4/3/2026 – The Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe has begun as part of the grenke Chess Festival, which brought together nearly 4,000 players across multiple events. Led by Magnus Carlsen, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Vincent Keymer, the main Freestyle Open features nine rounds with randomly generated starting positions. The winner will secure a place in the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. | Photo: Jeroen van den Belt / ChessBase
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Your personal chess trainer. Your toughest opponent. Your strongest ally. FRITZ 20 is more than just a chess engine – it is a training revolution for ambitious players and professionals. Whether you are taking your first steps into the world of serious chess training, or already playing at tournament level, FRITZ 20 will help you train more efficiently, intelligently and individually than ever before.
With the moves d4-Nf3-e3-Bd3 White aims for simple piece development and to slowly build up a devastating attack on the kingside!
€39.90
Carlsen, Abdusattorov and Keymer head multitudinous field
By Freestyle Chess GmbH
The Freestyle Chess Open in Karlsruhe has begun. The world-class tournament is part of the grenke Chess Festival at the Schwarzwaldhalle, where nearly 4,000 players compete across six events - the largest chess tournament globally. Play runs from April 2 to 6. The Freestyle Open A is the key event, with the winner qualifying directly for the 2027 FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship.
The field, packed with world-class players, reflects the competitive value of the event. Magnus Carlsen, the world's number one, Vincent Keymer, Germany's number one, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the world's number five, lead the field. Nine rounds will be played. Each game begins with a newly generated starting position. Last year, Carlsen managed to win the Freestyle Open with nine wins out of nine games, a fabulous achievement that the Norwegian believes he will not be able to repeat. He's trying anyway.
More than 200,000 euros in prize money will be awarded in the Freestyle Open A, with 60,000 euros going to the winner. The top three women will earn spots in the 2027 Women's Freestyle Chess World Championship.
Let our authors show you how Carlsen tailored his openings to be able to outplay his opponents strategically in the middlegame or to obtain an enduring advantage into the endgame.
WGM Narmin Khalafova, Magnus Carlsen's round-one opponent
Players and fans getting acquainted with the initial Freestyle Chess position
Austrian FM Gunnar Schnepp was defeated by US star Hans Niemann
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Viktor Korchnoi. Let them show you which openings Korchnoi chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
Local hero Vincent Keymer and multiple world champion Magnus Carlsen are the two biggest stars in the multitudinous festival
Chess fans since an early age!
It looks like the position on the board is particularly interesting!
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
Local hero @VincentKeymer04 started the Grenke Freestyle Open with a win over WIM Sonja Maria Bluhm! Both players were smiling after the game as Sonja did some post-game analysis with Vincent.
4/3/2026 – The grenke Freestyle Chess Open is taking place from 2 to 6 April at the Karlsruhe Convention Centre in Germany. The tournament follows a nine-round Swiss format with a classical time control of 90 minutes for the game plus a 30-second increment per move. Players from the parallel grenke Chess Open could switch to the Freestyle event between rounds two and five while keeping their scores. | Follow the games live with expert commentary starting at 10.00 CEST (4.00 ET, 13.30 IST)
1/25/2026 – The grenke Chess Festival returns to Karlsruhe at Easter 2026, bringing together thousands of players for one of the world's largest chess gatherings. Alongside the traditional classical Open, the festival will stage a Freestyle Chess Open that serves as a qualifier for the FIDE Freestyle Chess World Championship. With leading grandmasters expected and substantial prizes at stake, the event combines large-scale participation with direct international sporting significance.
This entry into the 60 minutes series concentrates on the Modern variation of the Italian game where White opens the centre early : 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4 exd4 5 e5!. This line can be reached by various move orders, most frequently from the Scotch 3 d4 exd4 4 Bc4. It's a sharp variation and Grandmasters such as Evgeny Sveshnikov have used it frequently,with very good results. It's a perfect line for club players to adopt which is relatively easy to learn and which contains many traps. All the main responses are covered here, including 5...d5, 5...Ng4 and 5...Ne4 and the conclusion is that is is difficult for Black to equalize in a straightforward way. Problems are being posed, which over the board might prove tough to solve.
London System PowerBase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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