9/4/2024 – Ju Wenjun will face Kateryna Lagno in the second semifinal of the Women's Speed Chess Championship. Ju and Lagno knocked out Alice Lee and Valentina Gunina in Tuesday's quarterfinals, respectively. The women's world champion got a clear victory over Lee in the 5-minute and 3-minute sections, while Lagno outscored Gunina in the 1-minute segment of their match. | Photo: Alexander Demianchuk
Fritz has fascinated the chess world for 30 years. And the success story continues. In Vienna, the most popular chess program ever was once again able to underline its premier position: the newly developed neural engine with NNUE technology won the official Chess Software World Championship!
Winning starts with what you know 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.
Looking for a realistic way to play for a win with Black against 1.e4 without taking unnecessary risks? The Taimanov Sicilian is a reliable system, and hence one of the best options out there!
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Age is just a number?
Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno, aged 33 and 34 respectively, advanced to the semifinals of the Women's Speed Chess Championship by obtaining victories in their matches against Alice Lee and Valentina Gunina on Tuesday.
While Lagno is slightly younger than Gunina, Ju got the better of a player almost 20 years younger than her in their fast-paced online chess encounter. Despite the rating difference (the world champion is clearly higher-rated than Lee), chess.com's predictions gave Lee a 55% chance of beating Ju ahead of the match. Surely, this is a justified prediction based on the players' previous performances in online blitz and bullet games - but one should never write off a competitor of Ju's calibre.
In the match against Lee, the Chinese star obtained a few remarkable positional victories in the 5-minute and 3-minute sections to get a 4-point lead going into the bullet. Still, 15 minutes of 1-minute games were left to be played, and Lee has already shown that she is capable of showing her best in high-pressure situations - like in her match against Irina Krush at this year's American Cup. Ju managed to maintain her advantage, though, drawing the final section to get a 9½-5½ overall victory in the end.
Two Super Grandmasters from India explain the ins & outs of Attack, Tactics an Calculations in these two video courses.
Finally, the fourth quarterfinal of the event saw Lagno and Gunina trading 3-2 wins in the blitz sections to go into the bullet with a tied score. However, Lagno was clearly stronger than her compatriot in the last 15 minutes of play, especially in the handling of the clock - perhaps the most crucial factor in 1-minute games (in this case, with 1-second increments per move).
Ju and Lagno will face off in the semifinals, and the winner of their encounter will play in the final against the winner of the Vaishali Rameshbabu v. Polina Shuvalova matchup.
Julius Baer Women's Speed Chess Champion Chess.com02.09.2024[CC]
WGM
1.e4c62.Nf3d53.d3Ju goes for a sideline against Lee's Caro-Kann
Defence.Bg4Understandably, Lee refuses to play3...dxe44.dxe4Qxd1+5.Kxd1as she did not want to face Ju's preparation.4.Nbd2e65.h3Bh56.g3Ju continues to play unorthodox lines, trusting her positional ability in
the potential setups that might appear on the board.Nd77.Bg2Qc78.0-0Ngf69.Qe1Bd610.d4The main variation in this setup:10.b30-011.Bb2e512.Nh4Rfe813.Nf5Bf810...dxe411.Nxe4Nxe412.Qxe4Bg613.Qe2
The opening battle is over, and Ju has managed to keep the nature of the
struggle more on the positional side.13...h614.c40-0Given White's next move,
castling here is a questionable decision.Better is14...Qd8since after15.c5Black hasBc715.c5Be716.Bf4Qc817.b4White emerges with a
spatial advantage and strong control over the dark squares. Still, a lot of
work is needed to convert these trumps into a potential win.Rd818.Rfd1a519.a3Bf6Lee refuses to release the tension on the queenside.The
forcing sequence19...axb420.axb4Rxa121.Rxa1is best for Black, and e.
g.:Nf622.Be3Nd523.Ne5with a balanced position.20.Bd6Bf521.Ne5
White has increased her positional advantage in the last few moves - her
minor pieces have reached strong central outposts to put pressure on Black's
camp.21...Nb622.bxa5Nd5An inaccurate decision.Engines prefer to get rid
of the knight via22...Bxe523.dxe5Nd5though this still looks
troublesome for Black.23.Qe1Be7Lee decides to force the bishop swap to
reduce the pressure a bit.24.Nc4Bxd625.cxd6Ju goes for the most
dynamic option - Black will have a lot of trouble trying to get rid of the
passed pawn! Furthermore, the knight on c4 is fantastically placed.Ra626.Rac1Qb827.Qe5Nf628.g4Bg629.Bf1Ra730.Bg2Ne8Black manages to
attack the annoying pawn with three pieces - but now comes...31.d7
A
tactical solution to crown Ju's remarkable positional play!31...Nf6Of course
not31...Rxd7due to32.Qxb832.Nb6The knight continues to find
strong outposts.Nd533.Qxb8Rxb834.Nc8
What a great job the knight
has done throughout the game!1–0
The continuous stream of new ideas in the Sicilian makes 1..c5 the most popular answer to 1.e4. On this DVD I do give an introduction to the most important Sicilian systems.
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
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.
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.
Experts examine the games of Max Euwe. Let them show you which openings Euwe chose to play, where his strength in middlegames were, which tactical abilities he had or how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame.
This interactive video course of over 8 hours, provides an in-depth exploration of the Pirc Defence, a favoured opening for people looking to play for the win with the black pieces.
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