6/13/2025 – The Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy is proud to host a live lecture with Nikolaos Ntirlis, bringing one of the most respected minds in chess preparation and training to our virtual stage. Ntirlis is a Greece chess player, author, and trainer, born in 1984, who has established himself as a leading expert in chess openings and engine analysis. Join us on June 15 at 18:00h CET.
new: Fritz 20
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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.
The Neo-London System offers many new, creative possibilities to present your opponents with serious problems in the early stages of the game.
€49.90
Add to Your Calendar: June 15th, 2025, 18:00 CET. How to register: visit www.kcfacademy.org to enrol.
Nikolaos Ntirlis is a world-renowned chess trainer, author, and opening theoretician. He has collaborated with numerous grandmasters, including elite-level players and national teams. Known for his deeply analytical approach and modern understanding of chess strategy, Ntirlis combines rigorous theory with practical insight.
Co-author of critically acclaimed books like "Playing the French," "Playing 1.e4 e5," and "Playing the Ragozin."
Served as opening trainer and analyst for various national teams, including Denmark and Greece.
Recognized for revolutionizing classical openings with fresh, dynamic ideas.
Frequently contributes to leading chess publications and platforms.
Nikolaos Ntirlis, an IT specialist by profession, has carved a niche for himself as a top openings guru. He managed to built up a strong reputation as one of the most thorough opening researchers in the chess world.
It became his area of expertise – advising as an openings consultant, helping GMs and other ambitious titled players win national championships, norms or play in important tournaments like Olympiads (he served as a second preparing Danish Olympic team), top tournaments and World Championships.
He has effectively employed the English Opening in top-tier correspondence tournaments and delivers exceptional analyses. His motto in his work and chess career is “Inform all your decisions based on data”.
KCF Academy subscribers will have a unique opportunity to learn how to work with the opening databases and how to find new ways in the openings. In modern times it is necessary to be one step ahead of your opponent in the opening preparation. Nikolaos will show how to prepare for the game and how to find ways, which are less known to your opponent.
The live lesson will be very instructional for all young players – “How to create active opening repertoire”, which is based Ntirlis´s last successful book! He is conducting very instructive courses for Chessable. Highly recommended for all!
Join us on June 15!
Don´t forget that the Kasparov Chess Foundation Academy doors remain wide open for enthusiasts and learners alike!
Why It’s Never Too Late to Join the KCF Academy Training Course
If you haven’t enrolled in the KCF Academy training course yet, there’s no need to worry - it’s never too late to join! The Academy’s structure is designed with flexibility in mind, ensuring that students can seamlessly integrate into the program at any point. Here’s why:
Access to Recorded Lectures: Every live lecture, including Kasparov’s January 26 session, is recorded and made available to enrolled students. This means that even if you join after the event, you can still benefit from the full depth of his teachings, revisiting the material at your own pace.
Comprehensive Curriculum: The KCF Academy’s training course is meticulously crafted to cover all aspects of chess improvement, from opening theory and middlegame tactics to endgame mastery. Each module is self-contained, allowing new participants to pick up where they’re most comfortable and gradually build their skills.
Interactive Learning Environment: In addition to the recorded content, students have access to live sessions, interactive workshops on Thursdays, and Q&A opportunities with top instructors. This dynamic approach ensures a rich learning experience, regardless of when you join.
Kasparov Chess FoundationThe vision of the Kasparov Chess Foundation is primarily to use the many benefits of chess to help children worldwide. KCF does this through a variety of different programs, which you can find at KasparovChessFoundation.org
6/12/2025 – 15-year-old Alice Lee is the youngest participant in the highly competitive Cairns Cup in Saint Louis and ranked 10th in the seedings, but she nevertheless got off to a flying start with two convincing victories. In round 2, she demonstrated her tactical skills and won with black against former world champion Mariya Muzychuk. The second victory of the round went to Nana Dzagnidze, who beat Bibisara Assaubayeva. The three remaining games ended in draws. This means that Alice Lee has taken the sole lead after two rounds with 2 out of 2. | Photo: Screenshot from a promotional video for the Cairns Cup
6/9/2025 – The Cairns Cup returns to Saint Louis for its fifth edition, featuring ten of the world's leading female players in a nine-round classical tournament. With a record prize fund of $250,000 and a playoff in place to decide any tie for first, the event continues to highlight elite women's chess. Top seeds include Tan Zhongyi, Humpy Koneru, Bibisara Assaubayeva and Nana Dzagnidze. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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.
Rossolimo-Moscow Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 10950 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 612 are annotated.
The greater part of the material on which the Rossolimo/Moscow Powerbook 2025 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 263.000 games. This imposing amount is supplemented by some 50 000 games from Mega and from Correspondence Chess.
Focus on the Sicilian: Opening videos on the Najdorf Variation with 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3 (Luis Engel) and the Taimanov Variation with 7.Qf3 (Nico Zwirs). ‘Lucky bag’ with 38 analyses by Anish Giri, Surya Ganguly, Abhijeet Gupta, Yannick Pelletier and many more.
Throughout the video course, Sasikran shows various examples from his career to explain sacrifices for initiative, an attack, a better pawn structure and much more.
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
€49.90
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Co-author of critically acclaimed books like "Playing the French," "Playing 1.e4 e5," and "Playing the Ragozin."
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