ChessBase Magazine 200

by Davide Nastasio
5/22/2021 – It hasn't been easy working under pandemic stress. Now that things are getting better we need to get ready to re-enter the chess arena. "The only real training tool I found," writes Davide Nastasio, "which was comprehensive, and covered all the phases of the game is ChessBase Magazine, now in its 200th edition. Davide shares some of the positions and games he found especially interesting.

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Chessbase Magazine 200 the new frontier of chess training!

Working in a COVID unit for one year has left its mark over me, and I do need something to bring me back to earth, relax, and take my mind elsewhere, anywhere very far from work. Now OTB tournaments are starting again, and I’d like to be ready in few months to re-enter the chess arena, after more than a year I don’t play chess.  

The only real training tool I found, which was comprehensive, and covered all the phases of the game is ChessBase Magazine (from now on abbreviated as CBM). I’d like to share some positions and games I found interesting from issue 200 of CBM.

This CBM issue began with a section where all CBM authors’ annotated 22 games of the young Carlsen! The first game is annotated by GM Adhiban Baskaran. Notice the game begins like a French Winaver, but by move four becomes an Exchange French, and the move 6.Nge2 reminds me of some games/ideas played by IM Waitzkin and given as lessons in that wonderful historical chess software called Chessmaster.

I loved this software, they should make a new version!

Here the game fully annotated to give the reader a chance to appreciate how great CBM is, especially for the serious chess amateur who wants to improve his own chess. I added some of my comments after “Nastasio” to show the difference with the comments written by GM Adhiban. Notice also the importance of watching a game but actively asking oneself questions in order to improve. Watching a game passively and being fed all the answers by the annotator will not do us much good.

