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There can be little doubt that Veselin Topalov is a crowd-pleaser. His games invariably contain fireworks and are full of points of interest. With such a sharp style he is bound to encounter certain fluctuations, but in a way this adds to the pleasure (for us).
We take two games to start the show off this week. First Topalov's win against Sasikiran in the King's Indian, where 15...e4! DIAG sets the scene for some typical dynamics.
Sasikiran,K (2690) - Topalov,V (2772) [E92]
MTel Sofia BUL (4), 13.05.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0-0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Ng4 8.Bg5
f6 9.Bh4 g5 10.Bg3 Nh6 11.d5 Nd7 12.h3 f5 13.exf5 Nc5 14.Nd2 Bxf5 15.0-0 e4!
The second example is Topalov's loss versus Mamedyarov where 10...e5!? is very risky. But I suppose he could not bring himself to play the passive 10...Be7.
Mamedyarov,S (2757) - Topalov,V (2772) [D43]
MTel Sofia BUL (3), 12.05.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.Qb3 Nd7 8.e4
dxe4 9.Nxe4 Qf4 10.Bd3 e5!?
Then I will show one of my own games, an interesting Modern Benoni against IM Nigel Povah
Martin,A - Povah ,N [A65]
Guildford, 14.05.2007
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f3 Bg7 8.Bg5
h6 9.Be3 0-0 10.Qd2 a6 11.a4 Kh7 12.g4!
The last move, 12 g4!, made life difficult for Black.
Mike Bent
White to play and win
Try your hand at the puzzle and then send the solutions to andrew@andrewmartinchesssacademy.com by 20:30 hrs on the 16th May.
The show starts at 21:00h GMT / 22:00 CEST this week. See you on the Playchess server!
When not otherwise stated the Andrew Martin Radio ChessBase lecture begins on Wednesdays at 23:00h CET (Central European Time = server time, which translates to 22:00h London, 5:00 p.m. New York, 07:00 a.m. Sydney (on Thursday). You can use Fritz or any Fritz-compatible program (Shredder, Junior, Tiger, Hiarcs) to follow the lectures, or download a free trial client. |
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He is not some unknown in the world of chess. Andrew Martin was the star commentator in the 2000 London match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, and he gained recent international fame and popularity with his live audio commentary on Playchess.com during the FIDE world championship in San Luis.
Andrew is also a prolific chess trainer, not just live in British scholastic circles, but also in a series of training DVDs he has produced for ChessBase, taking full advantage of our Chess Media System. His lively, entertaining style, combined with a good dash of humour, makes any lesson with him a delight to follow.
Andrew Martin is 47 years old and lives in Sandhurst, England, with his wife and four children. His book King‘s Indian Battle Plans for Thinkers Press was an international best-seller.
Each week Martin will cast his eye over the contemporary chess scene, presenting a veritable pot-pourri of interesting topics. We look forward to the pleasure of your company.
