ChessBase Magazine 174: What will Magnus play?

ChessBase Magazine #174

Review by Nagesh Havanur

 
ChessBase Magazine #174 (DVD + Booklet)
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In a few days hence the world championship match will have begun. From Moscow to New York only one question is being asked: What will Magnus play?

His games in this DVD may hold some of the answers. It’s for this reason that his performance in Bilbao merits attention. In the encounter with Wesley So he avoided the Berlin endgame and played 1.e4 e5 Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4. d3 (C65)

In the encounter with Karjakin he played an anti-sicilian and soon took the position off the beaten track:
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 (B50)

In both cases he was rewarded with a win. The first of these games is annotated by Magnus himself and the second by Michael Roiz.

But what would he do with Black? Against e4 he has experimented with everything from the Scandinavian to the Modern. The surprise element has worked in his favour.

In Bilbao his game with Wei Yi commenced with 1.d4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Be3 a6 5.f4 b5, transposing to the Modern Defence (B06). But after some careless play he soon reached an awful position.

Here White should play 16.a4! with powerful pressure on the queenside. However, Wei Yi played the hasty 16.c7? and allowed Carlsen to get round the pawn, losing a tough game in the end.

Would Magnus repeat any of these lines in the world championship match? Your guess is as good as mine. Against d4 he has been playing systems like the Ragozin and this DVD carries a remarkable game with Karjakin. This was played in the second cycle of Bilbao. Karjakin who had lost their encounter in the first cycle was looking forward to settle scores. Here is what happened. (I have made use of some fine commentary by Danny King in this DVD and added some of my own for younger players less familiar with theory).

White has “only” a rook for the queen. But it is not easy to demonstrate a win for Black. As for the opening, Danny King suggests that Karjakin was influenced by his friend, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in his choice of the line. If you look at the analysis here White is on a slippery ground and a single slip would send him down the precipice.

Apart from the games from Bilbao this issue also carries games from Sinquefield (won by Wesley So) and Dortmund (won by Vachier-Lagrave). While they are important, I would ask readers not to give a miss to games from other events. The following example offers the final phase of an exciting game with the winner’s own commentary:

This brings me to other sections of the Magazine. There are ten opening surveys ranging from Sicilian Najdorf to Slav Schlechter Variation. Among them I would single out Valeri Bronznik’s analysis of the Chigorin. It’s part of an ongoing series and very valuable for those wish to broaden their repertoire against queen pawn openings. 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 (D07)

Apart from these surveys, there are regular exercises in opening traps, middle game tactics and endgame technique. In all, this DVD has 825 games of which 137 are analysed in detail. Tournament winners, Carlsen, Wesley So and Vachier-Lagrave have annotated one game each. Others include Emanuel Berg, Boris Gelfand and Michal Krasenkow, not to mention Suat Atalik who has annotated as many as 36 games.

This time I missed Telechess section. Hopefully the grandmasters would be back next time to present games from correspondence chess.

Recommended – more info on the DVD is here

The editor’s top ten

1. “A fun game”: the world champion in person presents his rapid-fire attacking game against Wesley So in Bilbao. Carlsen-So
2. The decisive game in Saint Louis: Wesley So shows how he outmanoeuvred his rival for tournament victory: So-Topalov
3. Grandmaster against child prodigy: together with Simon Williams find the moves with which eleven year old Vincent Keymer outplayed GM Hertneck – „Move by Move“!
4. Masterclass in Biel with “MVL”: the present No. 2 in the world explains in a video interview with Daniel King his win in the Najdorf over Caruana.
5. Sneaky way in the King’s Indian: in his video GM Erwin l’Ami introduces you to the variation after 8.dxe5 dxe5 9.Bg5 and brings you up-to-date with the latest theory.
6. The poisoned bishop: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave explains the trick with which he caught out Peter Svidler in Biel: Svidler-Vachier Lagrave
7. Mating attack out of nowhere: let Boris Gelfand show show you how he surprised European champion, Ernesto Inarkiev!
8. “Opening Trends”: IM Langrock opens a new series and demonstrates the most important trends in the French Rubinstein Variation.
9. Award your own exclamation marks! Conduct, together with Oliver Reeh, an attack with several hammer blows.
10. WCh dress rehearsal: have Daniel King show you how the world champion dismantled Sergey Karjakin’s king position.

All opening articles in ChessBase Magazine #172

	Krasenkow: English A20 1.c4 e5 2.g3 c6 With 2.g3 White would like to defer the development of the Nb1 to c3 so as to avoid ...Bb4. But then, according to Michal Krasenkow, Black can easily play 2...c6. The Polish grandmaster takes some ideas from the Alapin Variation in the Sicilian and presents a repertoire for Black.
	Souleidis: Trompowsky Attack A45 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 e6 3.e4 c5 With 3...c5 (instead of the main move 3...h6) Georgios Souleidis presents a solid weapon against the Trompowsky Attack. White can try either 4.e5 or 4.d5, but the analyses show that Black has no need to fear the one or the other.
	Reinke: Sicilian B20 1.e4 c5 2.b4 cxb4 3.a3 In the second part of his article on the Wing Gambit the focus is on what according to Markus Reinke is the critical move: 3...e5. However, even in this line White can also obtain exciting positions with compensation for the pawn.
	Postny: Sicilian B31 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.0-0 Bg7 6.Re1 Nh6 7.c3 0-0 8.h3 In the Rossolimo Variation the trend has of late been retuning to the recapture with the b-pawn. Since after that 8.d4 has not proved itself, White is now trying out the useful 8.h3. Evgeny Postny presents the latest results of his investigations.
	Iotov: Sicilian B37 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Bg7 6.Nc2 d6 7.Be2 Nf6 8.Nc3 0-0 9.0-0 According to Valentin Iotov the move 6.Nc3 has both advantages and disadvantages. Avoiding the exchange of pieces favours White, but he also clears the centre and allows ...Be6. But another thing in favour of the variation is that there is less theory to be learned.
	Ris: Sicilian B38 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.c4 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Be2 d6 9.0-0 Bd7 10.Qd2 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 Bc6 12.f3 Nd7 13.Be3 a5 14.b3 Nc5 15.Rab1 With 15...e6 instead of the old main move 15...Qb6 Robert Ris pleads for a somewhat more active approach. If White does not know what he is doing, there are several ways he can immediately fall into a trap. Even with best play it is not clear whether White gets an advantage.
	Stohl: Sicilian B94 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 In the second part of his article on the popular sub-variation 6...Nbd7 Igor Stohl analyses above all queen moves for White. The most venomous is 7.Qe2 and so it receives the most attention. Despite a great analytical effort, Stohl considers Black to be under pressure.
	Kuzmin: Four Knights Game C49 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bb5 Bb4 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 d6 7.Ne2 Nowadays one is satisfied with even a slight opening advantage, so the Four Knights Game is back in fashion. With 7.Ne2, according to Alexey Kuzmin White is intending Ng3, c3 and d4. Black should not miss the correct moment to play d6-d5.
	Bronznik: Chigorin Defence D07 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 In the closing fourth part of his series on the Chigorin Defence Valeri Bronznik examines the move 5.e3, which is not totally harmless. Black should then reply 5...Nf6 and retain the option of ...Bb4.
	Marin: Slav Schlechter Variation D94 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Bd3 0-0 7.0-0 Bg4 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 e6 For Mihail Marin Vassily Smyslov is the greatest role model in this variation. The seventh world champion is represented in the database by 7 games. Anyone wishing to play this line should thoroughly check out whether it suits him or not.

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