 
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A very happy new year to everyone! And it is also the 200th anniversary special of CBM :) talk about a double blast :)! I am glad I got the opportunity to analyse one of the games of our Mozart and world champion Magnus Carlsen for this great edition! 1.e4 e6 Vallejo can practically prepare anything overnight and play it, but the French is one of his familiar pathways. 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 Inviting White into the complex territory of the Winawer. 4.exd5!? Surprisingly Magnus never repeated this line in his career again! I wonder why...after all he managed to win so convincingly! exd5 5.Bd3 Nf6 Before this game Vallejo had exclusively gone for 5...c6 6.Nge2!? Breaking the symmetry by developing the knight via a different route! Bg4 The best way for Black is 6...0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Ng3 Re8 with an equal game (Bortnyk-Fedoseev Abu Dhabi 2016) 7.0-0 0-0 8.f3 Bh5 9.Nf4 Winning the bishop pair. Bg6 10.Nxg6 hxg6 11.Ne2!? Introducing a new direction! Wesley during his epic debut at the elite level had to face 11.Bg5 c6 11...c5! was the best with a slight pull for Black. 12.f4 Qb6 13.Na4 Chucky could have gained a clear advantage with 13.Bxf6! gxf6 14.Ne2! f5 15.c3 Bd6 16.Ng3 followed by Nxf5 next with a winning attack and advantage. 13...Qxd4+ 14.Kh1 Ne4 15.c3 Nf2+ 16.Rxf2 Qxf2 17.cxb4 f6 18.Qg4 fxg5 19.Qe6+ Kh8 20.Nc5 Qxb2! 21.Qh3+ Kg8 22.Qe6+ Kh8 23.Rf1 Qf6 24.Qh3+ Kg8 25.g3 25.g4! was the epic way to get full compensation, this is a typical scenario where a mouseslip to g4 would have been better...Oh wait I forgot this wasn't played during the online era :). 25...Re8 26.Nxb7 gxf4 27.Rxf4 Re1+ 28.Kg2 Qe6 Wesley brought home the point advancing to the next round (Ivanchuk-So Khanty-Mansiysk 2009) 11...Re8 Black had to find 11...Bd6! 12.Bg5 c5! 13.dxc5 13.c3 Nbd7 with a slightly better game for Black. 13...Bxc5+ 14.Kh1 Nc6 is apparently slightly better for Black which is hard to understand :). 12.Bg5 Be7 13.Ng3 Nastasio: I've downloaded about 7000 blitz bullet games played by Magnus on Lichess against other GMs also rated in the 2800-3000 range. Watched few, because also simple moves like this one, in Magnus' 1 minute games, raised a lot of interest for me. This is a long time control game, yet also Magnus' blitz games have similar plans behind. When I saw this move I stopped, and asked myself, why Magnus placed this knight here?? Magnus played this move not to control H5 or F5, but to open the diagonal for the Qd1, which in turn will indirectly aim at F7, amazing! Nbd7 In this line looks like it is essential to break through with 13...c5 14.f4 with a messy game. 14.f4 Nh7 15.Qf3! Indirectly eyeing the f7-pawn. Nastasio: Here GM Adhiban puts an exclamation point behind this move, but for me the exclamation point should have been put behind Ng3, because that move had the plan-seed which allowed this move to happen! From an amateur point of view, this move completes White's development, putting the two rooks in connection. 15.h4!? was a better option for White. 15...c6 A slight error. Vallejo had to go for 15...Bxg5 Nastasio: as a weak player, compared to GM Adhiban, I find the move he proposed puzzling. First of all not everyone goes 5 moves deep to evaluate the position "a more comfortable endgame" for whatever that means (Maybe Adhiban doesn't know amateurs only study openings LOL). But Pc6 played in the game answers to the question of protecting the Pd5, Bxg5 doesn't answer such question. GM Vallejo is also a 2700 player, why he rejected Bxg5? This would have been quite interesting to know. 16.fxg5 Nxg5 17.Qxd5 c6 18.Qd6 Nf6 19.Qxd8 Rexd8! In order to prepare c5 and also avoid Bb5 ideas. 20.c3 c5 with a more comfortable endgame. 16.h4! A very nice move protecting Bg5 with all his might! Ndf8 Black could still hold the balance with 16...Qb6! Nastasio: I wouldn't give this move an exclamation point, like GM Adhiban did, for two reasons: 1. Black played Pc7-c6 aand this opened the diagonal, which means it would have been used at a certain point, the question maybe was if Pc7-c5 would have put more pressure. 2. This is a typical move in the French exchange, a move I've found often when playing the White side. 17.c3 Bxg5 18.fxg5 Ne5 19.Qf4 19.Qe3 Nastasio: this is the problem I have when reading an annotated game, I find a lot of moves unexplained. I rejected reading the Informator games for the same reason. In this case I asked myself what if White wanted to protect the Bd3. I'm not using an engine, just reasoning... Nxd3 20.Qxd3 How does Black continue from here? 19...Nxd3 20.Qxf7+ Kh8 21.Qxg6 Ne5 22.Qf5 Nc4 with a funny repetition after 23.Qf7 Ne5 Nastasio: How is White getting any advantage from losing the bishop, if there is no real attack?? 