As usual, Karsten Müller gives you an overview of the DVD in his introductory video. Let the grandmaster from Hamburg introduce you to one of the highlights of this issue or take a peek at one or other of the openings articles, e.g. Kuzmin’s analysis of a sharp new weapon against the Sicilian Najdorf (White plays 6.h3 followed by g4 and castles quickly). Or perhaps the "Improved Lisitsin Gambit" – never heard of that one? But it is certainly a good choice against the Dutch on schach.de but also as a surprise weapon in tournament chess. | | 
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| | The Romanian gramdmaster Dorian Rogozenco, who livesin Hamburg, sums up in two Fritztrainer videos the important events of the last two months. In his first cliphe explains, e.g., the final round game Karjakin - Radjabov from Sochi, in which the young Azerbaijani was successful with an innovation in the Dragon and with a spectacular double exchange sacrifice. From the Tal Memorial Rogozenco has chosen to examine closely the decisive moments in the games Morozevich - Kramnik and Morozevich - Ponomariov and casts an eye over the game which decided the tournament Ivanchuk - Morozevich. |
From the Bilbao tournament Rogozenco annotates in depth two brilliant games by the tournament victor, the prestigious Topalov – Anand encounter, which the Bulgarian managed to win in only 25 moves thanks to an innovation in the Queen’s Indian and the game Topalov – Ivanchuk from the final round. In his videohe also explains the critical positions from the turbulent Dragon games Carlsen - Radjabov and Topalov - Carlsen, which both ended in victories for White because of inaccuracies by the black side. | | 
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Magnus Carlsen annotatesBefore turning to the tournament highlights of this issue, there are two other star games you should not miss. For one of them Magnus Carlsen annotates his win as Black against Yannick Pelletier in the Biel tournament. There was no great excitement in the opening, but then the Swiss player, who did not have a good tournament in Biel this year, overlooked a tactical wrinkle in the position in the diagram. Carlsen’s 27...Bc8 proved an unpleasant pin on the exposed knight and in the medium term turned into a decisive advantage for the young Norwegian. Pelletier had possibly missed the fact that 28.Nxh6+ gxh6 29.Bxc8 fails to the annoying zwischenzug 29...Rd6. Click here or on the link under the diagram to play through the whole game with Magnus Carlsen’s analysis. You can find all the games from Biel 2008 via Recent tournaments in browser column. | | 
Pelletier,Y - Carlsen,M
Position after 27.Qb6
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Welcome Mr. AdamsAt the age of only 17 Michael Adams won his first title as British champion. In 1997 Adams scored perhaps his greatest success in chess in reaching the Candidates Finals of the FIDE WCh against Anand. At the moment the 37 year old is the strongest chess player on the island, ahead of Nigel Short. This DVD sees the top English player annotating for the first time for ChessBase Magazine. He has chosen to examine one of his victories from the Staunton Memorial (London), which Adams recently won in majestic fashion ahead of Loek van Wely and Jan Smeets. | | 
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Smeets,J - Adams,M
Position before 16...Qc2+
| | In the gamewhich would decide the tournament, Jan Smeets was bold enough to play the Scotch against the Englishman and was promptly put in his place. Adams annotates in depth this game which is well worth seeing and admits in his analysis that the unorthodox exchange of queens (see diagram, 16...Qc2+ followed by a knight fork on d4) would not have sufficed for an advantage against an accurate reply by White. In the key position after 17.Kxc2 Nd4+, however, Smeets decided to advance into the centre with his king – a very human, but wrong decision, as Adams points out in his comments. Because there the lonely white monarch soon had a really bad experience. You can also find this and all the other games from the Staunton Memorial under the headingRecent Tournaments. |
FIDE Grand Prix SochiAmongst the new star authors in ChessBase Magazine we have from this issue on the winner of the 2nd FIDE Grand Prix tournament of this year, Levon Aronian. The charming Armenian annotates his final-round game against Grischuk on the DVD in both classic formand in Fritztrainer format. The key to the winning of this game, with which Aronian secured the undivided first place in the tournament, turned out to be the strong innovation 19.Bc5. Curiously, as Aronian explains in his video analysis, he found this improvement for White over the board and - as he says - in complete ignorance of the game Topalov - Kramnik from their WCh match in 2006. Click on the screen shot from the video on the right to start Aronian’s presentation. | | 
Levon Aronian
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Lubomir Ftacnik annotates Jakovenko - Gashimov
