The new European champion, Matthias Bluebaum, comments. New video series by Jan Markos: "Practical tips for the tournament player". Opening videos by Sokolov, Rogozenco and Marin. 10 opening articles for your oening repertoire and much more!
Dorian Rogozenco presents a pawn sacrifice against the Grünfeld Defence, which the new European Champion also used successfully. Ivan Sokolov has come across the innovation 8...h5 in the Ragozin Variation, which he examines in detail in this and the upcoming CBM. And Mihail Marin explains why in the Slav Defence after 5...Bf5 he no longer fears the continuation 6.Ne5.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+ Nc6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bxc6 bxc6 11.Qc2
In his game against Velimir Ivic the new European Champion, Matthias Bluebaum, managed an important victory on the way to winning the title with a relatively new idea against the Grünfeld Defence. This game provided the impetus for our author to take a closer look at the variation. In his video analysis Rogozenco first goes into some basic concepts of both sides and then into the concrete variations - starting with the three replies 8...Bd7, 8...Nd7 and 8...Nc6. The latter is clearly the main move, since only in this way does Black have any chance of maintaining the pressure on the pawn on d4. After 9.0-0 0-0 10.Bxc6 bxc6 11.Qc2 is a new idea that makes it much more difficult for Black to get counterplay. With this move, White sacrifices a pawn, but in return Black has to give his dark-squared bishop. After 11...cxd4 12.cxd4 Bg4 13. Ne5 Qxd4 14.Bb2 Qb6 15.Rab1 Bxe5 16. Bxe5 "the main position of this whole variation" shows up on the board. "White always has good compensation, and the white game is out of danger. Only Black is in danger, and only if he is very well prepared, he will have chances of achieving a draw."
Grünfeld Defence (Excerpt from CBM #208)
Total video playing time in CBM #208: 22:00
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Bb4 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 g5 8. Bg3 h5
The Ragozin Variation is one of the classics in the Queen's Gambit. And yet surprising innovations are still possible here too! Ivan Sokolov, for example, recently came across the move 8...h5 in a game from an Open in Menorca. The advance of the h-pawn is not unusual for this system, but Black's normal continuation here is 8...Ne4 and only then, if necessary, the h-pawn is set in motion. So where are the differences? First of all, 8...h5 offers the practical advantage of limiting White's options – since after 8...Ne4 White has a number of promising alternatives at his disposal. Sokolov has divided his analyses into two parts: In this issue he examines the rather rarely expected continuations 9.f3, 9.Be5, Qb3, Qa4+ and 9.h3. In CBM #209 he will then concentrate on the main move 9.h4.
Queen's Gambit Ragozin Variation (Part I) (Excerpt from CBM #208)
Total video plaing time in CBM #208: 24:11
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6
The classic Slav Defence with 5...Bf5 is characterised by hypermodern play, as Black leaves the centre to his opponent in order to effectively put it under pressure himself with his active pieces. Mihail Marin has long been captivated by the character of the Slav Defence, but has never played it himself with Black. A major reason for this is the move 6.Ne5, which is an invitation to very long forced variations - which is not to everyone's taste. Starting from the Aronian-Rapport game from the Superbet tournament in Bucharest 2022, Marin shows that Black can keep the game positionally by means of 6...Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 a5 and thus avoid long theoretical variations. The game also shows a paradoxical manoeuvre of the light-squared bishop, which successively displays its usefulness on different board sectors.
Slav Defence (Excerpt from CBM #208
Total video plaing time in CBM #208: 24:50
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On the first page of ChessBase Magazine #208 you have direct access to the editors' recommendations: the highlights of the issue!
European Championship 2022: Matthias Blübaum celebrated the greatest success of his career so far by winning the European Championship. The new champion comments on two of his games as well as the winners of the silver and bronze medals, Gabriel Sargissian and Ivan Saric. Plus analyses of many other players, including Ruslan Ponomariov, Aryan Tari, Ivan Cheparinov, Rasmus Svane, Yuriy Kuzubov, Maxime Lagarde and others.
