Highlights
From the Prague 2025 Chess Festival to Jan Werle's opening video on the London System and the ‘Special’ with 27 highly entertaining miniatures and Mihail Marin's strategy article ‘Outposts on open files” to Dr Karsten Mueller's video series “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge”.
Over 7 hours of video playing time with Daniel King, Jan Markos, Mihail Marin, Dr. Karsten Mueller, Michael Prusikin, Oliver Reeh, Robert Ris, Dorian Rogozenco and Jan Werle - Prague Chess Festival 2025: Analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara, Nguyen, Shankland, Wei Yi and others - Dutch vs. London: Yago Santiago counters with 1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 Nc6! - ‘My favourite miniature’: Entertaining, instructive, short - 27 games under 20 moves, annotated by CBM authors - ‘Rooks in seventh heaven’: Oliver Reeh's tactical tests with over 30 current games + four interactive videos - ‘3.Bf4! – Something for the lazy?": Sam Shankland dissects his victory over Ediz Gurel from the Prague Masters with the London System and much more.
Top games and master analyses
With a score of 6/9, Chithambaram Aravindh secured sole victory in the Masters in his first participation in a round-robin tournament with world-class players. Anish Giri moved up to second place with his final round victory against Praggnanandhaa, who was still battling for the tournament title. In the Challengers, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Jonas Bjerre fought a head-to-head race. The Uzbek prevailed in the tiebreak and qualified for the 2026 Prague Masters. This issue features analyses by Aravindh, Bjerre, Giri, Gurel, Navara, Nguyen, Shankland, Wei Yi and Yakubboev.
Opening videos
Jan Werle takes up the game Shankland-Gurel from the Prague Masters, in which Black set up against the London System with d7-d5, Nf6, and Bd6. Robert Ris shows the unorthodox idea of 6...f6!? in the trendy Caro-Kann variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qf4. Plus, Daniel King demonstrates, using a number of selected games, how skilfully the recently deceased former world champion Boris Spassky mastered one of his favourite opening systems, the King's Gambit.
Jan Werle: London System
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 Bd6
Robert Ris: Caro-Kann Advance Variation
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Nf3 cxd4 5.Qxd4 Nc6 6.Qf4 f6!?
Daniel King: King's Gambit à la Spassky
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Ne7/Be7/d5
“Special”: My favourite miniature
A highly entertaining collection of successes, failures, underdog victories, Olympic highlights, classic candidates and modern high-flyers - a total of 27 hits from the period from 1962 to 2023 -awaits you!!
“The fortress”
Under what circumstances can you build a fortress with rook + pawn against queen + pawn? What techniques do you need to know and what tricks are there to stop fortress building? GM Dorian Rogozenco introduces another important motif that you should know!
Strategy: “Outposts on open files”
Open lines play an important role in the positional struggle. The situation becomes particularly interesting when one of the players has the opportunity to establish an outpost on one of the important open lines. Strategy expert Mihail Marin gives tips for various scenarios.
New ideas for your repertoire
From English to King's Indian - ChessBase Magazine #225 offers 10 opening articles with new ideas for every repertoire!
Schandorff: Reti 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 e6 4.0-0
Edouard: Symmetrical English 7.d4 cxd4 8.Nxd4 d6
Santiago: Dutch 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 Nc6!?
Csonka: Caro-Kann 4...Nf6 5.Nxf6+ exf6 6.c3 Bd6
Postny: Sicilian Alapin Variation with 9...Bg4
Grigoriants: Sveshnikov 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 Bg7
Ris: French Classical System with 7.a3!?
Szabo: Ruy Lopez 5.Re1 Nc6 6.a4
Papp: London System 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 Part II
Kuzmin: Queen's Indian 7...Ne4 8.Bd2 Bf6 9.Re1
Kapnisis: "All in One" Italian 4.d4!? exd4 5.0-0
Opening traps
In his column, Michael Prusikin once again presents three selected traps from a classic opening system - this time all three examples come from the Sicilian Defence.
“Move by Move”
Aravindh Chithambaram achieved a convincing tournament success with spectacular games at the Chess Festival in Prague. Robert Ris has turned the Indian's winning game against Wei Yi into an interactive training session with video feedback.
“Modern Classics”
In Gelfand-Shirov (1998) the then very popular Gruenfeld with 8.Rb1 was played. Dorian Rogozenco shows in the video how Gelfand outplayed his opponent step by step after the novelty 19.Rc7.
"All in One"
Everything you need to know about a variation in an extensively annotated game: Spyridon Kapnisis examines the pawn sacrifice 4.d4!? exd4 5.0-0 after the Italian moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5. An early tightening for all those who don't fancy a “giuoco pianissimo”!
Practical Tips for the Tournament Player
Positions in which both sides no longer have any minor pieces but still have the queens and rooks on the board are sometimes referred to as the “fourth phase of the game”. Jan Markos explains the special features that need to be considered in this frequently occurring distribution of material.
Tactics: “Rooks in seventh heaven!"
A rook on the second-to-last rank can represent great power, and when its companion joins it... Oliver Reeh invites you to take a tactical class and solve a multitude of practical exercises with increasing difficulty levels, drawn from more than 30 recent games.
Endgame series “Basic knowledge” - Part 15: Bishop against knight
Dr Karsten Mueller continues his training series. Following the introductory video, your technique is in demand in two interactive videos! Mueller also provides a contribution with selected rook endings by former world champion Boris Spassky (video introduction + analyses).
