4/23/2023 – Arjun Erigaisi won the rapid section of the Satty Zhuldyz tournament in Astana with a 9½/11 score. The youngster kicked off the day with a win over Vladimir Kramnik. He then he drew Levon Aronian, before finishing the rapid event with a victory over Kateryna Lagno. Aronian finished the rapid in second place with 8/11, while Alexander Grischuk was third with 7/11. The tournament is not over, as the final standings will be decided based on the cumulative score of the rapid and blitz events. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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.
The course is designed to provide a deep yet practical repertoire for Black, balancing solid foundations with aggressive counterplay.
€39.90
Arjun and Aronian remain unbeaten in rapid
Both Arjun Erigaisi and Levon Aronian remained undefeated in the rapid event. The highly anticipated encounter between them ended in a draw. Although Arjun had a substantial advantage, the tournament situation did not require him to push for a full point. They will face each other in the blitz event at least twice on Monday and Tuesday.
Apart from Vishy Anand, Arjun Erigaisi is the only other Indian who has a 2700+ rating in all three formats of the game.
Arjun Erigaisi is now ranked as world number 24 in the live ratings list for rapid chess | Source: 2700chess.com
First-ever encounter against Kramnik
Arjun Erigaisi had never faced the 14th world champion Vladimir Kramnik in a rated game before their encounter on Saturday. The tournament leader had all the momentum and form on his side. Starting his third consecutive day with a win would definitely set the tone before facing Levon Aronian in the penultimate round.
18.b3 forced Black to give up the b5-pawn. There are various ways for Black to deal with the attack on the knight. There followed 18...Nd6 19.Nxb5 Bxb5 20.Bxb5+ Ke7 21.Rfc1 and eventually the extra b-pawn played a crucial role in White’s conversion of his advantage.
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
After drawing Levon Aronian in round 10, Arjun Erigaisi faced Kateryna Lagno, a former women’s world rapid champion, in the final round of the rapid event.
Black was at a critical juncture. Which endgame to choose? Queen and knight, rook and knight or just knight endgame? The correct answer is: rook and knight endgame. However, Black went for a knight endgame. It did not go well for her — 40...Rxe2 41.Kxe2 Qxf3+ 42.Nxf3 Nxc5 43.Nd4 b4 44.Nc6 and White went on to win the game.
Arjun Erigaisi defeated Kateryna Lagno to win the rapid event and gain a 1½-point lead heading into the blitz | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Avoiding mistakes in the opening and even learning from mistakes is a valuable tool to improve your chess. Ruslan Ponomariov, former FIDE World Champion, demonstrates basic patterns that will help you navigate through the game more easily.
Arjun Erigaisi signs autographs for the young fans | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
A tour of the venue, the Hilton Astana Hotel | Video: ChessBase India
Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
Rossolimo-Moscow Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 10950 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 612 are annotated.
The greater part of the material on which the Rossolimo/Moscow Powerbook 2025 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 263.000 games. This imposing amount is supplemented by some 50 000 games from Mega and from Correspondence Chess.
Focus on the Sicilian: Opening videos on the Najdorf Variation with 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3 (Luis Engel) and the Taimanov Variation with 7.Qf3 (Nico Zwirs). ‘Lucky bag’ with 38 analyses by Anish Giri, Surya Ganguly, Abhijeet Gupta, Yannick Pelletier and many more.
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.
€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.