ChessBase Magazine #164It’s with a sense of déjà vu that one looks at Carlsen on the cover of this magazine. He did it again, winning the world championship match and retaining the title. A precious part of this issue is devoted to the games of The Match. After studying it all it’s important to carry forward the analysis and find sign posts for your own play.
From this point of view I found the analysis of game ten by Michal Krasenkow interesting. There is one point that he would not have known. During the game it was not clear why Anand did not play the critical sequence 12.Rd1 Bf5 13.d6. The answer to that question was to come from Anand himself early this year.
It's an intriguing game in which truth proved elusive for both players and commentators. In retrospect I am rather sceptical about the future of Prins Variation (7…Na6). The knight remains offside for a long time. Perhaps it should be brought into play sooner with…Nb4.
In the above game Carlsen chose 11… Re8 rather than 11… Bf5, the main line in this variation. But after Anand’s TN in the game with Aronian at Zürich Chess Classic 2015 its state has become rather critical.
Here is the game with fine commentary by Lubomir Kavalek
Apart from the World Championship this issue also carries brief reports on London Classic, Qatar Open and Petrosian Memorial Tournaments. All the games from these events are included and a number of them are annotated. There are also games from other events like the Bundesliga.
I was particularly interested in the following encounter from Qatar Open. IM Sagar Shah, who annotates the game in this issue, makes a valid point. Black stood worse after the opening and it was only later errors that led to White’s loss. The challenge for the practical player is to investigate how White could have played better.
This brings me to other contents of the current issue. There are as many as twelve opening surveys ranging from Vienna Game to Reti Opening. Among them Alexey Kuzmin’s analysis of Sicilian Paulsen deserves special mention. As is known, the line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 arose in the sixth game of the World Championship 2014. Here Carlsen played 7.Qd3 and Anand got into a difficult position. Quite a few experts like Rustam Kasimdzhanov thought, 7…d5 would have solved Black’s problems. Alexey Kuzmin does not agree.
He proposes an improvement a move earlier with 6…Qc7.
This makes sense and it is more in the spirit of Paulsen.
This issue also carries trademark sections with middle game strategy, tactics and endgame technique. For reasons of space I have not dealt with them here. In all there are 1479 games of which 115 are annotated. This time I did not see the trade mark feature, the Telechess section with correspondence games. Hopefully commentators Robert Alvarez and Juan Morgado would be back in the next issue.
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Illingworth: Reti Opening A11 In the second part of his article on the double fianchetto Max Illingworth looks into the most frequently played moves 7...a5 and 7...Bg4. As he does so, the author demonstrates above all what happens in the early middlegame – what White can make out of his positions which are generally slightly in his favour. |
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Moskalenko: Pirc Defence B09 In the diagram 7.0-0 is the move played most often, but as Viktor Moskalenko explains Black has absolutely no need to fear the tactical complications after 7...e5 8.fxe5 dxe5 9.d5 Nd4. And in the main variation 7.e5 dxe5 8.fxe5 Black even has two good moves: 8...Nh5 and 8...Ng4. |
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Kuzmin: Sicilian Defence B41 The queen move was a strong surprise weapon for Carlsen against Anand, but as Alexey Kuzmin shows in his article, it is more than that. It is difficult for Black to equalise at all and it can be supposed that in the future players will deviate. |
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Postny: Sicilian Defence B48 Instead of 7.Qd2 and 7.Bd3, moves played thousands of time, and other continuations, this time it is 7.Qf3 which is up for debate – a move which only the 11th most frequent. But as Evgeny Postny shows, the move has potential, its main idea consisting of Qg3, because after the exchange of queens White gets a very pleasant endgame. |
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Havasi: French Defence C06 The early exchange of bishops is a tried and trusted manoeuvre in the French. As Gergö Havasi demonstrates, with aggressive play White can build up some pressure, but the closed positions offer Black good chances of getting away with his plan. |
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Marin: French Defence C09 If you play 6...cxd4 or 6...Qe7+ (instead of the main move 6...Bd6), you have to be prepared to exchange queens at an early stage. In his extensive article Mihail Marin refers to many Korchnoi games, but also shows the modern treatment by Vadim Zvjaginsev. |
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Müller: Vienna Game C26 Karsten Müller’s new article is linked to his articles on the King’s Gambit: after 2...Nc6 the transposition is made with 3.f4. However, this time it is principally about 2...Bc5 (3.Nf3) and even more important - 2...Nf6 (3.g3). This way speculative sacrifices are avoided. |
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Ris: Queen’s Gambit Accepted D20 The 3...b5 variation is supposed to be made playable with a surprising exchange sacrifice. In his analyses Robert Ris comes to the conclusion that White can obtain a slight advantage, but in practice these positions are far from easy to play. |
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Gormally: Queen’s Gambit Accepted D24 In Part 2 Daniel Gormally turns to the sharp lines in which Black tries to defend his extra pawn. But all these attempts are dubious. Even when the positions which are reached are okay according to the engines, in practice Black is facing grave problems. |
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Krasenkow: Bogo-Indian E11 Michal Krasenkow presents his own repertoire against the Bogo-Indian. In the first part he shows above all what he has up his sleeve against the present main variation 4...0-0 5.a3 Be7, namely: 6.b4, which has not been played often so far but which is very venomous. |
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Breutigam: King’s Indian E60 As long as White has not played Nc3, Black cannot transpose to the Grünfeld Defence. But Martin Breutigam sees more in the setup he is presenting: after transpositions to the Benoni or the King’s Indian the pawn on e3 (instead of e4) also has an advantage: there is no need to defend it. |
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Szabo: King’s Indian E73 In the Averbakh Variation too, ...Na6 is a common move. White then strengthens his centre with 7.f4. But as Krisztian Szabo shows in his article, Black will then attack it rapidly with ...d5. In the sharp lines a good knowledge of the theory ids advisable. |
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