12/29/2022 – Hikaru Nakamura had a magnificent first day at the World Blitz Championship in Almaty, as he won eight games and drew four to go into the final nine rounds a full point ahead of a five-player chasing pack. In the women’s tournament, Valentina Gunina and Polina Shuvalova are sharing first place on 7½/9 points. | Find here the standings and all available games. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
new: Fritz 20
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.
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.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
€49.90
Naka on 10 out of 12
Less than two weeks after beating Magnus Carlsen in the Speed Chess Championship final, Hikaru Nakamura again showed his incredible blitz skills on day 1 of the World Championships in Almaty. The US grandmaster scored eight wins and four draws against top-notch opposition to enter the final nine rounds of the event a full point ahead of his closest chasers. Naka defeated the likes of Fabiano Caruana and Nihal Sarin, and drew his round-8 direct encounter against Carlsen.
Carlsen also finished undefeated but ‘only’ managed to rack up six victories on Thursday. The now 4-time world rapid champion is one of five players standing on 9 points in shared second place. He is joined in the chasing pack by Anish Giri, Daniil Dubov, Haik Martirosyan and Richard Rapport.
A half point further back stand a group which includes three extremely dangerous Russian players: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladimir Fedoseev and Vladislav Artemiev.
Nine rounds of 3-minute games (plus 2-second increments) were played in the women’s tournament. Valentina Gunina and Polina Shuvalova emerged as co-leaders with 7½ points each. Importantly, Gunina defeated her younger compatriot with white in round 8.
Recently crowned women’s world rapid champion Tan Zhongyi is sharing second place with Aleksandra Goryachkina and Alexandra Kosteniuk, all on a 7/9 score. Kosteniuk has yet to draw a game in the event, much like Martirosyan in the open section.
The World Blitz Championship are Swiss opens (21 rounds in the open and 17 rounds in the women’s) with a time control of 3 minutes for the entire game, plus a 2-second increment starting from move one. A tie for first place will be decided by two 3+2 blitz games. If still tied, more 3+2 games will be played until finding a winner.
Schedule
December 29: Rounds 1-12 (open); Rounds 1-9 (women’s)
December 30: Rounds 13-21 (open): Rounds 10-17 (women’s)
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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