ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
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As I write these lines, Hikaru Nakamura featured on the cover here has won the U.S. Championship. The American talent has moved from strength to strength in recent months.
This issue of ChessBase Magazine carries reports on two tournaments that he won. The first was Gibralter 2015 and Nakamura dominated the event throughout, finishing with 8.5/10. The second, Zürich Chess Challenge, was the stronger event, with most of the elite grandmasters participating (Anand, Aronian, Kramnik, Caruana).
Nakamura and Anand ran the race neck-to neck till the end, with the U.S.
grandmaster prevailing over Vishy only in the tie-breaker to clinch the
title.
[Event "Zurich CC (TB) "] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Anand, Viswanathan"] [Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Result "0-1"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "1r4k1/3b1ppp/2p1p3/b1Pp2P1/3P1P2/r3PK2/7P/2RN1BR1 b - - 0 24"] [PlyCount "11"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 24... e5 $1 {A bolt from the blue!} 25. fxe5 ({if} 25. dxe5 Bf5 {as in the game }) 25... Bf5 {preventing Rc2 and preparing to strike with ...Bd2 or ...Be4} 26. Rg2 (26. Kf4 Bd2 $19) 26... Be4+ 27. Kf4 Bxg2 28. Bxg2 Ra2 29. Bf3 Bd2 0-1
The former world champion, however, had his moment of glory with a classic victory against Aronian’s Grünfeld Defence. The encounter is deeply annotated by Michael Roiz in this issue.
The young grandmaster has also annotated other high level encounters and his analysis of the following game is worthy of attention.
The above image of Anand-Carlsen encounter
is captured by Georgios Souleidis and
was taken from the official site of the Tournament. Here is a critical moment:
[Event "3rd Grenke Chess Classic "] [Site "?"] [Date "2015.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Anand, Viswanathan"] [Black "Carlsen, Magnus"] [Result "0-1"] [Annotator "Michael Roiz"] [SetUp "1"] [FEN "r4rk1/1p3q2/2p1Rn2/2P2Ppp/1P6/p5PB/1bQ2B1P/3R2K1 b - - 0 29"] [PlyCount "15"] [EventDate "2015.??.??"] 29... Ng4 $2 {This natural move is an error according to Roiz for it gives White rooks a free run. The knight on f6 would have prevented access to them on the second and the third rank.} ({Instead he suggests} 29... Rfe8 $1 { offering the following line,} 30. b5 cxb5 31. Bg2 b4 32. Bf1 Kh8 33. Bc4 Rxe6 34. fxe6 Qe7 $17) 30. Rg6+ Kh7 31. Bxg4 hxg4 32. Rd7 $4 {A terrible hallucination! Somewhere Anand got his lines mixed up.} (32. Re6 $1 Rfe8 33. Be3 Be5 34. h4 gxh3 35. Rg6 Bg7 36. Rd7 $1 {The conception that failed in the game works here.} Qxd7 37. f6 Qd1+ 38. Qxd1 Kxg6 39. Qd3+ Kxf6 40. Bd4+ {The point.After the exchange of bishops the queen can give checks on both diagonals.} Kf7 41. Qf5+ Kg8 42. Bxg7 Kxg7 43. Qxg5+ $11) 32... Qxd7 33. f6 Qd1+ 34. Qxd1 Kxg6 35. Qd3+ Kh6 36. h4 gxh3 0-1
It may be pointed out, Michael Roiz is the only commentator to have shown that 29…Ng4 is an error. Others applauded the move without seeing that it could have cost Magnus the victory. But then he is also human and fallible. In this tournament and Wijk-aan-Zee he took risks, dropping games against Naiditsch and Wojtaszek. He came first any way and winners are not questioned. In Wijk-aan-Zee he beat old rivals, Aronian and Caruana, a matter of satisfaction to him.
When you look at the reports in this issue, also see how the tail-enders fared. For their trials and tribulations often match our own.
