| Introductory videos
What awaits you in this issue of ChessBase Magazine? Karsten
Müller gives in his Video introduction
an overview of the numerous top tournaments, high class
analysis, training videos and repertoire suggestions from
our authors. As a little appetiser, Müller introduces two of
the openings articles on the DVD in brief videos:
on one hand the "Accelerated Bogo-Indian" (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4
Bb4+) by GM Marin and GM Kuzmin’s analyses on the Ruy Lopez
Four Knights, which should be equally interesting both for
White and for Back players. |
|
The Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk in Siberia takes up
the most space in Dorian Rogozenco’s first video survey
of the top tournaments of the last two months. The Romanian
GM lays special emphasis on the outstanding performance of
Ivanchuk, who, on first board, led the
Ukraine to victory in the Olympiad. Rogozenco presents in
detail two strokes of genius by the Ukrainian. On one hand
Ivanchuk’s amazing novelty in the Volga Gambit Declined
with 4.Qc2 and his grandiose victory over Jobava in the
Caro-Kann "Fantasy"-Variation. At the same time Rogozenco
takes a look at the European Cup in Plovdiv and honours the
performances of Moiseenko and Andreikin, who collected the
decisive points for the renewed victory of their team
"Economist". |
|
In his second, video
surveyDorian
Rogozenco presents the high points of the recent
top tournaments. From the Grand Slam Final in
Bilbao he comments on Kramnik’s convincing first-round
victory over Carlsen, which laid the foundation stone for
the Russian’s splendid victory in the tournament. The Tal
Memorial in Moscow is singled out particularly by Rogozenco
on account of the large number of exciting games. For
example, he annotates for you the strategic subtleties of
Aronian’s innovation in the Catalan against Gelfand and
Karjakin’s crashing attack on the king against Kramnik’s
Petroff Defence. |
05.11.-14.11.2010 Mihail Tal in the legendary GUM
| Tal Memorial Moscow
The Tal Memorial finished only a few days prior to the
printing of this ChessBase Magazine. The race at the top was
close to the very last moment. Before the final round,
Sakhriyar Mamedyarov
occupied the first place with 5,5 out of 8 and half a point
lead. Yet Boris Gelfand, who apart from that didn't do too
well in Moscow, duped the top player from Aserbaidschan and
with a dashing victory prevented solitude on the winner's
podium. For Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin both drew
their last games and thus managed to join the top of the
table. |
Gelfand,B - Mamedyarov,S
Position before 23...Nf3+
|
GM Marin has examined the final round game Gelfand,B
- Mamedyarov,S on the DVD. It
was a short and painful affair for the hitherto leader. In
the Gruenfeld Indian, Mamedyarov
selected an unusual setup with 7...Nc6 and with 9...Be6
swiftly went on to produce a novelty on grandmaster level.
In the unorthodox position resulting from Black's opening
choice, Gelfand was the one who in the following made less
inaccuracies. In the diagrammed position Mamedyarov went
wrong with 23...Nf3+, since after 24.gxf3 gxf3 25.Qd3 White
can close the f-file while on g2 there is no danger looming
for him either. Better would have been 23...Bh6 24.Qe2 Nf3+
25.gxf3 gxf3 26.Qxf3 Bxf4, followed by a transition to a
drawish rook endgame. Yet the way it came, Gelfand managed
to liquidate into a winning major piece endgame. Click on
the link below the diagram to replay the game with Marin's
analyses. |
Sergey' show Karjakin,S - Kramnik,V
|
Vladimir Kramnik had no say in the tournament victory in
Moscow. Already in the first round he had to acknowledge
defeat versus Levon Aronian in a complicacted game with an
unbalanced distribution of material. And in round 8 it was
Sergey Karjakin who managed to break Kramnik's Petroff
Defence with a spectacular attack on the king. The bold
sacrifice of the knight on g5 - after Kramnik's 14...h6 it
simply stayed put - provoked very complex tactical
complications which the ex-word champion avoided by
declining the sacrifice. But the powerful advance of the
f-pawn via g6 to f7 sealed the fate of Black's king. Click
on the link under the picture and enjoy this brillant game
of Karjakin with the analyses of GM Stohl. |
20.10-30.10.2010
I am the boss here Magnus Carlsen
| Pearl Spring
Tournament in Nanjing
How similar the pictures are. Unfazed by the rather mediocre
results (for him) at the Olympiad and in Bilbao, Carlsen
dominated the field in Nanjing almost at will as in the
previous year. And that though this time the tournament was
even stronger and more star-studded due to the presence of
Vishy Anand. Before the tenth and
final round Magnus Carlsen had already won, because
his 6.5 out of 9 put him a point and a half ahead of Anand
and Bacrot. The fact that Carlsen’s desire to play chess had
not suffered from the busy schedule of the past months can
be seen from his final round game against Gashimov. Many
players would have been happy with a colourless draw.
