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!
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Critical Lines in the Dragon – Part II
Excerpt from Romain Edouard's video analysis in CBM Extra #213
Complete video playing time in CBM Extra #213: 20 minutes
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).
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.
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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.
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