4/4/2018 – The GRENKE Chess Classic continued today in Baden-Baden with round four. For a long time, it looked like this was going to be a game day where all players would struggle to play the 40 moves required before draw offers are allowed. However, Fabiano Caruana exploited an opening left by Arkadij Naiditsch, and showed that his brilliant form from Berlin persists. With only a queen and knight each left on the board, the American was able to produce dangerous threats against Naiditsch who ultimately collapsed under the pressure. As a result, Caruana joins the leaders, Nikita Vitiugov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
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Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Throughout my playing career I have found the Hedgehog one of the most difficult type of positions to master. The basic aim of this video is to improve understanding of these complex positions and to help tournament players score better.
€29.90
Caruana joins the lead
From Karlsruhe, Baden-Baden is about 20 minutes by car or 30 kilometres as the crow flies. It's a picturesque and wealthy town with pretty pedestrian streets, upscale shops and hotels and casinos. It's also a place with a fair bit of chess history, starting with one of the first elite chess tournaments back in 1870, which was won by Adolf Anderssen over Wilhelm Steinitz.
Here in 2018, at the start of the Baden-Baden leg, the day after a rest day looked destined to be a peaceful one. But Fabiano Caruana livened things up with a late attack in the time trouble of Arkad.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave offered the World Champion a pawn in the opening, which was declined. Presumably, the Frenchman would have received enough compensation in the form of the initiative — and he would know since no one has played this variation in the past as often as he has.
Williams main teaching method behind this set of two DVDs is to teach you some simple yet effective set ups, without the need to rely on memorising numerous complicated variations.
Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave kept it close to equal throughout | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
Vitiugov ½-½ Anand
The transition from Caro-Kann Defence to French Defence put Anand down a tempo, but it was not a problem, as the Indian managed to confidently keep the co-leader, Vitiugov, from developing any significant initiative:
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Be3!?. Andrew Martin uses the games of Kupreichik to show why this line could catch many French aficionados unprepared and is very dangerous for Black.
Nikita Vitiugov and Viswanathan Anand | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
Bluebaum ½-½ Meier
The match between the two German top players was not exactly a barn burner — basically, the draw was foreseeable after only 15 moves. That's a pity, because this result is of no use to either. Both players remain stuck in the lower half of the table.
Matthias Bluebaum took his time against Georg Meier | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
Caruana 1-0 Naiditsch
This game too looked at first to be headed for a draw. But with reduced material — an endgame of queen and knight against queen and knight — Caruana suddenly created dangerous threats against his opponent's king position. The basic problem for Naiditsch was perhaps the fact that he had led his knight too far into enemy territory. He grabbed a pawn, but it resulted in nothing but grief. Still, Caruana's play in this phase was enviable, beginning with the precise move 36.Ne3.
Among the open games the only opening with which White can really fight for an advantage in the long term is the Ruy Lopez. But in order to make this serious effort, he has buckle down and learn a whole series of sub-variations. That is what the professionals do, including of course Viktor Bologan, who now reveals the secrets of his own grandmaster repertoire.
Fabiano Caruana: This man is currently in the shape of his life
Activity is above all important when we consider the role of the kings in the endgame because it is then that they leave their protective shield of pawns and take an active part in the proceedings. A further major topic is the activity of the rook and it is not uncommon in the ending for a pawn to be sacrificed to obtain such activity. The chapter on initiative introduces, for example, endgames such as rook+knight against rook+knight, because neither of these pieces is suited to a passive role and even a slight initiative can be sufficient for victory. In the endgame mate should contantly be in your thoughts. So, for example, Stamma’s mate is treated, as are mating attacks in rook endings and the 4th phase of the game. The correct choice of pieces to exchange naturally always plays an important role, but generally speaking the cost of every wrong move increases in the endgame. Video runnig time: 4 hrs 18 min.
The game ended before the 40th move, due to a three-fold repetition with queen and bishop versus queen and knight. Hou could have tried to play on for an attack at this point, she probably concluded that she could not pose her opponent any great problems.
Levon Aronian remains unbeaten in this year's tournament, and still has chances to defend his 2017 title if he can post a couple of wins.
Hou Yifan remains at the bottom of the table after today | Photo: Georgios Souleidis
Klaus BesenthalKlaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.
The new Komodo Dragon 3 engine has gained 100 Elo points in playing strength over its predecessor when using a processor core in blitz. That's a huge improvement for a program that already reached at
an Elo level of over 3500!
FIDE Grand Prix 2022: Esipenko, Giri, Vidit, Oparin, Predke, Shankland, So and Vitiugov comment + videos by Rogozenco. "Special" on Bent Larsen. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Ragger and Marin. 11 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire!
The new Opening Encyclopaedia offers fast access to all openings. Openings are sorted via the menu by name & ECO Code for fast and easy access to your favorite openings.
Throughout my playing career I have found the Hedgehog one of the most difficult type of positions to master. The basic aim of this video is to improve understanding of these complex positions and to help tournament players score better.
Studying this video course should greatly improve the viewer’s handling of dynamic pawn positions! As with all my other video courses material here is predominantly aimed at improving players and tournament players.
€29.90
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