7/16/2020 – Due to Covid-19 most of us are confined inside our home. Some people are creating content, while some are watching that content. So the question arises: what to choose and what to skip? Six-time consecutive National Champion GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly started his own series, and his first guest was none other than the one and only Vishy Anand. Ganguly is a former second of Anand, who helped him in numerous World Championships. But where did their journey begin? Four episodes, packed with stories and never-before-seen questions, make up the incredible series with the ‘Tiger of Madras’. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Fritz has fascinated the chess world for 30 years. And the success story continues. In Vienna, the most popular chess program ever was once again able to underline its premier position: the newly developed neural engine with NNUE technology won the official Chess Software World Championship!
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.
In this course, Grandmaster Felix Blohberger delivers a complete opening repertoire for White, centred around the flexible move 1.Nf3.
€34.90
Good old friends
On June 20, six-time consecutive National Champion, Arjuna Awardee GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly hosted seven-time World Champion Vishy Anand on his newly launched YouTube channel. Surya talks about a lot of things which have never been asked to Anand.
In his debut episode, among other things, Surya mentions that his first-ever interaction with Anand was back in 2005 when he played a simultaneous exhibition match at the Alekhine Chess Club in Kolkata against 40 players. He talks about the interaction. It was after he observed a game with back-then young and talented Deep Sengupta, who is a strong Grandmaster now.
The attention will be paid to the castled king and in particular on ways of exploiting the weakened kingside. Several well-known themes, pawnformations and other attacking weapons are covered in 8 chapters.
Vishy Anand vs. Deep Sengupta - Simul, 2005
Does the Greek gift sacrifice work here?
“Anand did not take Bxh7 and I was very curious why he didn’t play this move”, Surya said to his live audience from his home in Kolkata. After the simultaneous exhibition was over, Surya went to Anand to pick his brain and find out an answer to his query. Despite Anand getting mobbed by the fans and lovers of the game, he explained everything blindfolded (without having a physical or virtual chessboard in front of them). To know what Anand answered in the show, you can watch it here.
Surya confesses, “Against Gelfand, I don't think we had any preparation at all against 1.e4”. He also adds further, “We just assumed that Gelfand would never play 1.e4”.
Analysis diagram
Position after 12.Kxc4
Yes, the above diagram was part of a World Championship preparation! Surya describes the position as one of the best openings from an aesthetical point of view he has ever seen. To find out how it all happened, you can check it here.
Anand discussed many details about other World Championship matches, both about the chess side of things and the environment surrounding each particular situation. The ‘Tiger of Madras’ explains why he prefers not to pay too much attention to the controversies surrounding sportive events, putting all his focus on being his best self while doing his job — to play chess.
Plenty of elite players joined the live chat during the second episode, including Giri, Sethuraman, Harika, Vishnu, Padmini and Soumya.
With famous classical examples from the works of the giants, the author talks in detail about principles of chess and methods of play that we can use during every stage of the game.
Aruna joins her husband
Anyone who has followed Anand’s successful career has heard of his wife Aruna, who has been an integral part of his development since their marriage in 1996. Aruna joined the conversation in episode 3, answering rapid-fire questions and talking about their 9-year-old son Akhil, among many other things. After having accompanied her husband for so many years, Aruna knows a lot about the chess world!
Throughout the interviews, it is noticeable that Surya and Anand have a very nice, friendly relationship. We must also note that Surya does a great job as a host, showing ‘deep preparation’ with many interesting questions ready at every turn and a relaxed demeanour that really helps the conversation to continue flowing naturally.
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
Shahid AhmedShahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.
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.