Highlights of this issue
A creative draw
Anish Giri annotates his game vs. Grischuk from the candidates tournament
Beating the world champion
Grand Prix winner Nana Dzagnidze shows how she turned the tables against Ju Wenjun
Incredible counter
Viktor Moskalenko goes for …h6/…g5!? in the Classical French
A modern Nimzo-Indian
Alexey Kuzmin investigates the sharp 4.f3 c5 5.d5
"Very interesting from start to finish"
Alireza Firouzja analyses his triumph over Jan Krzysztof Duda from Prague
“Maximum effect”
Play like MVL and make best use of your pieces: “Move by Move” with Simon Williams
Top players annotate their games
Giri, Duda, Firouzja, Harikrishna, Navara, Vidit, Vitiugov, Muzychuk, Ju Wenjun, Dzagnidze, Goryachkina et al.
With major pieces and different coloured bishops
Attacking in the middlegame - Mihail Marin shows you the way!
Black wants the bishops
Evgeny Postny tackles the Ruy Lopez with 5…Nxe4 6.d4 Be7!?
Final finesse
In Oliver Reeh's interactive tactics video, "The innocent h-pawn" proves to make all the difference
The Slav under pressure
Jan Werle shows what fascinates him about the rediscovered line 4.e3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Qb6 6.Ne5 (video)
Finale furioso
Welcome to the Two Knights Party! Renato Quintiliano makes the pieces dance again (Part III)
Drawn? No way!
Karsten Müller dissects recent rook and double rook endings
Pirc power unleashed!
Yago Santiago likes 4.f3 Bg7 5.Be3 c6 6.Qd2 b5!?
Video Special - Dorian Rogozenco shows rediscovered Kasparov games (Part I)
In this and the following edition, German national coach Dorian Rogozenco introduces you to previously unknown games by Garry Kasparov! These are training games that were only made available to the public at the beginning of this year through Alexander Nikitin's book “Coaching Kasparov, year by year and move by move”. For this edition, Rogozenco chose one game Timoshenko-Kasparov from 1983.
Top tournaments: FIDE Candidates 2020, Prague Masters 2020, FIDE Grand Prix Lausanne
Anish Giri, Boris Gelfand, Romain Edouard etc. comment on the most important games from the FIDE Candidates 2020 (Part I). Alireza Firouzja, Vidit, Nikita Vitiugov, Jan-Krzyztof Duda and David Navara analyse their best games from Prague. Last but not least the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix (Women) in Lausanne, Nana Dzagnidze, analyses her games, and so do Aleksandra Goraychkina, Zhansaya Abdumalik, Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk!
New repertoire ideas
11 opening articles with new repertoire ideas are waiting for you! In this issue you will find following contributions:
Adrien Demuth: Reti 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 b5 3.Bg2 Bb7 4.Na3
Petra Papp: Symmetrical English with 6...Qb6 (Part I)
Yago Santiago: Pirc Defence with 6...b5
Imre Hera: Classical Caro-Kann with 7.Bc4
Robert Ris: Sveshnikov with 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 Bg7
Krizstian Szabo: Sicilian Four Knights 6.Nxc6 bxc6
Raienr Knaak: Sicilian 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Qe3
Viktor Moskalenko: Classical French 7...h6/8...g5
Renato Quintiliano: Two Knights Game (Part III) 8.Bd3
Evegeny Postny: Ruy Lopez with 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 Be7
Alexander Kuzmin: Nimzo-Indian with 4.f3 c5 5.d5
Opening videos
Three topical video contributions await you: Jan Werle presents a new plan of Erwin l'Ami, which attracted attention in Wijk aan Zee. Daniel King
presents an aggressive Catalan and Mihail Marin puts Caruana’s idea against the Ruy Lopez from the Candidates under the microscope.
Jan Werle: Slav (Part I)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.Qb3 Qb6
6.Ne5
Daniel King: Catalan
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6
6.0-0 Nc6
Mihail Marin: Ruy Lopez Neo-Arkhangelsk
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 7.a4 Rb8 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bb6
Opening traps
The most direct way to win a game is to lure the opponent into a prepared trap. Trap expert Rainer Knaak presents eight traps from current tournament practice, three of them in video format.
Move by Move
Simon Williams: “With all the drama of the suspended Candidates, I thought it would be appropriate to pick a game from one of the leaders. I have chosen MVL, who has proven that he should be in the competition fighting for an opportunity to play a World Championship match against Magnus. This is not a modern game for a change, so I am hoping that you won't know the moves! It demonstrates one of MVL's main strengths, the ability to use his pieces to maximum effect. Can you find the moves that MVL plays? The moves that create a beautiful win?”
Strategy:Attacking with major pieces and opposite-coloured bishops
Bishops of opposite colours in combination with major pieces are an important strategic topic. Marin begins with the basics, which should be familiar to most club players, but quickly moves on to complex examples by masters. Including video introduction and lots of training tasks to solve!
Tactics: Slumbering attackers
In the end, tactics almost always determine the outcome of the game. Sharpen your killer instinct with the help of Oliver Reeh's tactical contribution: 29 selected games, peppered with numerous training questions. Incl. three videos in interactive training format!
The Classic
Master players often only need a single strategic mistake by their opponent to consistently lead a game to victory. Dorian Rogozenco shows you a brilliant example of this with the game Zuckertort-Blackburne (London 1883). "This is why these classic games are so instructive: they show the plans very clearly!"
Endgame: Recent rook and double rook endings
Karsten Müller deals with two important endgame topics in this issue: firstly, defense in single rook endgames is on the training schedule and secondly important rules of thumb in double rook endgames. In addition, the endgame expert from Hammburg provides three video analyses of recent master games.
