11/12/2023 – The European Team Championship kicked off with a big surprise on the top board. Azerbaijan, the rating favourites, were defeated by Denmark, as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lost to Mads Andersen after his attempt at a winning attack backfired. Romania, the second seeds, only drew Austria, while Norway also got a draw against Slovakia despite Magnus Carlsen winning his game on the top board. In the women’s event, the most shocking result on the top boards was Greece holding Germany to a draw. | Photo: Mark Livshitz
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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.
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.
Ganguly introduces conceptually fresh directions in several key lines – even in the most played main lines.
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A big upset on the top board, Carlsen scores
Only on board 10 did we see a team scoring a 4-0 victory in the first round of the European Team Championship. Serbia, led by Alexey Sarana, won all four of their games against Iceland. The remaining top-10 favourite teams either won by a small margin, were held to draws by their lower-rated opponents or, in fact, started with a loss — shockingly, it was the Azerbaijani team, the squad with the highest rating average, the one that suffered a loss.
After Teimour Radjabov, Rauf Mamedov and Nijat Abasov all signed quick draws, it was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov’s duty to score with white against his Danish opponent, Mads Andersen. True to his nature, Mamedyarov sacrificed an exchange to create a promising kingside attack. But what could have been a spectacular win ended up favouring a resilient Andersen, who got the full point and gave his team overall victory.
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Romania and Norway, meanwhile, only managed draws in the first round. The team led by Hungarian-born Richard Rapport drew all four of their games against Austria, while Magnus Carlsen’s national team could not get the better of Slovakia despite the former world champion grabbing a nice win over Jergus Pechac — Viktor Gazik, on board 2, defeated Aryan Tari to even the score.
A number of interesting pairings will be seen in round 2, with Germany facing a well-balanced Hungarian team and the dangerous Czech squad playing England, now with Nikita Vitiugov on the top board.
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
Women’s: Greece draw Germany, A. Cramling scores upset win
The favourites by rating in the women’s section are the ever-dangerous Georgians, who kicked off the event with a 3-1 victory over Israel. Marsel Efroimski’s win over Nino Batsashvili was more than compensated by the Georgians’ victories on the three remaining boards.
Much like in the top-board match, Azerbaijan lost their game on board 1, where Slovenia’s Laura Unuk defeated Ulviyya Fataliyeva. However, wins for Khanim Balajayeva and Gulnar Mammadova were enough for the Azerbaijanis to collect 2 match points on opening day.
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.
The biggest surprise on the top boards was given by Greece, who held Germany to a draw after all four games remained mostly balanced and saw the contenders splitting points at the end of the day. In fact, it was Greece’s Ekaterini Pavlidou who got the best winning chances out of the eight players who participated in the match.
On board 8, Poland beat Sweden, though it is noteworthy that mother and daughter Pia and Anna Cramling are playing on boards 1 and 3 for Sweden, with Anna in fact scoring an upset win over Alicya Sliwicka after showing great positional skills with the white pieces.
I’m in Montenegro representing Sweden in the European Team Chess Championship!!!!! Wish me luck!!!!! (Also I won my first game today and I’m so so happy) 🥹🥹
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.
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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