The two players who won their round-6 games to force tiebreaks in their respective groups managed to also win their 2-game rapid matches on Friday to reach the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin. Leinier Dominguez knocked out Wesley So and will face an in-form Levon Aronian, while Rapport eliminated Radoslaw Wojtaszek and […]
Monthly Archives: February 2022
Frequent evaluation swings in tense-filled encounters made for an exciting sixth round at the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin. In the end, the one player who secured a spot in the semifinals on Thursday was Hikaru Nakamura. Naka and Levon Aronian, who qualified after round 5, will face the winners of Friday’s playoffs. In the […]
In the 1970s Boris Gulko was one of the best players in the USSR and the world, and he is one of the few players who has a positive score against Kasparov. In 1976, after Kortschnoi had fled the USSR, Gulko refused to sign a critical statement against Kortschnoi, and as a result Gulko was […]
Levon Aronian became the first player to secure a spot in the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin. The US grandmaster qualified to the knockout stage with one round to spare after getting an unsurmountable 1½-point lead in pool C. Suspense remains in the other three pools, though, with seven players going into […]
There are plenty of openings to choose from and learn. Which one to prepare and where to begin? We are here to solve that dilemma. Austria no.1 and FIDE Trainer Markus Ragger explained the basics of the Grunfeld Defence. He even included his most recent games in this two volume ChessBase DVD. The opening course […]
The Kasparov Chess Foundation organized the second annual KCF University Cup which was played on lichess.org and hosted on chessstream.com on the weekend of February 5 and 6, 2022. The tournament attracted students from every continent and from over thirty countries. With nearly 700 participants, the event was a resounding success. | Photo: Garry Kasparov […]
Yury Averbakh is the world’s oldest living Grandmaster. In his prime, he was one of the strongest players in the USSR and the world, and in 1953 he took part in the legendary Candidates Tournament in Zurich. After his active career Averbakch worked as author, editor, theoretician, second and official. Today, 8 February, he turns […]
After gaining 3.1 rating points by scoring a brilliant 9½/13 at the Tata Steel Masters, Carlsen gave up 4.1 rating points by drawing a single game in Norway. Geir Sune Tallaksen Ostmoe, an International Master and chess composer, showcased his endgame abilities to defend an inferior position with the black pieces until getting an outstanding […]
The pair of bishops can be a powerful weapon. If you know what to do with them. In the fifth installment of “The Winning Academy” Jan Markos shows what you should do to convert the advantage of having the pair of bishops into a winning position.
Round 4 of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin saw three games ending decisively, each of them in a different group. Going into the rest day, three of the four pools have sole leaders — Hikaru Nakamura, Levon Aronian and Welsey So — while in pool B Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Vladimir Fedoseev (pictured) are sharing […]