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: 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.
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So, Duda and Aronian share the lead
Find expert commentary — video and game annotations — by well-known coach and author IM Robert Ris at the end of the article.
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.
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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