Santos, Navara, Maltsevskaya and Kosteniuk winners in Katowice

Returning to Katowice

The capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland has become a well-known place for European players and fans, as Katowice once again hosted the European Rapid and Blitz Championships. In 2021, the city saw local hero Jan-Krzysztof Duda winning the blitz section, while even amid the pandemic, the 2020 edition of the blitz event, which took place online, was inaugurated with a press conference at the city’s International Congress Centre.

Master Class Vol.15 - Viktor Korchnoi and My life for chess

In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Viktor Korchnoi. Let them show you which openings Korchnoi chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.

The organizers of this year’s edition proudly described the host city as “a metropolis worth visiting”, emphasizing the fact that the young city combines tradition and industriousness:

Katowice is one of the fastest growing Polish cities. The capital of a province of almost 5 million people, it is well connected with the rest of Europe and the world.

It is the centre of the metropolis, which has undergone deep restructuring in a short period of time, and the dominant elements of the economy have become high-tech services. Another pillar is culture, as evidenced, for example, by the title of UNESCO Creative City in the field of music. The young city, 150 years old, promotes itself with the slogan: “Katowice. For a change.”

The heart-shaped logotype combines, as it were, two faces of the city: the traditional one, with its industrial heritage, and the modern one, creative and economically strong.

The European Rapid and Blitz Tournaments this year were played on a three-day span. Day one, on Friday, saw the more than 800 participants playing 11 double-rounds of 3-minute games with 2-second increments per move. Throughout the weekend, an even larger contingent of players battled it out in the 11-round rapid section, which had a time control of 15 minutes for the game plus 10-second increments per move.

Both events included men and women players. The highest-ranked woman participant in each tournament was declared champion in the women’s category.

Rapid: Santos and Maltsevskaya

Remarkably, in such a large field of players, the winner of the rapid section managed to secure first place without needing tiebreak criteria to decide who takes home the gold medal. Jaime Santos clinched overall victory by beating David Gavrilescu with the black pieces in the final round. No fewer than seven players were tied for first before round 11.

Santos patiently converted his advantage from an advantageous queenless position with rooks and knights still on the board.

Besides having a mobile pawn majority on the kingside, Black has a perfectly placed knight on c4 attacking White’s weak pawn on a3. From this position, after 43 moves, Santos needed over 20 moves of manoeuvring to get the all-important win.

Polish IM Aleksandra Maltsevskaya collected 8/11 points to claim the women’s title. A draw with black against her compatriot Jakub Kozakowski in the final round was enough to secure first place.

Replay all available games from the rapid at Live.ChessBase.com

A Complete Black Repertoire against 1.d4, 1.Nf3 & 1.c4

These video courses feature a black repertoire against 1.d4, 1.Nf3 and 1.c4. The recommended variations are easy to learn and not difficult to remember, but also pose White serious challenges.

The podium (open section): David Navara (2nd), Jaime Santos (1st) and Daniel Fridman (3rd)

The podium (women’s section): Alexandra Kosteniuk (2nd), Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (1st) and Jolanta Zawadzka (3rd) 

Final standings

...900+ players

Blitz: Navara and Kosteniuk

Czech star David Navara had the overall strongest performance in Katowice. After winning the blitz section with 17½/22 points — and a better tiebreak score than Maciej Klekowski and Shant Sargsyan — he was among the co-leaders going into the final round of the rapid. A draw with black against Daniil Yuffa on Sunday was what prevented him from getting an unthinkable double win in such a massive event. The close miss does not take away from his excellent showing, though!

Navara’s last rival in the blitz was Lithuanian GM Valery Kazakouski, who in fact defeated him in their first confrontation, and then missed a mate-in-one in a drawn rook endgame.

Grabbing the h-pawn at once with 77.Rxh2 loses immediately to 77...Ra4#. Capturing the passer was the right idea, but only after 77.Rh6+ Kc7, and there is no mate threat any more. But the contenders had already played 77 moves in a 3-minute blitz encounter with everything on the line. It was all about nerves at this point!

Among the women, former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk was the top scorer, as she collected 15½ points throughout the 22 rounds of fast-paced action.

Replay all available games from the blitz at Live.ChessBase.com

Attacking with the Jobava London System

The Jobava London System is a minor form of the London System. White tries to play Lf4 quickly followed by Nc3.

The podium (open section): Maciej Klekowski (2nd), David Navara (1st) and Shant Sargsyan (3rd)

The podium (women’s section): Aleksandra Maltsevskaya (2nd), Alexandra Kosteniuk (1st) and Antoaneta Stefanova (3rd)

Final standings

...800+ players

Chess Endgames 14 - The golden guidelines of endgame play

Rules of thumb are the key to everything when you are having to set the correct course in a complex endgame. In this final DVD of his series on the endgame, our endgame specialist introduces you to the most important of these rules of thumb.

Links

• Official site
• Karsten Müller’s Endgame Magic Show #213: David Navara
• All available games: Rapid | Blitz