Two Knights Talk: Winning and losing in Wijk aan Zee

by ChessBase
1/24/2025 – "Nothing is more difficult than winning a won game." The Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee shows once again how true this seemingly paradoxical sentence is – and in their review of current events in the chess world Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer therefore look at games from Wijk in which winning positions were lost. On this occasion, they also remember the Dutch grandmaster and legendary writer Jan Hein Donner, who knew a lot about this topic. Finally, the "Two Knights" take a short look at the dispute between FIDE and Freestyle Chess over the right to award world championship titles.

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Two Knights Talk

Time Stamps

0:48 - The current standings at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament
5:51 - Gukesh vs. Giri (From winning to losing)
12:47 - Mendonca vs. Keymer (From winning to losing)
19:29 - Erigaisi vs. Fedoseev (From winning to losing)
21:43 - Wijk aan Zee archives: Who won the most games in total?
25:08 - Jan Hein Donner, the King!
26:46 - Donner vs. Spanjaard (From winning to losing)
29:12 - How to win a won position?
35:30 - FIDE vs Freestyle chess: What is going on?
43:38 - Who will win the Tata Steel Chess Tournament?

Hoogovens Beverwijk 1963. The big winner Donner and clear runner-up David Bronstein have a chat. | Photo: Eric Koch, Anefo

Links

<< Game of the Week #655: V. Fedoseev - F. Caruana, Tata Steel 2025
Javokhir Sindarov joins the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam kick-off >>
Topics: Arne Kähler, Johannes Fischer, Two Knights Talk
Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.
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See also

Two Knights Talk: Hübner, Pähtz, Bundesliga and Wijk aan Zee

1/17/2025 – In their review of current events in the chess world, Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer remember Robert Hübner, talk about Elisabeth Pähtz's 40th birthday and the Bundesliga weekend when Magnus Carlsen gave his debut for St. Pauli. And they wonder who might win the tournament in Wijk that starts on Saturday.
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See also

Two Knights Talk: Looking back to 2024

1/8/2025 – Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer start 2025 with a review of 2024. They recall the highlights of the past year, talk about the Chess Olympiad, various world championships, Freestyle Chess, the future number 1, the successes of India and consider who the male (Carlsen, Gukesh or Erigaisi) and female (Tan Zhongyi, Ju Wenjun, Divya Deshmukh or Humpy Koneru) players of the year are. And they ask which games were particularly impressive in 2024.
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 1

Video

60m English New ideas in the Najdorf_E

‘New ideas in the Najdorf – a Power Play 18 Update’ aims to complement Daniel King’s popular DVD from last year ‘The Sicilian Najdorf - a repertoire for Black’. Such a dynamic and popular opening as the Najdorf is developing the whole time. On this download, Daniel King updates lines that were included on his DVD but also responds to viewers’ requests, considering lines that he omitted from his original repertoire. The lines examined on this update are: • 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 a6 6 h3 e5 7 Nde2 • 5….a6 6 Bc4 in combination with the English Attack (Be3, f3 etc) • 5…a6 6 Be3 and the …a5 variation • 5…a6 6 Be2 and 9 Re1 • 5 f3 (instead of 5 Nc3) It isn’t necessary to have seen the original Najdorf DVD to understand the lines examined here – but it would help as they form part of a complete repertoire.