Highlights of this issue
Korchnoi's French Endgame
Mihail Marin’s recommendation goes far beyond the opening
The truth about Traxler
Renato Quintiliano clarifies1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5
“When even I am sacrificing a piece…“
Anish Giri shows a swift kingside attack from Batumi, introduced by the rook manoeuvre Ra3-g3!
Me and the new engines
Tanmay Srinath rams the Berlin Defence
Top players annotate
Caruana, So, Jones, Wang Hao, Duda, McShane, Vitiugov, Vidit, Yu Yangyi, Huschenbeth and many more
Playing the Marshall anyway!
Simon Williams discusses Daniil Dubov’s 8…d5 in the Anti-Marshall (video)
“Simple and strong!“
Oliver Reeh invites you to a straightforward attack on the king to end with an Epaulettes mate! (video)
Busted on the square g4!
Jan-Krzysztof Duda analyses his endgame victory over Yu Yangyi from the Hamburg Grand Prix
With umbrella and body-check!
Let Karsten Müller show you how to succeed in rook endgames – instructive and practical!
"I don't mind playing opening lines from both sides"
Pentala Harikrishna explains his victory over Adhiban with the Benoni at the IOM (video)
Dubov gem!
Igor Stohl analyzes the stunner Dubov-Svane from Batumi – from the opening duell to the mate final!
Top-class training – from opening traps to endgame tricks
Top tournaments with analyses by Caruana, So & Co
Many top players regularly comment for ChessBase Magazine! The star authors of this issue: Fabiano Caruana, Anish, Giri, Wang Hao, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Vidit, Wesley So, Nikita Vitiugov, David Navara, Luke McShane, Peter Heine Nielsen, Gawain Jones, Niklas Huschenbeth and many more! The top tournaments are the Isle of Man Grand Swiss 2019, the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg and the European Team Championships in Batumi.
Opening videos
Simon Williams presents a big surprise in the Ruy Lopez from Daniil Dubov (a sort of Anti-Anti-Marshall), Daniel King offers a repertoire suggestion against the English Opening and Alexei Shirov shows another of his successes in the Najdor Variation with 6.h3.
Simon Williams: Ruy Lopez
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 d5
Daniel King: English
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4
Alexei Shirov: Najdorf Variation with 6.h3 (II)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3
New ideas for your repertoire
Eleven opening articles await you, e.g. "A creative dismantling!" - Tanmay Srinath rams the Berlin Defence with 5.Re1, "A trend in the Queen's Gambit" - Igor Stohl explores 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 b6!?, "Assault on the fianchetto" - Romain Edouard checks out 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4!? and many more!
Here is a list of the 11 opening lines covered:
Szabo: Scandinavian - 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qd6 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 c6 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.f4
Kuzmin: Caro-Kann Two Knights - 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6
Adhiban: Najdorf - 6.h3 e6 7.g4
Papp: Najdorf 6.Bd3 (Part I) - 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bd3
Marin: French Steinitz Variation - 8...Bc5 9.Qd2 Bxd4 10.Bxd4 Nxd4 11.Qxd4 Qb6
Quintiliano: Two Knights Game (Part I) Traxler - 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 Bc5
Srinath: Berlin Defence - 6.Nxe5 Be7 7.Bf1 Nxe5 8.Rxe5 0–0 9.d4 Bf6 10.Re1 b6 11.d5
Stohl: Queen's Gambit with 5.Bf4 - 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bf4 0-0 6.e3 b6
Knaak: Queen's Gambit with 5.Bg5 - 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 dxc4 6.e4 b5 7.a4
Hera: Catalan - 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Qa4+ Bd7 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qd3 c4
Edouard: King's Indian without Nc3 - 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4
Topical opening traps
Rainer Knaak presents eight traps from recent tournament practice (including three Fritztrainer videos). This time our expert has found material, e.g., in the Sicilian Defence, the Queen’s Gambit, the English Opening and in the Nimzo and Queen’s Indian Defences.
"Move by Move"
This time Simon William deals with the game Saric-Suleymanli from the European Club Cup 2019, at first in comfortable strategic mode. But then in the middlegame you have to expertly invest some material and then conduct the endgame to a win with an extraordinary distribution of material!
"The Classic"
The trainer of the German national team presents the game Alekhine-Nimzowitsch (San Remo 1930) and explains how the fourth world champion exploited to his advantage systematically and in copybook style the bad positional decisions taken by his opponent.
Strategy: The king in the centre - safe and useful
Starting from Steinitz‘ theory that the king can be useful in the centre and that it can look after itself, our strategy expert Mihail Marin examines many entertaining games – from the first all the way to the reigning world champion!
Tactics: “Youth on the retreat”
Oliver Reeh’s tactical collection contains 26 recent games, each of which contains at least one task. In addition, the IM from Hamburg presents three of his favourite combinations in our interactive video format.
Endgame: Topcial rook engames
Think of all you need to know in rook endings! Karsten Müller presents many of the important techniques, motifs and rules of thumb. Plus video training with over an hour’s total running time!
