6/4/2012 – The reigning European champion in classical chess and blitz, Valentina Gunina, has scored a stunning 8.0/8 points on the first day of the Women’s World Blitz Championship, to take a two-point lead over the rest of the field. Her nearest rivals are IM Mariya Muzychuk and GMs Nana Dzagnidze, Anna Muzychuk and Natalia Zhukova. Results, video plus
part two of our Rapid pictorial.
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.
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
Women’s World Rapid Championship Pictorial
By WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (pictures: Anastasiya Karlovich, Roman Danilenkov)
Women’s World Rapid Championship 2012 was held in Batumi, Georgia from
31 of May till 3rd of June 2012. The event was organized and conducted by the
ACP and the Georgian Chess Federation and approved by FIDE. The total prize
fund for the rapid championship is US $59,000. The organizers also provided
the special conditions for the players with the Elo of 2500+ and nominees from
all national federations. As a result 50 players from 18 chess federations took
part in the tournament including five former world champions Nona Gaprindashvili,
Maia Chiburdanidze, Zhu Chen, Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, current
European champion Valentina Gunina and such strong GMs as Anna Muzychuk, Humpy
Koneru, Zhao Xue, Nana Dzagnidze, Tatiana Kosintseva and others. The Blitz world
championship is a 15-round Swiss played at a rate of 4 min + 2 second.
The leader of the Blitz World Championship: Valentina Gunina
GM
Robert Fontaine and his video producer Gérard Demuydt have castled from
the World Championship in Moscow to the Women's Rapid and Blitz in Batumi. They
are producing video reports and interviews after each round for the French chess
magazine Europe Echecs. We are grateful
to receive these reports and that they include interviews with players and personalities.
Impressions from the first day of the blitz, provided by Europe Echecs
By WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (pictures: Anastasiya Karlovich, Roman Danilenkov)
After eleven rounds of tough and uncompromised fight Bulgarian GM and former
women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova became the Women’s World Rapid
Champion-2012. On the last day of the tournament she made two draws against
Anna Muzychuk and Harika Dronavalli and finished the tournament half a point
ahead of the closest pursuers. Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk is second and
Indian player Humpy Koneru placed third. See full table below.
ACP President Emil Sutovskiy and Gennady Nesis follow the final round game
between GMs Harika Dronavalli and Antoaneta Stefanova
Deputy arbiter and General Secretary of ECU Sava Stoisavljevic, assistant
arbiter Stephane Escafre
WIM Anastasiya Sorokina came from Australia for the event. Being an arbiter
and also a player of the national team of Australia in the past, she had stopped
her arbiter and chess carrier few years ago, but decided to come back in the
chess world. She started with the women world championship in Batumi and hopes
to be an arbiter in other women events.
David Sturua, Emil Sutovsky (standing), Evgeniy Surov and Mark Dvoretsky,
discussing the games in the press center
Blitz match between David Sturua and Merab Gagunashvili brought a lot of attention
French reporter GM Robert Fontaine prepares his great video reports for
Europe Echecs
WIM Sophie Nikoladze, press attaché of Georgian Chess Federation
Players, journalist and organizers during a night-time excursion around
night Batumi.
The organizers and government of Adjara prepared many interesting excursions
for participants.
Batumi's famous musical fountains...
…and another original fountain in the centre of the city
IM Lilit Mkrtchian, 2449, GMs Kateryna Lahno, 2546, and Elina Danielian,
2484, in front of...
... the Batumi Piazza, which you can explore very nicely in panorama here
(very cool!)
GM Zhao Xue, 2549, Georgian IM Nino Gurieli, 2329, and WGM Huang Qian, 2417
One hour before the start of the tenth round a number of participants attended...
... a spectaculare dolphin show in the Batumi Dolphinarium
Apparently the animals are quite happy and perform their tricks with enthusiasm
Our photographer Anastasya Karlovich (and Anastasia Sorokina) at the dolphin
show
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
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