1/12/2022 – At the end of last year, ChessBase launched a Fritz 18 brilliancy competition, and the winners have now been drawn. We got games from 30 years ago, including photos of original documents, online blitz games and many games against the new Fritz 18 engine. The winners will receive private training with GM Kasimdzhanov, an online blitz tournament against a GM, and vouchers worth 25-50 euros.
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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.
The King‘s Indian Attack is a universal opening: easy to learn, flexible, and rich in both tactical and positional opportunities.
€39.90
The Fritz 18 Brilliancy Winners
The first prize goes to:
Dominique C.
After only 14 moves the board is on fire with a brilliant queen sacrifice. Fritz 18 is visibly impressed by the ensuing combination and comments: "hot move!".
In the endgame we then see Dominique's two rooks, two bishops and five pawns fighting against queen, rook, knight and four pawns, where Fritz 18 then finally gives up.
And this is his brilliancy against Fritz 18
Dominique won the private training with Rustam Kasimdzhanov! The Uzbek Grandmaster's Fritztrainer fits Dominique's choice of opening quite well.
On top level the Benoni is a rare guest but with this DVD Rustam Kasimdzhanov this might change. New ways and approaches in most lines and countless improvements of official theory will show you how to play this opening at any level with success.
Thomas F.
Benjamin A.
Valerian G.
German S.
Gerald L.
Egbert S.
Andreas K.
Jorgen H.
Michael H.
Christian B.
Thomas F. won his brilliant game in 1996 against an opponent almost 400 rating points stronger after only 21 moves.
Thomas chose the Portuguese Variation in the Scandinavian. After a really nice textbook bishop sacrifice, White had to resign only eight moves later, as another sacrificial combination with the rook was simply too much.
And this was the brialliancy by Thomas F.
So, all ten players won a blitz tournament on our Playchess server with a surprise GM. Arne Kaehler will host the tournament as usual!
The third prize goes to:
Catharinus M.
Stan Y.
Federico V.
Andreas H.
Paul G.
Fernando M.
Christian W.
Daniel H.
Hay P.
Axel H.
Naushad R.
Catharinus' brilliancy was played in the Netherlands in 2020.
The opening is as hot as five flames, but was thoroughly studied by Catharinus the day before with the Megadatabase until move 10. It works, and White gets a sharp attack.
The nineteenth move Rb5 fulfils several functions, among others taking squares away from the opponent's queen, which also succeeded, because it was gone one move later. Shortly afterwards, Black gave up.
The brilliancy by Catharinus M.
All third prize winners can look forward to a voucher worth 50 euros!
The fourth prize goes to:
Tykhon C.
Carlos M.
Sahil T.
Jan Michael H.
Dennis M.
Valer D.
John H.
Matti P.
Yandy B.
Paul B.
Eleven-year-old Tykhon seemed to have had an easy time with the Grandmaster level of Fritz 18, and you can watch his games against the engine on his YouTube channel.
On move number 25, the Ukrainian CM takes a lot of time and finds the right development to a rook ending, but with three more pawns on his side.
Without "hints" he has dismantled poor Fritz 18.
The streamed brilliancy by Tykhon C.
All winners of the fourth prize can look forward to a voucher worth 25 euros!
The winners will be notified by email next week.
The ChessBase team and Fritz 18 want to thank you for all the great games!
Ruy Lopez Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 12092 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 1276 are annotated.
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Videos by Mihail Marin: Najdorf Variation with 6.f4 and Nico Zwirs: Italian ‘giucco pianissimo’. ‘Lucky bag’ with 45 analyses by Edouard, Ftacnik, Gupta, Pelletier and others. Update service with over 50,000 new games for your database!
This video course provides a comprehensive and practical White repertoire in the Ruy Lopez! Through instructive model games and in-depth theoretical explanations, you will learn how to confidently handle both main lines and sidelines.
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.
€21.90
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