6/7/2023 – In round 7 of the Norway Chess Tournament, the duels between Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja and Hikaru Nakamura (photo) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov provided spectacular top chess - with ups and downs and many exciting moments. | Photos: Lennart Ootes/Norway Chess
new: ChessBase 18 - Mega package
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.
Have you always wanted to play the Sicilian as Black, but been discouraged by the abundance of options for White? Here is the solution to becoming a lifelong successful Sicilian player!
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Round seven of the Norwegian Chess Tournament saw the match that Magnus Carlsen would have wanted in another World Championship contest, Carlsen versus Firouzja.
After defending his title against Nepomniachtchi, Carlsen had immediately expressed doubts as to whether he would be available for another World Championship match unless he faced a representative of the younger generation, such as Firouzja. But the Iranian-born Frenchman failed to qualify at the Candidates Tournament in Madrid and Carlsen did indeed retire from the World Championship business.
In a recent chess blog Carlsen also commented on trends in modern top-level chess. The amount of preparation required to get to a real chess game, which is not completely determined by opening preparation, is now unbearably high, said the world number one.
Against Firouzja, for example, he played the move 3.Bd3 with White in the Sicilian Defence after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 and commented on it in a good-humoured video statement with the words "Bd3 is not a bad move, but I don't know much about it".
"I hadn't thought about 1...e6 and 2...c5... It's funny we'll have a totally new game after move three," Carlsen says from the confessional. 😂#NorwayChesspic.twitter.com/m3BXWPIf8j
Firouzja won't have known much either. But the world's best junior did not want to lose the psychological opening battle and lashed out with 4...g5!?. A lively game developed, without a theoretical debate though somewhat reminiscent of coffeehouse chess.
At one point Carlsen offered the exchange, which Firouzja, however, did not accept. Carlsen then gained a huge positional advantage and Firouzja started a swindle by sacrificing a piece in a bad position. Carlsen missed the best continuation and Firouzja even gained an advantage in a complicated endgame, but with only seconds on the clock Firouzja failed to find a hidden win and the game ended in a perpetual.
In the ensuing Armageddon Firouzja had no chance and was outplayed.
Watch the Armageddon game between Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja 👀🔽 The former World Champion might have won this Armageddon, but hasn't won any classical game so far♟️ pic.twitter.com/hnNvFPGeZS
Another dramatic game was the encounter between Hikaru Nakamura and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In a Queen's Gambit Accepted the eloquent American Grandmaster had the objectively better game, but still had to worry about his king, which was stuck in the middle. Nakamura did not find the best defense and Mamedyarov found a way to attack Nakamura's king and the game ended with a draw by repetition.
In the Armageddon game Nakamura castled early, but this was not ideal either. Mamedyarov sacrificed a piece on e3 to get a promising attack. However, he did not find a way to end the game quickly and liquidated into an endgame, in which Mamedyarov was still better, but also used much too much time. In a complicated position with only seconds on the clock Mamedyarov he thought too long about one move and lost on time.
Here is what Nakamura had to say about the two games:
Time was also a factor in the encounter between Fabiano Caruana and D. Gukesh. The classical game saw an Italian and ended in a draw without too much excitement. But in the Armageddon game it was Caruana who pressed from the start. He finally reached a winning queen ending, but spent too much time looking for a win and eventually lost on time.
Anish Giri scored three points against Aryan Tari. In a Catalan, Tari held the balance for a long time, but then Giri won a pawn and converted his advantage in a double rook ending.
Wesley So also scored three points by winning the classical game against Nodirbek Abdusattov. In a Queen's Gambit Accepted So seized the initiative and eventually reached a better double rook ending, which he could win.
Caruana remains at the top of the table, ahead of Nakamura and So. Carlsen is only seventh.
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.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
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