Shop assistant

This DVD is dedicated to one of the most solid openings in modern chess theory - the Petroff Defence. The opening owes its popularity to such players as Anand, Kramnik, and Gelfand, who frequently employ it against opponents of all levels. Many new ideas and in-depth analysis are introduced, some of them even reach into the endgame. But that’s an inevitable part of studying the Petroff Defence - precision until the very end is required from the player who has the black pieces. The DVD covers all the main lines and most of the sub-variations and provides a solid background for players of any strength who are willing to study this opening. Video running time: 4 hours 37 min.

For young and developing players a very important piece of advice is to study open positions and to understand the value of coordination of the pieces plus the role of the centre. These goals can be achieved just by answering 1.e4 with 1...e5. Some players claim that these positions are not sharp and interesting enough, and they believe that different Sicilians should be one’s choice, but that is not completely correct. The idea of this DVD is to show that 1.e4 e5 can be extremely entertaining and that Black can obtain interesting counterplay in every opening. There are two lines proposed in the Spanish systems plus the most active alternatives against other white choices. Video running time: 6 h 48 min.

The Winawer Variation in just 60 minutes - that can only work by reducing it to a clear repertoire for Black and, where possible, general recommendations rather than variations. Alexei Shirov was surprised at how quickly he managed to make of the French Winawer an opening he himself could play. And now he will let you share in his conclusions. In his first video clip the author starts by concentrating on 4.a3, a move which in his view he found surprisingly strong. Then he turns to the position after 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7. Positional variations such as 7.Nf3 and 7.h4 are dealt with relatively quickly because in them the understanding of plans is more important than the study of variations. Then he turns to the critical 7.Qg4! and of course Shirov does not shrink from the adventurous 7...cxd4!. His conclusion on it: it may not be 100% objectively speaking, but it leads to fascinating positions and that is what we play chess for.

Great players of the past used to say – the most difficult thing in chess is to win won positions! Every player has such problems – those at the top of the tree and (especially) juniors. The correct technique consists of proper exchange methods and of the continuation of a correctly chosen plan; it is important not to change strategy after a small material gain. The DVD shows and explains instructive mistakes made when trying to make extra material or a positional advantage count and in addition it demonstrates the correct techniques as employed in classic games. Video running time: 4 hours 37 min.

It has already been the despair of so many players with White, but they cannot prove a clear advantage against the apparent loss of tempo ...a6. Practice has already shown that Black can come back well in the resulting types of position, since his setup is very dynamic and flexible: as well as the obvious ...b5 often ...c5 and ...e5 have proved themselves good plans, since in each case the b5-square is protected. Leonid Kritz has frequently employed this opening with the black pieces and thanks to his analyses for ChessBase Magazine he is in possession of further detailed knowledge. In the 4 videos you will see:
- how, after 5.a4, Black takes advantage of the weakness of the b4-square
- main variation 5.e3 b5
- man variation 5.c5 with Kritz’ recommendation 5...Bf5
- a program for Black after 4.e3 a6 5.Bd3

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

In chess we have certain aims - coordination and the activation of one’s own pieces. Sometimes we need a special little something to speed up one of these processes - a small material sacrifice, mainly a pawn or pawns. A dynamic pawn sacrifice is easy to see, as the idea is to get clear gains for the pawn. Positional pawn sacrifices are much more difficult, as their real purpose does not become clear immediately, but only during the development of the plan. There were famous masters of positional pawn sacrifices - Bronstein, Kasparov and Romanishin. Video running time: 4 hrs 15 min.

The great Aaron Nimzowitsch wrote the key sentence: Neither attack nor defence is the essence of positional play, but prophylaxis! Prophylaxis consists of different measures taken against the opponent’s tactical threats and strategic plans. But don’t think that the prevention of your opponent’s plan is purely defensive. It is simply part of the preparation of our plan! This difficult, but extremely important subject is explained on the DVD with the help of many examples, including classics but also modern games. Video running time: 3 hrs 30 min.

The centre is the most important part of the battlefi eld. In chess we study various different kinds of centre, some special forms of which were already discussed on the DVD ‘Winning Structures’. But in chess literature we have a huge lack of educational material on the role of the centre and on the power of pawns and pieces in the centre. And the most important part which is missing - how to change the pawn structure in the centre. This is really the knowledge which marks out the champions, and on this DVD with the help of classical games played by Botvinnik, Fischer, Rubinstein, Steinitz, Tal amongst others the author explains all these important problems. Video running time: 3 hrs 50 min.

The variation against the Ruy Lopez presented in meticulous detail by Alexei Shirov (3...a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5) has so far had no recognised name and Shirov himself has named it after Vladislav Tkachiev, the 2007 European champion, the Tkachiev Ruy Lopez. In fact the grandmaster from Kazakhstan has played a few important games with this system, but it would have been just as justified to name the variation after our author himself, because since 1996 Shirov has not only played numerous games with it, but recently he has turned it into his main weapon against 1.e4 - with splendid success and a lot of imitators. The super grandmaster now shares all this collected knowledge with his viewers. Apart from the Exchange Variation (to which Shirov also devotes a model game) White has hardly any serious deviation after 3.Bb5, making of the Tkachiev Variation a good weapon against the Ruy Lopez. Video running time: 6 hours.

There are few opening systems which have been undergoing such a fast and furious renaissance as the 6.Bg5 Variation of the Najdorf System. Inspired by Radjabov’s victories over Anand and Karjakin in 2006, a great number of games have been played since then, meaning that the theory has developed enormously. But even before then it stretched to such distant horizons that makes it all the more important to have someone who can explain the ideas which underlie the variations. That is exactly what Alexei Shirov does on his DVD. His explanations are all the more valuable because they are delivered by a player who himself has been responsible for developing the theory of the Najdorf. The author also makes use of games played by others in lines where he himself has not played any. Video running time: more than 5 hours

Great players always had and still have more than just broad theoretical knowledge. Every of them has some favourite methods, which simply help to score more points. The greatest even have favourite pawn structures! And they immediately exploited the knowledge of others - Alekhine invented some interesting structures, which were copied by his opponent in that game (Rubinstein), and later exploited by Botvinnik and then by Kramnik!