9/7/2024 – Alireza Firouzja and Magnus Carlsen reached the final match of the Speed Chess Championship after obtaining clear victories over Hikaru Nakamura and Hans Niemann respectively. Firouzja's play was impressive and left Nakamura out of an SCC final for the first time in history, while Carlsen was always in control in his match against Niemann. Nakamura and Niemann will play a match for third place on Saturday, while the battle of generations between Carlsen and Firouzja will take place on Sunday. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
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.
Which pieces are good, which are bad, and what can you do about it? Master this principle with this video course!
€39.90
Clear wins for the finalists
Almost exactly 2 years after the infamous game which saw Magnus Carlsen withdrawing from the Sinquefield Cup after losing to Hans Niemann, the protagonists of the controversy faced off for the first time in an in-person environment. Niemann reached the semifinals of the Speed Chess Championship by knocking out Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So in previous rounds, while Carlsen got the better of Tuan Minh Le and Arjun Erigaisi.
The much anticipated encounter took place at Espot in Paris. The games were played on computers, with players sitting opposite each other wearing noise-cancelling headphones while a live audience followed the action - they were allowed to cheer or react as they wished. Besides a few complaints by Niemann, there were no major technical issues during the live webcast of the games.
In this video course, kings will play a role of strong and active pieces. We will explore how Kings can be helpful in defence and prophylaxis, or even in attack!
Carlsen obtained a clear 17½-12½ victory over Niemann to reach the tournament final. At some point in the match, the former world champion racked up a 10-point advantage, as he always seemed in control after getting a 7-2 win in the 5-minute section.
The match ended past 1 am in Paris. A visibly exhausted Carlsen told commentators afterwards that he was relieved that the match was over, as he would have preferred not to face Niemann at all. The Norwegian did mention that Niemann's game has improved a lot over the last couple of years, though he also noted that he is much more excited to face Alireza Firouzja in the final, as he will play "somebody who is at, you know, the highest level".
Hans Niemann stopped the games a couple of times, noting that "there's some resistance in my mouse" - arbiter Judit Sztaray patiently dealt with the complaints | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
Earlier in the day, Firouzja had defeated Hikaru Nakamura in remarkable fashion. The fact that Nakamura will not be playing in the tournament final is big news, since the US star has played in every single final since the inception of the Speed Chess Championship. To reach the semis, Firouzja knocked out Alexander Grischuk and Fabiano Caruana, while Nakamura defeated José Martínez and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
While Carlsen got a major 5-point advantage in the first section of the match against Niemann, Firouzja started the day with a 5½-3½ victory over his opponent. It was in the next section of 3-minute games that the youngster widened the gap and already seemed fully in control of the situation - his 6½-2½ win granted him a 6-point lead going into the bullet.
Nakamura, an online chess expert, got to win the bullet section, but the 5-4 score was not enough to obtain what would have been a miraculous comeback.
Alireza Firouzja | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
Besides popularising the game greatly, the online-chess boom during the pandemic also created an environment often tainted with drama. Following the controversy surrounding the infamous Carlsen v. Niemann affair, the US rising star also began a campaign questioning the role of chess.com and Hikaru Nakamura in the chess world.
In this Video-Course we deal with different dynamic decisions involving pawns. The aim of this Course is to arm club/tournament players with fresh ideas which they can use in their own practice.
Amid the various disputes, Levy Rozman (a.k.a. Gotham Chess) played a considerable role as the commentator with one of the biggest online audiences in the chess world (only comparable to Nakamura's). It was precisely Rozman who conducted interviews with the semifinalists of the Speed Chess Championship. His 48-minute conversation with Niemann, not surprisingly, was particularly popular. The 21-year-old talked extensively about the chess.com report published by the Wall Street Journal, and was especially biting while referring to Nakamura and Rozman himself.
In this video course, experts including Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller and Oliver Reeh, examine the games of Boris Spassky. Let them show you which openings Spassky chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were and much more.
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.
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.
Experts examine the games of Max Euwe. Let them show you which openings Euwe chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, which tactical abilities he had or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
This interactive video course of over 8 hours, provides an in-depth exploration of the Pirc Defence, a favoured opening for people looking to play for the win with the black pieces.
Pirc Defence Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 10027 games from Mega 2025 or the Correspondence Database 2024; of these 874 are annotated.
The Pirc Defence Powerbook 2025 consists for a greater part of engine games (168 000), to which has been added high value material from Mega and the Correspondence Database (115 000).
The free app from ChessBase! ChessBase Mobile has everything you need as a chess player on the go:
access your chess data in cloud databases - and 13 million games.
€0.00
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.
.jpeg)
