German League playoff match: LIVE

5/24/2018 – Today in Baden-Baden the match is held for the German League Championship 2018. The team of OSG Baden-Baden meets SG Solingen in a tiebreak match after both teams were tied through fifteen regulation rounds. Baden-Baden is very strong, as usual, led by Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Viswanathan Anand, but Solingen has brought in world number nine Anish Giri to play top board.

German League: A Final without finality?

5/4/2018 – The three-day Bundesliga finals in Berlin ended Tuesday without a definitive result. The top teams Baden-Baden and Solingen featured many professional stars and, with no major upsets — each won all three rounds and therefore finished tied — a playoff match will be needed at a later date. But there was a lot of exciting and top-class chess played in Berlin, which made for a great experience for any chess fans lucky enough to have a front-row seat. | Pictured: Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were the top two boards for Baden-Baden, Stefan Kindermann of MSA Zugzwang looks on. | Photo: Pascal Simon

The Elephant Gambit

The Elephant Gambit (1.e4.e5 2.Nf3 d5!?) has never really been given the attention it deserves. It is a very useful surprise weapon. Let us list the advantages of playing this particular opening: 1) Shock value 2) It is very aggressive. Black can take over the initiative early. 3) Many tricky lines 4) Unorthodox. Black is basically taking the game to the opponent as early as move two. Not many openings do that! It's a perfect opening for young players and club players to adopt. Let Andrew Martin select a repertoire for you on this 60 mins, which, if used with discretion, will rack up the points. I am sure that you will enjoy this unusual tour of the Elephant Gambit.