ChessBase
Magazine #154
Review by Prof. Nagesh Havanur
For 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.

[Event "FIDE Candidates"] [Site "London"] [Date "2013.03.17"] [Round
"3"] [White "Gelfand, Boris"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D52"] [WhiteElo "2740"] [BlackElo "2872"] [Annotator "Postny,E"]
[PlyCount "114"] [EventDate "2013.03.15"] [EventRounds "14"] [EventCountry
"ENG"] [EventCategory "22"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2013.05.15"]
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Nbd7 5. Bg5 c6 6. e3 Qa5 7. cxd5 (7.
Nd2 { used to be the main line, but recently Black has been doing well
after} Bb4 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Be2 c5) 7... Nxd5 (7... exd5 {leads to Carlsbad
structure where the queen on a5 is doing nothing.}) 8. Rc1 {This move
is relatively rare.} (8. Qd2 {is the main continuation.} Bb4 9. Rc1 h6
10. Bh4 {This position has been defended mainly by grandmasters Alexei
Shirov and Alexey Dreev. Here is one recent example:} b6 11. a3 Bxc3 12.
bxc3 c5 13. c4 Qxd2+ 14. Nxd2 Ne7 15. f3 Ba6 16. Be2 cxd4 17. exd4 Rc8
18. O-O Nf5 19. Bf2 O-O 20. Rfd1 Rfd8 21. g4 Ne7 $11 {1/2-1/2 (31) Potkin,V
(2663)-Dreev,A (2677) Eilat 2012}) 8... Nxc3 9. bxc3 Ba3 (9... Qxa2 10.
Bd3 Bd6 11. O-O Qa5 ({Black must be careful:} 11... O-O $2 12. Ra1 Qb2
13. Bxh7+ $1 Kxh7 14. Qd3+ Kg8 15. Rfb1 $18) 12. c4 {with good compensation
for the pawn.}) 10. Rc2 b6 {Preparing the favourable exchange of the light-squared
bishops.} 11. Bd3 Ba6 12. O-O Bxd3 13. Qxd3 O-O (13... h6 14. Bh4 O-O
15. c4 Rfe8 16. e4 (16. Rd1 $5) 16... e5 17. d5 Nc5 18. Qe2 Qa4 $11 {
1/2-1/2 (38) Malakhatko,V (2548)-Michiels,B (2489) Antwerp 2011}) 14.
e4 {I think the plan adopted by Boris is not the best.} (14. c4 h6 15.
Bf4 (15. Bh4 Rfe8 16. Rd1 {is another option. Then White can put his bishop
on g3, preventing the advance e6-e5.}) 15... Rad8 16. Rb1 Rfe8 17. Bc7
(17. c5 $2 e5) 17... Rc8 18. Bg3 Rcd8 19. c5 $1 Nxc5 20. Qc3 Ne4 21. Qxa5
bxa5 22. Rxc6 $14) 14... Rfe8 15. e5 $6 {This is a committal decision.
White doesn't really have chances for an attack on the kingside. Meanwhile,
the move in the text weakens the light squares.} ({In the event of} 15.
c4 $6 e5 16. d5 Nc5 {Black will get a nice square for his knight.}) (15.
Bf4 {would be preferable.}) 15... h6 16. Bh4 c5 17. Nd2 cxd4 18. cxd4
Rac8 $1 {The structure is now favourable for Black. So, it's up to White
to prove something.} 19. Nc4 Qb5 {Black doesn't lose a piece.} ({Of course,
not} 19... Qa6 $4 20. Qxa3 $18) 20. f4 Rc7 21. Qxa3 {White has to release
the pressure before Black doubles the rooks along the c-file.} (21. f5
Rec8 22. fxe6 fxe6 23. Qxa3 Rxc4 24. Rxc4 Qxc4 $15) 21... Rxc4 22. Rxc4
Qxc4 23. Bf2 Qc7 {Black has to spend a move on protecting the Pa7, so
White seizes the c-file.} 24. Rc1 Qb7 25. Qd6 {White's position looks
very active, but he has no objects to attack.} ({From the practical point
of view it was preferable to swap queens:} 25. Qf3 $5 Qxf3 26. gxf3 {White's
pawn structure has been spoiled, but the rook is going to penetrate to
c7. The position is balanced. For instance:} Nf8 27. Rc7 Ng6 28. f5 exf5
29. Rxa7) 25... Nf8 26. g3 ({After} 26. Qc7 Qa6 {the black queen becomes
active.}) 26... Rc8 27. Rxc8 Qxc8 28. d5 {White should get rid of this
pawn.} exd5 29. Qxd5 g6 30. Kg2 Ne6 {The position is very close to equality,
but White is the one who has to play accurately. The well-known duo queen
+ knight might cause the white king some troubles.} 31. Qf3 Kg7 32. a3
h5 33. h4 $1 {Seemingly illogical, placing the pawns on the same colour
as the bishop, but preventing the possibility of h5-h4 which could weaken
the Pf4.} Qc2 34. Qb7 Qa4 35. Qf3 b5 {Sooner or later Black is going to
organise a passed pawn on the queenside.} 36. f5 {With must hurry up with
his counterplay against the black monarch.} gxf5 37. Qxf5 Qxa3 38. Qxh5
a5 39. Qg4+ Kf8 40. h5 $2 {The decisive mistake.} ( 40. Qh5 Qc3 41. Qh8+
Ke7 42. Qf6+ Ke8 43. Qh8+ Kd7 {Otherwise it's a perpetual check.} 44.
Qf6 Qc6+ 45. Kg1 Nd8 46. e6+ $1 Qxe6 47. Qg5 {White is not worse as his
h-pawn is also very dangerous.}) 40... Qc1 $1 {Preventing the further
advance of White's h-pawn.} 41. Qe4 b4 42. Be3 Qc7 (42... Qc8 {was also
strong} 43. h6 b3 $19) 43. Qa8+ Kg7 44. h6+ Kh7 45. Qe4+ Kg8 46. Qa8+
Qd8 {No perpetual check.} 47. Qxd8+ (47. Qf3 Qd3 48. Qg4+ Kh7 {is also
hopeless for White.}) 47... Nxd8 48. Kf3 a4 49. Ke4 Nc6 50. Bc1 Na5 $1
51. Bd2 b3 52. Kd3 Nc4 $1 {The knight assists the passed pawns very effectively.}
53. Bc3 a3 54. g4 Kh7 55. g5 Kg6 56. Bd4 b2 57. Kc2 Nd2 {White has to
give up a piece, so he resigned.} 0-1
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.
Recommended