5/24/2025 – Magnus Carlsen won the Chess.com Classic with a game to spare in the Grand Final against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The former world champion remained unbeaten throughout the event and secured the title with two wins and a draw in the final match. A swift victory in game one and a well-converted rook endgame in game three sealed the result. Carlsen now turns his attention to Norway Chess, where he returns to classical over-the-board play against an elite field.
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.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
€34.90
A flawless performance
Magnus Carlsen emerged as the winner of the Chess.com Classic after a convincing performance in the Grand Final against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The match concluded with a round to spare, as Carlsen secured two victories and one draw in the best-of-four encounter. His victory in the online rapid event was marked by consistency as he remained unbeaten across all 18 games played. With this result, Carlsen takes home the $25,000 first prize.
The first game of the final was a swift 24-move win, with Carlsen demonstrating sharp attacking play. The key moment came with 19.g4, an aggressive pawn push that appeared risky but ultimately proved decisive in opening lines toward the black king.
Vachier-Lagrave was unable to regroup in time, and the game ended in a collapse.
Become a master of chess strategy – get Robert Ris’s complete bundle now at a special price! Become a master of chess strategy – get Robert Ris’s complete bundle now at a special price!
21.Qd3 left the f3-knight en prise. But soon came Black's resignation - after 21...Rxf3 22.Qh7+ Kf7 23.Bg6+ Kf6 24.Bh5, with mate-in-five on the board.
Game two saw both players display accurate play throughout, resulting in a draw. However, with momentum on his side and the match lead in hand, Carlsen pressed again in game three, this time converting a favourable endgame.
The decisive error came with 24...Re8, overlooking a tactic that allowed Carlsen to force a pawn-up rook endgame.
MVL missed 25.Rxd6, and after 25...Rxe4 26.Rxd7 Rd4, White held a clear advantage with his passer on the d-file.
The alternative defensive idea was 24...Qf7, creating counterplay against the f2-pawn, but even there, after 25.Qe6 and a forced queen exchange, Carlsen would still have held a slight edge - more than enough, given his lead in the match.
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.
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.
Free video sample: Introduction
Free video sample: Overview
Free video sample: Chigorin: 9...Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Nd7/cxd4
Carlsen showed his usual endgame precision to convert the edge and win the game, the match and the tournament.
Click on image to enlarge
With the Chess.com Classic concluded, Carlsen now shifts his focus to classical over-the-board play. Beginning Monday, he will take part in the Norway Chess super-tournament in Stavanger. The prestigious double round-robin will feature six top players: Carlsen, reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Hikaru Nakamura, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana and Wei Yi.
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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