Must-have: Master Class Vol. 07 on Garry Kasparov

 MASTER CLASS VOL. 07

Garry Kasparov

There was a period in the chess world when people would discuss who would finish second if Garry Kasparov was playing in a tournament! Yes, such was his dominance in the world of chess. Right from 1985 when he became the youngest World Champion in the history of the game until 2005 when he retired from competitive chess he was considered by many as the greatest player who graced the game.

Of course, there is so much that we can learn from the great World Champion! But where do we start? Shall we begin seeing his phenomenal opening preparation? But then what about his amazing middle game combinations? And what about his World Championship matches against Karpov, where the 22-year-old avoided a whitewash and kept adapting to the situation to beat his experienced opponent! And not to forget, there are his matches against the best engine of the time – Deep Blue!

That's the problem. It is very difficult to systematically study the life of a great champion and learn something from it because the available material is just too much. That's precisely the reason why ChessBase has come out with the new Master Class Vol. 07, which deals with the life and games of Garry Kasparov.

Openings

Experienced German trainer GM Dorian Rogozenco takes care of the opening section of the DVD

Experienced German trainer GM Dorian Rogozenco takes care of the opening section of the DVD
Kasparov was famed for his opening preparation and hence justice has to be done to this section of the DVD. And Dorian Rogozenco does it in great fashion. There are nine clips focussing on the main weapons of Kasparov's opening play over the years:

1. Introductory video
2. White 1.e4 against the Najdorf
3. White 1.e4 against the Sveshnikov
4. White 1.e4 with Scotch
5. White 1.e4 with Ruy Lopez
6. White 1.d4 against Nimzo and Queen's Indian
7. Black against 1.e4
8. Black with Grunfeld
9. Black with the King's Indian

Strategy

Mihail Marin speaks about the strategic aspect of Garry's play in his five videos

To give you an example of what Marin covers in his five clips, here is the intro of one of the game:

Kasparov- Karpov, 19th game World Championship Match 1985. Marin considers that this game was highly significant for the match as Kasparov defeated his predecessor on the World Championship throne with the latter's own weapons: after a slight mistake in the opening Karpov is obliged to put his knight on the side of the board on a5. Kasparov strengthens his positions and goes on to win without Karpov making any discernable errors from that point onwards.

Marin's content is always high class and there is a lot to learn from these five clips.

Tactics

Oliver Reeh covers the tactics in the games of Kasparov. There are 20 positions in interactive format which will help you to not only understand how strong Kasparov was in calculations, but also help you to improve your tactical understanding. Here is one position for you:

Kasparov vs Topalov, 1999

One of Kasparov's most famous victories. Veselin Toplov has just played his queen to d6. What would you do as White?

Endgame

Karsten Mueller, the endgame expert, has a lot to say about Kasparov's endings. According to Mueller, one of Garry's biggest advantages was his ability to calculate concretely and accurately in the endgame, which helped him to convert many advantages into the full point. There are 13 clips in the endgame section.

Garry vs the computer

Garry playing against Deep Blue in New York, 1997

Karsten Mueller covers Kasparov's matches against Deep Blue in eight videos! In the first one he talks about the six games of the 1996 match, and then one video is dedicated to each of the game of the 1997 match! It is simply amazing to see how Garry fights one of the strongest computers of that time and is almost able to beat it!

There is a major database with training questions (162 games with 575 training questions) you can hone your own tactical understanding with the help of Kasparov’s strokes of genius.

Source: Sagar Shah, ChessBase India

17-minute sample of GM Dorian Rogozenko in Master Class Vol 07

Master Class Vol.7: Garry Kasparov by Dorian Rogozenco, Dr. Karsten Müller, Mihail Marin, Oliver Reeh Video running time: nine hours(English) Interactive tactics test with video feedback All Kasparov games, crosstables, short biography "Kasparov Powerbooks": the opening repertoire of the 13th world champion as a variation tree Tactics training with 162 Kasparov games: 575 training questions, a maximum of 1392 points €29.90 €25.13 without VAT (for Customers outside the EU) $27.14 (without VAT)  This DVD can be purchased as a hard copy or it can be downloaded directly from the Internet, that way sparing you the few days needed for it to arrive by post.

Order this Master Class DVD in the ChessBase Shop

Other Master Class DVDs by ChessBase

The Kasparov DVD is the seventh in the Master Class series on World Chess Champions. The others are on Fischer, Tal, Alekhine, Capablanca, Lasker and Karpov.

Check out our Master Class DVDs in the ChessBase Shop