 |
Introductory videos In his introductory
video GM Karsten
Müller gives you a first insight into the varied
content of the DVD, e.g. Karjakin’s first round victory in Wijk over
Morozevich or the may interesting openings articles, e.g. on the
Blackmar Diemer Gambit, a surprise weapon against the Sveshnikov, the
Centre Counter with 3...Qe5+, 2.Ne2 against the Najdorf system or a
rare idea against the Leningrad System in the Dutch Defence. |
| GM
Dorian Rogozenco devotes his first introductory
video for this issue to the tournament highlights of Wijk an
Zee and Linares. This includes making clear by an examination of the
game Carlsen - Karjakin just how good the defensive arts of the later
winner of the tournament really are. He also shows how Short lost his
chance of victory in the B-tournament in his final round game against
Caruana. As far as Linares is concerned, Rogozenco explains Grischuk’s
textbook treatment of the middlegame against Aronian (see diagram) and
the tricky rook ending from the game between Ivanchuk and Anand. |
| In
his second video Rogozenco reviews the match
between Topalov and Kamsky for the right to challenge World Champion
Anand. The focus is on the Romanian grandmaster Topalov’s three
victories, especially those critical positions in which his challenger
made unusually clear mistakes which led to him giving away the draw or
even the win. In conclusion Rogozenco demonstrates one brilliant game
each from the top-class Opens in Moscow and Gibraltar as well as from
the German Individual Championship. |
17.01.-01.02.2009 
| Wijk an
Zee Sergey Karjakin was the surprise winner of this
year’s edition of the strongly traditional top Dutch tournament. In
the final round, with Black, Karjakin bet everything on a single card
against his fellow front runner Dominguez and was rewarded with
undivided first place in the tournament. On the DVD the young
Ukrainian annotates two of his victories. You will find an extensive
tournament report and all the games from Wijk via the browser list. |
Karjakin,S - Morozevich,A
Position after 18.Bd3
|
Karjakin started his tournament with a win in the first round. In a
Sicilian Paulsen Variation Morozevich played "his" move 8...Be7 and
obviously ran straight into his opponent’s preparation. Karjakin
inserted two good prophylactic moves in 13.Kb1 and 15.Qg2 and was
happy with the result of the opening phase after 18.Bd3. The semi-open
g-file cries out for an attack on the opposing king. And on the other
side it is difficult to make out how Black can develop any counterplay.
By only move 22 Morozevich had made a decisive error and soon had to
capitulate on account of the massive white attack down the g- and
h-files. |
Karjakin,S - Adams,M
Position after 14.cxb4
| With
his victory over Adams in the last round but one Karjakin joined the
group of leaders. Here too the Ukrainian managed to come out of the
opening on favourable terms with an (almost) new move (see diagram).
He then made the most of the fact that his opponent did not find the
best way to handle the position. After Adams played 19...Rb8 White got
a strong pawn queenside phalanx which left the black minor pieces –
especially the bishop on b7 – looking quite weak. Click here or under
the diagram and Karjakin will explain to you his impressive winning
play. |
 | Last
year’s victor Magnus Carlsen was of course one of the
favourites in this year’s field – but the young Norwegian was unable
to score his first win before round 10. When one gets down to it,
there were too many unexploited chances in the first half of the
tournament for a successful title defence. Carlsen managed a
convincing victory over the Dutch player Jan Smeets in the penultimate
round. |
Carlsen,M - Smeets,J
Position after 28.b4
| In this
game Carlsen aimed to get into lesser known territory quickly with
2.c4 against the Caro-Kann. His analysis of this game is very
instructive and brings out clearly the tough struggle for a minimal
advantage and the initiative. In playing 11.Bd3 Carlsen deviated from
the previous game Ivanchuk - Topalov, which had led to a draw just
before in Nanjing. The knight on a5 soon became a problem piece for
Black. Carlsen went on to succeed in mounting more and more pressure
on the black position and with 28.b4 (see diagram) made the decisive
thrust. Can you see what White has up his sleeve after 28...Nb7? |
 | Plus ça
change... In ChessBase Magazine 128 Loek van Wely presented in
the most entertaining fashion on video his win with White against
Radjabov’s King’s Indian from the Chess Olympiad. In Wijk the Dutch
grandmaster once more had the good fortune to have White against
Radjabov. Once again he had a convincing win, of course against the
latter’s King’s Indian, and once again van Wely’s analysis in this
issue is both entertaining and humorous. |
Van Wely,L - Radjabov,T
Position after 24.Qh3
| In a
classical King’s Indian van Wely quite obviously managed to surprise
his opponent with 11.Rb1 – a very rare move, with which Ponomariov had
gone down against Radjabov six years ago at the same tournament.
Radjabov was not able to cope properly with van Wely’s innovation
20.h4 and soon decided on the wrong plan, as a result of which his
king was soon in extreme peril. With the quiet move 24.Qh3 (see
diagram) White obliged his opponent to exchange on h6 and by doing so
to almost completely laid his king bare. After both rooks came into
action on the f-file, the Azerbaijani was obliged to strike his
colours only a few moves later. |
 | Teimour Radjabov’s King’s Indian duel with the
Chinese GM Wang Yue(which would be continued in Linares) would
turn out more successfully for Black.Radjabov did not achieve
a decisive advantage in this game until the endgame, when, with the
pawn sacrifice 26...e4 which is well worth seeing, he freed his King’s
Indian bishop and went on to seize the initiative with his rooks on
the a-file and the semi-open b-file.