Carlsen wanted more and went the full distance of 71 moves.
|
Carlsen,M - Anand,V
Position before 26.Rf1
|
In round seven, when Carlsen’s lead over the surprisingly
strong Bacrot consisted of a bare half point, the Norwegian
had White against World Champion Anand. The latter aimed, as
he has done a lot recently, for the Berlin Defence, but
Carlsen decided on the quieter 5.Re1 and thus avoided the
"Berlin Wall". After Anand’s unusual 7...Nf5 Carlsen played
8.Nf3 and counted on his slight lead in development. To
judge by the rest of the game, this was a wise decision.
With clever strategic play (see diagram - in the position
material on the board counts for more than the e-file)
Carlsen bit by bit constructed a winning position. But on
move 63 he slightly wavered on the tightrope and overlooked
a perpetual check motif, which the world champion was able
to use to save his game. |
An occasionally pensive world champion
|
Vishy Anand contested in Bilbao and Nanjing two of the top
tournaments in the last months. On both occasions he
finished in second place with a slightly positive score.
There is no question but that these are not bad results, but
in the long run they will not satisfy the ambitions of a
world champion. In Nanjing his ambitions for tournament
victory were brought to a halt by a surprising and
unnecessary defeat against Etienne Bacrot, really putting a
damper on them as early as round 4. |
Topalov,V -
Anand,V Position before 16...Bg4
|
On the other hand, he was able to successfully continue his
WCh duel with Topalov in Nanjing. He had Black and the
contestants chose the same variation of the Queen’s Gambit
which had been up for discussion in their twelfth match game
in Sofia. Once more Anand showed himself very well prepared
and really thwarted his opponent. In the position on the
board everything appears to turn around the weaknesses on
Black’s queenside. But Anand’s 16...Bg4 abruptly transfers
the action to the opposite side of the board and puts the
uncastled white king right in the heart of things. The world
champion himself has commented on this brilliancy for you on
the DVD. Play through the game as he explains the subtleties
of his successful attack on Topalov’s king. |
25.10-30.10.2010
Unchallenged: Vachier-Lagrave
| Univé Tournament in Hoogeveen
Every year in the Netherlands there are various high-class
all-play-all tournaments. One of these is the Univé
Tournament in Hoogeveen. In the "crown group" four players
measure up against each other in a double round-robin. This
year there were two experienced players in Alexei Shirov and
Sergei Tiviakov facing up to two young stars in the form of
Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. After two draws the
French player really hit out and secured victory in the
tournament with three wins in succession. The extremely busy
Alexei Shirov, who had been there at the Olympiad, the
European Cup, in Bilbao, in Moscow and in Hoogeveen,
occupied second place. |
Position after 13.Nb3 Tiviakov - Vachier Lagrave
| Vachier-Lagrave started his victorious run
in his game with Black against Tiviakov, who had a rotten
tournament. In the Najdorf Variation with 6.Be3 Ng4 7.Bg5 h6
8. Bh4 g5 9.Bg3 Bg7 the old hand chose the rather un-modern
10.Be2. Vachier-Lagrave has analysed this game in detail and
explains, for example, the problem of today’s highly popular
continuation 10.h3. As he demonstrates by means of his game
with Romain Edouard, this variation leads by force to a draw
- and that cannot be what White wants. After Tiviakov’s
dubious innovation 13.Nb3 the French player brought about a
strange position after 13...Bxc3 14.bxc3 e5: Black has lost
a lot of tempi, he is behind in development and White has
some good squares for his pieces. And despite that Black’s
position is not worse, but as Vachier-Lagrave points out,
even better playable. In the game the future tournament
winner in fact seized the initiative, sacrificed the
exchange for a strong attack and stole one pawn after the
other from the Dutch player. |
09.10-15.10.2010
Vladimir Kramnik may well laugh
| Grand Slam Finale
Bilbao
For three of the participants in the Grand Slam Master
Final, namely for Kramnik, Carlsen and Shirov, it meant a
rapid trip after the Olympiad in Siberia to Bilbao in the