| | The Benoni is a rare guest in top level chess. But old openings have been making a comeback with fresh faces. The game Jakovenko - Gashimov from Sochi is one such example and constitutes an instructive introduction to how to play against the Benoni with the white pieces. The Slovakian GM Lubomir Ftacnik explains the game in detail in Fritztrainer format (only in English). As he does so, he goes into the basic ideas and problems of the opening and demonstrates how Jakovenko could have improved upon his play with a more logical breakthrough in the centre and with firmer control of the key square e5 in the final phase. |
Tal Memorial MoscowThis year Alexei Shirov was truly nowhere near victory in the tournament in Moscow.At the beginning of his video contribution on the DVD he looks back at what happened from his own perspective – you almost feel that after his miserable start he was even relieved at his final score of -3. Before turning to his only victory in Moscow, Shirov looks at his very recent game against Rublevski in the Spanish team championships, which he also succeeded in winning as White in the Sicilian Paulsen Variation. In the game in Moscow against Mamedyarov, Shirov obtained a strong initiative after an exchange sacrifice on f6. In his video analysis the naturalised Spaniard explains, e.g., how he missed a clear advantage in the opening and how his opponent missed a safe drawing line just before the decisive sacrifice. | | 
Shirov - Mamedyarov
in Fritztrainer format
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Mamedyarov,S - Gelfand,B
Position after 18.Ne2
| | Now at the age of 40, Boris Gelfand belongs as it were to the old guard in the great chess circus. In Moscow he once more proved that he is one of the steadiest players in top level chess: eight of his nine games ended as draws, and he won the remaining one with Black against Mamedyarov. The Belorussian who now lives in Israel has commented in depth on the said game, which was chosen as the best one in the tournament. In the popular Anti-Moscow Variation of the Semi Slav, Mamedyarov chose a rarer continuation in 10.e5 and despite the position becoming more and more complex he played the next eight moves very quickly. Too quickly is the conclusion of Gelfand’s analysis, because after the natural looking 18.Ne2 Black already appears to have the better game. Click on the link under the diagram and the brilliant game will be explained to you move by move by Gelfand himself. |
Grand Slam Chess Final Masters BilbaoFor Veselin Topalov the Grand Slam final in Bilbao must have been in many respects a great satisfaction. Not only because he was able to win the tournament with a clear lead, but also because of the series of spectacular games which he played. And in addition to the opulent prize, his final round victory over Ivanchuk also brought to Topalov first place in the hard-fought unofficial FIDE world ranking list. Topalov’s wins over Anand (round 4) and Carlsen (round 8) are amongst the high points of this tournament. GM Evgeny Postny and GM Dorian Rogozenco have annotated them in depth (see also Rogozenco’s second introductory video to this DVD). | | 
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Topalov,V - Anand,V
Position after 12.Bg5
| | Discussion has been going on for over two years about White’s pawn sacrifice 7.d5 in the Queen’s Indian. Against Anand, who had just recently had this sharp variation over the board against Carlsen in Mainz, Topalov chose the quiet 11.a3 a rarely played continuation up till now and then brought out the strong innovation 12.Bg5. The idea of the move is to swap off the black knight f6, before Black can develop the other knight to d7. That is what happened in the game. Anand went for the attacking reply 12...d5 and gave free rein to the ensuing complications. Evgeny Postny, in his analysis of the opening phase, concludes that, after recovering the pawn on move 18, White does have the initiative, but that Black has sufficient defensive resources. In Bilbao Topalov did have the great advantage of home analysis and after an inaccuracy by Anand was able to bring the game to a satisfactory conclusion for himself in fine attacking style after only 25 moves. |
The future winner in Bilbao was pretty clear after round 8, when Topalov notched up his second full point against Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian superstar once more placed his trust in the Sicilian Dragon as a response to1.e4. Dorian Rogozenco is amongst the world’s leading experts in the Dragon and he annotates this game in the light of the completely new discussion which has flared up on the subject. In the game Carlsen had a strong innovation in the contemporary critical variation with 16...Rc5 and the crafty king move 17...Kh7. The decisive moment in the game followed a few moves later, when in a level position the young Norwegian chose not the safe 23...Rc8 but the more ambitious 23...Rc6. Click here or on the link to the left to play through the game with explanations by GM Rogozenco. | | 
