3/13/2019 – Russia defended its lead at the World Team Championship in Astana with a narrow 2.5: 1.5 win over the USA. In the women's tournament, the Chinese were able to extend their lead to three points as Russia scored a point against Ukraine. | Photos: David Llada
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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.
In this video course experts examine the games of Steinitz. Let them show you which openings Steinitz chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
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China increases lead in Women’s
Before today's seventh round in Astana, the Russian team led the Open section by a single match point over India and England — not necessarily a big margin for error. On Tuesday they faced the US team, but with the top seven players absent from the American squad the only thing they have in common with the team that won the Baku Olympiad in 2016 is the flag and captian IM John Donaldson. Nevertheless, the USA has performed remarkably well and was ahead of China and Azerbaijan — the latter also without their best.
The match between Russia and the USA ended as expected, also the result was close.
Russia vs USA
Dariusz Swiercz had no trouble drawing his White game with Ian Nepomniachtchi, as did Alex Lenderman against Dmitry Andreikin. That left Sam Sevian and Zviad Izoria trying to hold off Alexander Grischuk and Vladislav Artemiev for the crucial point swing. In the queenless middlegame Artemiev was able to set a devilish trap.
With the slick tactic 18.♖xd6 White gained a clear advantage. There followed 18...♚xd619.e5 ♚xe5 20.♗f4+ ♚f5 21.♗c2 and now Black had to return material with 21...♞e4. That was all Artemiev needed for a clean technical conversion.
The Azerbaijan team sans Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov nicked Russia for a point with a draw in round six, and in the seventh all four games ended in draws.
So England remains the closest pursuer to the Russian team after their narrow victory over Egypt. Michael Adams lost to Bassem Amin, the African Champion, on the first board, but Luke McShane and Gawain Jones "did the business" for England. They are certainly faring a lot better than the Theresa May who suffered another humiliating defeat in British politics today.
This looks like the sort of position in which Adams excels, and White stands better after Bb5. But Adams went for the queen sortie 29.♕h6?, with the threat of 30.♖xe4 and 31.♘g5. But he overlooked the cool counterpunch 29...g5 when the queen is suddenly surrounded. After 30.♕h5 ♞f6, Adams had to give a piece with 31.♕xf7 and it was all down hill from there.
Amin and Adams
The English captain Malcolm Pein remains cautious as to their chances of medal
The Chinese are far from their best form in Astana and even their victory against Sweden looks weak at 2½:1½. Match winner was Ni Hua against Linus Johansson, who has lost four games in the past week. Ni's queen's fancy footwork was the difference in this one, as it proved strong for Johansson's pair of rooks.
Ni Hua labours alone | Photo: David Llada
Iran also prevailed against Kazakhstan with a 2½:1½.
In the women's competition, the Chinese team increased their lead to three points with a 4-0 seep over Egypt, as Russia could only draw against Ukraine.
Russia vs Ukraine
Most of the action was on the boards of the Muzychuk sisters. Mariya Muzychuk scored for Ukraine against Kateryna Lagno, but Alexandra Kosteniuk made up for it with a win for Russia over Anna Muzychuk.
The World Championship finalist's sense of danger failed her with 24...♛e7? and was swiftly punished 25.♗xh7 d4 (there's nothing better) 26.♖e1 and Lagno had to part with her queen.
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.
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