Monthly Archives: May 2026

Super Chess Classic Romania: Caruana beats Firouzja in postponed encounter

Fabiano Caruana defeated Alireza Firouzja in their postponed round-four game at the Super Chess Classic Romania, played on the tournament’s free day after being rescheduled. Firouzja, recovering from an ankle injury, again played from a bed in the hotel. Caruana gained a clear edge in a sharp Slav Defence and converted after Firouzja made a […]

Super Chess Classic Romania: Injured Firouzja plays from bed, saves draw against Sindarov

All five games were drawn in round five of the Super Chess Classic Romania, but the day included an unusual episode as Alireza Firouzja faced Javokhir Sindarov while lying on a bed in a hotel room due to an ankle injury. Sindarov obtained a clear advantage, but Firouzja defended successfully. Elsewhere, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Bogdan-Daniel Deac […]

Aram Hakobyan on Passion, Pressure and Modern Chess – Interview

Aram Hakobyan speaks about his journey from a passionate chess obsessed child in Armenia to becoming a world under 12 champion, studying at Webster University in the United States, and eventually returning home to continue pursuing professional chess. He reflects on the importance of passion over pressure, explains how mentors like Levon Aronian shaped his […]

Review: New releases in April!

Strategy, repertoire work and modern trends: five current ChessBase products provide fresh inspiration for training and tournament practice. From Ivan Sokolov’s structural middlegame understanding to Isaac Garner’s practical repertoire ideas, as well as compact solutions against the London System and data-driven Powerbooks, the result is a versatile selection for modern chess training — well-founded, practice-oriented […]

Super Chess Classic Romania: Keymer, Pragg and MVL score

Vincent Keymer, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave became the first co-leaders of the Super Chess Classic Romania after winning in round two. Keymer punished Bogdan-Daniel Deac’s kingside weakening, Vachier-Lagrave outplayed Alireza Firouzja in a Najdorf Sicilian, and Praggnanandhaa ended Javokhir Sindarov’s 53-game unbeaten streak in classical chess. Fabiano Caruana v. Anish Giri and Jorden van […]

Amateur beats world champion: Wolfram Hartmann beats Anatoly Karpov in Hanover (1983)

In 1983, 21 years after Wolfgang Uhlmann’s victory over Mikhail Botvinnik at the 1962 Chess Olympiad in Varna, a German player once again managed to defeat a reigning world champion. In the first round of the International Mephisto Chess Tournament in Hanover, Wolfram Hartmann, then a 27-year-old law student from Bamberg, achieved one of the […]