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For Magnus Carlsen the tournament began with a defeat: from a winning position, the world champion did not act energetically enough in a super-sharp endgame against Alireza Firouzja, fell behind and eventually lost. Unlike his opponent, Firouzja acted firmly once he had recognized he had a real chance to win.
After the second round Carlsen and Firouzja were already on a par again, at least in the standings: Carlsen won against Hou Yifan, while Firouzja lost to Giri.
The Vienna Variation - a reliable and ambitious weapon against 1.d4
The Vienna Variation is a particular and independent system of the Queen's Gambit. It arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4, when Black's capture on move 4 is strongly reminiscent of the Queen's Gambit Accepted.
It's over as Firouzja shocks the world champion and wins round 1! #ChessChamps #GoldmoneyAsianRapid https://t.co/qNUrNqoKpE https://t.co/dHkzhqWisB
— Champions Chess Tour (@ChampChessTour) June 26, 2021
For Peter Svidler the first defeat came in round 3: after the eight-time Russian Champion had drawn against Wesley So and Levon Aronian, he lost to Saleh Salem, the grandmaster from the United Arab Emirates, in an interesting double rook endgame. Our endgame expert Karsten Müller shows the relevant details.
In the fourth round Svidler also lost to Carlsen, but after that, when the first day of the tournament was about to finish, it became clear that the Russian grandmaster is still capable to beat the absolute top players.
In the final standings of this first day, however, Svidler found himself in the bottom half of the table. But things can still change on Sunday and Monday, when five more rounds per day are to be played in the online event.
Our in-house expert looked into two other interesting endings. Müller refers to the ‘fourth phase of the game’ in Vidit vs. Giri from round 1, and explores how a knight can be useful even when placed ‘on the rim’ in Hou vs. Dubov.
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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.
