The Fall Chess Classic is taking place at the Saint Louis Chess Club on November 2-10. Two 10-player round-robin tournaments, group A and group B, are being played concurrently. In the main group, second seed Yu Yangyi from China is in the sole lead with a 5/7 points. Yu scored consecutive wins in the last three rounds. Meanwhile, Aleksandr Lenderman has all but secured victory in group B. | Photo: Austin Fuller
Actually more players in the top 100: 13 US grandmasters vs 12 from Russia, down from 22 five years ago. But even the total is closing: In total Russia still has 246 grandmasters, compared to 101 from the US. Many Russian GMs from the older generation, like Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, have dropped out of the rating list, but the main reason for the decline is the reaction of players to Russia's war invasion of Ukraine. | Newsweek photo Getty
ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. This issue offers games from two major events, FIDE Grand Prix and Ukraine Charity Cup. 353 games (37 annotated), 11 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Wesley So, Andrey Esipenko, Grigoriy Oparin and Nikita Vitiugov among others. The icing on the cake is the Larsen Special, a tribute to the Great Dane. Our columnist Nagesh Havanur takes a look.
The column "All in one" was introduced in ChessBase Magazine almost three years ago. The idea behind it: on the basis of a single extensively annotated game, you learn everything you need to know about a concrete opening line. In the new ChessBase Magazine #207, Igor Stohl and Tanmay Srinath introduce you to two concepts for White. One explores the pawn advance 3.h4 against Black's Fianchetto in the Gruenfeld and King's Indian; the other delves into a London System setup against the King's Indian. Take a look!
When White wants to tackle the Sicilian Najdorf Variation 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 very directly, 6.Bg5 is a popular choice. After 6.e6 7.f4 the rare 7.b5, the Polugaevsky Variation, leads to sharp and difficult positions. Petra Papp brings the theory of this variation up to date in her article for ChessBase Magazine #207, explaining typical strategies and motifs for both sides.