Superbet Bucharest 2022: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave beat Levon Aronian and Wesley So in the tiebreak. Anish Giri comments on three highlights from Bucharest, Dorian Rogozenco presents two games of the winner in the video.
Our new author, Jan Markos, is a Slovakian chess book author, trainer and grandmaster. His first contribution is about time management. First, Markos elaborates on three general and easy-to-implement recommendations in the more than 20-minute video. At the beginning there is a fundamental question: in which types of positions should we invest time at all - and in which not?
CBM authors analyse their favourite games from the first knockout world championship 25 years ago. An exclusive collection of 22 annotated games awaits you!
Following his examination of the London System against the King's Indian in CBM 207, Tanmay Srinath defends his favourite opening with White in this issue against an exceedingly combative approach by Black: 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 c5, which immediately leads to sharp and double-edged play. After 3.d5 b5!? the Indian recommends the enterprising pawn sacrifice 4.e4!
Dorian Rogozenco presents a pawn sacrifice against the Gruenfeld Defence, which the new European Champion also used successfully. Ivan Sokolov came across the innovation 8...h5 in the Ragozin Variation, which he examines in detail in this and the upcoming CBM. And Mihail Marin explains why in the Slav Defence after 5...Bf5 he no longer fears the move 6.Ne5.
Dorian Rogozenco: Gruenfeld Defence
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Bb5+
Ivan Sokolov: DG Ragozin Variation (Part I)
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Bb4 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 g5 8.Bg3 h5
Mihail Marin: Slav Defence
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Nb6 8.Ne5 a5
CBM #208 covers a broad spectrum with 10 opening articles:
Grigoriants: English 1.d4 e6 2.c4 b6 3.e4 Bb7 4.Bd3 f5 5.exf5
Papp: Trompovsky 1.d4 Nf6 2.Bg5 c5 Part I
Ris: Sicilian Sveshnikov 9.Nd5 Be7 10.Bxf6 Bxf6 11.c4 Nd4
Moskalenko: French Advance 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Nge7
Vogel: Italian 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.Re1 d6 7.a4 Be6
Kapnisis: Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c4
Kuzmin: Queen’s Gambit Accepted 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 a6 6.0-0 c5 7.Re1
Miron: Schara-Hennig Gambit 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5 4.cxd5 cxd4
Braun: Catalan 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Be7 5.Bg2 0–0 6.0–0 dxc4 7.Na3
Szabo: Nimzoindian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 d5 7.Bg5 c5
"The second look", "Unspoken invitations" and much more. - Rainer Knaak examines eight traps from current tournament practice, three of which he also presents in video format.
Test your chess move by move with Robert Ris! Radoslaw Wojraszek's brilliant game against Kacper Piorun is made for the interactive training format: from seizing the initiative to preventing counterplay to a successful attack on your opponent’s king!
Mihail Marin discusses five strategic topics on the basis of the game material –incl. video introduction (playing time: 22 minutes)
Alexander Alekhine himself described his game against Richard Réti in Baden-Baden in 1925 as one of his most brilliant games ever. Enjoy the video presentation by Dorian Rogozenco!
Oliver Reeh's tactics contribution consists of 34 games with many training questions. Solve his favourite combinations together with the International Master in the interactive video format!
Karsten Mueller provides comprehensive training material for the highest demands. Not only on the World Championship tournament 25 years ago, but also on the Oslo Esports Cup 2022, the Hamburg endgame expert provides plenty of illustrative material and analyses (incl. video)..
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Single issue: 19,95€ or annual subscription (6 issues) 99,70€. You can find the ChessBase Magazine subscription (incl. ChessBase USB stick for new subscribers) on the CBM homepage! Or subscribe to ChessBase Magazine in the ChessBase Shop right away!