Wang Yue - Radjabov,Tto play
through. |
Radjabov,T - Kamsky,G
Position after 41.Bd6
| In his
game against Kamsky, Radjabov played the rare 5.Nc5 against the
Caro-Kann, but this only brought him a very slight opening advantage.
In his analysis Radjabov explains his efforts to develop an initiative
on the queenside, the undogmatic exchange of his fianchettoed bishop
and the tactical complications from which he emerged into the endgame
of rook and bishops of opposite colours with two extra pawns. Karsten
Müller has examined in detail the subtleties of this ending in his Endgame
column. The complete game with Radjabov’s analysis can be found
here. |
| 17.02.-26.02.2009 
| World
Chess Challenge Sofia The
victor of the "World Chess Challenge" and thus the next challenger of
World Champion Vishy Anand is Veselin Topalov, who started the
match against Gata Kamsky as the clear favourite. You will find on the
DVD all the games in the match with extensive commentary. The American
was able to keep the match level as far as the half-way mark. But in
his first two games with the French in rounds 5 and 7, Kamsky went
wrong after successful opening play and because of this he had to
concede defeat before the final game of the match. |
Topalov,V - Kamsky,G (7)
Position after 31.Qb7
| The
game in round 7 was symptomatic for the match as a whole. Kamsky
demonstrated good preparation and with his innovation 13...Qb6 he put
the white position under pressure. As the middlegame advanced, he even
managed to achieve an advantage – but to do so he invested too much
time and lost control and lost track of things in the complications
initiated by Topalov towards the end. In the position in the diagram
Kamsky chose the wrong move order with 31...Reb8 – 31...b4 32.d7 Reb8
would have won and would have opened up the match completely again.
Click here or on the link under the diagram to
play through the game with the analysis of GM Igor Stohl. |
19.02.-07.03.2009 
| Linares Though
they were on equal points, Alexander Grischuk won the
super-tournament in Linares ahead of Vassily Ivanchuk thanks to having
a greater number of wins. All the games and an extensive tournament
report can be found here or via "Linares 2009"
above in the browser list. The most important games can be found
annotated on the DVD by Krasenkow, Rogozenco, Kritz, etc. |
 |
Annotating for us for the first time is 14 year old Anish Giri.
At the end of January Giri came in joint second in the C-group in Wijk
and in doing so scored his final GM norm. This makes him the youngest
grandmaster in the world at this time. In the German Bundesliga our
young shooting star (with Nepalese-Russian roots and who lives in the
Netherlands) has been appearing this season for SK Turm Emsdetten. |
Carlsen,M - Wang Yue
Position before 24...Rxb6
| Giri
annotates for the DVD five games from Linares, including two by Magnus
Carlsen, which serve as examples of his variable form in that
tournament. In round 10 the young Norwegian tried to rattle his
opponent, Wang Yue, with 7.Bd2 against the Slav with a6. But he was
wide of the mark, and the Chinese player rapidly seized the initiative
with 10...e5. In the position in the diagram, Wang Yue bet all on a
single card with the exchange sacrifice on b6. His courage was
rewarded, because after 25...Qe5 Carlsen could not find the correct
defence. Anish Giri annotates the game in detail from the start right
up to the final hunt of the white king over half of the board. |
| 03.10.2008-29.3.2009 
Feygin - Shirov
Position after 25...a5
|
Bundesliga 2008/09 Alexei Shirov is often in Germany and for a long time
he has enjoyed playing in the Bundesliga. There are various reasons
for this, but one of them is certainly that in the Bundesliga he has
usually won his games and played some most beautiful ones. The present
season did not start in the best possible way for him, but in the
final rounds the pleasant naturalised Spaniard had a series of
victories which are well worth seeing. Shirov annotates two of them
extensively on video for this DVD. In his game against Feygin they got
right down to business in the very opening. After only 8 moves Shirov
was out of his opening book and he decided to cut across his
opponent’s preparation with the help of an unusually early queenside
advance. Click here to have Shirov explain the whole
game to you on video. |
Shirov - Landa
im Videoformat | In his
game against Landa, Shirov did not have enough preparation time and so
turned to 1.d4, in order to avoid Landa’s Petroff Defence and the risk
of an early draw. In the Catalan Opening he went on to choose in 8.a4
a variation with which Gelfand had caused him some problems in the
Olympiad. In his video analysis Shirov also goes into this game in
detail and explains how the understanding of the opening and
middlegame ideas from the earlier game helped him in his victory over
Landa. |
| 
13.Nxb5 against the Sveshnikov
| Surprise
weapons with or against the Sveshnikov In
addition to the 11 extensive openings articles on the DVD and in the
booklet, this issue has for you two shorter repertoire suggestions in
video format. ChessBase colleague Pascal Simon presents in conjunction
with IM Oliver Reeh an attractive piece sacrifice, which gives White
an initiative and three strong queenside pawns in the Sveshnikov
Variation. It is particularly recommended to ambitious club
players, who would like for once to give their opponents a right going
over in their favourite variation. |
12...Ba6 for friend of the Sveshnikov
| Dorian Rogozenco presents in video format a rarely
played idea in the Classical Sicilian, which is interesting not only
for but especially for friends of the Sveshnikov. If you are aiming
for the Sveshnikov with a more flexible move order (2...e6), then
after 5...Nc6 you are often confronted with 6.Nxc6. At the end of the
mainly forced sequence which follows, Rogozenco suggests the move
12...Ba6, which offers Black a good game and at the same time sets
White a series of specific problems. As a supplement to the
video, Rogozenco contributes to the DVD two extensively
annotated games. |
