1/5/2019 – Rating favourite Tamir Nabaty dominated the field in Stockholm as he finished the Rilton Cup on 8 out of 9, a whole point ahead of a three-player chasing pack — Tiger Hillarp Persson (second), Sergey Volkov (third) and Frode Urkedal gathered 7 points each. The champion would have taken first place with a draw in the last round, but anyway defeated American youngster Awonder Liang in style with the black pieces. | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
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.
“Mate is great!” – Tactical training with Oliver Reeh, “The 8th rank” – Andy Woodward analyses his game against Magnus Carlsen from TePe Sigeman 2026, “A modern Nimzo-Indian” – Andrei Volokitin introduces readers to "his" system and much more!
€21.90
A career best
When first place was secured for Tamir Nabaty after his victory over Awonder Liang, the Israeli talked with Fiona Steil-Antoni in the commentary booth and shared his happiness with the live audience: "I'm feeling great, this was maybe my best tournament. I enjoyed every moment here, it was very pleasant for me". The 27-year-old had reason to celebrate — his 2885 rating performance earned him almost 20 rating points and allowed him to climb precisely twenty spots in the live rating list (he is now the 54th highest rated player in the world and Israel's clear number one).
He had arrived in Stockholm as the favourite, but nonetheless had to face fierce opposition, with three fellow members of the 2600-club (Mikhail Kobalia, Maxime Lagarde and Alexander Donchenko) and a big pack of ambitious 2500s mostly from India and the Scandinavian countries. When asked about the difficulty of arriving as first seed, he answered with typical professionalism: "I don't care if I'm first in the list or not — I just play chess and try my best every time".
Tamir had a peculiar start in the Swedish capital, as he was practically lost in his round one game against 2320-rated Tommi Luukkonen from Finland. In a razor-sharp middlegame, the Finnish missed some complex tactical continuations that would have given him a model victory, and when time pressure was imminent he gave away the game in a balanced but difficult position:
On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.
Luukkonen blundered with 30.Nd6? and resigned after 30...Re2 — the threats of back-rank mate are impossible to parry without big material concessions. The computer gives 30.e7 as the only way to keep the dynamic balance with White — a sample line is 30...Qxd7 31.exf8Q+ Kxf8 32.Rf1 Ke7 33.Rxf3 Re2 34.Rf7+ Kxf7 35.Qf3+. We definitely cannot blame the Finnish FM for not finding this continuation with his clock ticking down. (You can try more variations on the diagram above!)
Luukkonen could have changed the fate of the event | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
Steil-Antoni brought up this game in the post-game interview, and Tamir confessed that this is a common issue for him: "Usually I have some problems in the first round because I'm not [yet] inside the tournament — I need some time to get into the tournament".
The champion's most impressive performance in the tournament was his win over fifth seed Grzegorz Gajewski in round seven (a game we already covered in a previous report). Tamir was asked if he considered this to be the best game he had played in his career, and the Israeli responded that this was his second best game ever — his favourite is still a win he got over Ildar Khairullin at the 2010 European Championship in Rijeka. You can replay both games in the viewer:
A little below in the standings, Tiger Hillarp Persson missed a win in a very favourable position against Murali Karthikeyan in the final round. This allowed Sergey Volkov and Frode Urkedal to catch up with him after both won their last round games with the white pieces. Volkov's final position against Jaime Santos illustrates White's domination throughout the game:
The second DVD deals with the middlegame positions where static factors play a determining part, permanently taking into account the inseparable dynamic and tactical elements.
If Black tries to save his attacked bishop with 34...Bg4, White takes advantage of the black rook’s unfortunate position on a6 after 35.Nf7 Bf3+ 36.Kxf3 Rf8 37.Ke2 Rxf7 38.Nxe5 Nxe5 39.Bxa6.
As mentioned above, Hillarp Persson still took second place on tie-breaks.
Sergei Volkov was the tenth seed | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
Frode Urkedal finished undefeated | Photo: Lars OA Hedlund
Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (WCh Carlsen-Karjakin, European Club Cup and London Classic) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 11 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.
Commentary by IM Jonathan Westerberg & WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni
All available games
"Rilton Elo" and "Rilton 1800"
Two parallel events for players under-2200 and under-1800 were organised in Stockholm. The "Rilton Elo" tournament was won by Yaroslav Slugin (8/9), while Vadims Bolsakovs and Theodor Lindbergh (7/9) finished in second and third place, respectively. The "Rilton 1800" was a shorter eight-round Swiss tournament and was won by AO Mossin (7/8), who got a better tie-break score than Albert Moller; Claes Joensson finished third (6½/8).
Antonio PereiraAntonio is a freelance writer and a philologist. He is mainly interested in the links between chess and culture, primarily literature. In chess games, he skews towards endgames and positional play.
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.
The major part of the material on which the Petroff Defence Powerbook 2026 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 357 000 games. This imposing number is supplemented by another 17 000 from Mega and from correspondence chess.
Petroff Defence Powerbase 2026 is a database which contains 6475 high class games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 682 annotated.
Videos: Felix Blohberger presents the surprise weapon 4…a6 in the Four Knights Game. Mihail Marin analyses the English Opening with 1.c4 e5 2.g3 g6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4 Nf6 5.Bg2 Nc6. Plus the ‘Lucky bag’ featuring 37 analyses by Berg, Radjabov and others.
Renowned for its solidity and strategic soundness, it has been a cornerstone of the repertoires of elite grandmasters including Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who relied on it successfully in the Candidates Tournament.
The Benko Gambit is back at the very highest level - and it's easy to see why. Black sacrifices a pawn to seize the initiative on the queenside, obtaining long-lasting pressure, active pieces and open files that make life difficult for White.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
The Hyper-Accelerated Dragon is fast, from the very first moves, your bishop heads to g7, seizes the long diagonal, and turns into the most feared piece on the board.
It rewards players who love initiative and clear attacking plans.
€39.90
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.
