| Introduction videos
GM Karsten Müller gets you in the mood for
this issue with selected star games, showing among others
the decisive moments of Morozevich versus
Vachier-Lagrave from Biel. Out of the altogether 12 opening
articles of the DVD, he gives a preview of GM Kuzmin's
"Weapon against the Petroff" and GM Marin's repertoire
suggestion (Alekhine Defence with 4...g6). Also, the popular
opening trap of Rainer Knaak - this time from the classical
Sicilian - is set up for you. |  |
A comprehensive review of the tournament proceedings of the
past two months is provided by GM Dorian Rogozenco in his
introductory video. From the tournament in San Sebastian, he
presents the final phase of Movsesian-Ponomariov -
representative for a great number of games in this issue,
which towards the end took a dramatic turn. From the FIDE
Grand-Prix in Jermuk, Rogozenco explains Ivanchuk's
impressive winning procedure versus Alekseev. In conclusion,
he presents Aronian's novely versus Grischuk which
significantly contributed to the Armenian's victory in
Bilbao. | |
06.09.-12.09.2009 
Victory for stand-in
Levon Aronian
| Grand Slam Final in
Bilbao
Not only in chess are tournaments sometimes won by players
or teams who hadn't even qualified to participate. This is
what happened at the Grand Slam Final in Bilbao. Last year's
winner Topalov had the chance to defend his title, but after
his last-minute cancellation Levon Aronian filled in. Yet
this did not impair the quality of the tournament in any
way. Despite the small field of four players, the spectators
were treated to fascinating chess in almost every round.
After his initial defeat versus Grischuk, Aronian got going
and won no fewer than four games in a row, which made him
the winner with one round to go. | 
Shirov,A - Aronian,L
Position after 29.Qf3
|
Against the indisposed Alexei Shirov, Aronian scored a
victory with the black pieces in the Marshall Attack in only
29 moves. Shirov had not found a way to take the sharpness
out of the position or to exchange threat potential, and by
the advance of the black h-pawn was put under mounting
pressure. In the board position alongside, Shirov made the
final mistake with 29.Qf3. After Aronian's 29...Qg6 it was
already over, since the white queen has to return to d1, and
the subsequent 30...hxg3 spells the collapse of White's king
position. In the path-breaking fourth round versus Alexander
Grischuk, who had got off to a fulminating start, Levon
Aronian introduced a new piece sacrifice in the 4…a6 Slav as
early as on move 10, which obviously knocked his opponent
off his stride. Grischuk invested a lot of time, returned
the piece a few moves later and with little time left could
not hold the resulting passive position. On the DVD you find
all 12 games from Bilbao,
most of them with annotations. | | 09.08-23.08.2009 
Vassily Ivanchuk back on track
| FIDE Grand Prix in Jermuk
Following his victory in the Rumanian town of Bazna,
Ivanchuk now also won this top tournament in Jermuk,
Armenia. No question, his shape and Elo curve are heading
steeply upward again. Levon Aronian will be able to cope
with the fact that at his Grand Prix home match he was not
granted to end up at the very top (again). His two defeats
versus Kasimdzhanov and Eljanov in the middle of the
tournament finally proved too much. In return, the second
place in Jermuk secured Aronian the victory in the Grand
Prix overall ranking. For all games as well as a tournament
report, click here or on the link above. | 
Gelfand,B - Leko,P
Position after 19.Qc2
|
The oldest participant in the field, Boris Gelfand, also
played a strong tournament played. The Israeli, who in the
first half of the tournament missed several winning chances,
at the end still even managed to share the second place,
thanks to a double strike in the last rounds. For this CBM,
Gelfand has annotated his last round game versus Leko, which
saw the highly topical variation of the Queen's Indian and
the pawn sacrifice on d5. At first, both players followed
Aronian-Leko (Moscow 2006), where Leko had managed to
channel the game into a draw relatively quickly. With
15.Qc4, Gelfand finally deviated and allowed his opponent to
get rid of his backward pawn with the advance d7-d5. Yet it
was exactly this resulting position (see diagram) which
Gelfand had aimed at in his preparation: White is a pawn
