8/20/2024 – After an intense first day of games, José Martínez has taken a 7-5 lead over former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. The event, which features both online and over-the-board matches, is designed to address the hot topic of cheating in chess. “I noticed that the online part was working perfectly this time," said Kramnik, "no lag, no bugs, and no fair play issues." You can join many top players watching the encounter for two more days. | Photo by Antony Jones/Getty Images for World Chess.
Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
This isn’t just another chess tutorial—it’s your all-access pass to the strategies, insights, and techniques that define modern grandmaster play.
€69.90
José Martínez puts Kramnik’s allegations under question
London, August 20, 2024 — José Martínez, an online chess prodigy from Peru, secured a 7-5 lead against former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik on the first day of the dramatic event taking place in London.
Earlier this year, Kramnik questioned Martinez’s performance in online tournaments and challenged him to a duel aimed at addressing the larger issue of online cheating. Kramnik’s theory is that if one can play brilliantly online, he or she can show similar performance in over-the-board tournaments, where cheating is close to impossible, and the Clash of Blames is the event that will help determine whether Kramnik’s fair play questions against ‘online chess stars’ is founded.
There are two more days of the Clash of Blames, each day featuring six online and six over-the-board games in blitz time control — the same that is traditionally used for online tournaments. Whoever scores 18.5 points first — wins.
This is where you can watch the games live or replay the video later
Leading Chess organisation, World Chess, brought in Pinkerton, the world’s oldest detective agency, to ensure fair play. Pinkerton detectives were onsite, conducting in-depth checks on the players and the venue to ensure the players are absolutely certain the fair play integrity is maintained.
The online part of the event is held on chessarena.com, the official FIDE gaming platform featuring advanced anti-cheating technology, after the players’ previous attempt to hold the tournament earlier this year was undermined by malfunctioning software provided by chess.com, due to clock resynchronization. Following the games on 19th August, Vladimir Kramnik said:
“I noticed that the online part was working perfectly this time—no lag, no bugs, and no fair play issues. I really hope it continues like this, as this is the whole reason we organized this match: to ensure professional, normal chess can be played. In the previous event, the clock was jumping for both of us, which was frustrating. You can truly enjoy chess when everything works as it should.”
The scale of the event and attention from the chess world was evident by the event’s media coverage and the line-up of guests—including high-profile names in British Chess such as David Howell, Hans Niemann, and British chess prodigy Bodhana Sivanandan. The Q&A session with the players was a highlight of the evening, where both Kramnik and Martínez shared insights on their games and praised the anti-cheating measures and overall organization of the tournament.
The event was free to watch on the World Chess YouTube channel as well as those of Hikaru Nakamura, and Levitov Chess, among others.
The event will continue for two more days, with games on August 20 and 21 starting at 16:00 UK time. Each day will feature 6 online games on FIDE Online Arena and 6 over-the-board games, all played with a 3+2 time control. The first player to reach 18.5 points will win the tournament and receive a 12,000 EUR prize, while the runner-up will secure 8,000 EUR. Watch the games live on our YouTube channel.
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
In this 60 Minutes, Andrew Martin guides you through all the key ideas you need to know to play with confidence. Whether you’re looking to surprise your opponents, or simply want a straightforward weapon against e5, the Centre Attack has you covered.
Videos by Mihail Marin: Najdorf Variation with 6.f4 and Nico Zwirs: Italian ‘giucco pianissimo’. ‘Lucky bag’ with 45 analyses by Edouard, Ftacnik, Gupta, Pelletier and others. Update service with over 50,000 new games for your database!
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
€21.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.