1/11/2012 – This month in Chess Cafe Steven B. Dowd
is reviewing ChessBase DVDs that "show the power of original ideas in chess,
their categorization, and learning how strong players formulate
and classify these ideas will make you a better player." In the current
review he looks at Ari Ziegler's DVD, which gets only four stars ("good")
because of certain shortcomings, but actually deserves six.
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.
Master your Technique Vol. 2 is a must-have for ambitious players who want to confidently convert “better” positions, or turn equal ones into wins.
€39.90
Ari
Ziegler – Exchange sacrifice
By Steven B. Dowd
The Art of the Exchange Sacrifice (DVD), Ari Ziegler, ChessBase, Playing
Time: 6 hours 40 minutes $31.95 (ChessCafe Price: $27.95)
I was very excited at the prospect of learning more about that most diffuse
of sacrifices, the exchange sacrifice. I love such sacrifices because of the
unbalanced positions they provide, as well as the opportunity to play a "beautiful"
game. The package insert promises that you will, "seriously enhance your
understanding of exchange sacrifices, very quickly recognize the value of an
exchange sacrifice in any kind of position, your games will be richer and you
will see more opportunities and because of that you will improve your overall
results, and you will reach a better understanding of the games of world class
players."
The author notes that this is a DVD for "chess lovers," and that
only a true chess lover would buy a DVD on the exchange sacrifice. Ziegler succeeds
with flying colors in developing a classification of when the exchange sacrifice
works in various settings. Exchange sacrifices work in diverse positions and
have diverse goals. Sometimes you sacrifice the exchange for mating possibilities,
but just as often it can be a strategy to give you a strong outpost piece in
the middlegame, or as a means to an endgame advantage by sacrificing the exchange
for a minor piece and a pawn.
There are thirty sections to his taxonomy, from defensive sacrifices to build
a fortress (the DVD uses the unfortunate term "to build a castle,"
which might be misinterpreted by some) or secure a technical draw, getting strong
outpost pieces on e6/d6 or d3/e3, sacrifices on squares such as f6 or c3 to
weaken the squares around the king, for central domination, getting the bishop-pair
plus one pawn against rook plus bishop with weaknesses on the squares that would
be protected by the missing bishop, and so on. He obviously has been collecting
these for a good many years, and he knows his material.
However, some of the games are misplaced. For example, the very strong exchange
sacrifice made by Kasparov against Yusupov, 1989, is classified under "Sacrifice
on f6 in order to weaken the squares around the castled king." Well, in
this game Kasparov sacrificed an exchange on e8 to a white bishop on h5, which
lead to fatal f3 weaknesses, so it does qualify as a sacrifice that weakened
the f3-square, but that is not where the sacrifice occurred. Certainly some
viewers would find this distracting and confusing.
My favorites were the various endgame sacrifices, especially the following,
since it looks like a study. It falls under the heading "sacrificing the
exchange to get a pawn to the seventh rank."
New ...
New Game
Edit Game
Setup Position
Open...
PGN
FEN
Share...
Share Board (.png)
Share Board (configure)
Share playable board
Share game as GIF
Notation (PGN)
QR Code
Layout...
Use splitters
Swipe notation/lists
Reading mode
Flip Board
Settings
Move
N
Result
Elo
Players
1.e4
1,185,008
54%
2421
---
1.d4
959,510
55%
2434
---
1.Nf3
286,503
56%
2441
---
1.c4
184,834
56%
2442
---
1.g3
19,892
56%
2427
---
1.b3
14,600
54%
2428
---
1.f4
5,954
48%
2377
---
1.Nc3
3,911
50%
2384
---
1.b4
1,791
48%
2379
---
1.a3
1,250
54%
2406
---
1.e3
1,081
49%
2409
---
1.d3
969
50%
2378
---
1.g4
670
46%
2361
---
1.h4
466
54%
2382
---
1.c3
439
51%
2425
---
1.h3
289
56%
2420
---
1.a4
118
60%
2461
---
1.f3
100
47%
2427
---
1.Nh3
93
66%
2506
---
1.Na3
47
62%
2476
---
Please, wait...
1.e4Nf62.e5Nd53.d4d64.Nf3Bg45.Be2e66.h3Bh57.0-0Be78.c4Nb69.Nc30-010.Be3d511.b3dxc412.bxc4Nc613.Rb1Bxf314.Bxf3Nxc415.Rxb7N6a516.Rb1Rb817.Qa4c618.Ne4Nb219.Qc2Nac420.Rxb2Nxb221.Rb1Nc422.Rxb8Nxe323.Rxd8Nxc224.Rd7Bd825.Bd1Na326.Rxa7Nb527.Rd7Bb628.a4Nxd429.a5Rd8Here your silicon monster will probably tell
you that the mundane 30.Rxd8+ is best, followed by pushing the pawn to a6,
leading to a white advantage. That may well be the case, but this is a game
between humans, with the clock ticking, and Ljubojevic was always one to
pursue the unbalancing option. I've looked a bit at that ending, though, and
found it hard - it would take a long time, anyway - to find the win. My own
silicon monsters find the initial position dead even at 0.00 after the
sacrifice; I am convinced they are wrong.30.axb6Rxd731.Nc5Rd832.b7
The threat now is Nd7, Ziegler notes. Compared to exchanging rooks, Black's
defensive task is much more difficult and difficult to find, if there even is
a defense.Rb833.f4f634.Kf2fxe535.fxe5Kf736.g4Ke7Ziegler
indicates the best defense here is36...Nb5where White must be careful,
since only37.Ba4!works. Black can only shuffle pieces around and push
his kingside pawns until he gets into zugzwang and must allow the white king
to infiltrate on the queenside.If37.Bf3thenNd4and then if38.Be4Black happily pulls what Ziegler calls "an important trick":Nb3!and on39.Nxb3Rxb7when the passed pawn is gone and "the clumsy rook" has the
freedom it needs to defend - not that White has any real threats anymore.37.Ke3Nb538.Bf3Only this gives a clear win:38.Ba4allowsKd8!
and a potential defense to White's threats.38...Na339.Kd3Rd8+40.Kc3Nb5+41.Kb4Nd442.Be4Rb843.Kc4Nb544.Bxc6Nc745.Kb4Nd5+46.Bxd5exd547.Kc31–0
Ziegler comes across as a sympathetic character, but he is a terrible presenter.
Another weakness of this DVD is the written notes accompanying the games. Some
are in poor English with multiple misspellings (whereas others are well-done
without mistakes), some are in German, and some are in Swedish! This appears
to be a lack of editorial quality control by ChessBase.
The material in terms of its attempt at a first taxonomy of the exchange sacrifice
deserves six stars. The author's analysis is usually quite good, although it
does lapse at times into the superficial. His ideas deserve a full six stars
as well. But given his poor presentation skills, and the editorial gaffs, this
brings the rating down considerably. Still, if you are one of those "chess
lovers" who wants to learn more about the elusive exchange sacrifice, you
will want this DVD. My hope is that the author expands on his material; it would
be enough to fill a good-sized book and would provide for easier reference.
My assessment of this product: Good (four out of six stars)
Sampler from Ari Ziegler: Art of the Exchange Sacrifice
Born in 1966, Ari Ziegler is a Swedish international master. In his homeland
Ziegler has an excellent reputation as a theoretician. In 2004, together with
Jacob Aagaard and John Shaw, he founded the publishing house Quality Chess,
which rapidly earned an excellent reputation on the chess scene. In 2007 Ziegler
left the firm in order to become president of the Swedish Chess Federation.
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.
€9.90
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.