ChessBase Magazine #161Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. After the runaway success early this year Magnus Carlsen is slowing down a bit. Not for lack of determination, though. It’s just that the world champion’s rivals are stealing a march on him. So it was Sergey Karjakin who won the 2nd Norway Chess Tournament ahead of Carlsen. In this issue the winner himself annotates his game against Kramnik. But what happened to Carlsen?
Simen Agdestein, his friend and former coach wrote, “In general he didn’t look very inspired in Stavanger. He felt, the pressure, he said, of the Norwegian press believing it’s just a walk in the park winning such a tournament. It certainly isn’t, not even for a World Champion.”
By his own admission Carlsen’s play was uneven. In some games he missed his chances and in others he just managed to survive. Still he had not lost hope. When the penultimate round began he was level with Karjakin and he just had to beat Peter Svidler, the Russian grandmaster to draw ahead.
For a while it appeared, he was going to make it. With precise, principled play he managed to outplay Peter Svidler and it only remained to cash his chips. As Peter himself admitted later, he was close to capitulation. Nevertheless, he decided to play on. After all no one has won a game by resigning. Then it happened. Magnus miscalculated and his opponent was only too quick to seize his opportunity. He initiated a terrific counterattack forcing Magnus to defend with all the ingenuity he is known for and earn a draw. The cut and thrust battle is annotated by GM Roiz in this issue.
But there still remains the question, why did Magnus play the way he did? He wrote, “A week ago I would have said that a missed win would never be as painful as an outright loss, but my penultimate game against Svidler came close. He botched up the opening and with the black pieces I had perfect co-ordination and could win material in many ways. Instead I went for an illusionary mate, having missed his Rg3 defense.”
He had a small consolation, winning the blitz event that preceded the tournament. But the greater satisfaction lay in his winning the FIDE Rapid and Blitz Championships at Dubai. This was a great series with stalwarts like Caruana, Anand, Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura competing and the standard of play was high. The games are not included in this issue. Hopefully, they would find their way into the next MegaBase.
Two other important events are covered by this issue. The Poikovsky Karpov Tournament was won by Alexander Morozevich ahead of Jakovenko and Bacrot. The Capablanca Memorial Tournament at Havana was won by Wesley So ahead of Bruzon Batista and Dominguez Perez. Surprisingly Vassily Ivanchuk came last. For once the Ukranian failed to capture the first prize in his favorite event.
There are 13 opening articles ranging from Caro-Kann to Queen’s Indian. Among them I would single out Igor Stohl’s survey on French Winawer dealing with a topical variation. Here is a glimpse of the same with some additional commentary.
What can White do in this variation? I believe, he can deviate before with 12. h4 or 12.Nxc3 and take his chances.
The Budapest Gambit also figures among the surveys. I have reservations, though, in spite of the enthusiastic advocacy by Viktor Moskalenko who has written a whole book on this system. There are also four opening videos in this issue. Two of them are by Mihail Marin. The first on King’s Indian is fairly standard. But the second is a surprise: 1.d4 f5 2.Bg5 h6 3.Bd2
Apart from administering a mild shock to your opponent this line has the advantage of weakening his kingside. What if he treats it as a joke? He will have lowered his guard, and that’s an advantage.
This issue also carries a tribute to Dragoljub Velimirovic (1942-2014), a great attacking player from former Yugoslavia. He excelled in beating the Sicilian and a whole system, the Velimirovic Attack (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 e6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qe2 intending 9.0-0-0), is named after him.
This issue also carries trademark sections with opening traps, tactics and endgame technique. Here is a fun position from tactics section compiled by Oliver Reech.
White to play and win
Click here for the solutionIn the OTB database there are 578 recent games of which 89 are annotated. Tele-Chess fans have greater reason to rejoice. This issue offers a file of 1000 unannotated games and 39 annotated games. If you are an OTB player, make it a point to check out those annotations by CC GMs, Alvarez and Morgado. Who knows, you might strike gold before others do.
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Evgeny Postny: "A lot of blanks" (NimzoIndian with 4.f3 c5 5.d5 0-0 6.e4 d6)
If White wants to go for a sharp position against the Nimzo-Indian the move 4.f3 is always shortlisted. In this article IGM Evgeny Postny examines the many positions that may show up on the board after 4.f3 c5 5.d5 0-0 6.e4 d6.
