ChessBase Magazine Extra 182

47.383 games played between December 2017 and February 2018. The Paulsen Variation in the Sicilian continues to be very popular. In one of the main lines – see the position in the diagram – Adrian Mikhalchishin suggests 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.Qd4 (instead of 9.Na4). The Ukrainian top trainer analyses the game Wei Yi-Karthikeyan, Liaocheng 2017, which took a favourable course for White. Recently Yannick Pelletier’s DVD "The Hedgehog - a universal system against 1.c4 and 1.Nf3" was published by ChessBase. Since then the Swiss grandmaster has had more practical experience with his setup, which he would like to share with you. In the video he shows the game Housieaux-Pelletier, Vincennes 2017, which followed a typical course for the Hedgehog. Georgios Souleidis has very pleasant memories of his game against the Georgian grandmaster Merab Gagunashvili (European Cup 2003). Not only did he defeat a stronger opponent in great style, but he was also able to contribute to the theory of the Chigorin Defence.