5/22/2023 – Magnus Carlsen played his first three over-the-board (rapid) games after giving up the world champion title on Sunday. In his first outing as a ‘former world champion’, Carlsen replied to Radoslaw Wojtaszek’s 1.d4 with 1...b5, going for the questionable Polish Defence — in Warsaw! Carlsen lost that game and drew the next two to end the day with a 2/6 score. Three points ahead stand co-leaders Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
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.!
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before. FRITZ is more than just a chess engine – it’s a training revolution! Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.
Wesley So, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Levon Aronian all scored two wins and a draw to end the first day of action at the Superbet Rapid & Blitz tournament sharing the lead on 5/6 points (a win is worth 2 points in the rapid section). So and Duda faced — and drew — world number one Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian is playing his first over-the-board tournament after giving up his title as world champion in classical chess.
Despite not being the classical champion any more, Carlsen continues to hold the world title in rapid and blitz. In fact, he still has a whopping 59-point advantage over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the official (classical) ratings list published by FIDE.
Further cementing Carlsen’s status as the best-known international chess star, PUMA recently launched a personalized sneaker model together with the Norwegian.
At the Superbet Poland event, the now former world champion made sure to leave his mark right off the bat. Playing black against Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Carlsen replied to 1.d4 with 1...b5 — the Polish Defence! His experienced opponent was surely as shocked as the spectators, but he had no trouble refuting the audacious — rather reckless — proposition.
The final position shows how fun it must have been for Wojtaszek to harass his famed opponent’s king stuck in the centre of the board.
Black resigned. The Polish Defence could not prevent the accomplished Polish grandmaster from defeating one of the strongest players in history.
After drawing his remaining two games, against So and Duda respectively, Carlsen confessed:
I haven’t really played or studied chess much recently. [...] But at least I steadied the ship a little bit in the last couple of rounds. So it’s not a disater, but overall it was just really rusty.
Coincidentally, the two players who drew Carlsen in rounds 2 and 3 finished the day sharing the lead with plus-two scores. So and Duda are joined by Aronian atop the standings. The latter is replacing world champion Ding Liren in Warsaw, as the Chinese grandmaster decided to withdraw due to the fatigue induced by the gruelling match in Astana and the subsequent elite tournament he played in Bucharest.
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.
The Italian Game is considered a sound but quiet opening without early trades, giving rise to rich positions where plans are more important than forced variations. So shows black's plans on this DVD.
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.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
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