3/17/2023 – What should you do if your opponent offers a draw at an early stage of the game? What aspects should you take into account when making your own decision? GM Jan Markos gives you a series of rules of thumb in the fifth part of his series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" to help you go for the full point more often - or accept the offer if it is advisable. You can watch an excerpt from his video here!
new: ChessBase 16 - Mega package Edition 2022
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training!
Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Tata Steel 2023: Analyses by Giri, Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa, Donchenko and many more. "Special" on Anthony Miles. Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs show new opening ideas from Wijk in the video. 11 opening articles with repertoire ideas and much more!
The repertoire against the Giuoco Pianissimo examined on this video course, provides Black with methods of evading this slightly one-sided pattern, yielding sound play in double-edged positions.
€29.90
"How to deal with draw offers"
Part 5 of the series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" with GM Jan Markos
At the start of his video Jan Markos complains that in chess there are far too many early draws and blames two reasons for this: laziness and fear. Of course, every player should try to tackle the former for themselves. But what about fear? Markos addresses this second cause in his video with an example from his own tournament practice. In this position
his opponent, GM Gergely Antal, surprised him with the advance 17.e5. Markos subsequently found the best continuation 17... dxe5 18. g4 Bxg4 19.hxg4 Qxg4+. But the fact that he had completely overlooked his opponent's 17th move made him so emotionally unsettled that after 20.Kf1 he agreed to a draw by repetition of the position after 20...Qh3+ 21.Kg1 Qg4+ etc. If he had been able to look at the position objectively and assess it, he would have been better off continuing with 20...Rab8 21.Qe3 Rfd8 after 20.Kf1 - because Black simply has nothing to fear in this position. Markos' first general tip is therefore: take your time when you feel uncertainty or fear to get back into a stable emotional state. And then go back to work at the board.
"How to deal with draw offers"– Excerpt from Jan Markos’ video from CBM #212
Total rnning time of video in ChessBase Magazine #212: 21:28 min.
Markos then uses other grandmaster games to work out further tips and rules of thumb that will help you avoid unnecessary draws and go for the full point more often! But of course there are also cases in which it is advisable to accept a draw offer - the GM from Slovakia also sets out some rules of thumb for this.
As in the previous articles, Jan Markos has again put together a small collection of training exercises. To accept a draw or not - that is always the question here! An example:
Question: Black offered a draw after playing 10...Nd5. Would you accept it? Answer below!
You can find the complete article by Jan Markos in ChessBase Magazine #212!
ChessBase Magazine trial subscription with 33% savings advantage and thank you bonus!*
Try out ChessBase Magazine now! Order the ChessBase Magazine taster package! Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for thespecial price of only 39.90 €(instead of 59,85 € for buying them individually). As a thank you, you will also receive 3 months ChessBase Premium Membership free of charge.
*Bonus for new subscribers only, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months!
ChessBase Magazine one year subscription - plus original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB *
Save twice with ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues).
* Bonus only for new subscribers, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months! As a new subscriber you will receive the original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB
Answer by Jan Markos: Such a draw offer by Black so early in the game is a bit inappropriate. I would guess Black wants to bail out of the game before it becomes clear that White is better. With many pieces on the board, White might still get confused. In fact, White has a simple way to a better endgame here. Therefore Sethuraman declined the draw offer and later won the game against Gupta.
Highlights of ChessBase Magazine #212
These are the editors' recommendations – from first-class analyses from the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers 2023 to the endgame series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" by Dr Karsten Mueller:
Top chess and master analyses
Tata Steel 2023: Anish Giri comments on three of his games, plus analyses by Praggnanandhaa, Jorden van Foreest, Peter Heine Nielsen, the winner of the Challenger, Alexander Donchenko and many others. Dorian Rogozenco presents two games in the video that were decisive for the outcome of the Masters!
Rapid Highlights: Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Peter Heine Nielsen analyse selected games from the Rapid Chess World Championship and the Meltwater Champions Chess Final 2022.
Special: Anthony Miles
CBM authors analyse their favourite game of the Englishman (1955-2001). Exclusive collection of 21 annotated games from the years 1978 to 2001.
Practical tips for the tournament player
When should you accept a draw offer and when not? Which emotional aspects can influence our decision, and how can we block them out as best we can? Don’t miss part 5 of the training series “Practical Tips for the Tournament Player” with GM Jan Markos. Video + small collection of exercises.
Move by Move
Robert Ris shows Magnus Carlsen's fantastic game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov from the 2022 Rapid World Championship. Can you find the moves of the triple world champion?
All in one
Spyridon Kapnisis presents the Scotch Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Ng5!? After 5...Nh6 6.Nxf7 Nxf7 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qh5+ White wins back the piece on c5 and has in any case already achieved a partial success.
