1/15/2024 – Alireza Firouzja became the first sole leader in this year’s Tata Steel Masters after beating Parham Maghsoodloo with white in the second round — the Frenchman is the only player who started the event with back-to-back victories. Gukesh D. and Max Warmerdam also grabbed wins on Sunday. Meanwhile, in the Challengers, five players are sharing first place with 1½/2 points. | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / 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 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.
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
€39.90
Firouzja, Gukesh and Warmerdam score
Alireza Firouzja made headlines throughout December, as he attempted to qualify to the 2024 Candidates via rating. The 20-year-old played a couple of tournaments he would not have played under different circumstances to overtake Wesley So in the FIDE ratings list for January. In the end, his 7/7 performance in an open event in Rouen granted him the right to play in the Candidates set to take place in Toronto in April.
Following his perfect showing in the aforementioned open, he continued his winning streak at the first super-tournament of the year. Firouzja beat Jorden van Foreest and Parham Maghsoodloo in the inaugural two rounds of the Tata Steel Masters to become the first sole leader of the event.
Two Super Grandmasters from India explain the ins & outs of Attack, Tactics an Calculations in these two video courses.
Talking to Fiona Steil-Antoni after beating Maghsoodloo’s Berlin Defence, Firouzja referred to his last-minute (successful) attempt to gain rating points in a small event:
It felt a bit unfortunate because in the [previous] Elo lists I had more rating than everyone. [The open in Rouen] was a difficult tournament, one of the most difficult tournaments I have ever played because I could not make one draw, so I was very happy to finally make it.
When asked about whether he was paying attention to the negative criticism on social media regarding his participation in these events, Firouzja responded:
I didn’t care. I knew that I was doing the right thing to try my chances. [...] I get a lot of these kinds of things all my life, so I’m kind of used to it.
With his two wins in Wijk aan Zee, Firouzja now stands over 10 points ahead of So in the live ratings list. In Monday’s third round, the French representative will face Max Warmerdam with the black pieces.
Firouzja was not the only player to score a full point in round 2, as Gukesh and Warmerdam grabbed their first wins of the event in their games against Wei Yi and Jorden van Foreest, respectively. Gukesh came from drawing Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the first round, while Warmerdam had lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi on opening day.
While Gukesh needed 33 moves to beat Wei in what was a very sharp struggle, Warmerdam made the most of Van Foreest’s run of bad form at the outset of the event — the 2021 champion lost twice with the white pieces after misplaying endgame positions he would usually handle proficiently.
As for the remaining four games, perhaps the biggest highlight was Ju Wenjun defending a slightly inferior endgame against Nepomniachtchi. Curiously, for a second day in a row, the women’s world champion played the longest game of the round, with both encounters lasting exactly 80 moves (find analysis of her draw against Nepo below).
Ju is set to face Van Foreest with the white pieces on Monday.
Results - Round 2
Alexander Donchenko held world champion Ding Liren to a draw | Photo: Tata Steel Chess Tournament / Lennart Ootes
Between 2004 and 2007 the 13th World Champion Garry Kasparov recorded a large 3-volume Najdorf video course. ChessBase is publishing this great classic in a complete edition in the current ChessBase Media format. Look forward to this classic of chess!
In this video course, twenty-nine examples with multiple questions are presented in the interactive format, which is ideal for a range of playing strengths. Step by step you will be taken through the complex positions.
Standings after round 2
All games
Challengers: Five co-leaders, Beukema gets attacking win
Round 2 saw two games ending decisively in the Challengers. Anton Korobov bounced back from his loss against Saleh Salem by beating Divya Deshmukh, while Stefan Beukema grabbed his first win of the event by defeating Eline Roebers in attacking fashion.
34.Rxf5 was played after a bit over a minute of reflection. Beukema had already foreseen that the line is winning by force — there followed 34...gxf5 35.Qxf5 e6 36.dxe6 Nh8 37.Bh6 Ra8 38.Qg4+ Bg7, and the other rook (on the f-file) joined the attack decisively with 39.Rf7
Tactics favour the player with the better coordinated pieces. After 39...Rxf7 40.exf7+ Qxf7, the light-squared bishop finally made its appearance: 41.Bc4 was followed by Roebers’ resignation. A fine win by the Belgian IM!
Beukema is now one of five co-leaders with 1½/2 points each. He is sharing the lead with Hans Niemann, Saleh Salem, Jaime Santos and Leon Luke Mendonca.
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
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.
