11/20/2022 – This is a picture of the two greatest football players of our generation – perhaps in the history of the game. Rivals on the field, here they are engaged in a chess match. Well, not really. It was for a photo shoot, staged by Louis Vuitton, the French luxury fashion house, specializing in handbags. Sagar Shah tells us what the campaign was all about. | Photo: Annie Leibovitz for Louis Vuitton
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.
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.
In this course, Grandmaster Felix Blohberger delivers a complete opening repertoire for White, centred around the flexible move 1.Nf3.
€34.90
Louis Vuitton published a photo that has simply gone viral. It shows Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo – arguably two of the greatest ever footballers ever – playing chess! But what is so special about this photo that it might well become the most viewed picture in the history of Internet? Why is it a marketing genius by Louis Vuitton? Why is chess used in the photo, and who are the two world-class chess players whose game is portrayed here?
IM Sagar Shah tells us all about it.
Sagar tells us all about the background of the photo shoot. He has even traced the game they have on the board (spoiler: it is from a game from Carlsen-Nakamura). Here's the game and the position on the board between Messi and Ronaldo:
Incidentally Lionel Messi and Christian Ronaldo are my all-time favourites in football. Here are two images to illustrate, from an article I wrote in 2016. The screen grabs are from a game Barcelona vs Espanyol on December 18, 2016.
Messi, who is surrounded surrounded by ten players, i.e. the entire Espanyol team (except for the goalkeeper, who is 20 meters to the left), gets the ball. What does he do? In exactly six seconds this amazing player has worked his way past them all and gets a clear shot at the goal!
Messi's shot was parried by the goalkeeper, but his teammate and prodigy Luis Suárez, whose foot you see on the left, could easily tap the rebound into the goal. You can watch it all transpire in this Youtube video sequence. If I have got you in the mood, you can google for the most impressive Messi and Renaldo solo runs against hoards of opponents.
Fixing football
Messi and Ronaldo are real exceptions in the game, which is facing a real problem (as I predict you will see in the current World Championship in Qatar). I suggested a fairly audacious solution: Fixing football — how to make it interesting. I'd love to see your comments on that.
Frederic FriedelEditor-in-Chief emeritus of the ChessBase News page. Studied Philosophy and Linguistics at the University of Hamburg and Oxford, graduating with a thesis on speech act theory and moral language. He started a university career but switched to science journalism, producing documentaries for German TV. In 1986 he co-founded ChessBase.
@mehmet17 - I loved Maradonna, and Pelé before him, and Bekenbauer, Kreuf, Gert Müller, Uwe Seeler. etc. And a dozen others. But Messi is a new dimension. His main weapon is what we in German call "Körpertäuschung" - "body deception?" Players are always trying to block the path he ends up not taking. https://www.rebelle.com/louis-vuitton-taschen-8741702
mehmet17 11/21/2022 07:39
Two great stars for sure. But none of them can conduct the match like Maradona ..
Frederic 11/21/2022 11:31
Flachspieler, they are not using a chessboard. They are playing a canvas trunk Braun. It sells for €9.455, but if you are quick you can get it for just €9.155: https://www.rebelle.com/louis-vuitton-taschen-8741702. Glad you liked the article.
arzi 11/21/2022 06:02
The cells on board are 8.5x8.5. The 0.5 cells are not for pieces, flash.
flachspieler 11/21/2022 03:10
Count the cells on the board: they are not 8x8 ...
e-mars 11/20/2022 07:24
For once a very good picture depicting non-chess players contemplating a (real world) position OTB, like they are actually playing a game of chess. A picture which looks like very much plausible, nice colours, nice board. For a chance not the usual shallow, dull, stereotypical picture using chess as mean to make the subjects look like they are much smarter than they really are irl, where in fact the effect is exactly the opposite. Kudos to the photographer and whoever set this up.
How do you play the Queen's Gambit Accepted? Does White have promising variations or can Black construct a water-tight repertoire? The Powerbook provides the answers based on 300 000 games, most of them played by engines.
The Queen's Gambit Accepted Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 11827 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 240 are annotated.
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.
€9.90
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.
