4 f5 14. exf5 Rxf5 15. Qg4 Qf7 16. Rae1 Nd7 17. Re3 Rf8 18. Qe2 Rxf4 19. Rxf4 Qxf4 20. Rxe6 Nf6 21. d5 Bc8 22. Re7 Bg4 23. Qe1 Rf7 24. h3 Bc8 25. Nf3 Bxh3 26. Bxf6 Qxf6 27. Re8+ Rf8 28. Rxf8+ Kxf8 29. Qe3 Bf5 30. Nd4 Bd7 31. b3 h6 32. Ne2 Kf7 33. Nf4 g5 34. Ne2 Qe5 35. Qf3+ Qf5 36. Qe3 Qf6 37. Ng3 Qa1+ 38. Kh2 $17 { 1-0 (54) Kazhgaleyev,M (2582)-Grischuk,A (2747) Almaty 2016}) 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Bxc3 Ne4 11. Be1 f5 12. Nd2 Ng5 13. f4 Nf7 14. e4 Nh6 15. Qe2 d6 16. Nf3 Nd7 17. Bh4 {This Bishop maneuver, culminating in the win, aims to trade off the knight on d6 for the bishop. If this sounds odd, the point is that the dark-squared bishop is confined due to the numerous pawns on its own color making it the 'bad' bishop.} Qe8 18. Rae1 Qh5 19. Bg5 Rae8 20. Bxh6 Qxh6 21. Ng5 Qg6 {[#]} 22. d5 $1 {This move not only cuts off the diagonal for the black bishop, but also attacks and seizes control of the e6 square for the knight.} Nf6 23. exf5 exf5 24. Ne6 Rf7 25. Qc2 Ng4 26. h3 Nh6 27. Nd4 (27. g4 { was a bit better, pressing forward its claim to the f5 pawn.}) 27... Rxe1 28. Rxe1 Rf8 29. Qf2 Bc8 30. Nb5 Qf7 31. Qh4 Re8 32. Nxc7 Rxe1+ 33. Qxe1 Bd7 34. Qe3 g5 35. fxg5 f4 36. Qd4 Bf5 37. gxh6 Bxd3 38. Qxd3 Qxc7 39. Qd4 Qf7 40. Kf2 1-0
Sam Shankland faced one top grandmaster after another and always managed to protect his place under the sun. Here he faces Eltaj Safarli from Azerbaidjan, with whom he drew. Safarli finished in sole second wtih 7.0/9.
Indian Krishna Sasikiran was one of two Indians to finish within the top ten players
GM Saleh Salem scored 6.5/9 with a near 2700 performance
Vladimir Baklan from Ukraine finished with 6.5/9 and in seventh place on tiebreak
Nikita Vitiugov was the top seed with 2728 FIDE but had to content himself with 6.0/9 and a modest eleventh place
Biel Master Class Korchnoi summary with Yannick Pelletier and Daniel King
A blitz game played on a giant board between Yannick Pelletier and Daniel King
The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech as well as the author of Typing Tomes, a powerful typing program.
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This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
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.
€49.90
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