Highlights
The editors' recommendations: from first-class analyses from the WR Masters and the European Individual Championship 2023 to the video series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 3 by Dr Karsten Müller:
WR Masters 2023: The tournament winner, Levon Aronian, comments on two of his games. Plus analyses by Keymer, Duda and others. Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa each present one of their games in video! - European Individual Championship 2023: The winner Sarana comments on his groundbreaking game against Korobov, plus analyses by Shevchenko, Esipenko, Ponomariov and many others - "Special" on Vishy Anand: exclusive collection of 26 annotated games + contributions on strategy and endgame - French Gambit á la Carlsen: Sergey Grigoriants examines 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 h6!? – 0-0-0 against Bogo-Indian: Spyridon Kapnisis shows how White gets good play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.a3, long castling not excluded! – “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge” Part 3: King and Pawn against King and much more!
Top games and master analyses
WR Masters 2023: Levon Aronian gave his opponents, Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi, no chance in the tiebreak. The tournament winner analyses two of his games. Plus analyses by Vincent Keymer, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and others. Together with Sagar Shah, Gukesh presents his win against Praggnanandhaa in the video. And Pragg also demonstrates his game against Giri in the video!
European Championship 2023: Alexey Sarana prevailed over Kirill Shevchenko and Daniel Dardha thanks to a better second rating. The winner comments on his seminal game against Korobov, Shevchenko comments on two of his best games. Plus analyses by Andrey Esipenko, Ruslan Ponomariov and many others.
Special: Vishy Anand
CBM authors analyse their favourite Vishy Anand games. An exclusive collection of 26 annotated games from 1985 to 2022 awaits you!
Opening videos
Christian Bauer recommends Black to play 5...Nh5 against the London System. Mihail Marin takes the game Esipenko-Aronian from the WR Masters as an opportunity to take a closer look at a Catalan variation that was popular in the 80s and 90s. Plus, Leon Mendonca shows how one should play against the King's Indian side line with 6...Bg4.
Christian Bauer: London System
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Ne5
Mihail Marin: Catalan
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Nh5
Leon Mendonca: King's Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Bg4
New ideas for your repertoire
From Caro-Kann to King’s Indian – ChessBase Magazine #213 comes with 11 opening with new trends and ideas:
Evgeny Postny: Caro-Kann Exchange Variation with 8.Qe1
Petera Papp: Sicilian 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3
Tanmay Srinath: Sicilian Najdorf 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3
Sergey Gigoriants: French 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 h6
Krisztian Szabo: Petroff 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Re1
Martin Lorenzini: Four Knights Game 4...Nd4 5.Bc4 Bc5
Christian Braun: Ruy Lopez Anti-Berlin 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bg5
Robert Ris: Queen's Gambit Accepted 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 Bb4+
Lars Schandorff: QG Exchange Variation with 9...Ne8
Alexey Kuzmin: Gruenfeld Fianchetto System with 7.a4
Yago Santiago: King's Indian 5.h3 0-0 6.Bg5
“All in One”
Based on the game Predke-Spyropoulos from the Novi Sad Open 2022, Spyridon Kapnisis shows a weapon against the Bogo-Indian popular among club players: after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 d6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.e4 e5 White surprisingly lets 9.0-0-0 follow!
Ris: "Move by Move"
With the game Szabo-Stepanencu from the Romanian Championship 2023, Robert Ris has not chosen a world-class game this time. But this encounter has it all! “An absolute masterpiece that I couldn't resist sharing with you.”
Rogozenco: "Modern classics"
The game Karpov-Yussupov (1983) is a real masterpiece of positional play. In this encounter, the then World Champion demonstrated in exemplary fashion how to stop any active play by the opponent through perfect prophylaxis.
Markos: Practical tips for the tournament player - "How to play in a lost position"
In the sixth episode of his training series, Jan Markos gives tips on how to play in an objectively lost position to perhaps avert defeat in the end!
Marin: "Anand as a positional ace"
Strategy expert Mihail Marin sheds light on the strategic skills of the 15th World Champion with a special focus on the categories "Pawn play", "Initiative" and "Dominance and blockade". Incl. video introduction and two training units in interactive video format!
Reeh: "Rapid chess tricks"
In the tactics article with 37 games, tactics expert Oliver Reeh has compiled material from current rapid chess tournaments. You can solve his three favourite combinations move by move in the interactive video format with feedback function!
Mueller: Video series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" - Part 3: King and Pawn vs. King
Dr Karsten Mueller continues his training series. Following an introductory video, your technique is called for in three interactive videos!
Knaak: Topical opening traps
Rainer Knaak presents you with eight current traps - from the Ruy Loez to the Slav, three of them additionally in FritzTrainer video format.
