Nagesh Havanur on ChessBase Magazine #167

ChessBase Magazine #167

• Date: August/September 2015
• Languages: English, German
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Review by Prof. Nagesh Havanur

History, they say, is written by winners. When you see Caruana and Nakamura on the cover of this DVD you wonder whether that’s right after all. They won the Grand Prix cycle and earned their places in Candidates’ 2016. But what about others? Two came quite close and ended up in a life and death combat with each other. Jakovenko, the younger of the two, just had to win this game in the 9th round to take his tally to 5.5 points, joining the leaders, Nakamura and Caruana. But then Gelfand had set himself the same target. Good old Boris had fought game after game only to be bogged down by draws. His hopes had been rekindled with a nice victory over Svildler. So when the veteran met the youthful warrior, sparks flew and the earth shook under the clang of their arms.

In this issue the battle is deeply annotated by Max Illingworth. I have simplified his analysis a bit and added a little explanation for younger readers. Players unfamiliar with theory should also check out Evgeny Postny’s commentary on the line in this issue.

A terrible disappointment for young Jakovenko who came so close to winning.

Undeterred, he went on to beat Caruana in the next round. After that supreme effort luck eluded him and he had to resign himself to draws. Boris fared no better, but he had earned his ticket to the Hall of Fame with this game. As for the winners, you can check out the games Caruana-Tomashevsky and Nakamura-Vachier-Lagrave in this issue. If you are aspiring to be a professional player, you should also focus on games by others and see why seasoned campaigners like Karjakin, Svidler and Grischuk failed.

Misery has many lessons and one of them is not to take Caissa for granted. Carlsen learnt it the hard way on his home turf in 3rd Norway 2015, scoring 3.5/9. So did Caruana with 4/9 points. The tournament was deservedly won by Topalov (notwithstanding the “gift” by Magnus in the first round) ahead of Anand and Nakamura. If you wish to develop as a steady player with a smooth style you should study Vishy’s games in this issue. The Indian maestro makes it look easy! Nakamura on the other hand is a sharp shooter and when he is in form his performance looks like a typical Western. A serious student learns from both.

This issue also includes games from recent events, Capablanca Memorial Tournament and Dortmund 2015 won by Yu Yangyi and Caruana respectively. Between the two, Caruana’s style is well-known, Yu Yangyi’s play, however, must be seen to be believed.

In this issue he has annotated his encounter with Dominguez from the Havana event. Here is the critical position.

Yu,Yangyi (2715) - Dominguez Perez,Leinier (2746) [B90]
50th Capablanca Mem Elite Havana CUB (8.2), 23.06.2015

White has just played 30.Nxe6!! The cascade of sacrifices in the game is reminiscent of Tal. To his credit Yu Yangyi has also shown lines of defence in his analysis. This player would go far.

I should also make a special mention of European Chess Championship for Women that turned out be a race between Natalia Zhukova and Nino Batsiashvili. The latter was leading till the end only to be stopped by Zhukova in a tense encounter. Here is the decisive moment.

Zhukova shone with similar elegant play in other games of the tournament. She finished with 9.5/11 half point ahead of her rival, Batsiashvili who finished with 9.0/11. The Ukranian player’s victory, coming as it did after a gap of 15 years, delighted her fans.

Zhukova, however, cannot afford to rest on her laurels as she has a challenge coming up nearer home:

“If I play there, will you turn your king down?” – Zhukova playing with her daughter, photo ChessPro

This brings me to other sections of the Magazine. There are 14 opening surveys ranging from the Slav to the Sicilian. Among them I would single out Emanuel Berg’s analysis of a gambit against c3 Sicilian: 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Nf6!? (B22):

Inspiration or insanity!? Only time would tell. But if you are an e4 player and love c3 Sicilian, it may be desirable to know these lines for the other side. Forewarned is forearmed.

Apart from these surveys, there are regular exercises in opening traps, middle game tactics and endgame technique. In all, this DVD has 1586 OTB games of which 107 are annotated. What is more, there are as many as 12,450 CC games of which 33 games are annotated. For reasons of space (not to mention time!) I have not been able to do justice to them. The discerning reader would know how to make use of this magazine.

