ChessBase Magazine 125

The grandmaster from Hamburg Karsten Müller gives you a survey of the contents of the DVD in his introductory video. Click on the highlighted text or on the picture on the right to get a feel for our latest issue. This will give you an easy view of the highlights, the various training articles and the incentive to take a look at one or more of the total of 13 openings articles contained on the DVD.

Eight games from the super-tournament in Foros are annotated on this DVD by the participants themselves, starting with Carlsen’s first round victory over Ivanchuk. The game between the two favourites for the victor’s laurels started off along unexpected lines. Ivanchuk and perhaps even more so Carlsen are always good for an early surprise in the opening. But this time both of them followed for a relatively long time a topical main line in the Classical King’s Indian. It was eventually the young Norwegian who left the main paths with 13.b5. In his analysis Magnus Carlsen criticises in retrospect this decision and explains how Black could have achieved equality without any problems. The decisive moment for the outcome of this game, however, was a faulty evaluation by Ivanchuk, who after move 30 went in for a plan of opening up the position on the kingside to obtain a decision there. Click here or on the link under the diagram to have the game explained to you by the Norwegian superstar.

Carlsen,M - Ivanchuk,V
Position after 16...Ng7

Eljanov scored a victory over Volokitin with the Berlin Defence, which tends to be notorious for its propensity to end in a draw, The game at first followed a typical course for the opening. Here and there White would set a trap and Black would have to play accurately to maintain equality. When, around move 28, Volokitin thought he spotted an attractive mating attack on the black king, he committed the miscalculation which would cost him the game. Eljanov fended off the mate with a simple pawn move and scored an elegant win with the help of his passed f-pawn. Click here to play through the game with Eljanov’s extensive comments.

Pavel Eljanov

Svidler,P - Van Wely,L
Position after 30.Qd1-c1?

Loek van Wely is going through a difficult phase at the moment. In Foros, his two victories saved him from coming in last, but in Dortmund everything seemed to go wrong which could go wrong. Nevertheless, the Dutch player has chosen from his better tournament in Foros a drawn game which he has annotated. It was indeed instructive and exciting. In the position in the diagram, it takes some time for the correct move to appear among the 10 best ones: 30...Bb4!! – the idea consists of 31.Rxc6 Bxa3 32.bxa3 b2 (whilst after the immediate 30...Bxa3 31.bxa3 b2 32.Qc2 the pawn on a3 is protected). But this lovely move was missed not only by van Wely, but also by both players in their common analysis. Van Wely shares this and other details with us in his entertaining analysis of the game.

It was also all or nothing in the game Nisipeanu,L - Van Wely,L, in which the Najdorf was once more up for discussion. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu has commented in depth on this game. As suited his temperament and the character of the opening, van Wely went for an attack on the white king which had castled queenside and even invested a pawn in it. However, in his calculations he missed a strong blockading move by the white bishop – the bishop threatens to get from h3 to a4 via d7 - and thus saw himself forced into a passive continuation (21...Ra7). Nisipeanu made the most of his good fortune and obtained a decisive advantage by exchanging queens and advancing the white passed pawn on the d-file.

Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu
 

Nisipeanu,L - Ivanchuk,V
Position after 34...Rc8

In his game against Ivanchuk, it was a surprise weapon in the Sicilian which Nisipeanu had to face. The Ukrainian star turned on move 4 to something unusual for the top level – 4...Qb6 – and sounded the trumpet for an attacking game of the highest level. Nisipeanu was the first to seize the initiative with the advance of the a-pawn. He invested a pawn and achieved a position which at first glance looked very promising. But the Romanian was unable to demonstrate a concrete advantage, neither in the game nor in his analysis and so it was Ivanchuk, who more and more took over the initiative, partly because of a rook manoeuvre which is well worth seeing. In the position on the board, you can almost smell a mate or massive loss of material because of White’s weak back rank and exposed king position. But fortune favoured the brave, and Nisipeanu found in 35.Bb4! the saving move which granted him the draw.