1/27/2024 – A magnificent round of chess saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov beating Ju Wenjun to become the sole leader at the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee. Standing in sole second place is Gukesh D., who failed to find a couple of tactical shots that would have granted him a full point against Alireza Firouzja. Four players are sharing third place, including Wei Yi and Vidit Gujrathi, who obtained remarkable wins on Friday. In the Challengers, Marc’Andria Maurizzi grabbed a fourth consecutive win and remains a full point ahead of Leon Luke Mendonca. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
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.!
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.
There was no shortage of razor-sharp chess in round 11 of the Tata Steel Masters. After the third (and last) rest day, the participants returned to the playing hall in Wijk aan Zee ready to fight. All three decisive games featured eye-catching tactical shots, while the crucial matchup facing Gukesh D. and Alireza Firouzja was also sharp but ended in a draw.
At the end of the day, Nodirbek Abdusattorov emerged as the sole leader after beating Ju Wenjun with the white pieces. Last year, the 19-year-old from Tashkent had also entered the final two rounds in the sole lead, standing a half point ahead of Anish Giri. This time around, it is Gukesh who stands at a half-point distance in sole second place.
7.c4 looks strange, but at the very least it had the women’s world champion thinking from the early stages of the game. Ju soon chose an imprecise plan, giving the initiative to her rival.
When Ju played her 22nd move, she had 37 minutes to Abdusattorov’s 1 hour and 10 minutes. Moreover, her 22...Qc7 allowed White to give up his knight for a strong attack.
Abdusattorov realized tactics should work for him in this position, and after thinking for around 10 minutes played the strong 23.Nxf7. Black must grab the knight with 23...Kxf7, leaving both her bishop on b7 and her knight on e6 pinned.
White’s conversion was not perfect, but defending this position with Black was all but impossible with the clock dangerously ticking down.
With the king in the centre, Abdusattorov was looking for ways to checkmate his opponent, and he had little trouble finding the good-looking 28.Nd5
Black cannot capture the bishop with 28...Qxe6 due to 29.Nc7+, while the knight on d5 prevents the queen from defending along the e5-a8 diagonal. After 28...Bd8, Abdusattorov played the cold-blooded 29.h3 — dealing with potential back rank issues — and went on to grab the full point five moves later.
Mastering these tactical motifs is essential to deepen your understanding of the game and become a better player. After all, you neither want to overlook the given chances by your opponent, nor blunder yourself!
Wei and Vidit go for it!
The remaining two decisive games of the day were nothing short of spectacular, especially Wei Yi’s victory over Max Warmerdam. By move 8, Wei had only 40 minutes to Warmerdam’s 55 — and the white rook on h1 was about to fall!
Wei v. Warmerdam
There followed 9.Qe2 Nh1, and the commentators pointed out that this felt like a 19th century battle — they were totally right!
The Indian chess grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi with an ELO of over 2700 (June 2023) is one of the best 20 players in the world. For the first time, the sympathetic top player presents himself in a video course. Let a world-class player show you tactical moti
The 24-year-old from Yancheng went on to get a remarkable 27-move victory (analysed below by GM Karsten Müller), and later noted that this was one of his most interesting games in the last five years. Indeed, this is not his first spectacular victory — find here another inspiring brilliancy by the Chinese star!
Wei Yi | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes
Vidit, on his part, saw the ever-fighting Parham Maghsoodloo entering a line that forced White to place the king on e2 early in the game.
Maghsoodloo v. Vidit
Engines consider that White has a small edge after 14.Ke2, but playing with the initiative is surely preferable for human beings.
White had just captured a knight on f6, as after 21...gxf6 22.Qc3 it is Black who needs to be careful due to the vulnerable position of his king. Vidit noticed he was not forced to capture the rook, though — the elegant 21...Qe7 is the way to keep Black’s advantage, since the white rook is short of squares to escape.
There followed 21...Bxg7 22.Kxg7 Rf5 23.Rd8, and Vidit continued to make progress until his opponent resigned the game on move 37.
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.
Praggnanandhaa, who drew Alexander Donchenko with white, following the game of the day (of the tournament?) | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
While five players remain at a 1-point distance or less from the leader in the Masters, the fight for first in the Challengers has become a two-horse race, with Marc’Andria Maurizzi the clear favourite to take the title.
Maurizzi scored his fourth consecutive win (his seventh overall) to keep his full-point lead over Leon Luke Mendonca, who also won on Friday. Both frontrunners scored with white — Maurizzi got the better of Liam Vrolijk, while Mendonca defeated Liam Vrolijk.
These were only two of the six games that ended decisively in round 11. Top seed Hans Niemann was one of the winners, as he got to play a great-looking final move in his game with black against Stefan Beukema.
Beukema v. Niemann
33...Qxe2+ was followed by Beukema’s resignation — 34.Kxe2 Bxf4+ 35.Rd2 Rdxd2+ 36.Ke1 Bxg3+ 37.Kf1 Rd1# is one of the winning lines!
Niemann is sharing fifth place with Saleh Salem and Anton Korobov, two points behind Maurizzi with two rounds to go.
This video course features the ins-and-outs of the possible setups Black can choose. You’ll learn the key concepts and strategies needed to add this fantastic opening to your repertoire. An easy-to-learn and yet venomous weapon.
White does not have time for this retreat.19.Na4is called for and more or less equal.19...d4!A typical powerful advance, which shows how powerful Black's pieces are positioned.20.exd4?This opens the position for Black.20.Na4!is forced to limit the damage.20...Bxf321.gxf3cxd422.Qxd4?
This runs into a mighty knight blow.22.Bxa6is more tenacious, but does not defend due toRxc323.Bxc3dxc324.Rxc3Qb625.Rc8Rxc826.Bxc8Ne5-+22...Nh5!Black wins material as White's queen has no good squares.23.Qa423.Qg4Ne5-+23...Nc5!24.Bxa624.Qg4Nxd3-+24...Nxa425.Rxd8Rexd826.Bxc826.bxa4Rc627.Bb5Rc528.Bb2Rdc829.Ba6R8c730.Ne2Bxb2-+26...Nxc327.Bxc327.Ba6Nxa2-+27...Bxc328.Ba628.Rxc3Rd1+29.Kg2Nf4+30.Kg3Ne2+-+28...Nf4!?
The knight joins the attack forcefully.29.Bf129.Rxc3is met byRd1+30.Bf1Ne2+31.Kg2Nxc3-+29...Be530.Re1f631.a4Rd2Black's attack with opposite-colored bishops will decide the day.32.Re4g533.h4Bd434.Bc4+Kf835.hxg5Bxf2+36.Kf1Bg337.Be2Rb237...Rb238.Rxf438.Bd1Rf2+39.Kg139.Ke1Ng2#39...Nh3+40.Kh1Rh2#38.b4Rb1+39.Bd1Rxd1+40.Re1Rxe1#38...Bxf439.gxf6Rxb3-+0–1
In over 4 hours in front of the camera, Karsten Müller presents to you sensations from the world of endgames - partly reaching far beyond standard techniques and rules of thumb - and rounds off with some cases of with own examples.
Saleh Salem defeated Harika Dronavalli with the black peices | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Jurriaan Hoefsmit
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.
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.
Trompowsky Powerbook 2025 is based on 53,000 computer games from the engine room of playchess.com as well as 49,000 games from Mega and correspondence chess.
Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
Powerbook based on more than 618 000 games in which White already sidesteps the main variations of the Sicilian on move 2.
€9.90
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.
.jpeg)
