8/19/2024 – Nico Zwirs beat Christopher Yoo with white to become the outright winner of the A-Open in the 51st edition of the Dortmund Chess Festival. Out of a Sicilian Defence, the Dutch GM first defended resourcefully and then showed excellent technique in a rook ending. In the match between Elisabeth Paehtz and Dinara Wagner, a sixth draw (in six games) was signed on Sunday. | Photos: Hoogeveen Chess 2018 / Frans Peeters
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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.
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.
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A sixth draw in Paehtz v. Wagner
The two highest-rated women players in Germany played a 6-game match at the 51st edition of the Dortmund Chess Festival. Elisabeth Paehtz managed to keep her small 3-point advantage in the ranking after drawing all six games with Dinara Wagner.
Suitably, the match ended with a completely symmetrical position.
In a total of 6 chapters, we look at the following aspects: the right decision based on tactical factors, decisions in exchanges and moves, complex and psychological decisions in longer games and in defence.
Paehtz and Wagner will play on boards 1 and 2 for Germany at the upcoming Women's Chess Olympiad in Budapest. The German team will enter the event as the 9th seed.
Three players entered the final round of the A-Open tied for first place with 6½ points each: Anton Korobov, Frederik Svane (the top two seeds in the event) and Nico Zwirs.
On the top board, Svane and Korobov signed a quick, 14-move draw, which was likely to get shared first place in the final standings. However, Zwirs on board 2 made the most of his chances to beat third seed Christopher Yoo and become the outright winner in the 9-round Swiss open.
Out of a Sicilian Najdorf, Yoo actually outplayed his opponent in the opening. Zwirs did not falter under pressure though, and got to place his pawn on h6 - creating problems for his young rival in the ensuing struggle.
The position was close to equal at this point, as Black needs to deal with back rank problems constantly - here, for example, 29...exd4 fails to 30.Qe8+ Rxe8 31.Rxe8#.
Later on, the players entered a pure rook endgame with six pawns per side.
In the Flexible Panov Dutch IM Nico Zwirs will show you how to test Black to the limit in the Caro-Kann. 8 hours of video lessons included!
This position is objectively equal, but Zwirs managed to showcase reamarkable technique to eventually outplay his opponent.
Six players finished a half point behind the outright winner, with David Gavrilescu, Yahli Sokolovsky, Evgeny Romanov and Andrey Sumets scoring wins in the final round to catch up with Korobov and Svane.
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.
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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