5/22/2024 – Three players are sharing first place going into the final round of the Sharjah Masters, as Volodar Murzin inflicted a second consecutive loss on Aravindh Chithambaram to join Sam Shankland and Bardiya Daneshvar in the leading group. Seven players stand a half point back, including top seeds Arjun Erigaisi and Parham Maghsoodloo. On the final day of action, Shankland will play white against Murzin on the top board. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
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.
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.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
€89.90
Murzin beats Aravindh
The two players who suffered painful losses on the top boards in round 7 at the Sharjah Masters failed to recover their previous form and lost again on Tuesday. Former sole leader Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Volodar Murzin, while Hans Niemann was defeated by Vokhidov Shamsiddin. Aravindh and Niemann are out of contention for tournament victory.
Murzin’s victory allowed him to join co-leaders Sam Shankland and Bardiya Daneshvar, who signed a 9-move draw in round 8. Murzin and Daneshvar are both aged 17, while the experienced Shankland is 32 — the Californian grandmaster knows all too well how to perform under pressure, as he won the 2018 U.S. Championship thanks to a final-round win over Awonder Liang. Shankland will play white against Murzin on Tuesday, while Daneshvar will play black against top seed Arjun Erigaisi.
In this course, we will learn how to identify passively placed pieces in any given situation and how to improve their health by bringing them into active squares.
Arjun is one of seven players standing a half point behind the co-leaders. For one of these players to finish tied for first place, it is necessary for the Shankland v. Murzin game to end in a draw and for Daneshvar not to beat Arjun on board 2.
The chasing pack consists of Arjun, Parham Maghsoodloo, Amin Tabatabaei, Alexey Sarana, Saleh Salem, Aydin Suleymanli and Shamsiddin Vokhidov.
Second seed Parham Maghsoodloo defeated Mahammad Muradli to join the chasing pack | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
Let us learn together how to find the best spot for the queen in the early middlegame, how to navigate this piece around the board, how to time the queen attack, how to decide whether to exchange it or not, and much more!
In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.
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.
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.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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