16...Nhf8 Nastasio: I was just curious to see why this move was not commented by GM Adhiban. Now I'm threatening Pf7-f6, but I'm also rerouting the knight on a more centralized position. On the exchange French the control of the E file can be quite important. In each game there is a critical point, the point in which to play the right move is essential to keep the game going, and playing the wrong move leads to lose. I believe we are in a critical moment, and this is the move Black should have played. Notice the "I believe" because following Caruana's advice I don't use the engine to check my belief. 17.Bxe7 17.Rae1 Nastasio: what if White continues like in the game? f6 Nastasio: this is the reason I wanted to play knight H on F8, because I defend the Pg6. 17...Qxe7 18.h5 How to evaluate the position? I'm not using an engine, because I try to simulate the game's conditions. 17.Rae1! Bringing in the last cavalry, after this Black is slightly worse and has to be very careful. Qc7 18.Bxe7 Rxe7 19.Re5! Another epic move provoking f6 or allow the mighty rook to stay in the center! f6 After this Black's position becomes unbearable due to permanent weakening of the light squares. The lesser evil was 19...Nf6 20.h5 Rae8 21.hxg6 fxg6 21...Nxg6 Nastasio: just tried this move out of curiosity. GM Adhiban writes about weakness of the light squares, but without the Bd3 can White really take advantage of it? 22.Nf5 Nastasio: probably this was the reason Black needs to take with the Pf7. Re6 23.Rxe6 Nastasio: White's E5 control is terrible for Black. 22.c3 with a slightly better position for Magnus. 20.Rxe7 Qxe7 21.h5! gxh5 22.Qxh5 Magnus already has a winning advantage with very natural play! Qf7 23.Qg4 g6 24.Nf5 Kh8 25.Nh4!? Magnus wants to provoke f5 in order to use the e5-square as outpost for his pieces. Even stronger was 25.Nh6 Qg7 26.Qh3 Re8 27.f5 g5 28.Ng4 Kg8 29.Qg3 followed by Kf2-Rh1 etc and slowly start the play on the queenside in order to play for the principle of two weaknesses. 25...f5 Nastasio: both sides have control of an outpost for their pieces: E5 for White, and E4 for Black. But whom of the two has a better outpost? Is the Bd3 good or bad? Can it be used to challenge the chains of Black's pawns on light squares? 26.Qh3 Qe6 27.Kf2 One very strong destructive way to crush Black was 27.g4! fxg4 28.Qg3 Re8 29.f5 gxf5 30.Nxf5 with a winning attack since Black's pieces are completely dominated by his counterpart. 27...Re8 28.Nf3 The king will be safe on g3. Re7 28...Qe3+ Nastasio: Gm Adhiban doesn't show why White is ok. 29.Kg3 Nastasio: here the problem for Black, the queen is trapped on E3, and needs to go back. Black also has limited mobility with his pieces. Now we see why the Knight on D file to go on F8 wasn't a good idea. 29.Ne5 Nd7 30.Rh1 Nxe5 31.dxe5 Now Magnus has a strong protected passed pawn in the center which will become even more powerful after the g4 break in the kingside. 31.fxe5 Nastasio: why wasn't better to take with this pawn? Surely an amateur would like to know how in the mind of a GM he decides how to take back. c5 32.c3 cxd4 33.Qh6 A tactical shot! dxc3 Obviously not the best continuation for Black, but often annotators forget the public is not 2700 rated, and quite rarely play the best continuation, apart when an engine is on! 34.Qf8+ Qg8 35.Qxe7 White wins. 31...c5 32.b3!? Changing the pawn structure in his favour. 32.g4!? Nastasio: GMs are famous for intermediate moves, for creating an attack when they are attacked, I saw this move, but obviously I don't know if it works... fxg4 33.Qh4 c4 33...Rg7 Nastasio: this is a technique, I saw the problem of following my line was that Black couldn't go to G7 to defend the Pg6, once White plays Qf6, so I went back, and thought: what if Black does it before? Unfortunately for the reader of this article, and this game, I need to go to cut the grass, because I'm not really paid for my chess annotations... LOL 34.Qf6+ Qxf6 35.exf6 and Black loses... 32...c4 33.bxc4 dxc4 34.Be2 Nastasio: this is the reason I proposed 32.g4, because in chess I feel one should only find moves which send the pieces forward, and going back generally makes the position and our pieces more passive. g5 35.g3 Making sure the e5-pawn can live up to its full potential! Qb6+ 36.Kg2 Qe3 37.Kf1! Soon Black will run out of checks and ideas. Rf7 38.Qh5 Qxg3 39.Qxf7 Qxf4+ 40.Kg2 Qe4+ 41.Bf3 Qxc2+ 42.Kg3 f4+ This game would definitely come under one of Magnus favourite concepts of "Attacking without sacrificing"! I would love to investigate this further in my book some day :). I wonder if he resigned after making the move? 42...f4+ 43.Kg4 followed by mate on f8. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2843Vallejo Pons,F26971–02012Grand Slam Final 5th7

