12/24/2015 – It was one of the most entertaining days at the Qatar open with some great masterpieces of contrasting nature for the fans. While Magnus Carlsen won a brilliant attacking game against the Chinese GM Li Chao to emerge as the sole leader with 4.5/5 points, Vladimir Kramnik displayed his usual endgame expertise to squeeze out a win from what looked like a completely drawn position. Express report.
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
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. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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Magnus Carlsen was in his element today! In a Grunfeld with 3.f3 that led
to a sharp middlegame in which White wanted to attack on the kingside and
Black on the queenside. Magnus first played some quiet defensive moves but
then sacrificed his a-pawn with 17.h4 – the beginning of a very smooth
attack. A few moves later he had blown open Li Chao’s kingside. Finally,
Li had to give his queen not to get mated. After Carlsen had parried all
counterthreats and the dust had settled he was winning.
After 17.h4!, the fans were glued to their
computer screens and treated to a fine attacking display by Carlsen.
Carlsen won in 36 moves to become the first
sole leader of the tournament.
He enters the rest day with 4.5/5.
The clash of the two elite players, Anish Giri
and Wesley So ended in a fighting draw after 62 moves
The clash on board three between Maxim Matlakov and Vladimir Kramnik seemed
to be heading towards a draw after the opening and the beginning of the
middlegame. However, Kramnik showed what he is very good at – squeezing
out a win from a very slight edge. He kept posing small problems to his
opponent and reached a promising queen ending in which he sacrificed a pawn
to push his passed d-pawn that finally helped him win!
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov continued to play exciting and entertaining chess.
With his novelty 10.b4 he created a complicated and unbalanced position.
Objectively, this was anything but sound but after his opponent Denis Khismatullin
missed a couple of good opportunities to win or to get a clear advantage
Mamedyarov finally managed to turn the tables and won in 38 moves.
The final position in the game Nikita Vitiugov
vs. Zhang Zhong game. Black to move resigned
because he cannot parry White's threat against g7. A picturesque finish!
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Nisha MohotaNisha Mohota became India’s youngest WIM in 1995 and India’s fourth WGM in 2003. Since February 2011 she has been a full IM – her highest ever Elo rating was 2416. She has represented India in 25 countries, playing for India in the 2004, 2008 and 2010 Olympiads. Her first love, chess, helps her continue her other passion: writing, photography and travelling.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
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