Fabiano Caruana had a great second day of blitz at the Vugar Gashimov Tournament in Baku. The American even caught up with former leader Richard Rapport in the overall standings table. Caruana then went on to beat his Hungarian colleague in Armageddon to win the event. | Photos: Official tournament site
Monthly Archives: December 2021
The King’s Gambit continues to pose puzzles. The opening evokes memories of glorious sacrificial games from the romantic era, but at the same time it is regarded as somewhat unsound — as theoretically incorrect. But even today the move 2.f4 after 1.e4 e5 leads again and again to unusual positions rich in content. As the […]
Legend has it that a player who once was analysing with Dr. Tarrasch (pictured), a great believer in the power of the bishops, gave his bishop for a knight and remarked: “Winning the small exchange!” Tarrasch, probably with good reason, felt provoked, and said: “You obviously mean losing the small exchange!” Exchanging minor pieces is […]
Richard Rapport, co-winner of the rapid section, is leading the overall standings table after the first seven rounds of blitz at the Gashimov Memoarial in Baku. The strongest on day 1 of the blitz was Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, though, who scored 5 out of 7 points despite losing his last game of the day against Fabiano […]
In a blog post for his sponsor Simonson Vogt Wiig, Magnus Carlsen reiterated and explained his announcement that he might not play another World Championship match because he lost his passion for this form of competition over the years. But “passion must be the main driver. I have always liked to compete, but chess was […]
Six players have already qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022, and the two remaining spots will go to the two best players in the FIDE Grand Prix 2022, a series of three tournaments that will be played from February to April in Berlin and Belgrade. The FIDE recently announced that Hikaru Nakamura (pictured), who in […]
The rapid tournament at the Vugar Gashimov Memorial ended with an exciting and close finish. In the sixth and penultimate round tournament leader Richard Rapport lost against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, which allowed Fabiano Caruana to catch up. But in the final round Caruana also lost against Mamedyarov while Rapport and Karjakin won their matches. In the […]
In his “Weekly Show” IM Lawrence Trent will take a look at the Sitges tournament, in which a number of the world’s brightest stars take part. The game of the day will be Niemann-Puranik where the young Indian GM gets the better of, to quote Lawrence, “the greatest American natural talent since Nakamura”. | Lawrence’s […]
ChessBase is launching a unique NFT series of the world chess champions, united with their iconic games and moves that have made history in their sublime beauty. Each NFT is authorized by the player himself. A font specially designed for this series allows historical portraits and private photographs to merge with the moves. Behind the […]
Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types – namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are explained with the help of many examples, […]