8/6/2022 – Team India B, four debutants still in their teens, created the biggest and most sensational upset of the 44th Chess Olympiad today by routing the top seed and star-studded USA Team 3-1. The sensation of the day – and of the entire Olympiad so far – was the performance of Dommaraju Gukesh. The sixteen-year-old had won all of his first seven games, and now faced former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana, with the black pieces. So what did the lad do: he outplayed and actually mated his illustrious opponent! You can watch it all unfold in an exciting video report | Photo Stev Bonhage
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.
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.
In this course, Grandmaster Felix Blohberger delivers a complete opening repertoire for White, centred around the flexible move 1.Nf3.
€34.90
Raunak Sadhwani played brilliantly to defeat much higher-rated Leinier Perez Dominguez, while Nihal Sarin and R Praggnanandhaa held much higher-rated Levon Aronian and Wesley So with almost effortless ease.
But the man (actually boy) of the day was 16-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh, who had won all of his first seven games at the 44th Chess Olympiad. Today he faced former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana in a critical game on the top board for India B. And he had the black pieces. So what did the lad do: outplay and actually mate his illustrious opponent! He now has tallied eight out of eight points.
"This is one of the most sensational debuts in the history of the Olympiad," writes FIDE, "comparable only to former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik’s record set in 1992 of 8.5/9, clocking a 2958 rating performance." With this win over over a 2783 opponent Gukesh has clocked a 3366 performance, and with a live rating of 2729 he has overtaken Harikrishna, to become India’s number two player behind Vishy Anand.
It was uniquely exciting to watch the round on the ChessBase India live broadcast, with Sagar Shah squealing with excitement, and a host of GMs and IMs dropping in to join the fun. If you want to relive the atmosphere you can watch all the action in this six-hour broadcast:
Until now, 337,000 chess fans have watched it so far, with the number growing hourly. We watched it live, and enjoyed every moment of the broadcast.
Even after this exhausting game Gukesh still had enough energy to answer some questions in the media center, saying that “Fabiano is one of my favourite players, and it was a pleasure to play against him”.
In addition you can watch 12-year-old Gukesh discussing endgames with ChessBase Endgame expert GM Dr. Karsten Müller. This was in April 2019 when Gukesh visited Hamburg.
A full report on Round eight of the Chennai Olympiad will appear shortly.
Gukesh is doing absolutely great! His performance in this Olympiad will go down as one of the all-time best chess performances.
Frederic 8/7/2022 10:09
Sorry Karsten, I have added a link to the one-hour discussion you had with Gukesh back then, when he was still twelve years. I remember how I came into the studio and asked, "So, is he talented?" You started to answer when you noticed I was looking at Gukesh. It was a nice pleasantry, which both of you enjoyed.
Karsten Müller 8/7/2022 08:49
Great article! Gukesh is really amazing as I found out myself:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/endgame-magic-126
Pionki 8/7/2022 07:10
India will soon be the powerhouse of chess and will dominate the world for years to come. It's simple: the sheer number of citizens times the motivation sparked by Vishy. The best chess player in the history of the game will come from India (but he may not have been born yet).
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
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.