Basque country. Only World Champion Vishy Anand had once
more declined to take part in the numerically biggest event
and spectacle in the world of chess. Vladimir Kramnik laid
the foundations for a majestic victory with two victories
over Carlsen and Shirov in the first two rounds. In the
following four games the Russian was never really in any
danger. With Black, Kramnik was even on the verge of
inflicting a second defeat on Carlsen. |
Carlsen,M - Kramnik,V Position
after 18.Re1
|
The ex world champion has annotated this game for the DVD
and explains the point at which he missed the path to the
win. Carlsen once more put his trust in the English Opening
with 4.g3, with which he had defeated Kramnik at the end of
2009 in London. But this time Kramnik had no problems
keeping the position level. In the position on the board
after 18.Re1 Black even has the better of the play after
18...a6!. The idea behind this move is both to stop White’s
advance and to firmly cement the outpost for the knight on
b5. Because from there the knight can completely paralyse
White’s play on the queenside. However, as Kramnik admits in
his analysis, it is very difficult for Black to get anything
tangible out of his dominating position. It was only after
an inaccuracy by Carlsen (36.Bxd4) that Kramnik managed to
put his opponent’s position under serious pressure. But both
on move 42 and in the rook ending with an extra pawn,
Kramnik made two mistakes, which meant that the game ended
in a technical draw. |
Kramnik,V - Carlsen,M Position after 39.a4
|
Kramnik’s first round victory over Carlsen has been
annotated on the DVD for you by GM Igor Stohl. The Norwegian
tried a Queen’s Indian with 4….Ba6. After Kramnik’s
innovation 13.Qb5 and the subsequent exchange of queens
Carlsen decided to force things with the committal 18...g5.
But it backfired. Kramnik first strengthened the pressure
on the d-file and thus prevented the thematic breakthrough
…d7-d5. After the exchange of another knight and the opening
of the d- and g-files Kramnik not only had much better piece
play but with the text move 39.a4 (see diagram) he also
fixed all the opposing pawns on black squares. Carlsen
resigned only a few moves later, because his pieces were
completely paralysed by the white rooks and the mighty white
knight. |
21.09-03.10.2010 So close to the stars: Olympiad victors Ukraine
| Chess Olympiad
Khanty-Mansiysk
They can also do it without Sergei Karjakin. The young
super-GM had for years been the rising star of the Ukraine.
At the Olympiad he achieved a more than solid score of 8 out
of 10 – but this time for his adopted country, Russia. But
it was not enough for a victory for Russia, which had a
total of five teams in the starting blocks for the men’s
event. Because the Ukraine triumphed surprisingly splendidly
– above all thanks to a brilliant performance by Vassily
Ivanchuk on top board. The Israeli team took third place
behind Russia. The DVD contains 3240 games from
Khany-Mansiysk, selected games from the top teams have been
annotated, for example by Karjakin, Movsesian, Efimenko,
Caruana etc. |
Efimenko,Z
- Malakhov,V Position after 30.Ne4
|
As well as Ivanchuk 25 year old Zahar Efimenko
was amongst the victorious Ukrainians. Thanks to his
first-class result of 8.5 out of 10 (mostly on board 4) he
managed to make the leap over the symbolic barrier of 2700
Elo points. His most important victory in Khanty-Mansiysk
was what turned out to be the decisive match against Russia
1. The Olympiad victor annotates on the DVD his win over
Vladimir Malakhov. The Ukrainian went for the latter’s
Berlin Defence with the rare move 10.Ne2. After a long
strategic battle the Russian committed a serious mistake
when in time trouble with 30...f5 in the position on the
board. Efimenko points out in his analysis that the
continuation 30...Bf5 31.f3 f6 32.Kf2 Kf7 would have led to
a completely drawish position. You can load via the link
under the diagram the game with commentary by Efimenko. At
the same time, Karsten Müller puts this ending under the
microscope in his endgame
columnin video format. |
Karjakin,S - Onischuk,A Position after 29.Re1-e3
|
The new Russian
Sergej Karjakin was successful for his team,
for example, in the prestigious game against the USA.
