Powerplay 26: Checkmate Challenge — essential knowledge
Checkmate. That's the aim of the game. There are numerous ways to checkmate the enemy king, but there are common patterns that recur over and over again, and having these at our mental fingertips is essential for when we want to finish the game.
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:
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Here it is once again for posterity:
Congratulations to both players!
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:
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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
Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames
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:
Free for ChessBase Basic Account holders, or you can register a free 90-day account to watch
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:
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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"!
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