6/28/2023 – Dmitrij Kollars can celebrate having beaten a former world champion. In the No-Castling Masters, the German grandmaster defeated Vladimir Kramnik. Ruben Gideon Köllner leads the Sportland NRW Cup, while Alexander Donchenko won the all-important against Frederik Svane in the A-Open. | Screenshot: Former tournament director Jürgen Grastat makes the ceremonial first move
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.!
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 with analyses by Giri, Blübaum and many others. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Sokolov and Blohberger. Training columns including ‘The Fortress’, ‘The Trap’, ‘Fundamental Endgame Knowledge’ and much more
€21.90
The defending champion strikes
Last year, in the absence of Vladimir Kramnik, Dmitrij Kollars stunned spectators and pundits with his tournament victory at the NC World Masters of the Dortmund Chess Festival. Now, the German grandmaster obtained a marvellous victory over 10-time Dortmund winner.
The Ruy Lopez is one of the oldest openings which continues to enjoy high popularity from club level to the absolute world top. In this video series, American super GM Fabiano Caruana, talking to IM Oliver Reeh, presents a complete repertoire for White.
Dimitrij Kollars | Photo: Michelle Lassak
Kollars didn’t come out of the opening at all well with white, after Jürgen Grastat made the first move for him. Grastat ran the International Dortmund Chess Days for 20 years as tournament director (1983 - 2002). Kollars then decided to create complications in the position. In the resulting entanglements, he came out on top, as he punished the former world champion’s mistakes to win the game in grand style.
“I still have a lot of adrenaline in me, but it feels good”, the young German said in the interview a few minutes after his victory. The whole interview (in German), including analysis, was uploaded to YouTube.
US star Fabiano Caruana had an inferior position and needed to fight hard for a long time, but he finally managed to hold a draw against Pavel Eljanov. He commented on the new rules after his first two games in the No-Castling Chess format:
It’s fun. All the games, all the openings are very interesting. You get a fight immediately. I mean, Kramnik’s game today for example was very chaotic, I didn’t know what was going on. You get some really fighting positions early on. So I like the concept.
The world number 3 is looking forward to the coming games. Now he is half a point ahead of Kollars and Kramnik atop the standings.
Standings - Round 2
All games
A-Open: Donchenko beats Svane
Very combatibe chess was seen in round 4 of the A-Open. On the first three boards, played on the tournament’s stage, only Alexander Donchenko could win in the end. He gained an early advantage against Frederik Svane, and finally made use of his extra exchange up. Matthias Bluebaum, on the other hand, had to survive a few difficulties and was able to escape with a draw against Leon Mendonca. Mendonca had opportunities to win the game in the middlegame.
The second player with 4 points from 4 games is Aryan Chopra, who won after 5½ hours against Arthur Guo. Thus, Donchenko and Chopra will meet on Wednesday at the top board of the A-Open.
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
In the Sportland NRW Cup, Ruben Gideon Köllner claimed yet another victory. With 3½ points from 4 games, the 19-year-old is now in the lead and has good chances of getting a grandmaster norm in the tournament.
Meanwhile, 11-year-old Hussain Besou continues to play impressively: the greatest young talent in Germany missed his second victory against a grandmaster and is well in the fight for tournament victory with 2½ points from 4 games.
The most famous German-speaking chess YouTuber, Georgios Souleidis, a.k.a. The Big Greek, is currently in second place. TBG benefited from a mishap in the opening by Jana Schneider, for whom not much has come together in Dortmund so far.
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.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
Chess is a concrete game. There is no way around training your calculation skills. Improve your visualization, pattern recognition and learn calculation techniques such as reciprocal thinking with this course.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
€9.90
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