With a last-round-win Czech Grandmaster Jiri Stocek won the 26. Open International Bavarian Championships ahead of GM Maxime Lagarde from France. Both players finished with 7.5/9, but Stocek had the better tiebreak. German International Master Roven Vogel won bronze and made his third and final GM-norm. | Photos: Sandra Schmidt
A prominent open event is currently taking place in Fagernes. A strong Indian group is dominating the action. But the top group also includes 17-year-old Elham Abdrlauf, Norway’s biggest rising star. Report after round 5. | Photos: Tom Eriksen
At the European Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships, the German players had a great performance. Tykhon Cherniaiev won two gold medals, Luisa Bashylina one gold and one silver. Ruben Köllner and Tobias Kölle also won gold, while Marius Fromm took home a silver medal. | Photos: Dorian Rogozenco
Are you able to play a game of chess without view of the board? Can you solve problems and studies by just looking at a position or a diagram? Well, grandmasters and very strong players can stun us with feats of mental skill that we mortals are scarcely able to comprehend. We start our series with an experiment in which you can try competing with some great chess prodigies.
"There were few moments in the course of a conversation that leave one speechless – if our profession did not require us to ask questions," writes Björn Jensen, reporter of Hamburg's major daily newspaper. He visited Tykhon Cherniaiev, the 12-year-old chess supertalent from Ukraine, who fled his country and is now staying in Hamburg, Germany, where he is attending school and pursuing his chess career. | Photo of Tykhon with his coach GM Dorian Rogozenco by Michael Rauhe/FUNKE Foto Services.