9/15/2024 – Seven teams emerged as co-leaders after round 4 of the Women's Chess Olympiad, four of which were ranked in the top 10 at the start of the tournament. Among the surprises, Mongolia and Uzbekistan secured upset victories, with Uzbekistan continuing their strong run after defeating Hungary in round 3. Meanwhile, China have been the most dominant team so far, scoring an impressive 15½ out of 16 points on individual boards. | Pictured: Bulgaria v. Uzbekistan | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
new: Fritz 20
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.
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.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
€49.90
A dominating performance by China
Three of the seven co-leaders after round 4 of the Women’s Chess Olympiad - India, China, and the United States - are not surprising contenders. Among them, China have shown remarkable dominance, with their youthful team securing an impressive 15½ points out of 16 on individual boards. Zhu Jiner, Guo Qi, Ni Shiqun, and 14-year-old Lu Miaoyi all have perfect scores so far, making them the standout team in the competition.
Kazakhstan and Armenia, ranked 10th and 11th in the starting seeding, are also in the leading group. Both countries have deep chess traditions and solid squads, each featuring four players rated above 2300. This balance of strength gives them the potential to challenge the higher-seeded teams going forward.
Mongolia and Uzbekistan have been the biggest surprises among the co-leaders. Mongolia, seeded 18th, secured a key victory over Spain thanks to two decisive wins with the white pieces from Batkhuyag Munguntuul and Bat-Erdene Mungunzul. Uzbekistan, seeded 34th, continued their impressive run by defeating Bulgaria. The Uzbek team drew on boards 2-4, while Afruza Khamdamova delivered a crucial win over former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova on the top board.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
Round 5 promises exciting clashes as the leaders face off. India will meet Kazakhstan, with Bibisara Assaubayeva, one of the strongest young players in the world, leading the Kazakh team. China will take on Armenia, and the United States will face Mongolia in what is expected to be a tough battle.
Uzbekistan's Afruza Khamdamova | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
China defeated England on Saturday | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
Sabrina Vega's king walk
Despite suffering a painful loss against Mongolia, the women's team from Spain got to witness her representative on board 3, Sabrina Vega, playing a marvellous king walk to beat Mongolia's Nomin-Erdene Davaademberel.
White has a clearly winning position with her active major pieces completely dominating in this setup. Vega could have converted her advantage by pushing the f-pawn, but instead chose to walk her king to h6 via the dark squares to get the win.
There followed 32.Kg3 Ra8 33.Qf6 Rf8 34.Kf4 Kh7 35.Kg5 Qa8 36.Rxf7+ Rxf7 37.Qxf7+ Kh8 38.Kh6 and checkmate will follow.
Looking for a realistic way to play for a win with Black against 1.e4 without taking unnecessary risks? The Taimanov Sicilian is a reliable system, and hence one of the best options out there!
38...Qg8 39.Qf6+ Qg7 40.Qxg7#
Sabrina Vega on the left grabbed the only full point for Spain in their match against Mongolia | Photo: FIDE / Michal Walusza
ChessBase TV presents
Irina Krush - "I might be the most chaotic person you have ever met!"
Carissa Yip - "I'd be down to smoke a cigar with TAL"
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
€59.90
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