6/12/2023 – The next round of the Armageddon series starts on 12 June at the World Chess Club in Berlin. With Richard Rapport, Maxime-Vachier Lagrave, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Michael Adams, Jorden Van Foreest and the three German players Vincent Keymer (pictured), Matthias Blübaum and Alexander Donchenko. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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.!
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2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
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Press release
Unleashing a Chess Storm: Berlin is ready for the Armageddon Championship Series: Europe & Africa on 12 June
World Chess, a leading chess organization, seeks to captivate chess enthusiasts with its upcoming Europe and Africa week of the Armageddon Championship Series. Kickstarting on June 12th, the high-stakes event will follow the same dramatic format and immense time pressure constraints as the previous Armageddon events.
This enthralling tournament will witness the participation of eight exceptional players from the Europe and Africa region, including Michael Adams (England), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Richard Rapport (Romania), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands), Vincent Keymer (Germany), as well as Matthias Bluebaum and Alexander Donchenko, both of whom qualified successfully through online qualifiers on the FIDE Online Arena. This star-studded lineup will battle it out in a double-elimination format, with daily matches consisting of two blitz games with the potential for an additional Armageddon game if a victory does not emerge.
The winner and runner-up will join an exciting roster of finalists in the Grand Finale to be held at World Chess’ newly opened Chess Club in Berlin, where they will compete against Wesley So, Sam Shankland, Gukesh D, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Bibisara Assaubayeva, and Humpy Koneru for the total prize of €200,000.
The tournament will follow a dramatic format with daily matches consisting of two blitz games (three minutes plus a two-second move increment) and, if necessary, an Armageddon game (five minutes for White, four for Black). Novelties such as live displays of the players' heart rates and calories burned data points make the Series a riveting spectacle for viewers.
The Armageddon series is being broadcast on 17 television channels worldwide, as well as World Chess’ official YouTube channel, with expert commentary and analysis provided by Grandmaster Simon Williams and International Master Jovanka Houska every day at 19:00 CEST.
For the first few days, the players were divided into pairs as follows:
Day 1, June 12
Michael Adams (England) — Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) Vincent Keymer (Germany) — Alexander Donchenko
Day 2, June 13
Richard Rapport (Romania) — Jorden van Foreest (Netherlands) Matthias Bluebaum (Germany) — Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France)
Ilya Merenzon, Chief Executive Officer of World Chess:
It has been fantastic to watch the global accumulation of chess players come together to compete in the Armageddon series. As we now head towards the Grand Finale it has been a real joy to watch the fast-paced matches between chess players of different experiences, playing styles and nationalities.
The series has created an atmosphere of suspense and excitement and highlighted the benefits of embracing innovative formats such as Armageddon, enabling top-level chess to entice a broader audience and ignite greater passion amongst fans.
We offer our best wishes to all the players and are excited to get Europe and Africa Week of the Armageddon Championship underway.
Andrey Insarov, Chief Executive Officer at Intis Telecom (it.com Domains):
We are thrilled to witness the convergence of intelligence and skill in the Armageddon Series. At it.com we are excited to support this great sport within our meaningful partnership with World Chess. We eagerly await the exciting and intense battles and extend our best wishes to all the players participating in Europe & Africa Week. Good luck!
Leading partners supporting the Armageddon Championship Series:
The it.com Domains as the Official Partner IDE Online Arena as the Official Gaming Platform Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner.
World Chess is a London-based chess gaming and entertainment company and FIDE’ official commercial partner. World Chess organized the FIDE Championship Matches in the USA, and the UK, and revolutionized the sport by signing the biggest media partnerships in history. World Chess develops Armageddon, the chess league for prime-time television. World Chess also runs FIDE Online Arena, the exclusive official chess gaming platform. More at worldchess.com.
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.
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.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
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In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
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