
ChessBase
Magazine Volume 142
The new issue of ChessBase Magazine starts with an editorial by Andre Schulz,
celebrating 25 years of ChessBase. The opening line reminds us how much has
changed over the years.
'Magnus Carlsen for example, has never known a world without computers
nor chess training without ChessBase'
Back in 1986, when Kasparov said, 'This is the greatest innovation in chess
since the invention of printing!' he was absolutely correct.
A further example of the passing of time is revealed by the fact that the recent
Melody Amber tournament has been running for 20 years. However, this year's
was the final one of the series. Top players have always supported the event
(Garry Kasparov being the only notable exception) and they were out in force
for the finale. Aronian won, ahead of a star-studded cast including Carlsen
and Anand. Kramnik narrowly avoided finishing in last place.
The tournament, with its famous fixture of Blindfold and Rapid chess, receives
excellent coverage as one of the main focal points of the magazine.
I thought it was a good time to take a look at some games by Gelfand, in light
of his recent Candidates success. Here are two snippets from Melody Amber which
caught my eye.

Gelfand-Giri, Blindfold
Black threatens mate, which is easy enough to defend in itself, but Black keeps
trying to win with pressure on the g2 square. 21 Be4 Rc7 22 Qd6 Rc2
23 Qe7 Rxg2+ 24 Kh1. A calm winning move. One has to be confident of
the vision in a blindfold game to be able to allow a rook to crash down on g2
with check. Black simply has too many pieces hanging now and resigned.

Carlsen-Gelfand, Blitz
The new challenger for the World Championship title played the amazing 14
...Re4!! here went on to win the game.
The other big tournament report features an event with a surprising winner.
Vladimir Potkin won the European Championship with a performance rating of 2803
in a field containing no fewer than 150 Grandmasters. He provides annotations
for his game in the penultimate round, which featured an interesting sacrifice.

Jobava-Potkin, European Championship
White has just played 16 Rd6. 'White sets up a threat, but clearly did not
anticipate that his opponent would simply ignore it.' 16 ...0-0 17 Nd5
cxd5 18 Rxb6 axb6

'After the queen sacrifice, Black soon outstrips his opponent in creating
threats, the biggest problems for White being that his light-squared bishop
is firing into the air.' Black won after 26 moves.
The opening surveys are a popular part of the magazine. This time they examine
the following variations:
- Grivas Sicilian
- Sicilian Kan
- French Exchange
- Evans Gambit 5 ...Be7
- Two Knights Defence 8 Bd3
- Ruy Lopez Exchange
- Anti-Slav 4 Qc2
- QGA 7 Bb3
- Semi-Slav 9 ...a6
- QGD Cambridge Springs
- QGD Lasker
- Catalan 8 a4
- Bogo Indian 4 Bd2 and 5 BNc3
- KID Saemisch 6 ...Nc6
In addition to the text-based surveys, there are four multimedia presentations
on:
- The French Winawer (7 Qg4 0-0)
- Sicilian Sveshnikov (6 ...h6)
- QGA (1 d4 d5 2 c4 dxc4 3 Nf3 a6 4 e3 e6 5 Bxc4 c5 6 d5)
- Sicilian Rossolimo
Some of the world's top players provide annotations to games on the DVD, including
Anand and Carlsen. There's still room for all the regular features too, such
as the features on tactics and endgames. Here's an example of the latter for
you to try.

Santos-Lalic, What had White (to play) planned?
ChessBase Magazine no. 142 is, like its predecessors, a top quality chess product
at a very reasonable price. It remains the best single piece of chess merchandise
on the market.