Being safe in the Berlin Defence

Since Vladimir Kramnik became world champion in 2000 due at least in part to the Berlin Defence, this opening setup has become extremely popular. Not only did it turn out to be very safe, it also showed that often Black can even take the full point is White does not play accurately. Leonid Kritz has annotated for ChessBase Magazine a lot of top games with this opening. In addition, the German grandmaster has tried out his special setup against strong opposition and is convinced by it. In his videos
he demonstrates:
- a program for Back after 4.d3
- the main variation 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8
9.Nc3 and then Kritz’ recommended setup 9...Ke8 10.h3 Be7
- deviations 6.dxe5, 6.Bg5 and 6.Ba4
- the side variation 5.Re1