9/13/2018 – The World Chess Championship 2018 is still two months away but some federations are already looking ahead to 2020. Depending on the winner of the forthcoming World Championship match in November in London, the USA or Norway may, of course, want to host the next edition. However, the Austrian Federation would also like to celebrate its 100-year jubilee with a very special event and recently received an official visit. | Pictured: Central Vienna | Photo: Public domain via Creative Commons
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.
The Vienna Variation is a particular and independent system of the Queen's Gambit. It arises after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4, when Black's capture on move 4 is strongly reminiscent of the Queen's Gambit Accepted.
The King‘s Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible, and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities.
€39.90
Vienna has the culture, now it needs the money
Norway would love to host the World Championship 2020, the USA as well, and apparently Monaco too. These countries were discussed during a visit of a FIDE/Agon delegation in Vienna. FIDE treasurer Adrian Siegel and Agon chief Ilya Merenzon visited the Austrian capital which is officially in the running to host the World Championship 2020.
"The chances are getting better to bring the World Championship match to Austria", the Austrian Federation announced on the occasion of the top level chess visit. But the strong competition suggests that the opposite might be true. Moreover, it is not yet certain if the two visitors to Vienna, Siegel and Merenzon, will even be in a position to decide where the World Championship match 2020 will take place.
Vienna Volksgarten With Roses | Public domain
Siegel's future as a FIDE official depends on the fate of Georgios Makropoulos, a candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. If the Greek is voted out on October 3rd, Siegel will be gone as well. After the elections, the debate inside FIDE will likely heat up over the future of the Agon / World Chess partnership, no matter the outcome.
After the World Championship match Carlsen vs Caruana in November a Norwegian or an American will be World Champion. Either way, a bid of the home country of the World Champion will seriously come into consideration, much more so as both possible bids will be backed up by considerable financial power. In his time as World Champion Carlsen has built a chess empire supported by Scandinavian chess sponsors, while Caruana is backed by multi-millionaire Rex Sinquefield who dreams of organising a match in St. Louis.
Let endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller show and explain the finesses of the world champions. Although they had different styles each and every one of them played the endgame exceptionally well, so take the opportunity to enjoy and learn from some of the best endgames in the history of chess.
The Americans last month unveiled a banner commemorating the World Championship match of 1886!
There are also arguments in favour of Vienna as host of a World Championship match but they tend to be based on (chess) culture. There is first of all the rich chess tradition of the Austrian capital. In 2020 the Austrian Chess Federation celebrates its 100-year jubilee and as this would be a fantastic reason to bring the biggest of all chess events to Vienna, Christian Hursky, the president of the Austrian Chess Federation visited the Candidates Tournament in Berlin in March to discuss this idea with Ilya Merenzon.
Christian Hursky and Prof. Kurt Jungwirth | Photo: Austrian Chess Federation
Hursky's arguments must have been strong enough to convince a chess delegation to come to Vienna to look for a possible venue of the World Chess Championship match 2020. Merenzon, Siegel, and Nadia Panteleeva — Agon's marketing chief — reportedly took note of the many suitable venues in this picturesque city on the Danube river. Not to say anything against St. Louis or Oslo but as far as spectacular buildings are concerned they just cannot compete with Vienna. The Museumsquartier turned out to be the tentative favourite of the delegation.
Art museum in the Museum Quarter | Photo: Greymouser CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Currently, chess is experiencing a surge of popularity in Austria (not long ago the Austrian Federal President sent well-wishes to the national team that will play the Olympiad in Batumi) but apart from that Hursky and his fellow campaigners have another argument in favour of Vienna: their bid is concrete while their rivals have, to-date, made only declarations of intent.
Now, it's all a question of money. "Chess as an investment into the future", Merenzon expects for the city to host the World Championship 2020, hoping to build larger global audiences.
Hursky, for one, heard him. On top of the agenda of the World Championship 2020 planners is now the search for sponsors.
Conrad SchormannConrad Schormann, skilled newspaper editor, runs an agency for editing and communication in Überlingen, at Lake Constance. But he lacks time to play chess which is partly due to the fact that he very much likes to write about it, for Chessbase, in the Reddit chess forum, or for his chess teaching blog Perlen vom Bodensee...
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.
€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.