Gustafsson: Politician's Simul in Berlin + product review

Politicians' Chess Simul

Last Wednesday the Hamburg Representation in the Federal Government in Berlin invited chess playing politicians to take part in an event featuring a sixteen-board simultaneous exhibition given by GM Jan Gustafsson.

The simul has just begun, the players – MPs, Secretaries of State, Embassy officials
wait for the grandmaster to make his first move

GM Jan Gustafsson in action, accompanied by MC Dr Hajo Schumacher

A team of advisors was available for the players: WIM Sarah Hoolt, GM Raj Tischbierek,
and WFM Stefanie Schulz, watching the games in the background

Mizumoto Horii, Second Secretary of the Japanese Embassy, needed no help

Hajo asks MP Katrin Werner about her position and her chess enthusiasm

At the end of the event there are just two boards left. Final score: 15½-½ for the GM

Jan Gustafsson with the sponsor Sebastian Blom (right), the chief editor of the magazine
Politik & Kommuniktion Sebastian Lange and the winner of of one of the prizes.

The prizes are two Marshall DVDs by Gustafsson and one Open Games DVD, the
winners aren Mizumoto Horri of the Japanese Embassy, Ralf Seibicke, head of a
State Finance Ministry and Ronald Schwarz of the German Foreign Ministry

Jan Gustafsson: Impressive depth and surprising originality

Review by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson

In this DVD GM Gustafsson presents the rest of his recommended repertoire against 1.e4, which is based on 1…e5. In the first DVD the popular Marshall gambit of the main line Spanish was analyzed in great depth. The recommendations are based on GM Gustafsson´s own repertoire. This DVD thus covers quite many variations, the Kings Gambit, lines where white plays Nc3, lines where white plays Bc4, lines where white goes for a quick d4 and also lines where white plays the Spanish, but does not go for the mainline to name a few.

For his first DVD, I gave GM Gustafsson the highest possible marks, or 5 out f 5 stars. I especially liked his ambitious interpretation of the opening, aiming for a win with black, his independent and original interpretation of the latest theory and the high quality, clarity and great depth of his analysis. I also liked his presentation, which I found instructive, well organized and to the point.

Being a mainline, the Marshall gambit has been analyzed very deeply, and the theory of the sidelines, which are covered here, is obviously not quite as deep. This together with the fact, that the topic of this DVD is very broad, perhaps unsurprisingly has led to a bit less depth of the analysis that are presented on this DVD. The other strong points of the first DVD, however, remain. In this DVD, I especially like the ambitious, original and highly up to date interpretation of the opening.



Surprisingly many opening theoreticians, which analyze the 1. e4 e5 lines for black set themselves the goal to present a solid repertoire for black, where the aim is the get a playable position. They don’t try too much to punish white for reckless play in the opening, like is the case for example in literature on the Sicilian. GM Gustafsson, however, interprets 1…e5 very ambitiously and tries to prove an advantage for black against various dubious gambits and generally to find ways for black to play for a win. He has obviously given the recommended variations a lot of thought and in many cases his recommendations are quite original and not the same lines as are most often played or recommended elsewhere.

• Click here for a sampler

He backs his recommendations quite convincingly with concrete variations and arguments. The presentation is as before quite good and generally GM Gustafsson uses the time of his audience very efficiently. I especially liked that description of the general strategy has been improved compared to the first DVD. GM Gustafsson presents the theory in both English and in his mother language German. I liked the German version a bit better. GM Gustafsson speaks very good English, but seemed for some reason to be a little bit less relaxed and confident in the English version. This is something that I think he could work on and will no doubt improve with more experience.

The bottom line:

This DVD gets 5 out of 5 possible stars. I liked the first DVD a little bit more than this one, because the depth of the analysis files there was slightly more impressive. In this one, however, the recommended lines are chosen very carefully and in general GM Gustafsson´s recommendations present black with more possibilities to play for a win, than other work that I have seen on these openings. I highly recommend it. I hope that we will see many more DVDs from GM Gustafsson. For future DVDs, my preference would be to cover not too many variations in each DVD and to focus more on depth than breath.

• Order the full Jan Gustafsson package here

Sample videos

• Sample video on Four Knghts
• Sample vidoe on the Marshall
• Sample video on the Antimarshall

The prices is €32.90 incl. VAT, €27.65 ($38.21) without VAT for customers outside the EU. Both volumes together cost €59.90 (€50.34 or $69.56 without VAT for Customers outside the EU) instead of €65.80 when ordered separately. Clicking any product above will take you to the shop where it can be ordered.

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