From Saint Louis to Larsen: CBM 180

Kasparov comes and goes

ChessBase Magazine 180 Review

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After ages Garry Kasparov has made his appearance on the covers of this magazine. Not without reason. The legendary player competed in the recent St. Louis Rapid and Blitz Tournament. Sadly, success eluded him and he suffered from a reversal of fortunes in quite a few games.

His meeting with David Navara was a tragicomedy. Readers are quite familiar with the finale and here I shall only dwell on what may have been missed.

Kasparov,Garry (2812)-Navara,David (2735), Saint Louis Rapid 2017 

King's Gambit Vol.1

This DVD concentrates on the King's Gambit accepted with 3.Bc4. Williams has included a lot of novelties and interesting attacking variations that should wet the lips of any attacking player, looking for an interesting way of meeting 1...e5!

The decisive moment was captured by IM Saravanan for ChessBase:

Garry finished the rapid tournament with the score, 3.5/9 (+1 -3 = 5). He was outplayed in a few games and in the rest he was just unlucky. 

Garry’s turbulent quest for victory

Then began the blitz tournament. In his turbulent quest for victory Garry took appalling risks.  In the game with Karjakin he opened with King’s Gambit and then followed it up with 4.Ke2, stunning the spectators not to mention his opponent. 

Kasparov's realpolitik | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Fortunately, Karjakin did not lose his nerve and held back the attack by his legendary rival. Here is what happened:

Kasparov,Garry(2812)-Karjakin,Sergei (2773),Saint Louis Blitz 2017 

Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen

Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.

There are as many as 27 games played by Garry in this issue. I would have loved to see all of them annotated. Readers looking for more would find it here: Kasparov in St. Louis, a closer look

To return to the tournament, the rapid section was won by Aronian, and the blitz by Karjakin. To his credit Levon took the combined standings.

Apart from rapid & blitz encounters at Saint Louis event this issue includes games from four major tournaments, Sinquefield Cup, FIDE Grand Prix Geneva, Biel Festival and Dortmund 2017. It’s hard to do justice to all of them. At Sinquefield Cup Carlsen was pipped at the post by Maxime Vachier Lagrave.  Here a major role was played by their personal encounter that Magnus lost in a game of fluctuating fortunes. Yet Magnus redeemed himself by beating Aronian. That game is annotated by Krisztian Szabo in this issue.

A Challenge for Young Readers 

In the following position Levon played 37…Kh7. Did he miss a continuation that would have turned tables on Magnus? Here is an opportunity for young readers to match their wits with the Armenian talent. Your move.

After Aronian played the cautious 37…Kh7 Magnus had less than a minute to time control. Instantly he moved 38.Qd3!, Levon responding with 38…Qe5 at lightning speed to trip up the opponent. 

However, Magnus was not to be caught off stride and duly won. Readers can see the rest of the game here:

Carlsen, Magnus (2822)-Aronian, Levon (2809), Sinquefield Cup 2017

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This brings me to other sections of this magazine. Apart from trademark sections on strategy, tactics and the endgame, there are 12 opening surveys ranging from the Sicilian to the Semi-Slav. Among them I would single out the analyses of Sicilian Sveshnikov by Petra Papp and the English Opening by Mihail Marin.

In all there are 955 OTB games of which 141 are annotated. The annotators include HouYifan, Mihail Marin and Krasenkow.  

The Great Dane Remembered

A special mention should be made of Peter Heine Nielsen who has annotated three wins of Carlsen from Paris and Leuven Grand Chess Tour events. Two of them are with Maxime Vachier Lagrave and one is with Kramnik. The last game began with a rare ‘bird” in modern praxis, 1.f4!?

Apparently, the choice was inspired by a Viking Magnus has always admired.

Bent Larsen | Photo: Netherlands National Archive

Last but not least, a major contribution is made by veteran grandmaster, Suat Atalik who has annotated as many as 36 games for this issue.

More info. on this issue may be found here.

Recommended.

ChessBase Magazine 180

Enjoy the best moments of recent top tournaments (Sinquefield Cup, FIDE Grand Prix Geneva, Biel) with analysis of top players. In addition you'll get lots of training material. For example 12 new suggestions for your opening repertoire.

Links

• Fighting chess in CBM 179