I’d like to challenge the reader of this article (yes, the one who believes he can become a GM in a couple of years of hard training) to annotate the other 21 games played by Carlsen and selected for this historical CBM 200, and then of course, buy a copy of this CBM 200, and see the difference in the way a GM annotated the same games.

This exercise will give a wealth of ideas upon manoeuvres, tactics, plans, and definitely make everyone who has spent the time annotating a chess improvement.

Here the games:

 
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1.Nf3 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nbd2 g6 4.e4 Bg7 5.Bd3 0-0 6.0-0 Nc6 7.c3 e5 8.h3 Nh5 9.dxe5 Nf4 10.Bb5 Nxe5 11.Nxe5 Qg5 12.Ng4 Qxb5 13.Nb3 Ne2+ 14.Kh1 Bxg4 15.hxg4 Rae8 16.Be3 Rxe4 17.Re1 Qh5+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Hammer,J2074Carlsen,M24500–12003Wch U141

Paper magazines can’t give 22 annotated games, just for one player, even when celebrating their 200 issue. 3-4 pages for each game would mean 80 plus pages! But ChessBase has refined its magazine over the years, and the quality content it’s really high.

I continued my training with the “ideas for your repertoire section” also in this case there is a wealth of material: 11 theoretical articles, and then a section about opening videos, and opening traps. The videos in this issue treated: the Sicilian Moscow variation, the Italian opening, and the Sveshnilov variation of the Sicilian.

Here few positions coming from the opening traps, try to find the right move, since this article is all about chess training. I’ll give the complete games after the diagrams.

 
Evgeny Postny-Uutsaikh Agibileg, 2020
Black just played 4…Be7 how does White punishes this mistake?
 
Nataliya Buksa, Joran Aulin Jansson, 2020
White played 5.e5 with the hope Black would play 5…dxe5, and Black did, how does White gain material advantage?
 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 Nd7 4.Bc4 Be7? This bishop move allows the simple win of a pawn. Dieser Läuferzug gestattet einen einfachen Bauerngewinn. The other mistake is Der andere Fehler ist 4...h6? and was rarely seen in 2020, and not once was it correctly punished: und kam 2020 selten vor, nicht einmal wurde er korrekt bestraft: 5.dxe5 dxe5 6.Bxf7+! Kxf7 7.Nxe5+ Kf6 8.Nc3‼+- ∆Bb4 9.Qd4 c5 10.Qd6# 5.dxe5! Nxe5 6.Nxe5 dxe5 7.Qh5! g6 8.Qxe5 Nf6 9.Bh6 Rg8 10.Bg5 Ng4 11.Qxe7+ Qxe7 12.Bxe7 Kxe7 13.Nc3 c6 14.Be2 Nf6 15.0-0-0 Be6 16.f4 b5 17.Bf3 Rgc8 18.e5 Ne8 19.Rhe1 Rab8 20.Ne4 c5 21.Nd6 Nxd6 22.Rxd6 Rb6 23.Red1 Rxd6 24.Rxd6 a5 25.Rb6 b4 26.Ra6 c4 27.Rxa5 b3 28.Ra7+ Kf8 29.axb3 cxb3 30.Ra8 Rxa8 31.Bxa8 Ke8 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Postny,E2600Agibileg,U24131–02020Titled Tuesday internet op 14th July3
Buksa,N2410Aulin Jansson,J22151–02020Titled Tuesday internet op 18th Aug10

The next section is top tournaments, three tournaments were dissected: Tata Steel 2021, Russian Superfinal 2020, Skilling Open 2020, I made a selection of 10 games from these tournaments, games I like very much. Some of them are well annotated, (for example the game Giri vs Tari is quite important to read Giri’s annotations, I admit my limitations I would have never understood it without Giri explaining it move by move in the critical moment of the game. But also Grandelius vs Harikrishna, the annotations open our minds to what a top GM knows and think at the board) hence the need to have this magazine to increase our chess knowledge.

At the cost of resulting boring, please annotate these games, then when you have CBM 200, it will blow your mind to read the annotations of the GMs involved. In some cases one can understand the importance of move order in the opening, in other cases there are some titanic strategic maneuvers one would not imagine the player thought of!!

