7/21/2022 – On Thursday, there was only one game on stage in the Golden Hall: the two winners from the previous round, Dmitrij Kollars and Viswanathan Anand, met in the NC World Masters. Kollars had a slight advantage in a rook endgame, but Anand managed to keep things under control and drew his younger opponent to keep the lead. Lara Schulze and Max Warmerdam won and are still leading the Women’s Sportland NRW Cup and the A-Open respectively. | Photos: Michelle Lassak
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.!
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Halfway through
On Thursday, there was only one game on stage in the Golden Hall: the two winners from the previous day, Dmitrij Kollars and Viswanathan Anand, met in the NC World Masters.
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
Both had been victorious the day before and wanted to carry the momentum with them. Kollars played an interesting opening idea with an early f3, as he wanted to give his king the option to move to f2. Anand responded with a variation that forced the exchange of queens. Kollars had a slight advantage in the resulting rook ending, but Anand defended very carefully.
So the game ended in a draw. Halfway through the tournament Vishy Anand is in the lead with half a point ahead of Dmitrij Kollars and Michael Adams.
Standings after round 3
All games
Note that Anand vs. Kollars is a first-round game, which was rescheduled due to Vladimir Kramnik’s absence
Lara Schulze’s winning streak
Lara Schulze scored her third win in a row in the closed Women’s Sportland NRW Cup. For a second day in a row, she played a modern pawn sacrifice in the Advance Variation of the French Defence with White. Honorata Kucharska’s long castle was probably not a good choice. The black king was never safe, and Schulze played a beautiful attacking game.
This gives her a one-point lead with 5 out of 6 points to her name. Apart from the tournament win, she is looking to get a WGM norm — she needs 7 points in 9 rounds to earn it.
In the Sportland NRW Youth Cup, Thursday’s top pairing was a hard-fought encounter. Artem Lutsko, playing Black, came out of the opening quite well, but played inaccurately in the middlegame. IM Jonathan Carlstedt was able to build up a strong attack with his heavy pieces and won the game.
Standings after round 6
1. Carlstedt 4½ / 6
2. - 4. Lutsko 3½ / 6
2. - 4. Costa 3½ / 6
2. - 4. Bethke 3½ / 6
Warmerdam leads ahead of Beerdsen
GM Max Warmerdam was well-prepared for the top match against GM Tornike Sanikidze in the sixth round of the A-Open. Warmerdam had an early advantage. Sanikidze complicated the game, but the Dutchman kept the edge and is now the only player in the A-Open with a perfect score.
On board 2, IM Thomas Beerdsen beat GM Dr. Florian Handke with the black pieces. Beerdsen is now in sole second place, half a point behind Warmerdam, and there will probably be a Dutch duel on the first board tomorrow.
Max Warmerdam
In the Sparkassen Open B, young Ukrainian Artem Dyachuk continues to dominate, as he also has collected 6 points in as many rounds. Similarly to the A-Open, there is only one chaser with 5½ points in this event: Niels Wenning, who will face Dyachuk with white on Friday, starting at 10:30 CEST.
On Friday, Anand will play white against Kollars, while the Deutschland Grand Prix participants will return after their rest day. Luke McShane will face Pavel Eljanov!
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.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
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