Giri's World Cup Struggle - The Underdog

by Arne Kaehler
9/6/2023 – The World Cup had it's fair share of underdog surprises in the first round. Robert Ris decided to pick a game from round three, though! Anish Giri faced Nijat Abasov, and in the tiebreaker, the GM from Azerbaijan played aggressive moves, which caused a lot of trouble for Giri. Ris shows us exactly, how the 150 points weaker player won impressively.

Calculation Training for 1000-1400 players Calculation Training for 1000-1400 players

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

More...

The Underdog!

with IM Robert Ris

We all love stories where a vastly underrated player surprises everyone by beating a much stronger player. Fortunately, we are all human.

But how do these things happen? What are the moves that lead to success? And what can we learn from these examples for the times when we face a stronger opponent?

Dutch IM Robert Ris presents us with real-life examples of such encounters from the past month. Together with his co-host Arne Kaehler, they look at the tactics and strategies that led to the upset victory.

Robert Ris has authored plenty of FritzTrainers for ChessBase — these are his newest, and perfect for every "Underdog"

Calculation Training for 1000-1400 players

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

Calculation Training for 1400-1600 players

Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!

_______________________________

Links:

<< The exodus of Russian grandmasters continues
Tata Steel India: Vachier-Lagrave grabs the lead >>
Topics: Robert Ris, Underdog
Arne Kaehler, a creative mind who is passionate about board games in general, was born in Hamburg and learned to play chess at a young age. By teaching chess to youth teams and creating chess-related videos on YouTube, Arne was able to expand this passion and has even created an online course for anyone who wants to learn how to play chess. Arne writes for the English and German news sites, but focuses mainly on content for the ChessBase media channels.
Discussion and Feedback Submit your feedback to the editors

See also

How Anand won against a far stronger opponent ...

7/24/2023 – Of course, Viswanathan Anand isn't the topic at hand! But the Underdog Vignesh Anand Junior from the US was the player, who is more than 500 ELO points weaker than his opponent, GM Zaven Andriasian. In the Sicilian game, both players committed little errors that allowed the Armenian Grandmaster to gradually get the upper hand until everything went wrong. Yet another intriguing and fascinating instance of an underdog who shocked both his adversary and most likely himself.

See also

Chess Shocker: Elo 1493 wins vs. Elo 2584 with the London System!

5/16/2023 – In today's episode Robert presents a rapid game that is quite stunning. When you use a very solid set-up like the London System, the move order is less important as long as you understand the basic ideas. And although the underdog in this game made a few small mistakes here and there, the Grandmaster on the other side of the board couldn't find a way to gain a clear winning advantage. Watch this fascinating game with Robert Ris!
More...
 5

Video

60m How to fight Queen's Pawn Openigns

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.