Herman Grooten is an International Master, a renowned trainer and the author of several highly acclaimed books about chess training and chess strategy. In the 89th instalment of his ChessBase show "Understanding before Moving", Herman continues to explain why playing the Benko Gambit might be a good choice for club players. | Photo: Pascal Simon
Historic recurrence is a well-known phenomenon that has been discussed for centuries. There are two well-known quotes on this subject that most of us have known since childhood: "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce." by Karl Marx and “History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes.”
In the absence of Russia and China, the young Uzbek team surprised everyone by winning the gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in Chennai. The victory comes at the right time, as the 2026 Chess Olympiad will be held in Tashkent, reports FIDE. But gold for the best individual performances on board 1 and 2 went to Gukesh D. and Nihal Sarin from the team of India 2. | Photos: FIDE (Lennart Ootes, Stev Bonhage)
Uzbekistan and Armenia are sharing the lead going into the final round of the Chess Olympiad’s open tournament. India 2 was inches away from replacing Uzbekistan as co-leader, as Gukesh could have given his team match victory had he not blundered a piece against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a drawn position. In the women’s section, meanwhile, India retook the sole lead after convincingly beating Kazakhstan. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
The record-breaking 2022 Chess Olympiad came to an end in Chennai, India. After a fighting eleventh round, Uzbekistan and Ukraine were crowned champions in the open and women’s sections respectively. Armenia and India 2 got silver and bronze medals in the open, while Georgia and India completed the podium in the women’s tournament. It was a unique competition, which saw how much of a difference an enthusiastic, diligent organization can actually make! | Photo: Lennart Ootes