6/5/2023 – GM Romain Edouard is an expert on the Sicilian Dragon Variation. In his four-part series in ChessBase Magazine Extra he gives deep insights into the variations after 9.0-0-0 d5 and reveals a multitude of tactical motifs he came across in the course of his analyses. The second part deals with the main line 10.exd5. You can watch an excerpt from Edouard's 20-minute analysis here!
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
Nico Zwirs presents a game by his young compatriot Thomas Beerdsen from the Tata Steel Challengers 2023 against Mishra Abhimanyu, the youngest grandmaster ever. Beerdsen chose the ambitious continuation 6.Bg5 against the Najdorf Variation, Abhimanyu decided to test an idea going back to Anish Giri with 10...h6 after 6...e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Nbd7 10.g4. Beerdsen's actual innovation, however, is quite something: 13.a4! "An insane move" (Zwirs). White sacrifices a pawn from his own castling position out of nowhere!
Sipke Ernst: 3.h4 against the Gruenfeld (Update)
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.h4!?
The GM from the Netherlands published a FritzTrainer in August last year with a repertoire recommendation against the King's Indian and the Gruenfeld: the move 3.h4!? directly presents Black with concrete tasks. If you look at who have utilised this weapon before, it can't be entirely wrong: Magnus Carlsen, Ding Liren, Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and many more! In this video Sipke Ernst offers an update to his video course from 2022 and examines variations after 3...Bg7 4.Nc3 d6 5.e4 h5 6.Nge2 as well as after 3...Bg7 4.Nc3 d5 5.h5 0-0 6.hxg6 on the basis of the games Vachier-Lagrave against Saric and Muradli against Kramer.
Romain Edouard: "Critical Lines in the Dragon" - Part II
Romain Edouard continues his four-part series on the Sicilian Dragon. This time after 9...d5 it's about the main move 10.exd5. Black recaptures the pawn with 10...Nxd5, and the exchange 11.Nxc6 bxc6 follows. Edouard first shows why White should not go for the pawn with 12.Nxd5 cxc5 13.Qxd5. Because Black counters with 13...Qc7 and gets excellent play against the white king thanks to the open lines and the bishop pair. White's main move is therefore 11.Bd4, which after 11...Bxd4 12.Qxd4 Qb6 leads to a Dragon which is rather tension-free, so White takes little risk here. On the other hand, Black should be able to keep the game balanced. In this video, Edouard shows what you need to know when playing with the black pieces!
In “The brilliancy" of this issue, Nijat Abasov shows how to take the initiative very effectively in the trendy Semi-Tarrasch with Black after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c5 5.cxd5 cxd4 in the side line 6.Nxd4 (6.Qxd4 is the main move) with 6...Nxd5 7.Bd2 Be7 8.e3 0-0 9.Be2 e5!
The game lasted only 24 moves, but offers many charming positional pictures, e.g. the diagram after 21...Bb1!
Anish Giri, Nijat Abasov, Emanuel Berg, Romain Edouard, Spyridon Kapnisis, Adrian Mikhalchishin, Yago Santiago and many more comment.
In addition to Abasov’s brilliancy, the "Lucky bag" offers 45 other games with detailed commentary. Among others, Anish Giri, Emanuel Berg, Romain Edouard, Spyridon Kapnisis, Adrian Mikhalchishin and Yago Santiago have contributed analyses to this Extra.
And the Update service provides over 40,000 new games for your database!
Once again, practically the entire world's top players are represented!
The games of the Update Service are also included in the Mega Update Service 2023, which you can use with the programmes ChessBase 16/17 (and a corresponding subscription).
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
Videos: Nico Zwirs examines two Petroffs from the 2026 Candidates. Robert Ris has a tip against the Caro-Kann Advance Variation with 3…c5. Fiona Sieber reveals a surprise weapon against the Najdorf. ‘Lucky Bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, L'Ami et al.
YOUR PERSONAL CHESS COACH - Whether you’re taking your first steps into the world of club chess, or already playing at a tournament level: with FRITZ, you can train more efficiently, intelligently and with a more personalised approach than ever before.
In this powerful new course, endgame expert Karsten Müller teams up with rising star Leon Mendonca to deliver what truly matters: 10 essential rules that every player must know.
In this video course experts examine the games of Bent Larsen. Let them show you which openings Larsen chose, where his strength in middlegames were, how he outplayed his opponents in the endgame & you’ll get a glimpse of his tactical abilities!
From the 2026 Candidates Tournament, featuring a video review by Dorian Rogozenco, to Jan Werle’s opening video on the French Tarrasch Defence, and Oliver Reeh’s tactical column ‘Top Grandmasters at Work’. Analyses by Giri, So, Wei Yi and many others.
You will learn how Black's dynamic piece activity and structural counterplay more than compensate for White's extra tempo in the colour-reversed setups.
€39.90
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