Playing against Alexander Onischuk he employed in an
Anti-Marshall with 8.h3 against Black’s pawn sacrifice
9...d5 in the form of 12.Bd2 exactly the variation which Jan
Gustafsson analyses as being critical in his new DVD on the
Marshall Attack. And in fact in the game Karjakin managed to
free his position with solid play (by exchanging on b4,
followed by d3-d4 and Qd3) and to come out of the opening
with an advantage. After two inaccuracies on the part of his
opponent the game was essentially decided after 24 moves. In
the position on the board after 29.Re3 the black king
position is simply defenceless against the superior white
forces. Karjakin himself has annotated this win for you on
the DVD. |
Karjakin,S
- Tomashevsky,E Position after 29.Qxb5
|
In his game against Evgeny Tomashevsky, the European
champion of 2006, Karjakin had to deal with another way of
treating the Ruy Lopez. In the Breyer Variation, which is
known for rather leisurely strategic play, Karjakin
nevertheless took the opportunity to open up the position
with 18.c4 and to transpose to a struggle requiring concrete
play. In his analysis Karjakin explains the complex tactical
complications in which Tomashevsky underestimated a white
counter after 23...Rxe4. After various exchanges, it came
down to the position on the board on the left. Can you find
the move with which Karjakin (on the move with White) could
finally decide the game in his favour? |
Sergei Movsesian Strength through calm
|
Amongst the star commentators in this issue there is once
more the Slovakian super-GM Sergei Movsesian.
In Khany-Mansiysk he was defending the colours of his
country, on first board of course and had one of the best
individual results (8 out of 11). In both the wins which he
annotates on this DVD, he once more displayed his
outstanding positional understanding, sense of perspective
and patience. So he was not put off by the unorthodox
Petroff Defence with 6...Ng5 played by Eduardas Rozentalis
and transferred his opening advantage straight into the
endgame and exploit it scientifically and subtly all the way
to victory. The game
Movsesian,S - Rozentalis,E
with the comments by the Slovak can be found on the DVD. |
Movsesian,S - Topalov,V
Position before 29.Nb7
|
For the moment Veselin Topalov is going through a difficult
phase. He had so many surprising defeats to put up with at
the Olympiad and correspondingly lost a lot of Elo points in
Khanty-Mansiysk.
Sergei Movsesian is one of those who forced
the former number one in the world ranking list to bow the
knee. In his analysis of his win against Topalov it did not
much look after the opening that the Slovakian super-GM was
heading for the full point. But in the position on the board
Movsesian installed a “Trojan horse” deep in the black ranks
with the fantastic 29.Nb7. And it turned out to be extremely
unpleasant, since from now on the black position began move
by move to exhibit all the symptoms of paralysis. You should
not miss Movsesian’s impressive winning technique and his
analysis of this game. |
endgame
column How can White win this endgame played in
Khanty-Mansiysk?
|
From the opening trap to the endgame study
Training in ChessBase Magazine starts with the very first
moves and includes all the phases of a game of chess. The
11 up-to-date openings articles with their numerous
ideas and suggestions for your repertoire can be foundhere
or above among the links. The column opening trap by Rainer
Knaak (including its Fritztrainer video) contains three
examples this time, click here,
to get them. You will also find in video format the openings
articles by Dejan Bojkov (Scandinavian Defence), Valeri
Lilov (Dutch Defence), Adrian Mikhalchishin (English
Opening) and Leonid Kritz (French Steinitz Variation). You
will find these videos and other recordings in Chess Media
format in the column Fritztrainer.