Recommended – Order ChessBase Magazine here

All Opening Surveys in CBM #167

	Stohl: English Mikenas A18 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 e6 3.e4 d5 4.cxd5 exd5 5.e5 Ne4 According to Igor Stohl here is a trend here away from 4.e5 towards the intermediate exchange on d5. With precise play – starting with 5...Ne4 – Black can probably maintain equality, but it is not sufficient to act intuitively at the board, some knowledge is required.
	Ris: English A22 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.g3 Bb4 4.Bg2 0-0 5.e4 Bxc3 6.bxc3 Taking towards the centre on move 6 is probably preferable. Nevertheless White will not achieve an opening advantage. According to Robert Ris Black should start with 6...c6, then the most frequently played move is 7.Ne2 though 7.d4 and 7.Qb3 are probably more critical.
	Marin: Kangaroo Defence A40 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Bb4+ 3.Nd2 b6 Even after 3.Nd2 Mihail Marin follows an original path – first 3...b6, then generally ...f5 and ...Nf6. White can secure the bishop pair with 4.a3, but that does not necessarily lead to an advantage.
	Schipkov: Wade Defence A41 1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 Bxf3 4.exf3 Here there is an unusual structure on the board straight away and the usual plans cannot be employed. Boris Schipkov recommends in most lines a rapid h4 and g4; then White should get an advantage.
	Illingworth: Sicilian Defence B20 1.e4 c5 2.b3 Max Illingworth champions 2.b3 above all as a rapid chess repertoire. But it can be more than that as is shown by Tamaz Gelashvili, who in his 117 games in Mega has a score of 82%. But this does not mean that White gets an advantage with 2.b3.
	Berg: Sicilian Defence B22 1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 Nf6 The unusual move presented by Emanuel Berg, 3...Nf6, sometimes leads to really sharp positions, above all when White wants to hang on to his extra pawn. But if he does not do so, then, according to the analyses of the Swedish grandmaster, Black should easily equalise.
	Krasenkow: Sicilian Defence B30 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 Michal Krasenkow presents his own repertoire (3...e6) against the Rossolimo Variation. In part 1 he deals with all the variations except 4.0-0; the focus is on 4.Bxc6 bxc6. The Polish grandmaster sees no problems for Black.
	Gormally: Sicilian Defence B47 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.f4 The move 6.f4 is an interesting attempt to avoid the much analysed lines after 6.Be3. Daniel Gormally presents a series of model games, the study of which should improve your understanding of the different types of position.
	Postny: Sicilian Defence B90 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.h3 e5 7.Nde2 h5 Evgeny Postny bases his article above all on recent games from elite tournaments. His analyses see equality for Black, but in many lines after 6.h3 there are still blank spots in the analysis and surprises are possible.
	Havasi: French Defence C03 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 h6 According to Gergö Havasi Black would like to use this move of the rook pawn to transpose to variations in which ...h6 is useful and in which White has adopted an unfortunate setup. For example he may have played Ngf3, but Ne2 would suit better.
	Souleidis: Philidor Defence C41 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 exd4 Since after 5...Be7 White can immediately play 6.a4! (6.0-0 Nb6!?), Georgios Souleidis suggests 5...exd4. After 6.Nxd4 Nb6 would have achieved his aim, but 6.Qxd4 is better. Nevertheless the analyses show that Black’s plan is well suited to use as a surprise.
	Kuzmin: Queen's Gambit D38 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bb4 5.Qb3 The best surprise weapons are those in which the opponent can only equalise with precise play. As Alexey Kuzmin shows in his article on 5.Qb3, Black really has to know what he is doing here, because he can then easily hold the balance.
	Schandorff: Semi-Slav D48 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 For some time there has been hope for White in the main variation: 14.Ne2!? is according to the statistics clearly more successful than the alternatives, though this is still based on a very small number of games. Lars Schandorff, howver, presents two strong replies for Black.
	Szabo: King's Indian E90 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nf3 Nbd7 7.0-0 e5 8.e4 exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.h3 a6 11.Re1 The Gallagher Variation (10...a6) is designed to be active rapidly (...c5 and ...b5). In the first part of his contribution Krisztian Szabo presents 11.Re1, but his analyses show that the rook move does not bring an advantage for the White side.

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