6/1/2025 – Humpy Koneru is now the sole leader of the Norway Chess Women tournament after defeating Lei Tingjie in Armageddon following a drawn classical game. Anna Muzychuk was held to a draw in both games by Ju Wenjun, allowing the women's world champion to claim 1½ point, as she stands in sole third place. In the day's only classical win, Vaishali Rameshbabu beat Sara Khadem with black to climb to fourth place in the standings. | Photo: Michal Walusza
new: Fritz 20
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.
This isn’t just another chess tutorial—it’s your all-access pass to the strategies, insights, and techniques that define modern grandmaster play.
€39.90
Vaishali scores only classical win of the day
Humpy Koneru has taken the sole lead at the Norway Chess Women tournament after winning her round-five Armageddon game against Lei Tingjie. Both she and Anna Muzychuk entered the day tied for first, but while Humpy collected 1½ points in her mini-match, Muzychuk was held to a draw in both games by Ju Wenjun, allowing the reigning world champion to collect the extra half point.
In the day's only classical win, Vaishali Rameshbabu defeated Sara Khadem with black to climb to fourth place in the standings.
At the halfway mark, Humpy leads on 8½ points, followed by Muzychuk on 8 and Ju on 7.
The King‘s Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible, and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities.
The open and women's sections take place in the same playing hall | Photo: Michal Walusza
Vaishali Rameshbabu secured her first classical victory of the event by beating Sara Khadem with black. The result came after a challenging start in Stavanger, where Vaishali had lost her round-one classical game and two subsequent Armageddon encounters. After bouncing back with an Armageddon win over Anna Muzychuk in round four, she continued her upward trajectory with a confident performance on Saturday.
Vaishali gained a clear advantage out of the opening and kept up the pressure throughout the middlegame. The game ended in a striking fashion, with the decisive tactical blow 35...Ne3+
The idea is that 36.fxe3 can be immediately refuted by 36...Qxf3+, forcing resignation. The win lifted Vaishali to fourth place in the standings.
GM Daniel King analysed the game on his popular YouTube channel:
Glorious sacrifices, unexpected tactics and checkmating attacks. The King's Gambit is one of the oldest and most romantic openings in the game of chess. These DVDs contain all you need to know to play the King's Gambit.
Anna Muzychuk showed solid preparation in the classical game against Ju Wenjun, facing the latter's Berlin Defence. The game entered a major-piece endgame in which Muzychuk held an extra pawn. While engines gave White slight winning chances, the practical difficulties and Ju's active queen on g3 restricted Muzychuk's coordination and ultimately led to a draw.
In the Armageddon game, Ju once again played solidly with the black pieces. She managed to hold the balance throughout the 50-move contest, securing the draw she needed to win the mini-match. With this result, Ju picked up 1½ points and now sits in clear third place, one point behind Muzychuk.
Doesn’t every chess game get decided by mistakes? Absolutely. But most players never truly comprehend that they are making the same kind of mistakes over and over again.
Ju Wenjun | Photo: Michal Walusza
Humpy Koneru took the sole lead in the tournament by beating Lei Tingjie in their Armageddon decider. Their classical game had ended peacefully in 31 moves, but the tiebreaker featured greater tension and several critical errors by both players.
Humpy emerged with the pair of bishops and an extra pawn. It was Lei who made the last mistake, though, with 30...Bh6
Lei allowed Humpy to win the knight on e5. The sequence 31.Rcxe5 Rxe5 32.Rxe5 Qc2 33.b3 Qc3 34.Rf5 allowed Lei to capture on e3 but left her vulnerable to a decisive attack.
After 34...Bxe3+ 35.Bxe3 Qxe3+ 36.Qf2 Qxb3 37.Rg5+ Kf8 38.Qc5+, Lei resigned, with mate-in-four on the board.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
6/6/2025 – The 13th edition of the Norway Chess super-tournament is taking place from 26 May to 6 June in Stavanger. An open event and a women's event are being played concurrently with an identical number of players, the same format and an equivalent prize fund. Both world champions — Ju Wenjun and Gukesh Dommaraju — are participating, besides world number one Magnus Carlsen. | Follow the games live starting at 17.00 CEST (11.00 ET, 20.30 IST)
5/30/2025 – Round four of the Norway Chess Women tournament saw Sara Khadem score her first classical win by defeating Lei Tingjie with black, climbing to fourth place in the standings. Anna Muzychuk and Humpy Koneru, the tournament co-leaders, both lost their Armageddon games - to Vaishali Rameshbabu and Ju Wenjun respectively - but continue to share the lead with 7 points. Friday will be a rest day in Stavanger. | Photo: Michal Walusza
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.
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.
€49.90
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.