down, but the black pieces are badly placed. In his analysis
he proves that Black is facing much bigger problems here
than it might seem at first sight. Click here and
follow this exciting game with Gelfand's commentaries. | 
Eljanov,P -
Cheparinov,I
Position before 26.Rxg5
| Pavel Eljanov ended up in a middle place in
Jermuk, scoring 50%, yet he too achieved two beautiful wins
versus Cheparinov and Aronian. On the DVD, the Ukranian
outlines his King's Indian game versus Cheparinov. For the
second time, Eljanov tested the setup with 11.g4 at top
level, the main idea of which is to stymie Black's attack on
the kingside. By means of the strong pawn sacrifice 16.g5
Eljanov gained additional time to place his pieces in an
optimal way. In the diagram position, the decision was
brought about by the rook strike on g5. The diagonal a1-h8
is opened, and all of a sudden the black pieces look
completely uncoordinated. In his analysis, Eljanov
highlights both the critical moments of the opening phase
and the black defensive resources towards the end of the
game. | | 19.07-30.07.2009 
Victory at the Swiss Classic:
Vachier-Lagrave
| Chess Festival Biel
Beyond the great top tournaments, the still only 18-year-old
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has step by step played himself up
into the area of the super grandmasters. Currently his Elo
rating is 2719. The chess festival in Biel this summer was
the first high-class traditional tournament to which he was
invited. And what a debut! Undefeated and with successes
over Morozevich and Caruana, he eked out unshared tournament
victory. Against Morozevich, he - with luck - won an
encounter which not only brought about the preliminary
decision concerning the outcome of the event, but also has
the makings to become the game of the year. | 
Morozevich,A - Vachier
Lagrave,M
Position after 52.Kd5
| On this DVD,
Vachier-Lagrave looks back on this special
game. Already the opening phase, in which Morozevich
crucially sharpened up the position with the knight
sacrifice 13.Ne4, is thoroughly scrutinized by the young
Frenchman. At various points he indicates incredible
improvements for both sides, and in his analyes comes to the
conclusion that White had more than one way to force the
win.
Yet the decision was made in the time-trouble phase, when
Vachier-Lagrave managed to steer the game into an ending
which - at least materially - was a big-time win. But how on
earth is Black in the board position (left) going to unravel
his pieces? Click on the link below the diagram and enjoy
the game with the commentaries of the winner of Biel! | 
Caruana,F -
Ivanchuk,V
Position after 24...g5
| The same round
saw yet another most exciting duel. With the black pieces,
Ivanchuk managed to win also his second game versus Caruana
to temporarily join the top. GM Mihail Marin has annotated
the encounter, providing it with a series of personal
suggestions. With the surprising king step 11...Kd8 Ivanchuk
marked the start of a very creative game. Indeed, in the
further course he managed to prove that here his king was
less exposed than its counterpart after castling kingside.
In the diagram position he tested his young opponent with
the original 24...g5. What is to be done to keep the
position in the balance? Caruana did not find the right
concept and already a few moves later was clearly lost.
Click here to replay the game with Marin's
annotations. | 
Move by Move:
How should Black proceed further?
| From opening trap to endgame
study
Training
in ChessBase Magazine starts with the very first moves and
includes all stages of a chess game. The topical opening
articles with a lot of ideas and suggestions for your
repertoire you find up here with
the links. In video format, Leonid Kritz pleads from Black's
view for the Slav with 4...a6 against 5.Ne5 and in two
further lessons outlines the current state in the
Scandinavian main variation. These and further videos on
opening theory you find in the column Fritztrainer.
Fritztrainer. In his Strategy columne strategy column, Peter
Wells comments on important aspects of the tension in the
centre. In Daniel King's eternal hit Move by Move a
positional brillancy is on the training agenda (see diagram),
and in the columns Tactics and Endgame Oliver Reeh and
Karsten Müller have again compiled the best from current
tournament
practice for you. |
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