The Prague Chess Festival kicked off on Wednesday. Both the Masters and the Challengers saw four draws and a decisive game each. In the Masters, top seed Wang Hao was defeated by German star Vincent Keymer, who got a superior endgame out of a sharp, theoretical variation, and converted it proficiently. In the Challengers, 13-year-old Czech FM Vaclav Finek beat Indian GM Akash G with the white pieces. | Photo: Petr Vrabec
The fifth edition of the Prague Chess Festival will take place on June 21-30 at the Don Giovanni Hotel in the Czech capital. The Masters Tournament is a 10-player single round-robin with Wang Hao, Sam Shankland and defending champion Pentala Harikrishna (pictured) as the top seeds. The lineup also includes German star Vincent Keymer and David Navara who, like Shankland, has been invited to all five editions of the Masters. | Photo: Vladimír Jagr
As the end of the European Championship approaches, two players share the lead on 8/10 points. Kirill Shevchenko joined Alexey Sarana atop the standings after beating Benjamin Gledura with the white pieces. Twelve players stand a half point behind with one round to go in Vrnjacka Banja. | Photos: European Chess Union
In football, the area around the center line is usually a hazard-free space. But in chess, when a knight crosses the centre line – i.e. if it jumps from his own half of the playing field to that of the opponent – then it "usually sends a clear attack signal", writes Oliver Reeh in his tactics section in ChessBase Magazin #211. His collection of tasks in the new edition includes 38 games, which are peppered with many training questions. Attacking knights play an important role in almost all cases. We would like to present the first three tasks from the collection as well as an excerpt from his first interactive video here. Have fun!
After Dorian Rogozenco had concluded his "Classics" series in ChessBase Magazine in summer last year, he started his new column "Modern Classics" in CBM #210 with a game Fischer-Petrosian from the 1971 Candidates Match. In CBM #211 he takes up the "Special" of the new issue and presents a brilliant game by Mikhail Tal. On the programme is the sixth game of the World Championship match from 1960 against Mikhail Botvinnik. You can watch an excerpt from Rogozenco's video analysis here!