Opening videos
All three opening videos pick up current ideas from the top tournament in Wijk aan Zee! Rustam Kasimdzhanov examines the Ruy Lopez with 8.a4 b4 9.a5, which came on the board twice at the "Masters". Nico Zwirs examines Magnus Carlsen's idea of 7...Bg4 in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit. And Mihail Marin puts the Evans Gambit from Beerdsen-Pechac from the "Challengers" to the test.
From the Reti Opening to the King's Indian - ChessBase Magazine #212 offers 11 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire!
Vogel: Reti Opening 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 b6 Kuzmin: English 1...e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6 Sumets: Caro-Kann Exchange 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 Papp: Najdorf 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 h6 8.Bh4 Qb6 9.a3 Santiago: French 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 a6!? Schandorff: Scotch with 4...Bc5 and 7...a5!? Ris: Italian Ulvestad Variation 5...b5!? Srinath: Open Ruy Lopez Part II Postny: Nimzo-Indian 4.Nf3 0-0 5.Bg5 c5 6.Rc1 Grigoriants: Catalan 6...dxc4 7.Qc2 b5 8.a4 Szabo: King's Indian 5.Be2 0-0 6.Be3 e5 7.d5
Topical opening traps
“From the English Opening to the Queen’s Gambit” – Rainer Knaak takes a close look at eight traps from current tournament practice (incl. three FritzTrainer videos)
Strategy: "Positional Milestones"
Mihail Marin presents the legend from England, Anthony Miles, as a universal player and explains how strategy and tactics worked together harmoniously in his best games. Including a detailed video introduction and – for the first time in CBM – two interactive training videos!
Modern Classics
Dorian Rogozenco shows one of the most spectacular games from the match "Soviet Union vs. the Rest of the World" in 1970: Bent Larsen came to blows on the first board of the world selection in only 17 moves. against world champion Boris Spassky! Part 3 of the new video series.
Tactics: "Queenless and happy"
Sometimes it is simply necessary to part with one's queen. Oliver Reeh's article contains 32 games, peppered with plenty of training exercises. Plus three interactive videos with our author’s favourite combinations.
Fundamental Endgame Knowledge II
The endgame expert Dr Karsten Mueller continues his training series with the topic "Rook + Pawn vs. Rook". Also: Endgame highlights of Anthony Miles.
ChessBase Magazine trial subscription with 33% savings advantage and thank you bonus!*
Try out ChessBase Magazine now! Order the ChessBase Magazine taster package! Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for thespecial price of only 39.90 €(instead of 59,85 € for buying them individually). As a thank you, you will also receive 3 months ChessBase Premium Membership free of charge.
*Bonus for new subscribers only, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months!
ChessBase Magazine one year subscription - plus original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB *
Save twice with ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues).
* Bonus only for new subscribers, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months! As a new subscriber you will receive the original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB
12/7/2022 – ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Issue #210 contains 7578 recent games, (45 annotated) 12 opening surveys, 9 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Ajun Erigaisi, Gabriel Sargissian, Ivan Sokolov, Luke McShane, Pentala Harikrishna, Pragganandhaa, Maria Muzychuk and Wesley So among others. The icing on the cake is a feature on Ding Liren who will play the world championship match with Ian Nepomniachtchi now that Carlsen has announced that he will not defend the title. Prof. Nagesh Havanur took a closer look.
11/13/2022 – How do you feel when you have to play against an opponent whose rating is some hundred points better than your own? The bold among us will see this as a special incentive. For most of us, however, unease will probably prevail. In the third part of his video series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" in ChessBase Magazine #210, Jan Markos deals with the important topic of how to play against a stronger opponent. The GM from Slovakia first makes it clear that you have to keep a cool head and then presents three promising strategies. Take a look!
After 1.d4 d5 many players with White avoid the great amount of theory in the Slav, Semi-Slav, QGA and Orthodox Queen's Gambit and do not therefore play 2.c4. This is not very ambitious, but the painful experience of many chess players has been that the Colle System, the Trompowsky Attack, the Torre Attack and the London System are nevertheless extremely dangerous. Black has to be prepared for each of these openings and IM Valeri Lilov offers you some help with his six instructive videos, in which he demonstrates for each single opening a relevant plan for Black. In addition to the openings mentioned, the Bulgarian trainer also delves into the Catalan, the Blackmar-Diemer Gambit and the Richter-Veresov Opening.
Videos: Romain Edouard starts his series "Critical Lines in the Dragon", Leon Mendonca shows Caro-Kann (3...dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.N1e2). "Lucky bag" with 44 annotated games - analyses by Kapnisis, Mikhalchishin, Sasikiran and many others!
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!
Let us explore together how the rooks should enter the game in the early middlegame, how they operate on open files and how they sometimes join a deadly attack, being transferred in front of the pawn chain and many more topics!
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!
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2023 is a database and contains a total of 10947 games from Mega 2023 and the Correspondence Database 2022, of which 1232 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes video course you will learn the ins-and-outs of the Grivas Sicilian which starts after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6!
€9.90
Fritztrainer in App Store
for iPads and iPhones
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.