Don't be afraid of stronger opponents!

by ChessBase
11/13/2022 – How do you feel when you have to play against an opponent whose rating is some hundred points better than your own? The bold among us will see this as a special incentive. For most of us, however, unease will probably prevail. In the third part of his video series "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" in ChessBase Magazine #210, Jan Markos deals with the important topic of how to play against a stronger opponent. The GM from Slovakia first makes it clear that you have to keep a cool head and then presents three promising strategies. Take a look!

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"Practical tips for the tournament player" - Part 3: How to play against a stronger opponent

At the beginning of his video, Jan Markos asks how you should behave if you encounters a bear in the forest - a quite possible scenario in Slovakia. Fear or even panic reactions are out of place there and can end quite badly. What you need instead is a plan. And it's the same in chess when you have to face a much stronger opponent!

That's why it's important not to get into "panic mode", but instead to switch to "planning mode": approach the game with a targeted strategy! In ChessBase Magazine #210 Jan Markos presents you with three different strategies to choose from and illustrates them with examples from tournament practice. In the following video excerpt he explains the "All in" strategy. In CBM #210 he also presents the "Super safe exchange" strategy and the "Clear plan" strategy.

Jan Markos: "How to play a stronger opponent" (Excerpt from CBM #210)

Playing time of the complete video in ChessBase Magazin #210: 21:34 min

As in the first two articles in his series, Jan Markos provides a small collection of training exercises to supplement the video, which are worth solving after the video! An example: Quillan,G (2340) - Dubov,D 1-0 (2694) from the Gibraltar Masters 2018:

Your superior opponent, GM Dubov, attacks your centre.
How do you react? (You will find the solution below)

ChessBase Magazine #210

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* Bonus only for new subscribers, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months! As a new subscriber you will receive the original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB

Solution: All passive options are weak. White should not fear the strong GM and look for a tactical refutation of the black plan. In the game Quillan played the strong move 18.Qh4! and forced the black knight back. 

Highlights of ChessBase Magazine #210

A rich training programme awaits you in ChessBase Magazine #210! The editors have put together a selection for you as a special recommendation on the Start page:

Chess Olympiad 2022: Review with analyses of more than 20 participants and Ivan Sokolov's contribution "Steps to Gold" - "Special" on the new World Championship candidate Ding Liren: exclusive collection of 18 annotated games + contributions on strategy and endgame - "The Indian Gambit": Daniel King presents a fresh and exciting idea in the English Opening: 1.c4 e5 2.Sc3 Sf6 3.Sf3 e4 4.Sg5 c6!? (Video) - "Practical Tips for the Tournament Player" Episode 3: How to play against a stronger opponent (Video by Jan Markos + small collection of exercises) - "Full Throttle in the Open Spanish": Robert Ris examines the highly topical Dilworth Variation and much more.

Special: Ding Liren

CBM authors analyse their favourite games of the top player from China. Look forward to an exclusive collection of 18 annotated games!

Top games and master analyses 

Chess Olympiad 2022: The major event of the year with 186 teams in the Open Tournament is the focus of this issue. Over 20 participants comment on their best games from Chennai in this issue, including Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Arjun Erigaisi, Jules Moussard, Luke McShane, Pentala Harikrishna, Matthias Blübaum, Maxime Lagarde, Rasmus Svane, Viktor Erdos, the silver medal team from Armenia and the gold medallists in the women's tournament, Anna and Mariya Muzychuk. Moreover, the coach of the winning Uzbek team, Ivan Sokolov, presents highlights of his young team in his article "Steps to Gold".

Practical tips for the Tournament Player

How would you behave if you encountered a bear in the forest? Correct: You try not to panic. What you need is a plan. And it's the same in chess when you have to play against a much stronger opponent! In the third part of his series, GM Jan Markos presents three strategies for this kind of situation in the video and rounds off his contribution with a small collection of exercises.

Move by Move

The game Gukesh-Abdusattorov played a key role in the fight for medals in Chennai. Replay it in the interactive training format with IM Robert Ris!

All in one

New opening ideas explained on the basis of one game with detailed commentary. In this issue: King's Indian (Imre Hera) and English (Tanmay Srinath).

Opening videos

Daniel King presents a fresh and exciting gambit in the English Opening. Jan Werle explains positional ideas in the Rubinstein Variation of the Nimzo Indian. And Mihail Marin has come across the novelty 14...a5! in a game of the Benoni expert Aleksandar Indjic at the Olympiad.

Daniel King: English – "The Indian Gambit"
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6!?
Jan Werle: Nimzo Indian
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Be7 8.Bd3 0-0 9.Nge2 Re8 10.Qc2 Nbd7 11.f3 b5
Mihail Marin: Benoni
7.h3 Bg7 8.e4 0-0 9.Be3 Re8 10.Nd2 a6 11.a4 Nxe4 12.Ncxe4 f5 13.Be2 fxe4 14.Nc4 a5!

New ideas for your repertoire

ChessBase Magazine #210 covers the usual broad spectrum with 10 fresh opening articles:

Roven Vogel: English 1.c4 e5 2.g3 f5 3.Bg2 Be7
Martin Lorenzini: Scandinavian 3...Qa5 and 6.Ne5 (II)
Patrick Zelbel: Modern Defence 4...a6 5.g4
Petra Papp: Grivas Sicilian 4...Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6
Krisztian Szabo: Sicilian O’Kelly Variation (Part I) 3.d4/3.c3
Sergey Grigoriants: Philidor Defence 6.Bf4
Robert Ris: Open Ruy Lopez Dilworth
Evgeny Postny: Botvinnik Variation 12.h4
Alexey Kuzmin: Nimzoindian 4.e3 0–0 5.Bd3 d5 6.a3
Andrey Sumets: Catalan 5.Bg2 a6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Qd2

Opening traps

"From the London System to the Ruy Lopez". The expert Rainer Knaak presents eight traps with detailed analyses and three videos.

"Ding Liren‘s positional play"

Mihail Marin sheds light on aspects of Ding's play - his “typical rook lifts” and also his play with the pawns. Incl. video introduction and many training exercises.

New series: Modern Classics

Dorian Rogozenco starts his new series in a befitting manner - Bobby Fischer himself described the 7th game against Petrosian as the best of their 1971 Candidates Match.

Tactics: "Attacking Knights”

Oliver Reeh's yield from the Chess Olympiad is abundant: 41 games, peppered with many tactical exercises, await you. Don't miss the chance to solve his favourite combinations, move by move in interactive video format!

"Endgame highlights by Ding Liren" and much more!

This issue offers no less than four articles by Karsten Mueller. In addition to the article on Ding Liren, the expert also presents the most beautiful endgames from the 2022 Chess Olympiad. Moreover, Mueller provides a collection of training tasks and answers the letters to the editor in detail as usual.

ChessBase Magazine #210

 Order now in the ChessBase Shop !

ChessBase Magazine trial subscription with 33% savings advantage and thank you bonus!*

Try out ChessBase Magazine now! Order the ChessBase Magazine taster package!
Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for the special price of only 39.90 € (instead of 59,85 € for buying them individually). As a thank you, you will also receive 3 months ChessBase Premium Membership free of charge. 

*Bonus for new subscribers only, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months!

ChessBase Magazine one year subscription - plus original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB *

Save twice with ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues).

* Bonus only for new subscribers, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months! As a new subscriber you will receive the original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB

 


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