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Nbd7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 Be7 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.e4 Nxc3 10.bxc3 0-0 11.Bd3 c5 12.0-0 cxd4 13.cxd4 b6 14.a4 Bb7 15.a5 bxa5 16.Rxa5 Nf6 17.Re1 Rfd8 18.Qa1 Qc7 19.h3 a6 20.Rc5 Qf4 21.Re5 Nd7 22.Ra5 Nf6 23.d5 exd5 24.e5 Ne4 25.Qd4 Rdc8 26.Raa1 a5 27.Rab1 Bc6 28.e6 fxe6 29.Ne5 Qf6 30.f3 Ng5 31.Rb6 Be8 32.Qe3 a4 33.Ng4 Qd8 34.Rxe6 Nxe6 35.Qxe6+ Bf7 36.Nxh6+ gxh6 37.Qxh6 Qc7 38.Qh7+ Kf8 39.Qh8+ Bg8 40.Qh6+ 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Carlsen,M2862Firouzja,A27491–02021Tata Steel 83rd1
Giri,A2764Tari,A26251–02021Tata Steel 83rd1
Donchenko,A2668Caruana,F28230–12021Tata Steel 83rd2
Grandelius,N2663Harikrishna,P27320–12021Tata Steel 83rd3
Antipov,M2611Nepomniachtchi,I27840–12020RUS-ch 73rd4
Chigaev,M2619Matlakov,M26980–12020RUS-ch 73rd5
Karjakin,S2752Matlakov,M26981–02020RUS-ch 73rd6
Goganov,A2594Nepomniachtchi,I27840–12020RUS-ch 73rd6
So,W2770Radjabov,T27650–12020Skilling op KO1.11
Nepomniachtchi,I2784Aronian,L27811–02020Skilling op KO1.12

The next section: coaching by experts is made by 3 videos which comment deeply 3 games. The one made by GM Williams is the one I like most, because it’s in a guess the move format.

The “Tune your tactics” section is prepared by Oliver Reeh, and in this issue it’s made by 34 games, which are opened in specific positions. Reeh presents the situation and ask how to continue. This in my opinion is the real deal. The tactics trainer we can find online are just a mindless training. They generally use engines to farm these positions. Instead Reeh selected these position for some interesting teaching moments.

The question asks: what happens if after Bb3 Black plays Nf6, and I’ll add the same in case Black would play Ng7! Can you see why?

The tactics begin as simple positions, and then the complexity of the questions increase.

This is a difference of quality between CBM, written by coaches and top chess players, compared to the online tactics training made by a bot. Here we need to use visualization, and answer a question a coach made for us. I honestly cannot afford to pay a GM or IM to coach me, because I have mortgage, insurances, and all the adult stuff usually to pay… but I can definitely pay for Chessbase Magazine! There is a total of 34 games/position for the tune up your tactics section.

Karsten Mueller, the real Capablanca of the endgame, is the one selecting the positions for the section: Excelling in endgames. I must admit that if one day I become a millionaire, surely one of the items on my bucket list is going to Germany and train under Mueller, because I am 100% sure my game would reach a new level thanks to his expertise and love of the endgame.

In this issue there are more than 90 endgame positions, yes, if one doesn’t improve doing this kind of training I don’t know what can actually help!

 

The theme of this issue is Magnus seen under the light of GM Mueller latest book on chess players styles.

I really need to learn German well! When I asked GM Mueller he told me the book has been translated in English!

As previously mentioned I want this article to be used for training. Here a series of positions from Excelling in the endgames, which can be used for sparring with another chess player or against an engine.

White just played 31.g3?! how would you win as Black? Notice this is not a tactic, one must understand how to restrict the opponent pieces.

Black just played 31…Ra3, next comes the decisive regrouping which brings the black setup to the point of collapse, how would you continue as White?

White just played 58.Ba6, now Black needs to be creative and use the king to achieve the win!

As you can see I didn’t give any solution or moves, because I believe Mueller’s work needs to be rewarded. He surely spent hours on selecting these positions, and write the commentary. But to do the work on these positions, will help to expand and better understand Mueller’s explanations.

The last section of CBM is called: Practice Makes perfect, and it’s based on 50 positions which trains strategy, endgame, tactics and definitely imagination.

Final thoughts: while in this article I put the accent on the training, I must admit I was impressed with the annotations to the games, because often the human side of the grandmaster annotating the game was coming out. The thoughts, the psychological tricks, the pain for previous defeats, the opening preparation against a particular opponent… all of this and much more have made Chessbase Magazine a real pleasure to read, and given me more energy for my training as well as to look for other older Chessbase Magazines, where I could find more annotated games. One GM I spoke with mentioned that watching, and studying about 2000 annotated games would bring a player at master level.

Source: Chess News And Views


ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs!

Available for download! €19.95


Davide is a chess aficionado who regularly reviews books and DVDs.

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