ChessBase Magazine Extra 221

Opening videos

Ivan Sokolov: Spanish with 4…Nge7/5…f6

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nge7 5.c3 f6!?

Ivan Sokolov is one of the most successful coaches in the world and naturally also an opening expert. He wrote a book on the Spanish Opening over ten years ago and still regularly plays the opening with Black today. What could possibly surprise the former world-class player here? 5...f6!? - this new idea was recently put on the board by his former pupil Daniel Dardha, among others. Ivan Sokolov scrutinises this unorthodox and at the same time ambitious attempt. His conclusion: ‘Certainly a funny idea, but worth trying for sure!’

Fabien Libiszewski: Sicilian Kalashnikov Variation

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 e5 5.Nb5 d6 6.N1c3 a6 7.Na3 Be6 8.Nc4 Rb8

Half a year ago, GM Libiszewski published his FritzTrainer video course 'Master the Kalashnikov Sicilian'. In his video contribution for this CBM Extra, he uses games from 2024 to provide an update on the setup with 7...Be6, which has now established itself as the main variation. Using games by Andreikin, Le Quang, Oparin and others, he picks up on the latest trends from tournament practice and compares them with the recommendations from his video course.

Anish Giri, Sergey Grigoriants, Michal Krasenkow, Fiona Sieber and many more comment

The ‘Lucky bag’ of this extra includes 44 detailed analyses.

The German grandmaster Fiona Sieber chose a clever and successful line of play in the Women's Bundesliga against the young and combative Dutch player Eline Roebers by bringing about an objectively slightly worse endgame in the opening. ‘This endgame turned out to be anything but boring!’ It is ‘The brilliancy’ of this issue!

The ‘Update service’ once again provides over 50,000 new games for your database!

The games from the update service are also included in the Mega Update Service 2024, which you can use with the ChessBase 16/17 programmes (and a corresponding subscription).