Résultats de la recherche

Ce DVD vous permet de progresser à partir de l'exemple de l'un des meilleurs joueurs de l'histoire des échecs et des explications forunies par Pelletier, Marin, Müller et Reeh.

Born in 1975 in Tuapse on the shores of the Black Sea, Vladimir Kramnik studied at the Botvinnik-Kasparov chess school. At 16 he was included in the Russian Olympiad team and scored a sensational 8.5/9, the best result at the Olympiad. After that followed a string of great tournament results, culminating in a world championship challenge. In 2000 Kramnik played the chess legend Garry Kasparov and beat him to take the title, which he successfully defended in 2004 against Peter Leko and 2006 against FIDE champion Veselin Topalov, whom he defeated to take the unified world championship title.

On this DVD Vladimir Kramnik retraces his career from talented schoolboy to World Champion in 2006. With humour and charm he describes his first successes, what it meant to be part of the Russian Gold Medal team at the Olympiad, and how he undertook the Herculean task of beating his former mentor and teacher Garry Kasparov. Kramnik dissects his wins against Leko and Topalov, giving us a vivid impression of the super-dramatic final games of the 2006 match. His commentary is full of useful advice and provides a fascinating insight into the thought processes that govern top level play.

The DVD contains more than six hours of video with narrative and game analysis. There are also five additional segments from an exclusive video interview on the intrigues that surrounded the 2006 world championship, and on the state of the chess world in general.

The Gruenfeld Indian is an active and dynamic reply to 1.d4 which can lead to complex and extremely sharp positions. So it’s no wonder that also Alexei Shirov included this opening – which at its début in tournament practice was called ”hypermodern” – into his repertoire. At the candidates’ final against Vladimir Kramnik in Cazorla in 1998, he exclusively – and successfully – trusted the Gruenfeld Indian with Black; the victory over Kramnik gave him the right to play a WCh match versus Kasparov. In the fi rst part of the DVD Shirov extensivey comments his five Black games from the Kramnik match, giving deep insights into opening preparation and match strategy on highest level. In the second part Shirov reveals, among other things, how in his opposite-coloured bishop endgame against Topalov in Linares in 1998 he found the amazing and unique move, which will secure the game a place in chess history forever. And this is not the only fl ash of inspiration the Super Grandmaster will present in his videos… Running time: 5:25 hours

The search continues for a refutation of the Volga Gambit, and White is quite happy if he can achieve a slight advantage. According to the Icelandic grandmaster Henrik Danielsen, to get this White should accept the gambit and go on to fianchetto his king's bishop. The key move is 10.Rb1 - meaning that at any point White is prepared to play b3. And the key game is Kramnik-Topalov from Wijk 2003 - since then the Bulgarian has never again played the Volga Gambit. With his video series the author provides a complete repertoire for White against this gambit which still remains very popular with club players.

The focus of this issue consists of two top tournaments with diametrically opposed formats: the "Zurich Chess Challenge" saw the encounter of Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian in a friendly match consisting of six games and ending, when you consider their closeness in strength, in a 3:3 draw. The European Championship in Plovdiv, on the other hand, was once more a giant tournament with far over 300 participants, including 180 grandmasters. Here there was a sole winner in Dmitry Jakovenko (title picture) with 8.5 out of 11. The new European Champion is, along with Kramnik, Karjakin, Bologan, Shirov, Inarkiev etc. one of our star authors. You will also find on the DVD 13 openings articles, which cover the usual wide spectrum: from the Dutch via the French Winawer to the topical "Westphalia Variation" in the Queen's Gambit. That means something for everyone!

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!

The Hedgehog is not just an opening, it is a system. A system that can be used against 1 c4, against 1 e4 and also 1 d4. Some players, such as the Swedish Grandmaster Ulf Andersson, appear to play very little else with the black pieces. Black’s pieces curl up behind a row of pawns on the third rank and invite White to attack – at which point they spring out from behind the barricades to give the aggressor a nasty shock. The Hedgehog can easily transform into a tiger... This is modern chess.