Monthly Archives: February 2024

New World Record: 8-year-old beats Grandmaster – The Underdog

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 […]

A Heart-Racing Experience! (2)

In the recent Freestyle event, heart rates of the players were measured in classical chess, with slow time controls. In bullet and blitz formats, where intuition prevails, heart rates remain relatively low compared to slower time controls like Rapid or Classical, which allow more contemplation during critical positions. Here are observations provided by the leading […]

Prague Chess Festival: Pragg beats Keymer in attacking style

The sixth edition of the Prague Chess Festival kicked off at the Don Giovanni Hotel in the Czech capital. In the Masters, Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Parham Maghsoodloo started with wins to become the tournament’s early co-leaders. Pragg’s victory, over Vincent Keymer, was remarkable, as the Indian star sacrificed a piece early on and managed […]

“Improve your pieces” by RB Ramesh – A review

With a large number of extremely successful students, not least the World Championship candidate Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Indian chess coach Ramachandran Ramesh is regarded as a remarkable coach, the Pep Guardiola of chess. In his recently launched FritzTrainer “Improve your pieces: A winning system you need to know”, he shares the secret of his chess training. […]

Prague Chess Festival – Live!

The Prague Chess Festival is taking place from February 27 to March 7 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in the Czech capital. The Masters and the Challengers tournaments are the main events, each a 10-player single round-robin with a classical time control. | Follow the games live with computer-assisted analysis starting at 15.00 CET (9.00 […]

And the winner is… Michael Adams

Michael Adams was the rating favourite at the second edition of the Cambridge International Open. However, the reigning World Senior 50+ Champion struggled to beat his lower-rated opponents at first, as he was only in the upper middle of the field halfway through. Thanks to a strong final spurt, though, the former World Championship candidate […]

Robert Ris: Abdusattorov attacks from all sides

The German Bundesliga is a traditional team tournament featuring some of the best players in the world. After 11 rounds in the 2023/24 season, Viernheim have a clear 3-point lead over the perennial favourites from Baden-Baden. In round 9, Viernheim’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov obtained a memorable attacking victory over Gata Kamsky. The game was expertly analysed […]