7/14/2022 – ChessBase Magazine presents you with ideas for your repertoire in a variety of ways. In each issue you will find at least ten opening articles with recommendations from our authors, including analyses and annotated games. In addition, Raienr Knaak's collection of topical opening traps offers suggestions with which you can add tricky small weapons to your repertoire. And in each issue you will find three opening videos in which our authors address current developments. For CBM #208 Dorian Rogozenco, Ivan Sokolov and Mihail Marin have recorded opening videos - total playing time: over an hour. You can watch excerpts from all three contributions here!
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
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!
The Modern Steinitz (1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 d6!?) is an uncompromising weapon that lets Black put White under pressure from the very start.
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Opening videos in CBM #208: Grünfeld, Ragozin Variation and Slav Defence
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.
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
Ivan Sokolov: Queen's Gambit Ragozin Variation (Part I)
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)
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.
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!
ChessBase Magazine #208
Highlights of this issue
On the first page of ChessBase Magazine #208 you have direct access to the editors' recommendations: the highlights of the issue!
Top games and master analyses
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.
New video series: "Practical tips for the tournament player"
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?
Special: FIDE World Championship 1997
CBM authors analyse their favourite games from the first knockout world championship 25 years ago. An exclusive collection of 22 annotated games awaits you!
All in one
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!
Opening videos
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.
"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.
Move by Move
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!
"Knockout Strategies at the 1997 World Championship"
Mihail Marin discusses five strategic topics on the basis of the game material –incl. video introduction (playing time: 22 minutes)
The Classic
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!
Tactics: "Use your back rank!"
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!
"Endgame highlights from the FIDE World Championship 1997" and much more
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)..
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!
In this insightful video course, Grandmaster David Navara shares practical advice on when to calculate deeply in a position — and just as importantly, when not to.
The Trompowsky is especially suited for faster time controls as you don‘t have to memorise endless lines of theory, and you push your opponent out of their comfort zone after your second move.
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Trompowsky Powerbase 2025 is a database and contains a total of 8727 games from Mega 2025 and the Correspondence Database 2024, of which 316 are annotated.
2025 European Championship with a German double victory and analyses by Bluebaum, Svane, Rodshtein, Yuffa, Navara and many more. Opening videos by Engel, King and Marin. Training sections “The Fortress”, “The Trap” and “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" etc.
In this dynamic and practical video course, IM Andrew Martin arms you with powerful antidotes to White’s most annoying sidelines.
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