Best of 2015: Most popular opening

by ChessBase
12/31/2015 – The year 2015 is almost over, so we thought it's time to let you vote for your highlights of this year. Today we want you to vote for the most popular opening of the year 2015. The following article features a video by Rustam Kasimdzhanov who presents a selection of openings to vote for. Which is the most popular opening of the year 2015?
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Which is the most popular opening of the year 2015 on the highest level?
The Berlin: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.h3 Ke8 etc.110
37%
The English: 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Bb4 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 e4 etc.64
21%
The Catalan: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 O-O 6.O-O dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 etc.48
16%
The Najdorf: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 etc.37
12%
The Ragozin: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 O-O etc.32
10%

To vote you need to login with your ChessBase Account. The final result of the vote will be revealed in a week but during the next days more polls about various aspects of chess will follow. However, now it's your turn to vote for the "Most popular opening of the Year 2015". Here are the candidates presented by GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov:

Opening expert GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov shows the most popular openings of 2015 on the elite level

 

 
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1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e5 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Bb4 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 e4 7.Ng5 Bxc3 8.bxc3 Re8 9.f3 exf3 9...e3 10.Nxf3 Qe7 10...d5 11.d4 11.e3 Ne5 12.Nd4 d6 13.d3 c5 14.Nf5 Bxf5 15.Rxf5 d5 16.cxd5 c4 17.d4 Nd3 0-1 Khismatullin, D (2642) - Tomashevsky, E ( 2747) Chita 2015
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
The English-- A29

 

 
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1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0 b5 8.Bb3 Be7 9.Qf3 Qc7 10.Qg3 0-0 11.Bh6 Ne8 12.Rad1 Bd7 13.Nce2 Kh8 14.Bg5 Bxg5 15.Qxg5 Nf6 16.Ng3 Qc5 17.Qd2 1-0 (34) Kasimdzhanov,R (2704) -Karjakin,S (2762) Berlin GER 2015
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The Sicilian Najdorf-- B87

 

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Nxe4 5.d4 Nd6 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.dxe5 Nf5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 9.h3 Ke8 10.Nc3 h5 11.Ne2 Be7 12.Bg5 Be6 13.Nf4 Bd5 14.Nxd5 cxd5 15.Rad1 c6 16.Rfe1 h4 17.Rd3 Rh5 18.Bxe7 Kxe7 19.Red1 Rd8 20.c4 d4 21.b4 1-0 (42) Adams,M (2744)-Aronian,L (2781) Reykjavik ISL 2015
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The Berlin Endgame-- C67

 

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 0-0 8.Rc1 dxc4 9.Bxc4 c5 10.0-0 cxd4 11.Ne4 Qe7 12.a3 Ba5 13.Qxd4 Rd8 14.Qe5 Nc6 15.Qh5 Bd7 16.g4 1-0 (42) Dubov,D (2661)-Anand,V (2803) Berlin GER 2015
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The Ragozin-- D38

 

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bg5 Bd5 11.Qc2 Be4 12.Qc1 h6 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.Rd1 a5 15.Nbd2 Bh7 16.Nb3 c6 17.Qc3 Be7 18.Nc5 Qc7 19.Ne5 Na6 20.Nxb7 Qxb7 21.Bxc6 1-0 (58) Eljanov,P (2717)-Nakamura,H (2814) Baku AZE 2015
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The Catalan-- E05

 

Rustam Kasimdzhanov: Mr. Openings

Rustam Kasimdzhanov at the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsoe

Grandmaster Rustam Kasimdzhanov from Uzbekistan has for many years been known as a very strong and imaginative player. However in 2004 Rustam Kasimdzhanov shocked the chess world by winning the FIDE world chess championship title, beating a string of world-class players like Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Topalov and Adams in the process. The Uzbekian grandmaster, who has helped Anand in both his World Championship matches, lives in Germany. Over the years he recorded a number of highly praised DVDs for ChessBase, especially opening DVDs. He also worked as an opening trainer for the german national team which won surprisingly the 2011 European Team Championship with the help of Kasimdzhanov.

See more products of Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the ChessBase shop.

Photo by Pascal Simon

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