4/15/2025 – After getting the lead in the match on Sunday, Magnus Carlsen did not allow Hikaru Nakamura to get realistic chances of a comeback in the final of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam leg in Paris, as he secured tournament victory with a draw. Fabiano Caruana defeated Vincent Keymer in their two-game match to grab third place. | Photo: Stev Bonhage
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.
Ganguly introduces conceptually fresh directions in several key lines – even in the most played main lines.
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Carlsen takes title, Caruana grabs third place
In the first tournament of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam 2025 in Weissenhaus, Vincent Keymer managed to steal the tournament victory from Magnus Carlsen. The strongest chess player of this era only managed to get third place.
It was a different story in Paris. Keymer was unable to get past Hikaru Nakamura in the semifinals, which meant the final match was Carlsen versus Nakamura, the number one versus the number two in the world rankings. In their many duels, the two seldom face each other in person, as most of their duels have taken place in online tournaments. At the freestyle chess events, however, they play against on real boards.
Top trainers strongly recommend regular study of well-explained classical games to improve your understanding of chess in the long term. 33 modern classics are explained in details on this video course.
Carlsen had left Nakamura in a must-win situation after prevailing in the first game of the final. And whoever is ahead in a two-game match has a huge advantage at the highest level. In fact, Carlsen, now with the black pieces, was only looking to exchange and simplify. Nakamura endeavoured to keep the ball in play, but could not prevent the struggle from transforming into a rook ending with no winning chances for him.
The Norwegian took home a good-looking trophy and the $200,000 first prize.
Hikaru Nakamura playing white against Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the matches for the remaining places, the starting situation was more or less the same. In this case, however, the players with the black pieces had won their games on the first day.
So the task of simplifying the positions was even easier with the white pieces - even if not quite as easy as in "normal" chess, where the top players are all very familiar with the opening lines that lead to simplifications.
Keymer was one of the players who was looking to come from behind. In the battle for third place against Fabiano Caruana, Keymer's chances of equalising ended on move eight when he could only parry an attack on his queen by losing an exchange.
Caruana v. Keymer
Keymer's 8...c6 allowed 9.Be5, and he was forced to defend his queen with 9...Rd6
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
Caruana took his time to capture the exchange, and Keymer went on to give up his queen for two minor pieces. The game was somewhat surreal at times, and it ended in a 34-move draw after Caruana offered to split the point from a completely winning position.
Fabiano Caruana got third place after obtaining a 1½-½ win over Vincent Keymer, the winner of the inaugural tournament of the series | Photo: Stev Bonhage
In the match for fifth place, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave gained an advantage while playing black against Arjun Erigaisi in a must-win situation. However, the Frenchman's edge evaporated in the endgame after a long struggle. MVL had to settle for a draw and sixth place.
Nodirbek Abdusattorov fought for 70 moves against Ian Nepomniachtchi, looking for chances to win the game and equalise the match. In the endgame, the Uzbek star had an extra exchange more, but was also a pawn down. Nepomniachtchi capitalised on his pawn advantage to actually win the match by a 2-0 score.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vincent Keymer and Nodirbek Abdusattorov analysing the position from the black side | Photo: Lennart Ootes
From Mating with a queen; a rook; two bishops; a knight and a bishop; to the basics of pawn endgames – here you will gain the necessary know-how to turn your endgame advantages into victories!
4/14/2025 – Magnus Carlsen holds a 1–0 lead over Hikaru Nakamura after winning the first classical game of the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam final. Fabiano Caruana also took the lead in the third-place match, defeating Vincent Keymer with Black. Elsewhere, Arjun Erigaisi and Ian Nepomniachtchi both scored wins in the fifth and seventh-place matches respectively. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
4/10/2025 – The first day of the quarterfinals at the Paris Freestyle Chess Grand Slam saw Magnus Carlsen claim the only win, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov with white. The remaining games ended in draws, including a complex encounter between Arjun Erigaisi and Hikaru Nakamura, who tested the experimental "Nepo Gambit". Nakamura managed to equalise after a difficult start and eventually got an edge, but the game ended peacefully. Abdusattorov must now win on Thursday to force tiebreaks and keep his hopes of reaching the semifinals alive. | 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.
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.
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
€21.90
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