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 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.
This interactive video course of over 8 hours, provides an in-depth exploration of the Pirc Defence, a favoured opening for people looking to play for the win with the black pieces.
€49.90
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.
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.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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