The semifinal matches commenced on day seven of the FIDE Grand Prix in Riga, Latvia. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov has one foot in the final as he beat Wesley So in a wild Catalan while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. Alexander Grischuk started with a draw.
So has to win on demand as White while Grischuk will try to push Vachier-Lagrave in Friday's second classical game. After a grueling first three rounds, the players will have a rest day (or two!) after these semifinal matches.
Mamedyarov vs So...
On Wednesday, the Ukrainian GM Stanislav Bogdanovich (@Padenie_Zvezd) and the French GM Marie Sebag (@Etoilegeniale) qualified for the 2019 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Isle of Man.
The two grandmasters each defeated three other men and women who all earned their way to the qualifier with top performances in the four previous Chess.com Titled Tuesday events.
Bogdanovich had won the round-robin portion convincingly, scoring 5/5 after starting with a loss to the runner-up, the Vietnamese...
The 14th world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik reflects on his remarkable career, telling David Cox about his championship battles with Garry Kasparov, Peter Leko, Veselin Topalov and Vishy Anand, and why Kramnik finally ran out of motivation for the game.
After more than two decades at the top, Vladimir Kramnik shocked the chess world earlier this year by announcing his retirement at the age of 43. A prodigy, and former student of Mikhail Botvinnik’s chess school, Kramnik went on to...
If you've followed the Tarrasch lessons so far, you know that it's a serious opening with many important variations. In this video, learn how to play the main line with the exchange of pawns on c5.
Here you can read part 1: https://www.chess.com/blog/MatBobula/how-to-create-a-plan-in-the-middlegame-part-1
Using this diagram (black to move), try to follow the steps outlined at the part 1 before comparing with the text below.
I. EVALUATION
1. MaterialBoth sides have 31 points.Both sides have equal material.
2. Kings safetyBlack's king is 100% safe, while white's castle has no f pawn.Black is slightly better in king safety.
3. Pawns structureBlack's pawn structure is healthy. White has...
While Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had qualified after the two classical games, Alexander Grischuk, Wesley So and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also reached the semi-finals of the Riga Grand Prix after yesterday's tiebreaks.
Day six in Riga was an exciting affair with the round two tiebreaks. Unlike in round one, none of the matches went all the way to the Armageddon game to force a decision.
The match between So and Sergey Karjakin was the longest of the round, where the former...
There is a well-known chess joke (or maybe not even a joke!) that it is much more difficult to sacrifice a pawn than a queen.
Indeed, in most queen sacrifices you get huge dividends right away, since it is difficult to imagine a player sacrificing his queen just to get (for example) a good square for his knight. Therefore, it is relatively easy to predict the outcome of many queen sacrifices, like the next one:
From the other side, most pawn sacrifices are done for positional gains and so it...
Jeffery Xiong defeated Parham Maghsoodloo Thursday by a score of 14.5-10.5 to advance to the finals of the Junior Speed Chess Championship Thursday. "When I lost connection after being a knight up, I wasn't able to recover," said Maghsoodloo. "You have to think about your connection during tournaments like these."
Asked whether he made adjustments between the 5+1 and 3+1 portions, Parham responded: "I was just playing everything and trying to enjoy chess. It wasn't so important to...
This month we are pleased to meet Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, known as MVL, the French number 1 and member of world top 5.
Chess.com France will follow closely his quest for the world title that will require being qualified for the next Candidates tournament. Thus, the next Grand Prix will be crucial. That's why we will watch it carefully on our channel. Jurmala Grand Prix (a seaside resort near Riga in Latvia) will take place from July 12 to 25, and our pair Vlad Tkachiev and Kevin Bordi will comment...
