7/2/2015 – Simuls are a time-honored way for amateurs to play a strong player, and to help promote the game to a wider audience. While ever-popular, it is hard to innovate on the formula, yet the Chess Club of Versailles did their best to do just that. With the help of IM François Vareille, a simul was organized in the great Versailles palace with participants dressed in era costumery.
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.
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.
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!
€39.90
The day's activities were held in honor of André Danican Philidor, the father of the comic opera
in France, and the greatest chess player of his day
Held in the sumptuous Galerie des Batailles (Gallery of Battles) at Versailles
The Galerie des Batailles (Gallery of Battles) is a 120 metre long and 13 metre wide gallery
conceptualized by Louis-Philippe I, and was intended to glorify French military history from
the Battle of Tolbiac (traditionally dated 495) to the Battle of Wagram (5–6 July 1809). Above
is a painting by François-Joseph Helm of Louis-Philippe opening the Gallery on 10 June 1837.
The team behind the Versailles Chess Club with the president Jean François (rear right)
and Patrick Claisse, the club's correspondent (rear left)
IM François Vareille, who conducted the simul, was also prominently dressed in era attire, and
took on all-comers for hours on end. By the end of the day he had taken on no fewer than 60
opponents in all, with 56 wins, two losses, and two draws.
A small video excerpt of the simul
François was not the only player following fashion a few centuries old as can be seen by his
opponents here, unusually dressed as Richelieu and a Musketeer. If one goes by the classic
tale by Alexandre Dumas, the musketeers were king's men and at odds with the cardinal.
A warm thanks to Michel Rauche for the photo.
Dressing up this way must have taken great effort, and the ladies shine with their beautiful costumes.
Chapeau!
Even the younger participants joined the fun as demonstrated by this little princess
A final video of the beautiful simul that could not but capture the imagination of passersby
Albert SilverBorn in the US, he grew up in Paris, France, where he completed his Baccalaureat, and after college moved to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He had a peak rating of 2240 FIDE, and was a key designer of Chess Assistant 6. In 2010 he joined the ChessBase family as an editor and writer at ChessBase News. He is also a passionate photographer with work appearing in numerous publications, and the content creator of the YouTube channel, Chess & Tech.
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.
