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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.
Half the field at the 10-player WR Chess Masters are aged 20 or younger. In round 2 of the Düsseldorf event, the two games that featured two young players facing each other were both the most entertaining and the ones that finished with decisive results. By contrast, the more experienced GMs showed much more cautious approaches and drew their not-as-interesting confrontations.
Understanding Middlegame Strategies Vol.5 & Vol.6
Understanding an opening doesn’t stop after the theory. It’s essential to understand ideas and structures connected to the opening moves. Topic: Rossolimo & Maroczy structures in the Sicilian Defence and Ruy Lopez.
Particularly entertaining was Nodirbek Abdusattorov’s victory over Andrey Esipenko. Playing white, the Uzbek star mercilessly attacked his Russian opponent after the latter erred by playing an over-optimistic move out of the opening. Esipenko thus returned to a fifty-percent score, as he had won his inaugural game on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the all-Indian battle of prodigies saw Dommaraju Gukesh getting the better of Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu for a second tournament in a row. Gukesh (aged 16) had defeated Pragg (17), also with white, in one of the most fascinating games from the Tata Steel Masters. In their Düsseldorf encounter, a tense struggle came to a sudden end when Pragg overlooked a tactical motif that had been lurking for several moves in the position.
Pragg will try to bounce back from his consecutive losses in the one game from round 3 featuring two youngsters, as he will play white against 18-year-old Vincent Keymer. Three of the four remaining encounters will be intergenerational battles, with Abdusattorov and Gukesh getting the black pieces against Levon Aronian and Wesley So — in games that, incidentally, see the four co-leaders facing each other.
Levon Aronian drew Vincent Keymer with black in the one intergenerational battle of the second round | Photo: Lennart Ootes
How to attack - principles of training
Most players prefer to attack rather than defend. But what is the correct way to do it? GM Dr Karsten Müller has compiled many rules and motifs to guide you, along with sharpening your intuition for the exceptions.
A memorable battle — Andrey Esipenko playing black against Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Master Class Vol. 12: Viswanathan Anand
This DVD allows you to learn from the example of one of the best players in the history of chess and from the explanations of the authors how to successfully organise your games strategically, and how to keep your opponent permanently under pressure.
The youngest players in the field — Gukesh (16 y.o.) defeated Praggnanandhaa (17) on Friday | Photo: Lennart Ootes