Peter Wells’ subject in his Strategy
column is called: "The
Anatomy of a Key Pawn Push (e5-e6) Part One". In Daniel
King’s long-running Move by
Move it is a Mamedyarov game
up for discussion. And in the Tactics
and Endgames (s. Diagramm) columns Oliver Reeh and Karsten
Müller have once again selected for you the best from
current tournament practice. |
| Opening articles
A13 Stohl: Reti Opening
1.Nf3 e6 2.c4 d5 3.b3 Be7 | | Black
counters the frequently played white setup
by putting the black-squared bishops on the
same diagonal and thus depriving his
opponent of one of his biggest trumps. The
only ambitious lines then are those with the
exchange of bishops. |
Marin: Keres Defence A40
1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ 3.Bd2 a5 4.Nf3 d6 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2
e5 | |
By holding back with the development of the
king’s knight Black is pursuing two aims. On
one hand, the extra tempo plays its part in
the struggle for the centre, and on the
other it is very possible to develop the
knight to h6. |
Marin: Caro-Kann
B15
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.h3 Nh6 | |
In the first part of a series on a hybrid of
the Caro-Kann and Pirc Defences, Mihail
Marin examines variations in which White
does without e4-e5 or e4xd5. Black then
often develops with …f6, …Nf7 and aims for
the advance e7-e5. |
Grivas: Sicilian B33
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 | |
The lines in which White does without the
natural 5.Nb3 are brought together by
Efstratios Grivas under the name of the
Medusa Variation. 5.Nb5 is of some
importance, but after 5…Nf6 or 5…a6 Black
has few problems and frequently seizes the
initiative. |
Postny: Sicilian B46
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Be3
Nf6 7.f4 Bb4 8.Bd3 | |
By holding back with …Qc7 Black prevents the
popular setup with Qd2 and 0-0-0 (the Nf6
would be more useful in that case than the
queen on c7). White then has another
aggressive setup, the relatively rarely seen
7.f4. |
Moskalenko: French C02
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Qg4 | |
Every French player has perhaps already come
up against this aggressive queen move, above
all in blitz- or rapid chess. In these cases
it is not easy to find the correct reply
over the board. Viktor Moskalenko presents a
variation which can be described as a
refutation. |
Kuzmin: Four Knights Game C49
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3
d6 7.Bg5 Ne7 | |
How can Black play for a win against the
Four Knights Game? Alexey Kuzmin presents a
setup which, of course, does not promise any
opening advantage; but the resulting
positions get away from the symmetrical
character of things. |
Kritz: Ruy Lopez C92
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1
b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8
12.a3 | |
After Igor Stohl in CBM 138 (with 12.a4)
Leonid Kritz now tries to prove an advantage
after the move 12.a3. White has several
ideas: preventing …Nb4, the bishop can
establish control over the diagonal if
required by Ba2 and of course b2-b4 possibly
followed by Nd2-b3-a5. |
Schandorff: Semi-Slav D43
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6
Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Bd3 dxc4 9.Bxc4 g6 10.0-0 Bg7 | |
In the chess Olympiad Wang Hao managed to
defeat Alex Fier with the move 11.Re1. Lars
Schandorff explains the idea behind the rook
move – after 11…0-0 12.e4 e5 13.d5 Nb6
14.Bb3 Bg4 White can avoid the doubled pawns
on the f-file with 15.Re3. |
Krasenkow: Gruenfeld Defence D97
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4
6.Qxc4 0-0 7.e4 a6 | |
On move 7 Black has an unbelievable choice
between six respectable moves, but 7…a6 has
been played the most and has the best
statistics. Michal Krasenkow presents you
with a repertoire from Black’s point of
view. |
Schipkov: King's Indian E81
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 c5
7.dxc5 dxc5 8.Qxd8 Rxd8 9.Bxc5 Nc6 10.Nge2 | |
After Boris Schipkov showed in the previous
issue how White can decline the pawn
sacrifice 6…c5, he now examines the best way
to accept it. In the variation with 10.Nge2
Black must play very accurately in order to
keep things in balance. |
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