7/29/2015 – Just before the start of the British Championship GM David Howell proved to be in splendid form. He smoothly won an open in Leiden in the Netherlands that took place from 18th to 26th July with 8.5/9. With this result Howell for the first time in his career has more than 2700 elo in the live rating list. But at the start of the tournament he really had to sweat.
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In this course, IM Nico Zwirs presents the Reversed Sicilian as a powerful and practical weapon for White
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David Howell receives the winner's check
Howell dominated the tournament from beginning to end. He started by winning his first five games and then slowed down with a draw against GM Evgeny Postny from Israel. However, after this draw he played with renewed energy and in round six he countered the entertaining gambit play of Indian IM Arghyadip Das with a surprising bishop sacrifice and a fine tactical display.
In round eight he continued in similar style and after one slight inaccuracy by his opponent Boris Chatalbashev he overran the Bulgarian GM with a vigorous attack:
With this victory Howell had won the tournament with one round to spare. But he finished with a technical defensive win against Marian Petrov in round nine.
However, not everything in Leiden was easy for Howell. As part of the opening ceremony Howell and Loek van Wely played a blitz match while simulating bike-riding. On top of that they had to answer questions by Dutch GM John van der Wiel. Loek van Wely, who is notorious for his physical fitness, was much better at this kind of multi-tasking than the eventual tournament winner.
Johannes FischerJohannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".
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IM Andrew Martin shows why this 19th-century opening weapon still is a fantastic choice for club players. The Evans produces exciting chess and teaches the art of attack.
The major part of the material on which the Petroff Defence Powerbook 2026 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 357 000 games. This imposing number is supplemented by another 17 000 from Mega and from correspondence chess.
Petroff Defence Powerbase 2026 is a database which contains 6475 high class games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 682 annotated.
Videos: Felix Blohberger presents the surprise weapon 4…a6 in the Four Knights Game. Mihail Marin analyses the English Opening with 1.c4 e5 2.g3 g6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.Bg2 Nc6. Plus the ‘Lucky bag’ featuring 37 analyses by Berg, Radjabov and others.
Renowned for its solidity and strategic soundness, it has been a cornerstone of the repertoires of elite grandmasters including Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who relied on it successfully in the Candidates Tournament.
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