2/21/2019 – The Champions Showdown in St. Louis features five exhibition matches in which five US players compete in rapid and blitz against five non-US players. With three wins and one draw Fabiano Caruana (who played against Pentala Harikrishna) and Richard Rapport (who played against Sam Shankland) scored best on day one. Caruana more than once showed superb endgame skills. | Photo: Saint Louis Chessclub
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.!
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.
Master your middlegame with the complete strategy series – now available as a bundle at a reduced price. Take your chance to save and improve!
€299.90
Endgame magician Caruana
The Champions Showdown consists of 12 rapid games (four on each of the first three days) and 24 blitz games (twelve each on days four and five). The time limit is 15+10 for the rapid games and 3+2 for the blitz games. A win in the rapid games is rewarded with two points, a draw with one point, while a win in the blitz games yields one point and a draw half a point.
The match-ups
Hikaru Nakamura vs. Jan-Krzysztof Duda Fabiano Caruana vs. Pentala Harikrishna Wesley So vs. David Navara Leinier Dominguez vs. Veselin Topalov Sam Shankland vs. Richard Rapport
Day 1 | Photo: Austin Fuller
With three wins and one draw Caruana ended day one well and he also started it well by winning the first game of his match against Harikrishna with Black. Caruana predictably played the Petroff which led to an equal though not necessarily drawish ending in which Black had a majority on the queenside while White had more pawns on the kingside.
Pawn majorities on the queenside are often better than pawn majorities on the kingside because the pawns on the queenside might lead to an outside passed pawn. On the other hand, in endings with pawns on two sides the bishop tends to be better than the knight.
But a few moves later the following position was on the board:
Black has definitely made more progress than White and a few moves later Black was winning – even though the knight on d5 did not even move.
White resigned soon.
After a draw in game two, game three saw another Petroff which led to an endgame with rooks and opposite coloured bishops.
The engine thinks that Black is only a bit better but in the game Black won rather easily. Caruana exchanged one pair of rooks (31...Rg4) and then won the pawn on a4. Harikrishna found no defense and lost.
White is lost and with the self-mate 54.Be3 Harikrishna shortened his sufferings.
Game four also led to an endgame but Caruana first showed his attacking skills.
Black's king seems to be well protected by his pawns but with 31.Nxe4 Caruana destroyed the pawn cover and after 31...fxe4 32. Qxe4 Kd8 33.Qxg6 he had three pawns for the piece and an ongoing attack.
Black managed to reach the endgame but this did not help:
White played 53.b5 and Black resigned a few moves later.
Richard Rapport also demonstrated attacking and endgame skills. He won the first game with an energetic attack and the second in an endgame though only because Shankland unwillingly helped him.
Here White should have played 56.Te7+ but instead he tried 57.b5? and resigned after 57... axb5 58.a6 f2 59.Re7+ Kd4 60.Rf7 Txh7 61.Rxf2 Kc3 62.Rf1 Rh6 0-1.
Rapport also won game three but game four ended in a draw.
After the first four games Wesley So leads 5-3 against David Navara, as does Veselin Topalov against Leinier Dominguez. Hikaru Nakamura and Jan-Krzysztof Duda ended day 1 with a 4-4 tie.
Though Wesley So leads against Navara he started the day with a loss.
Navara-So | Photo: Saint Louis Chessclub
In a line of the Open Spanish both players followed Karjakin-Polgar, World Cup 2011, for 26 moves before So who was playing with Black deviated – however, without success.
After 26.cxd4.
Here, Karjakin-Polgar continued with 26...fxe5 and the game later ended in a draw. But So played 26...Qe6 and resigned after 27.d5.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
Videos by Mihail Marin: Najdorf Variation with 6.f4 and Nico Zwirs: Italian ‘giucco pianissimo’. ‘Lucky bag’ with 45 analyses by Edouard, Ftacnik, Gupta, Pelletier and others. Update service with over 50,000 new games for your database!
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
€49.90
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.