9/2/2008 – The Super-super-GM in Bilbao started with a bang. Radjabov's Scotch against Topalov simplified to a drawn ending which was played out to bare kings. Anand had one of his sweating-blood games against Ivanchuk but survived in the end. Magnus Carlsen, the incredible young man from Norway, simply blew away world-class GM Levon Aronian with the black pieces. Big illustrated report.
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.!
Winning starts with what you know The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Looking for a realistic way to play for a win with Black against 1.e4 without taking unnecessary risks? The Taimanov Sicilian is a reliable system, and hence one of the best options out there!
€69.90
Grand
Slam Chess Final Masters Bilbao
The Chess Grand Slam Final is being staged in Bilbao, Spain, from September
1st to 13th 2008. It is a six-player double round robin event, one of the strongest
in the history of the game (at least by Elo average, 2775.6, making it a category
22 tournament). Games start at 17:00h local time (CEST). The scoring system
in this tournament is different and experimental. Players get three points for
a win, one point for a draw and zero points for losing a game. For rating purposes
the traditional 1-½-0 system will be used. The prize fund for the event
is 400,000 Euros, with the winner receiving €150,000, the second place
€70,000, etc. with the 6th player getting €30,000. The sums are unprecedented
for an event like this. Only World Championships have exceeded the amount.
The venue is the Plaza Nueva in the centre of Bilbao's Old Town. To make it
possible to play a huge sound-proofed and air-conditioned glass enclosure has
been built, under a marquee to protect the players from the sommer sun.
The tournament venue at the Plaza Nueva
The players are in a sound-proof glass "aquarium"
The control center for multimedia and Internet coverage of the event
The games
The Mayor of Bilbao, Iñaki Azkuna, executes the first move in Anand
vs Ivanchuk
Ivanchuk reacting typically to 1.e4
Anand's anti-Marshall preparation did not look too impressive – Black
had soon regained his pawn with some pressure against the weakened white king.
Anand mislaid a pawn shortly after the time control and was left defending a
difficult heavy piece ending. But he managed and the game was drawn after 58
moves.
Anand,V (2798) - Ivanchuk,V (2781) [C89]
Grand Slam Final Bilbao ESP (1), 02.09.2008 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.c3
d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.d4 Bd6 13.Re1 Qh4 14.g3 Qh3 15.Be3
Bg4 16.Qd3 Rae8 17.Nd2 Re6 18.Qf1 Qh5 19.f3 Rf6. [19...Nxe3 20.Qf2
Nd5 21.fxg4 Qxg4 22.Qf3 Qg5 23.Rxe6 fxe6 24.Ne4 Qg6 25.Qe2 Nf4 26.Qc2 Nh3+ 27.Kg2
Qg4 28.Bxe6+ Qxe6 29.Qb3 Nf4+ 30.gxf4 Qxb3 31.axb3 Bxf4 32.Rxa6 Rc8 happened
in Kramnik,V-Aronian,L, Yerevan 2007, where White won in 45 moves.
20.Qe2N. In previous games Jakovenko,D-Svidler,P, Moscow 2007
and Becker,M-Henao,L, IECG email 1995 20.Bd1 Re8 21.Bf4 Rxe1 22.Qxe1 Re6 23.Be5
was played and the games ended in draws. Anand runs into serious trouble with
his novelty.
20...Bxf3 21.Nxf3 Rxf3 22.Bxd5 Qxd5 23.Bf2 Rf6 24.b3 Qf5 25.Rad1 h5
26.Rd3 h4 27.Re3 Rg6 28.c4 hxg3 29.hxg3 bxc4 30.bxc4 c5 31.Qf3 Qh3 32.Qg2 Qd7
33.dxc5 Bxc5 34.Re4 Qc7 35.Kh2 Rh6+ 36.Kg1 Rf6 37.Be3 Rd8 38.Kh2 Bxe3 39.R4xe3
Rh6+ 40.Kg1 Qc5 41.Qf2. The first time control has been met, and now,
according to a Very Strong Player on Playchess.com
"Anand is in big trouble – Black plays ...Qxc4 and has an extra pawn
and better position." Ivanchuk takes his time with the c-pawn. 41...Qh5
42.Qg2 Rd2
43.Re8+. You see, of course, why the rook cannot be taken:
43.Qxd2 Qh1+ 44.Kf2 Rh2 mate. 43...Kh7 44.R8e2. With his zwischenschach
(intermediate check) Anand has forced the black king onto a square where it
is open to future checks from e4 or f5. This time it is not so obviously why
White could not take the rook: 44.Qxd2 Qh1+ 45.Kf2 Qh2+ (45...Rf6+ 46.Qf4!)
