2/28/2021 – Two strong grandmasters from different generations, currently living in countries far apart from each other, gave an online masterclass about a week ago. Levon Aronian and Oscar Panno discussed two impressive wins obtained by Aronian with the help of Robert Hungaski, who served as translator.
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YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
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Enjoying chess
With so many people now focused on improving their blitz skills to play online, it was refreshing to see two great players using the internet to patiently go through a couple of remarkable games, paying attention both to tactics and strategic ideas as to psychological factors surrounding the games.
Current world number 6 Levon Aronian talked to 85-year-old Argentine legend Oscar Panno with the help of American GM Robert Hungaski, who served as translator. Panno and Hungaski joined the online call from the River Plate Chess Club in Buenos Aires.
On this DVD Dorian Rogozenco, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller present the 8. World Chess Champion in video lessons: his openings, his understanding of chess strategy, his artful endgame play, and finally his immortal combinations.
Panno at the 1956 Candidates in Amsterdam | Photo: Joop van Bilsen / Anefo
Aronian, who recently announced he will change federations to represent the United States, showed two great wins from his illustrious career. First, a win he obtained over Magnus Carlsen at the 2017 Norway Chess Tournament and then one of the key victories he got on his way to winning the FIDE World Cup, also in 2017 — the second rapid game of his dramatic semifinal match against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
As pointed out by Aronian, his win over Carlsen in Stavanger was crucial for the world champion, who could not recover and finished the event with an uncharacteristic 4/9 score. After both players acknowledged how it is particularly satisfying to beat a reigning world champion (especially one as dominating as Carlsen), Aronian quipped:
After this game, I think the world champion Magnus Carlsen had a very bad tournament (smiles).
It was indeed a remarkable victory, with Aronian playing an intriguing novelty out of a Chebanenko Slav:
Viktor Bologan believes in the Chebanenko: "This opening is very popular today and thousands of games are played with it, some on the highest level. Strong engines have shown that the Chebanenco is very solid and that Black has a lot of defensive possibilities. So the conclusion is simple: play Chebanenco Slav with Black and force White to switch to 1.e4!"
White played 10.Bc2. This seemingly quiet manoeuvre is supported by a tactical idea, as Black cannot play 10...e5, the logical central break, due to 11.Nxd5 cxd5 12.Bxb4 Qxb4 13.dxe5 Ne8.
Carlsen thus replied 10...Rd8, which was followed by a remarkable little move:
With 11.a3, Aronian first gave up a pawn and then an exchange for positional compensation — 11...Bxa3 12.Rxa3 Qxa3 13.c5:
The queen is out of play and in danger of being trapped. This was just the start of a marvellous showing by Aronian as, of course, Carlsen found challenging recourses at every turn. It was also a reminder of how tough it is even for top grandmasters to deal with unbalanced positions.
A stellar performance by Levon Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess
It was a bit over an hour and a half of highly enjoyable (human) chess analysis!
When it comes to strategy, one of the key things that chess professionals understand much better than amateur players is the role of the bishop which is the key theme on this video course.
The games
Replay both wins by Aronian with expert analyses by Alex Yermolinsky and Sagar Shah.
Select an entry from the list to switch between games
Carlos Alberto ColodroCarlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.
In this course, you’ll learn how to take the initiative against the London and prevent White from comfortably playing their usual system by playing 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 Nh5.
London System Powerbase 2026 is a database and contains in all 11 285 games from Mega 2026 and the Correspondence Database 2026, of which 282 are annotated.
The London System Powerbook 2026 is based on more than 410 000 games or game fragments from different opening moves and ECO codes; what they all have in common is that White plays d4 and Bf4 but does not play c4.
In this course, Grandmaster Elisabeth Pähtz presents the London System, a structured and ambitious approach based on the immediate Bf4, leading to rich and dynamic positions.
Opening videos: Open Spanish (Sipke Ernst) and Classical Sicilian (Nico Zwirs). Endgame Special by Igor Stohl: ‘Short or long side’ – where should the defending king be placed in rook endgames? ‘Lucky bag’ with 35 master analyses.
YOUR EASY ACCESS TO OPENING THEORY: Whether you want to build up a reliable and powerful opening repertoire or find new opening ideas for your existing repertoire, the Opening Encyclopaedia covers the entire opening theory on one product.
The Queen’s Gambit Declined Exchange Variation with 5.Bf4 has a great balance between positional play and sharp pawn pushes; and will be a surprise for your opponents while being easy to learn for you, as the key patterns are familiar.
€9.90
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