1/10/2019 – A few weeks ago we launched a reader poll with nominations for the best game, endgame and combination of 2018. The results are in! The "endgame of the year" was hotly contested, and best game of the year contest was virtually a dead heat. Games of Kramnik, Carlsen and Caruana were the top vote-getters in that category. But readers clearly felt that Ivan Cheparinov deserved to be recognised for the best combination of 2018 for his brilliant rook sacrifice way back in January at the Gibraltar Masters. Take a look...
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Best of 2018 (part 1)
At the outset, a small caveat: It became clear that some readers were confused by the current design of our polls — which looks a bit too much like normal links, and no confirmation step — leading at least a few to accidentally vote prematurely for the first item on the list. Nostra culpa! We'll take that into consideration when reviewing the results and improve the system for the future.
No amount of over-voting can undermine the result of our first reader vote, however...
Special attention will be paid to Intermediate Moves, Quiet Moves, Sacrifices on Empty Squares, Mating Patterns, Ignoring Opponents Threat, Calculation in Defence and Method of Comparison. Plus 50 interactive examples to test your knowledge.
This one is clear: Ivan Cheparinov's combination against Alan Pichot was judged as the best of 2018 by a plurality of the 246 ChessBase Account holders who voted.
Poll results:
2018combinationoftheyear
Here it is once again for posterity:
Congratulations to both players!
Best endgame of 2018
Karsten Müller selected ten of the best endgames for our shortlist. This category was really close, with Nepomniachtchi vs Nisipeanu registering 22%, Carlsen vs Caruana notching 20% and Kramnik vs Caruana taking 19% of the total of 240 votes cast:
Poll results:
2018endgameoftheyear
Given the propensity for the top choice to get a few extra clicks by accident, we're inclined to give the nod to the World Championship playoff duel. Replay all three below:
Click or tap the second or third games in the list to switch
Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.
Mueller reviews the contenders in a special solo edition of Endgame Magic:
Caruana also features in a contender for the best game overall of 2018. But this one is truly too close to call. With 105 votes for Kramnik vs Caruana from the fourth round of the 2018 Candidates Tournament in Berlin, but 104 votes for Aronian vs Kramnik, we can only say for certain that Vladimir Kramnik "wins" the Game of the Year. His titanic, back-and-forth struggle with Caruana in Berlin was crucial to the course of the tournament. Caruana's win with Black propelled him into the clear lead. Kramnik's win with Black against Aronian was also played in Berlin.
Poll results:
2018gameoftheyear-e
Click or tap the second game in the list to switch
On this DVD Vladimir Kramnik retraces his career from talented schoolboy to World Champion in 2006. With humour and charm he describes his first successes, what it meant to be part of the Russian Gold Medal team at the Olympiad, and how he undertook the Herculean task of beating his former mentor and teacher Garry Kasparov.
IM Sagar Shah uses ChessBase 14 and a few tools at his disposal to try and find out if ...Rg8 by Kramnik was a brilliant novelty or careless preparation by Aronian
Check back tomorrow for a look at the "players of the year"!
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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