46.Ke3 Qxg3+ 47.Ke2 Qg4+ 48.Kd3 Rd6+ 49.Kc2 Rxd2+ 50.Kxd2 Qxc4 and Black has
a queen and pawn for two rooks, with excellent winning chances. Ivanchuk saw
all of this when he played 42...Rd2.
44...Qc5+ 45.Qf2 Rxe2 46.Rxe2 Qxc4 47.Qf5+ g6 48.Qe4 Qc5+ 49.Kg2 Rh5
50.Rc2 Qb6 51.Rd2 Rb5 52.a4 Rb4 53.Qe7 Qc6+ 54.Kh2 Rb7 55.Qh4+ Kg7 56.Qd4+ f6
57.a5 g5 58.Qd5 Qb5 draw. Well defended by Anand, who narrowly avoided
a major catastrophe in round one. It will be interesting to see what he does
on Wednesday with White against Teimour Radjabov – play for an uncomplicated
draw to calm his nerves, or go for a win to show he is back in the tournament.
[Click to replay]
Radjabov's Scotch led to heavy early simplifications, and the resulting balanced
endgame never looked like being anything but drawn.
Carlsen got the best possible start, by beating Aronian as Black. The latter
sacrificed a pawn to reach a Q+R ending where Black's seemingly exposed king
might have appeared to offer good compensation. However, he was unable to make
anything of it, and Carlsen soon had a queen ending with an outside passed pawn,
which he converted convincingly.
Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen during their round one game
The young Norwegian pon ders a move while people on the Plaza look on
The following annotations are by our esteemed colleague GM Mikhail Golubev
of Chess Today, the first
Internet-based daily Chess newspaper. You can subscribe to this service for
€45 per year (or €15 for three months) and get the installments –
with games in PGN and ChessBase formats – by email.
Aronian,L (2737) - Carlsen,M (2775) [A32]
Grand Slam Final Bilbao ESP (1), 02.09.2008 [Mikhail Golubev]
This is quite a rare line of the English Opening, though it sometimes occurs
at the GM level. 6...Nc6 7.Nc2 Be7 8.Bg2 0-0 9.0-0 Rb8. Black has also
tried 9...a6 (Alburt-Short, Foxboro 1985); and 9...d5 as Buchmann-I.Nikolaidis,
Fuerth 2002 and several other games. 10.Ne4!?N b5 11.cxb5 Rxb5 12.Nd6 Bxd6
13.Qxd6 Bb7 14.Na3 Rb6
15.Be3. After the tempting 15.Nc4 Ra6 the knight is placed not so well
on c4, as Black is planning ...Na5. And if 16.Bd2 , then 16...Ne7! 15...Rxb2.
Here after 15...Ra6 16.Rfd1!? (or 16.Rfc1!? ) 16...Ne7 17.Qd3
Black can not capture on g2 because the rook on a6 needs protection. So, Black
accepts the pawn sacrifice. 16.Bc5 Re8
17.Rab1. Interesting, but not so clear is 17.Nc4!? Rxe2 18.Qd1 Ba6
19.Qxe2 d5 20.Rfc1 Qc8 (or maybe 20...Qa8!? ) 21.Nd6 Bxe2 22.Nxc8
Rxc8. 17...Rxb1 18.Rxb1 Ba6! Safer than 18...Ba8 19.Nb5 Qb8 20.Rb3!?
with the idea of 20...Na5 21.Bxa7. 19.Nb5 Bxb5 20.Rxb5 Qc8 21.a4 h6.
