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: 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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In this video course, Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov explores the fascinating world of King’s Indian and Pirc structures with colours reversed, often arising from the French or Sicilian.
€39.90
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)
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.
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Qd3, White sidesteps mainline theory and steers the game into less explored, strategically rich positions.
In this course, you will learn the foundations and key ideas of the Vienna Game and discover a variety of systems that make you extremely difficult to prepare for.
Tata Steel 2026 with analyses by Bluebaum, Giri, L'Ami, Woodward and many more. Opening videos by Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs. 10 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
In this course, Dutch Grandmaster Jan Werle presents a modern and practical repertoire in the French Advance Variation, focusing on the critical line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3.
One of the major battlegrounds of the Queen’s Gambit Declined is the Catalan, and against it Zwirs chose an ambitious strategy: accept the pawn and hold onto it with …c6 and …b5, aiming for an unbalanced fight from the very start.
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