This brings me to other sections of the magazine. There are as many as eleven opening surveys ranging from Sicilian to Slav Defence. You may take your pick. Besides, there are the trademark sections on tactics, strategy and the endgame. In all there are 1928 OTB games of which 106 are annotated.
For fans of correspondence chess the good news is that Telechess is back. There are 9485 CC games of which 38 are annotated by GMs Juan Morgado and Roberto Alvarez.
Here is food for thought.
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Sagar Shah: English Opening A20 1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nf6 3.Bg2 h6 White does without Nc3, so as to avoid ...Bb4. According to Sagar Shah in 3...h6 Black has a sort of useful waiting move, ...Nc6 is delayed. After 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Nd5 Nxd5 6.cxd5 we can see a difference – Black does not need to move his Nc6. |
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Souleidis: Double Fianchetto A50 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0-0 0-0 According to Georgios Souleidis this setup is becoming more and more popular for Black. Above all after 7.Nc3 – the usual move - 7...Ne4 one can safely count on equality. After the stronger 7.d5 Black even has two promising continuations with 7...Ne4 and 7...Na6. |
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Sumets: Old Indian Defence A54 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.Nf3 e5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 A setup with e3 is not so aggressive, but in return it also offers fewer targets for the opponent to attack. For example, White does not have to protect a pawn on e4. As Andrey Sumets demonstrates, Black does not find it easy to equalise after 6...0-0 7.Be2. |
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Ris: Sicilian Defence B35 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0-0 8.Bb3 d5 This comes as a surprise. After all the d5-pawn is simply hanging. But as Robert Ris demonstrates in his article, 9.exd5 Na5 may be obvious, but after it the way to an advantage for White may be possible but, however, it is not easy to find over the board. |
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Szabo: Sicilian Defence B90 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 Nbd7 11.g4 b5 12.Rg1 With 12.Rg1 White deviates from the main variation (12.g5). One of the ideas can be seen after 12...b4 13.Nd5 – now Black cannot take on d5 with the knight, because the Be6 does not have access to the f5-square. As Krisztian Szabo shows, however, that is not the only idea behind 12.Rg1. |
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Havasi: French Defence C06 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.Bd3 c5 6.c3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.0-0 Bd6 11.Nf3 0-0 12.Bf4 Bxf4 13.Nxf4 Ne4 In this principled variation – there is little occasion to deviate – White may have a slight initiative after 14.Qc1, but according to Gergo Havasi Black can maintain the equilibrium with accurate play. |
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Marin: French Defence C08 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.exd5 exd5 5.Bb5+ Nc6 6.Qe2+ Be7 7.dxc5 Nf6 8.Nb3 0-0 With the two checks on moves 5 and 6, White is trying to impose on the play a forcing character. But as Mihail Marin’s analyses prove, Black can stand up to the pressure quite well. |
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Kuzmin: Slav D11 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bg4 5.h3 Bh5 6.g4 Bg6 7.Ne5 The actual idea behind the clear opening plan presented by Alexey Kuzmin has not yet been executed in the diagram: White wants to play Nd2 and then, without having to worry about the c4-pawn, be able to develop his bishop to g2. |
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Postny: Queen's Gambit D38 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 0-0 8.Rc1 dxc4 9.Bxc4 c5 10.0-0 cxd4 The position in the diagram has been seen in several recent games and Evgeny Postny examines the latest trends. His conclusion: the white initiative is only temporary, Black can have high hopes of equalising. |
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Stohl: Semi-Slav/Catalan E04 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c6 4.Nc3 e6 5.g3 It starts with the Semi-Slav and transposes to the Catalan. For Igor Stohl it is clear that Black should take the c4-pawn, but after that there are still some open questions. |
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Krasenkow: Bogo Indian Defence E11 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 b6 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Bxd2 Bb7 7.Bg5 d6 8.e3 Nbd7 Michal Krasenkow presents his own repertoire against the Bogo-Indian. In the second part he deals with the main variation of this system. It is not easy for Black to achieve complete equality. |
