3/21/2019 – There was one winner in the Open opener: 18-year-old GM Jeffrey Xiong (pictured), who turned the tables on the bold play of the ever-eccentric Timur Gareyev. All other games were drawn. In the Woman's group, however, not a single game ended in a split-point! Krush, Zatonskih, Wang, Yu, Feng and Yip, therefore all reached 1.0/1. | Photo: 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.!
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Six decisive games between the Women!
So let's start there! Conventional wisdoms says that all-women events tend to have a lower drawing percentage, and the first round of the U.S. Women's Championship could be offered as 'Exhibit A'. The results were more or less according to rating, except for Maggie Feng's upset (with Black!) of Tatev Abrahamyan who out-rates Feng by 178 Elo points.
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After having an edge in the middlegame with a "good knight vs bad bishop", Abrahamyan, who has been in the running for the U.S. Championship before but has never won, first allowed Feng to equalise and then drifted in a position where accurate play was required.
Abrahamyan had been treading water, to use an analogy, but the exchange of pawns on the kingside only served to increase the potential scope of Feng's previously walled-in bishop. Now Tatev seemingly 'got tired and drowned'. 38.♘f8+? ♚h6 39.♘g6 ♜f7! 40.♘f4 ♜f5 winning the h-pawn and the game.
Abrahamyan, the perennial number three seed | Photo: Justin Kellar / Saint Louis Chess Club
Video: Feng discusses the game with Maurice Ashley
Xiong outmanoeuvres Gareyev
It's quite rare nowadays to find a position, between strong players in a prestigious tournament like the US Championship, that has been played less than 200 times after just three moves! But that was the situation in Timur Gareyev vs Jeffrey Xiong in round one on Wednesday after Xiong's 3...♝g4:
This position was reached recently in Duda-Laznicka from the Prague Masters, where Duda played 4.♕b3 as in the majority of games thus far. Gareyev opted for the rarer 4.♘e5 and after 4...♝f5 5.e3 ♞f6 the players were already 'out of book'. But that's where things got hairy. Gareyev, after thinking for 20 minutes, tossed the grenade 6.g4?!
The aim of these Dvd's is to build a repertoire after 1.c4 and 2.g3 for White. The first DVD includes the systems 1...e5, the Dutch and Indian setups. The second DVD includes the systems with 1...c5, 1...c6 and 1...e6.
Apparently the best continuation is to first take 6...dxe3 7.fxe3, then 7...♝e4 8.♖g1 e6 9.♗b2 and Black is fine or slightly better, but it's complicated. Xiong played 6...♝e4 straight away and after 7.f3 ♝g6 Gareyev thought for a further 39 minutes on 8.♗b2, a time investment that woudl come back to bite him later. The position remained equal until move 20.
The players traded rooks in a rather unusual manner 18...♛xh1 19.♕xh4 a5 and now Gareyev went awry: 20.♕f2 (20.♕g4 or O-O-O keeps the balance) axb4 21.axb4 ♜xa1+22.♗xa1 ♛e4 and Xiong's strong queen couple with Gareyev's overextended queenside pawns quickly gave Black a winning advantage.
Dynamic play is what makes your chess effective and most importantly fun! Timur Gareyev shows severeal examples which aspects are important to remember when seizing for the initiative!
The first DVD deals with the initial phase of the game, when the all the reigning principles can be crystalized into just one: DEVELOPMENT!
Xiong: "I was also very confused most of the way"
Most of the other games were close throughout, save for the last game to finish — between Awonder Liang and Aleksandr Lenderman — which ended drawn only after 120 moves and many missed opportunities for both sides. For example:
Double rook endings occur frequently and are different from single rook endings in several respects.
Lenderman played 42...♜1c5 here, but 42...♜f1+ 43.♔e2 ♜b1 would win the b-pawn for nothing. Liang eventually traded the b-pawn for Black's a-pawn and his remaining passed pawn gave him counterplay that eventually lead to a draw.
Awonder what he's thinking? | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Current standings
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Games and commentary
Commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Maurice Ashley and WGM Jennifer Shahade
Macauley PetersonMacauley served as the Editor in Chief of ChessBase News from July 2017 to March 2020. He is the producer of The Full English Breakfast chess podcast, and was an Associate Producer of the 2016 feature documentary, Magnus.
I am looking to see more of Timur Gareyev's uncompromising chess style at the US Championship. Gareyev's games are always interesting and full of tension. Thank you Macauley Peterson for Informative article.
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.
This compact course is designed specifically for practical play. Instead of overwhelming you with endless theory, it focuses on the critical lines, typical plans, and recurring tactical ideas.
Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains a total of 11 766 games from Mega 2026 or the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 1136 are annotated.
For the Slav and Semi-Slav Powerbook 2026 the ratings average was set again at 2400. 2.24 million games from the engine room of playchess.com met this threshold, to which were added over 130 000 games played by humans.
In this volume, we dive into core aspects of chess technique. Smyslov taught the principle of tactical hierarchy, “checks, double attacks, and unprotected pieces”, and Mikhalchishin demonstrates how this method of calculation is vital.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
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.
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