Topalov,V - Carlsen,M
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| You will find further training sessions under the various headings. Nigel Davies (Sicilian with 2.f4 d5) and Lubomir Ftacnik (Slav 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.h3 Bxf3 6.Qxf3) have each recorded an opening contribution on video, see them inFritztrainer. Also in Fritztrainer format you will find Dr. Karsten Müller’s Endgame, the Trap by Rainer Knaak and Tactics by Oliver Reeh (see the browser column at the start of this page). The column New DVDs offers in the form of further video clips in Chess Media Format samples of forthcoming Fritztrainer DVDs from ChessBase. |
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Opening Surveys Hazai/Lukacs: Anti-Dutch A04 1.Nf3 f5 2.d3 
| | This opening system known as the Improved Lisitsin Variation is surprisingly unpleasant for Black. The authors demonstrate that only the rarely played move 2…Nc6 is able to equalise. |
Marin: English Opening A10 1.c4 g6 2.e4 e5  | | By playing 2.e4 White wants to avoid the Grünfeld Defence; the main idea 2…e5 lies in the continuation 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.d4 exd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.Nc3 0-0 7.Be2 Re8 8.f3 and now 8…c6! allows Black to ain directly for the advance d7-d5. |
Stohl: Anti-Grünfeld A16 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.h4  | | If Black takes seriously the intended pawn push h4-h5, e.g. with 5…h6 or 5…h5, then White makes a favourable transition to a Grünfeld with 6.e4 followed by d4. According to Stohl, 5…Bg7 6.h5 Nc6! is preferable. |
Marin: Dutch Defence A89 1.d4 f5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 d6 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.d5 Ne5 9.Nxe5 dxe5 10.Qb3  | | The line with 10.Qb3 has turned out to be critical for the whole 7…Nc6 Variation. Marin attempts to repair Black’s plan, basing his suggestion on a piece sacrifice which has not yet been played. |
Kuzmin: Sicilian Najdorf B90 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3  | | It is not all that easy for Black to equalise against the unprepossessing looking move by the rook pawn. If as White you like to avoid a whole lot of theory, then you’ll be pleased with Alexey Kuzmin’s article. |
Langrock: French Defence C03 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Ngf3 Nf6  | | The author presents the first of a three-part series on the subject of 3…Be7 against the Tarrasch Variation. What he is planning is a complete repertoire for Black based on the bishop move. |
Kritz: Ruy Lopez C67 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.Nc3 Ke8 10.h3 Be7  | | The wall setup with 9…Ke8 and 10…Be7 is a solid business. By making use of a lot of his own games, Kritz is able to explain the basic underlying ideas, which here are more important than a knowledge of the variations. |
Ftacnik: Slav Defence D11 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.h3 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 e6 7.Nc3 Nbd7  | | White plays 4.e3 to protect his c4-pawn, but accepts the fact that Black can develop his c8-bishop. But the latter is then chased away at once and has to be exchanged for a knight. But despite his bishop pair, White has surprisingly little. |
Krasenkow: Grünfeld Defence D91 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 Ne4 6.cxd5 Nxg5 7.Nxg5 e6  | | After 8.Nf3 exd5 there is a Karlsbad structure on the board and White would like to carry out his queenside minority attack. But his chances of an opening advantage are very slight. |
Grivas: Queen's Indian E15 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qb3  | | With this report the author is starting a series of three, looking at 5.Qb3 from the point of view of White. He intends to present a repertoire for White against the Queen’s Indian and the Bogo-Indian. |
Karolyi: Queen's Indian E15 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.Bg2 c6 8.Bc3 d5 9.Ne5 Nfd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.Nd2 f5 12.0-0 0-0  | | This Stonewall style setup has also been employed by the top players. The chances for equality are better than in comparable positions from the Dutch Defence. |
Postny: Nimzoindian Defence E25 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.dxc5 Qa5 9.e4  | | The evaluation of the position in the diagram is an important one for the theory of the Sämisch System. Postny treats three retreats for Black’s knight an comes to the conclusion that 9…Ne7 is the most flexible. |
Breutigam: King's Indian Defence E61 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.Nf3 d6 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3  | | The Smyslov System is unpleasant for Black, because the typical play against the d4-square is not there. Emphasis is laid on the variations with an early …c5, in which modern treatment prescribes as the reply: d4-d5. |
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