Not 21...Qa6? 22.Bxc6 and 22...dxc6? fails to 23.Rb8. 22.Ba3. 22.e4!?
was preferable, with sufficient compensation for the pawn. 22...Qa6! 23.Bb2
Qxa4!=/+
Now White should fight for equality. 24.Bxc6. Another option was 24.Rc5.
24...dxc6 25.Rb4 Qa5 26.Bxf6 gxf6 27.Rg4+ Kh7 28.Qxc6. Here, a sensible
alternative was 28.Qd7 Rf8 29.Rf4!? 28...Rd8 29.Qc2+?! After 29.Ra4!
(M.Notkin, ChessPro.ru) Black hardly has any serious winning chances. 29...f5
30.Ra4?! Probably better was 30.Kg2 with the idea of 30...Qe1?! 31.Qc7!
30...Qe1+ 31.Kg2 Rd1!-/+
Now it is really unpleasant - White is still a pawn down, and he is also under
attack. 32.Qc7. 32.Rxa7? loses to 32...Qh1+ 33.Kh3 Rg1 (or 33...Qf1+
34.Kh4 Qg2). 32...Kg6 33.Kf3! Qh1+ 34.Ke3. Here, instead of "playing
for a mate", Carlsen makes a remarkable decision: 34...Ra1!? This
forces White to exchange rooks – quite an achievement for Black. 35.Qc2.
Not 35.Rc4? Ra3+ 36.Kd2 Qd5+. 35...Rxa4 36.Qxa4
36...Qc1+. After 36...Qe4+ 37.Qxe4 fxe4 38.Kxe4 the pawn ending is
complex as it is not easy for Black to attack the white pawns with the king.
An illustrative line is 38...a5 39.Kd4 Kf5 40.h3 a4 41.Kc4 Ke4 42.Kb4 Kd4 43.Kxa4
Kc3 44.g4 e5 45.h4 f6 46.Kb5 Kd2 47.e3 e4 48.Kc5 Ke2 49.Kd5 Kf3 50.h5 Kxg4 51.Kxe4
and White even wins! 37.Kf3 Qc3+ 38.Kg2 a5 39.g4. A logical attempt:
White must exchange a pawn to create more chances for the perpetual check. 39...Qe5
40.gxf5+ Kxf5 41.Qe8 Kg6
Still, Black's king is placed quite safely – White should not be able
to survive. 42.Qf8 a4 43.e3 Qe4+ 44.Kg3 Qd3 45.h4 a3 46.Kh2. 46.h5+
Kxh5 47.Qxf7+ loses to 47...Qg6+ , check! 46...Qf5! 46...a2 47.h5+ Kf6
48.Qxh6+ Ke7 49.Qg5+ Kf8 can be winning, but it is hard to calculate such a
line accurately. 47.Qxa3 Qxf2+ 48.Kh3 Qf3+ 49.Kh2 Kh5 50.Qf8 Qf2+ 51.Kh1
Kg4 0-1. [Click to replay]
Spanish journalist and Playchess commentator Leontxo Garcia interviews
Magnus Carlsen after the game
The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the
chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download
the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access.
You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.
How do you play the Queen's Gambit Accepted? Does White have promising variations or can Black construct a water-tight repertoire? The Powerbook provides the answers based on 300 000 games, most of them played by engines.
The Queen's Gambit Accepted Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 11827 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 240 are annotated.
Rossolimo-Moscow Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 10950 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 612 are annotated.
The greater part of the material on which the Rossolimo/Moscow Powerbook 2025 is based comes from the engine room of playchess.com: 263.000 games. This imposing amount is supplemented by some 50 000 games from Mega and from Correspondence Chess.
Focus on the Sicilian: Opening videos on the Najdorf Variation with 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3 (Luis Engel) and the Taimanov Variation with 7.Qf3 (Nico Zwirs). ‘Lucky bag’ with 38 analyses by Anish Giri, Surya Ganguly, Abhijeet Gupta, Yannick Pelletier and many more.
€14.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.