Here 7.Nge2 is preferred by most experts, in particular Sergey Volkov, who is represented in the Mega database with countless 4.f3 games, plays this (till 2003 he still used 7.Bd2). Postny now considers four moves for Black: 7...Nh5, 7.exd5, 7...Re8, and 7...b5.
After the most frequently played move 7...b5 White then moves his knight away from e2. 8.Nf4 is intended to provoke 8...e5, but it is not clear whether that is really necessary and whether it is in White’s favour at all. Thus Rainer Knaak comes to the conclusion:
"There are still a lot of blanks in the theory of this variation. As Evgeny Postny writes, engines sometimes overrate Black’sprospects."
Download for free (CBV-file for ChessBase/Fritz)
Load the article from CBMagazine 161 (PDF)
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Langrock: English Defence A40 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 Hannes Langrock used to be a convinced adherent of the English Defence, but he has now changed sides. In his article he presents a repertoire from the point of view of White. According to Langrock’s analyses Black is faced with a difficult task after 4.Bd3!. |
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Moskalenko: Budapest Gambit A52 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ng4 4.Bf4 Nc6 5.Nf3 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2 Qe7 This variation is considered slightly better for White, but Viktor Moskalenko is of a different opinion. White may usually obtain the bishop pair, but Black has a sound position in which the pawns are placed on dark squares and appropriately he possesses the light-squared bishop. |
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Rotstein: Old Indian Defence A53 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Bf5 4.f3 e5 Somewhat surprisingly it is not quite so simple for White to manage a slight advantage for White after 3...Bf5. The most frequently seen move is 4.f3, but, as Arkadij Rotstein shows, Black obtains a satisfactory game after 4...e5. |
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Karolyi: Alekhine Defence B05 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.Be2 e6 In the second part of his repertoire against the old main variation (4...Bg4) Tibor Karolyi deals with the sub-variation 5...e6. White obtains a secure advantage in all lines and in our author’s opinion should above all avoid the move h3. |
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Havasi: Caro-Kann B11 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 This was played by Bobby Fischer, but Tibor Havasi is able to squeeze a few new subtleties out of the subject. But above all, the setup presented by the young Hungarian is extremely easy to learn and nonetheless not without its venom. |
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Antic: Sicilian Defence B40 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.g3 Michael Adams has played this several times with a good measure of success. So Dejan Antic calls it the Adams Variation. White firstly does without d3 and if need be he protects e4 with Qe2. Of course this is no way to force an advantage, but it does immediately set Black a few problems. |
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Szabo: Sicilian Defence B48 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.f4 White has for a long time been successful with 8.0-0-0, but countermeasures have been found for Black. At present it is still possible to surprise one’s opponent with 8.f4. But according to Krisztian Szabo Black should not have any great problems keeping things on a level keel. |
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Stohl: French Defence C18 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 dxc3 12.Qd3 d4 Spurred on by the game Almasi-So (Capablanca Memorial 2014) Igor Stohl examines the modern variation with 12...d4. The results are absolutely heartening for Black and for the moment it is rather White who has to be thinking about improvements. |
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Krasenkow: Queen's Gambit Accepted D28 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.Qe2 a6 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.0-0 Nc6 9.e4 In the second part of his investigations into 6.Qe2 Michal Krasenkow comes to the critical variation with 8...Nc6. In it Black has good chances for equality but he needs to know his theory well and must also play accurately in the early middlegame. |
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Sumets: Queen's Indian Defence E15 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 Ba6 7.b3 Andrey Sumets analyses the variations from White’s point of view. From the diagram the first move examined is 7...d5. But then one needs to have a good knowledge of the sharp 8.Nc3 d5 9.e4. |
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Postny: Nimzoindian E20 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 0-0 6.e4 d6 Magnus Carlsen sees himself having to meet the move 4.f3 “all the time”. At the Gashimov Memorial he played 4...c5, resulting in the position in the diagram. Evgeny Postny considers Nakamura’s 7.Bd2 to be simply a side variation with the critical line being 7.Nge2. |
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Marin: Nimzoindian E52 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 b6 7.0-0 Bb7 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Ne5 This natural setup for Black is still valid. Mihail Marin tries in his extensive article to show that White has at least the more pleasant game. And he manages to do just that. |
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Kuzmin: King's Indian Defence E83 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nge2 a6 8.Qd2 Na5 The almost new 8...Na5 attacks a sensitive point in White’s camp – the pawn c4 – and at the same time it prepares ...b5, because if White captured twice the final move would be Na5-b3! So far White has not found a good countermeasure – a hard blow for fans of the Sämisch Variation. |
