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.
In the following diagrams, you are able to move the pieces, retract moves and try alternate lines. There is a completely new feature: when you play a move the embedded engine in the diagram will reply for the other side, after around three seconds. So you can play through the line you think will lead to success — and see it refuted if you have started with the wrong move. Note that there are twice as many puzzles in CHESS Magazine — 24 as opposed to our selection of 12.
The last four positions are fairly difficult to solve, so we give you an opportunity to work things out with a stronger engine to support you. On our JavaScript board you can move pieces around, and start an engine by clicking the fan button. You can maximize the replayer, auto-play, flip the board, etc. Hovering the mouse over any button will show you its function. The little tab to the bottom right of the board tells you which side to move.
The above article was reproduced from Chess Magazine March 2018, with kind permission. The solutions to the puzzles are given at the bottom of this page. Don't peek if you can resist.
The above article is reproduced from Chess Magazine May/2018, with kind permission.
CHESS Magazine was established in 1935 by B.H. Wood who ran it for over fifty years. It is published each month by the London Chess Centre and is edited by IM Richard Palliser and Matt Read. The Executive Editor is Malcolm Pein, who organises the London Chess Classic. CHESS is mailed to subscribers in over 50 countries. You can subscribe from Europe and Asia at a specially discounted rate for first timers here, or from North America here.
A Lifetime Repertoire:
Play the Nimzo Indian
Rustam Kasimdzhanov; PC-DVD;
running time: 6 hours, 47 minutes
RRP £26.95 SUBSCRIBERS £24.25
Fabiano Caruana’s second and former FIDE World Champion, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, has long both played the Nimzo-Indian and fought against it. He is surely right that it is an opening which can last one a lifetime, as, indeed, it did for the great Mark Taimanov. Kasimdzhanov doesn’t fail to explain the key ideas, but overall this is quite a detailed repertoire, especially for a DVD, one highlight of which is the dynamic 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e3 c5 5 Nge2 b6!?.
Order online from
The London Chess Centre or Chess4Less (USA)
Calculation Training
Robert Ris; PC-DVD;
running time: 4 hours, 52 minutes
RRP £26.95 SUBSCRIBERS £24.25
Last month we mentioned Robert Ris’ Crucial Chess Skills for the Club Player: Volume 1, and hot on its heels the Dutch IM and experienced coach has made a welcome return to the ChessBase studio. Ris believes that the training material presented will really help players rated anywhere between 1400 and 2400. He begins by explaining how to use the demands of the position to select the right candidate moves and then aims to explain how one should calculate better. Throughout there are plenty of training positions for the viewer to solve.
Order online from
The London Chess Centre or Chess4Less (USA)
You can also find these products in the ChessBase Shop
Note: in our solutions replay board you can switch on an engine (fan icon) to analyse with machine assistance. Hovering with the mouse over individual buttons below the board and notation will indicate their function.
