9/13/2016 – Every week ChessBase magazine author and renowned endgame expert Karsten Müller presents a remarkable or particularly instructive endgame in his blog. A click on the diagram opens a larger board. Test your endgame skills, improve and have fun!
new: Komodo Chess 14
Last year Komodo won the world championship title on two occasions and can call itself "2019 World Computer Chess Champion" and "2019 World Chess Software Champion". And the current Komodo 14 has been clearly improved over its predecessor!
Your key to fresh ideas, precise analyses and targeted training! Everyone uses ChessBase, from the World Champion to the amateur next door. It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Smyslov cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations. Let our authors introduce you into the world of Vasily Smyslov.
€29.90
Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine
Do you like these lessons? There are plenty more by internationally renowned endgame expert Dr Karsten Müller in ChessBase Magazine, where you will also find openings articles and surveys, tactics, and of course annotations by the world's top grandmasters.
Apart from his regular columns and video lectures in ChessBase Magazine there is a whole series of training DVDs by Karsten Müller, which are bestsellers in the ChessBase Shop.
1. The Italian is back “in”: Peter Heine Nielsen explains his protégé Magnus Carlsen’s winning strategy in Carlsen - Anand.
2. Mate in 7! The new European champion Ernesto Inarkiev annotates his “most beautiful game” on the way to the title: Inarkiev - Svetushkin
3. „Play like Viktor the Terrible”! Find, along with GM Williams, brilliant moves by the recently deceased chess legend (video): Move by Move
4. Mamedyarov’s first strike: enjoy one of the most exciting games from the Gashimov Memorial with the analyses of our author Valeri Bronznik.
5. That’s what technique is all about! Claus-Dieter Meyer shows how Giri could have drawn the tournament deciding rook ending against Mamedyarov.
6. Positional piece sacrifices: strategy expert Mihail Marin demonstrates copybook blows and amazing replies: Strategy (including an introduction Video)
7. Vis-à-vis in the h-file: solve Oliver Reeh’s Ffavourite combination in interactive format with video feedback.
8. 0-0 on move 36! Anand’s second of many years standing, Ganguly, shows how he drew the teeth from Shirov’s Sveshnikov Variation and triumphed brilliantly in the endgame.
9. A surprise weapon in the Najdorf: let Andrew Martin explain to you the strategic and tactical potential of the variations after 6.Qe2. (Najdorf video 6.Qe2)!
10. Queen’s Gambit par excellence: Robert Ris puts on the test bench the highly topical pawn sarifice 6.Bxc4 against the Vienna Variation.
Introductory video by Karsten Müller
Opening surveys
Havasi: Reti Opening A07 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Bf5
In the second part of his suggested repertoire based on 3...Bf5 Gergö Havasi investigates white setups with d3. In the starting position White can prepare the advance e2-e4 or first play c4. Black generally equalises.
Although Black should theoretically have no problems with the knight move, the statistics show a high success rate for White. In Martin Breutigam’s article the alternatives to 3...f6 are also looked at.
Iotov: English Opening A21
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 d6
The move 2...d6 is linked to a simple plan: ...f5, ...Be7 and ...Nf6; as long as ...Nc6 has not been played, ...c6 (more rarely ...c5) also remains an option. White can play with or without d2-d4, but according to Valentin Iotov he should not be able to get much out of it.
With 5...e4 (instead of 5...Bc5) Black injects some sharpness into the opening. At the candidates tournament in Moscow there were successes for both sides. According to Evgeny Postny, however, the balance should not be disturbed.
From the diagram Black can play the “old variation” 10...0-0 or with 10...Nxd4 choose the “new variation”. In his very extensive article Andrey Terekhov examines both and also sets a few test exercises.
Anyone not wishing to play 9...d5, can choose the move order which leads to the diagram. As Krisztian Szabo shows in his article, by doing so Black takes a great risk. With best play on both sides White can certainly gain an advantage.
Neither 6.f4 nor 7.Bd3 is very popular, but as Marian Petrov demonstrates in his contribution, Black needs to know what he is doing if he is not to rapidly fall behind. Probably 7...Nbd7 is the best reply.
According to Viktor Gavrikov Black can equalise with 12...Na5; he is planning ...Nc4 and ...e5. The knight move has been slightly less analysed to death than e.g.12...Rb8 and 12...Bf8, but nevertheless leads to typical Scheveningen positions.
In the 3rd part of his series on the Chigorin Defence, Valeri Bronznik examines two queen moves which are intended to exploit the absence of the opposing light-squared bishop from the queenside: 5.Qa4 and 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Qb3. Black needs to know what he is doing and play accurately.
The main line of the Vienna Variation (6.Bg5) has been analysed to great depth; the gambit 6.Bxc4 is a viable alternative. Robert Ris cannot prove an advantage for White, but nor does he see how Black should safely equalise.
This time Mihail Marin examines variations in which Black plays ...e5 – either immediately or after preparatory moves. The judgement of our Romanian author is a cautious one: he cannot say definitely that there is an advantage for White, but he would rather have the white pieces.
It is slightly surprising that Black is able to play 8...c5 at this juncture. Alexey Kuzmin calls it the Radulski Variation because the Bulgarian grandmaster who passed away at an early age (1972-2013) played this way. But in the meantime Kramnik too has adopted the variation in his repertoire.
Michal Krasenkow introduces an easy to learn plan against the early check by the white bishop. The Polish grandmaster bases this on typical Grünfeld moves, which can easily be assimilated.
Karsten MüllerKarsten Müller is considered to be one of the greatest endgame experts in the world. His books on the endgame - among them "Fundamentals of Chess Endings", co-authored with Frank Lamprecht, that helped to improve Magnus Carlsen's endgame knowledge - and his endgame columns for the ChessCafe website and the ChessBase Magazine helped to establish and to confirm this reputation. Karsten's Fritztrainer DVDs on the endgame are bestsellers. The mathematician with a PhD lives in Hamburg, and for more than 25 years he has been scoring points for the Hamburger Schachklub (HSK) in the Bundesliga.
The new Komodo Dragon 3 engine has gained 100 Elo points in playing strength over its predecessor when using a processor core in blitz. That's a huge improvement for a program that already reached at
an Elo level of over 3500!
The Stonewall Attack (d4 followed by e3 and possibly f4) is an old-fashioned opening, almost forgotten, not thought to give White any advantage at all. Yet it still packs a punch and is not so easy to defend against. It is especially good for club players
White gains space on the queenside, forces the opponent to use their own resources right from the start of the game and creates a complicated position.
In this two-part course the emphasis will be on typical pawn-structures. “Open and half-open files” and “the pawn chain” will be covered extensively on this video course. New: now also available as stream!
€29.90
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, analysis cookies and marketing cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies. Here you can make detailed settings or revoke your consent (if necessary partially) with effect for the future. Further information can be found in our data protection declaration.
Pop-up for detailed settings
We use cookies and comparable technologies to provide certain functions, to improve the user experience and to offer interest-oriented content. Depending on their intended use, cookies may be used in addition to technically required cookies, analysis cookies and marketing cookies. You can decide which cookies to use by selecting the appropriate options below. Please note that your selection may affect the functionality of the service. Further information can be found in our privacy policy.
Technically required cookies
Technically required cookies: so that you can navigate and use the basic functions and store preferences.
Analysis Cookies
To help us determine how visitors interact with our website to improve the user experience.
Marketing-Cookies
To help us offer and evaluate relevant content and interesting and appropriate advertisement.
