5/8/2019 – Starting on Wednesday, the first stop of the Grand Chess Tour 2019 is the Ivory Coast. It's the first time the GCT has held an event in Africa. Ten top GMs compete in the Pullman Abidjan Hotel in Abidjan, the country's largest city, including World Champion Magnus Carlsen in rapid and blitz chess for a prize fund of USD $150,000. Live commentary will be available by GM Yannick Pelletier, IM Tania Sachdev, GM Alejandro Ramirez & GM Maurice Ashley.
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On this DVD, Grandmaster and worldrenowned commentator Maurice Ashley reviews some of the most interesting patterns with examples meant to educate and entertain.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
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A new season
From May 8th to 12th, ten participants play 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz in the "Côte d'Ivoire Rapid & Blitz 2019", one of four new tournaments to be added to the Grand Chess Tour series in 2019. The tournament was made possible by a partnership between Vivendi SA, Canal+ Group and the Pullman Abidjan Hotel. The total prize fund is USD $150,000.
The economic capital of Ivory Coast, Abidjan, is the first stop of the new series and also the first tournament on the African continent in which a reigning World Chess Champion is participating.
2019 Grand Chess Tour participants
Ratings as of May 8th, 2019
#
FED
Name
URS*
FIDE Elo
Born
1
Carlsen, Magnus
2867 (1)
2861 (1)
1990
2
Nakamura, Hikaru
2805 (2)
2761 (11)
1987
3
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime
2792 (3)
2780 (6)
1990
4
Caruana, Fabiano
2791 (4)
2816 (2)
1992
5
Ding, Liren
2786 (5)
2805 (3)
1992
6
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar
2777 (6)
2781 (5)
1985
7
Nepomniachtchi, Ian
2776 (7)
2773 (8)
1990
8
Aronian, Levon
2776 (8)
2762 (10)
1982
9
Karjakin, Sergey
2773 (9)
2752 (16)
1990
10
So, Wesley
2772 (10)
2754 (13)
1993
11
Giri, Anish
2766 (13)
2787 (4)
1994
12
Anand, Viswanathan
2759 (15)
2774 (7)
1969
*URS stands for Universal Rating System, developed and used by the Grand Chess Tour
The players of the first leg of the GCT 2019 — Wei, Amin and Topalov are the wild cards
Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.
Promotional video introducing the players | Grand Chess Tour
Abidjan is not the capital of Ivory Coast, but it is the largest city and economic hub
On the even of the tournament, Maurice Ashley and the GCT video crew visited a local chess school with Dr Essoh Essis
On this DVD, well-known Indian WGM Tania Sachdev shows you how to evaluate certain positions and then find the right concepts and plans on the basis of her own games.
From May 8th-10th, three rapid chess games will be played per day, starting at 17:00 local time (UTC) each day — 19:00, 20:30 and 22:00 (CEST) or 1PM / 2:30PM / 4PM EDT.
On May 11th and 12th, a total of 18 blitz games will be played. On both days, the rounds start at 14:00 local time (UTC), with each round starting 30 minutes after the prior round until 18:00. Should a tie-break be necessary, it starts on May 12th at 18:30 UTC.
All rounds will feature live commentary by GM Yannick Pelletier, IM Tania Sachdev, GM Alejandro Ramirez & GM Maurice Ashley.
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The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
Chess is a concrete game. There is no way around training your calculation skills. Improve your visualization, pattern recognition and learn calculation techniques such as reciprocal thinking with this course.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
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