3/19/2024 – The famous Reykjavík Open is up and running, and ready for some surprises. Popular streamer Alexandra Botez managed to win against a South African opponent rated almost 400 Elo points higher than her! In the French Defence, her opponent played the MacCutcheon, which was covered by Robert Ris in ChessBase Magazine 198, and his Fast and Furious show (Links below). In the wild game, with several sacrifices, Alexandra converted the endgame in her favour.

2/29/2024 – In the latest episode of "The Underdog," we have a monumental moment in chess history, where 8-year-old Ashwath Kaushik shattered expectations by defeating a grandmaster in a classical chess game. Despite the crazy rating difference of almost 500 points, Ashwath demonstrated remarkable skill and strategic finesse. IM Robert Ris provides a comprehensive analysis of the game, breaking down the critical moves and strategies that led to this young prodigy's incredible victory.

2/9/2024 – The Tata Steel 2024 tournament is over, and the masters tournament had at least one clear Underdog with Ju Wenjun, as the only player with a rating under 2600! But despite this setting, she won against the third highest rated player - Alireza Firouzja. Master coach Robert Ris describes perfectly well, why this happened, what went wrong for Alireza, and what Ju Wenjun accomplished delightfully.

1/11/2024 – In the first episode of 2024, Robert found a couple of Underdogs during the Rapid and Blitz World Championship. But having a 1900 rated player win against a Grandmaster with 2600, is truly rare. And when you know that the underdog is only 8-years old, it is even more impressive! The Dutch IM also found an underdog victory game by the Argentinian supertalent Oro Faustino, which is very instructive!

12/27/2023 – Should there ever be an underrated underdog, it would be Shreyas Royal. In the London Chess Classics, the 14-year-old IM, had to face nine Grandmasters! With his ELO rating of 2404, he had a rating 200-350 lower than all other players. Still, he ended up with 4/9 points, finishing ahead of players like Moussard, Vitiugov, and McShane. Robert Ris shows us the game the young Brit played against Jules Moussard!

11/27/2023 – Teimour Radjabov had a terrible tournament at the European Team Championship, and couldn't win a single game. Robert Ris steps in to the rescue. When Radjabov was just 15 years old, he faced Garry Kasparov, who had an incredible rating of 2847 at that time. In a French Defence game, we can witness several Knight sacrifices, and stunning attacks against Garry's king, by the Underdog.

11/2/2023 – After the sixth round of the 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss, every chess player should know all participants who remain in the top 20. Unless, Ramaza Zhalmakhanov shows up! The young talent from Kazakhstan is probably playing his best tournament ever, with draws against Giri, Sevian, Sarana, and Firouzja, and two wins against Pichot and Bassem! Let's see if the IM can keep up with the elite until the final round. His win against Amir Bassem, in the Ruy Lopez, is a tactical masterpiece.

10/13/2023 – Offerspill Sjakklubb started the 38th European Chess Club Cup Open as fourth seed. Magnus Carlsen, Offerspill's first board, was certainly the main reason for this - after all he is the world number one with a rating of 2839. But it was still a big surprise that the Norwegians won the cup! One team member in particular - Pranav Venkatesh (whose birthday is today!) - rocked the house with 5.0/7 points. His game against Super Grandmaster Jorden Van Foreest was particularly daring. Robert Ris shows this magical Underdog victory.

9/6/2023 – The World Cup had it's fair share of underdog surprises in the first round. Robert Ris decided to pick a game from round three, though! Anish Giri faced Nijat Abasov, and in the tiebreaker, the GM from Azerbaijan played aggressive moves, which caused a lot of trouble for Giri. Ris shows us exactly, how the 150 points weaker player won impressively.

7/24/2023 – Of course, Viswanathan Anand isn't the topic at hand! But the Underdog Vignesh Anand Junior from the US was the player, who is more than 500 ELO points weaker than his opponent, GM Zaven Andriasian. In the Sicilian game, both players committed little errors that allowed the Armenian Grandmaster to gradually get the upper hand until everything went wrong. Yet another intriguing and fascinating instance of an underdog who shocked both his adversary and most likely himself.

5/16/2023 – In today's episode Robert presents a rapid game that is quite stunning. When you use a very solid set-up like the London System, the move order is less important as long as you understand the basic ideas. And although the underdog in this game made a few small mistakes here and there, the Grandmaster on the other side of the board couldn't find a way to gain a clear winning advantage. Watch this fascinating game with Robert Ris!

4/1/2023 – In today's episode, we will delve into an astonishing upset from the first round of the Reykjavík Open 2023, where a relatively unknown Norwegian with the Black pieces defied all odds by defeating an opponent with a staggering 400 Elo rating advantage. IM Robert Ris will expertly dissect the game, revealing the critical moments and ingenious strategies that led to this David versus Goliath victory. Get ready to be inspired by the power of perseverance and the beauty of the unexpected as we explore this thrilling upset together.

3/11/2023 – ‘The Underdog’ is the newest series on ChessBase. We will witness some of the greatest upsets of the month, where dark horses get to beat the rating favourite! Robert Ris shares some beautiful examples, in which a rating difference of 500 or more points simply does not make a difference. One of the biggest upsets this month was achieved by Josephine Heinemann, who got the better of Hikaru Nakamura. What a brilliant start to the series!