ChessBase
Magazine #154For quite some time chess fans have been waiting for a detailed analysis of the games from the recent Candidates’ Tournament. The ChessBase Magazine #154 edition has all the games from the star-studded event with live commentary by Danny King and annotations by experts like Mihail Marin, Michal Krasenkow and Krisztián Szabo.
This issue also has exclusive reports on the FIDE Grand Prix in Zug as well as the Alekhine Memorial in Paris and St. Petersburg. The first event was won by Topalov who is staging a comeback after a relative decline in form. The second was won by Aronian, anxious to prove himself after his poor result in London. It’s his happy visage that has graced the cover of this issue.
The Candidates’ Tournament, however, has taken much of the space in this issue and deservedly so. The event saw many memorable games. My own favourite is the following encounter from the third round with analysis by Evgeny Postny.
My favorite from the Candidates is the following game from the third round, with analysis by Evgeny Postny.
A great game by Carlsen who went on to win the tournament. Kramnik, who shared the same number of points, lost out on account of the tie-break. This has come in for some serious criticism. Take a look at the scores and you will see why:
Carlsen: 8.5/14 (+5 –2 =7)
Kramnik: 8.5/14 (+4 –1 = 9)
Before the last round both players had the same number of points (8.5/13). In this final round Carlsen was paired with Svidler and Kramnik with Ivanchuk.
While the Carlsen game hung in balance, Kramnik could not make up his mind to play for a win or for a draw. At the last moment he lost his nerve and made a couple of weak moves that cost him the game. In the meanwhile Carlsen was outplayed by Svidler, ending up with a nought on the score table. If only Vlad had foreseen that result on his rival’s board… In such situations you are playing two boards instead of one!
In the commentary to the game in this issue Daniel Gormally rightly blames Kramnik’s choice of Pirc Defence, an aggressive system that Vlad does not normally play. He draws an historic parallel with the last game of 1978 World Championship Match. In that encounter Korchnoi also chose an unfamiliar system (for him!) Pirc Defence, thereby losing the game and the match.
With all my sympathy for the Kramnik I cannot help feeling that he defended bad positions with less resource than Carlsen in this tournament. Nevertheless, the tie-break should have been decided by a play-off match between the two rivals, leaving no room for doubt, as suggested by Garry Kasparov.
CBM 154 has 806 games of which 89 are annotated. Besides tournament games, it also has surveys on twelve topical openings, from the Sicilian to the King’s Indian. Among them Viktor Moskalenko’s analysis of the old Winawer line (6…Qc7 7.Qg4 f5) deserves special mention.
Moskalenko: French C18
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qc7 7.Qg4 f5
This line, a favourite of Botvinnik has been under cloud for a long time and still has a poor reputation. Moskalenko demonstrates that it is undeserved and the line merits a better scrutiny.
The DVD has plenty of training exercises and it also has video lectures by our “usual suspects”, Dorian Rogozenco and Karsten Müller. The latter excels with his delineation of endings. Here I have only room for a fun position:
Black has a long and difficult road to victory with 66…Ra5 according to Karsten Müller. Instead he pushed forward with 66…e2?? only to be surprised with 67.Nh2! and White has the last laugh with the unstoppable threat of 68.Nf3#. Müller’s analysis is in general deep and complex. But even he does not miss the lighter shades of life.
Overall, this issue of ChessBase Magazine is a learning experience and offers much food for thought.
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