CBM Extra #224: "The brilliancy"

by ChessBase
4/2/2025 – At the end of last year, Alexander Donchenko won the Saint Louis Masters 2024 in the USA - level on points with Fabiano Caruana. The German grandmaster took the decisive step towards a shared tournament victory in his encounter with the American top player in the final round, which Donchenko won with the black pieces! ‘This is undoubtedly the biggest victory in a single game,’ summarises our author in his analysis in the new ChessBase Magazine Extra #224. Take a look at our latest reading sample in ChessBase Books format!

Videos by Nico Zwirs: Nimzo-Indian with 4.e3 b6 and Robert Ris: French Advance Variation with 6.Na3. Alexander Donchenko analyses his winning game against Fabiano Caruana from the Saint Louis Masters 2024. "Lucky bag" with another 43 analyses by Edouard,

Free reading sample: ‘The brilliancy’ from CBM Extra #224

Click on one of the following graphics to download the analysis - for reading and playing hrough - in ChessBase Books format.

In addition to Alexander Donchenko's contribution, CBM Extra #224 offers 43 further game analyses by Romain Edouard, Abhijeet Gupta, Rainer Knaak, Fiona Sieber and many others.

13...b5: ‘...for the first time I thought I was actually fighting for an advantage.’

ChessBase Magazine Extra #224 - Content

Opening videos

Nico Zwirs: Nimzo-Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Nge2 Ne4 

If you want to avoid sharp variations in the Nimzo-Indian with 4.e3 with Black, the side line 4…b6 may be an option, because here Black can hope for a more positional course of the game. Nico Zwirs examines the variation using the topical game Maghsoodloo-Gledura from the German Bundesliga (2025).

Robert Ris: French Advance Variation

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6 6.Na3

Robert Ris prepared a small opening surprise for his game against the young Ukrainian FM Mykola Korchynskyi at the Open in Wolfsberg 2024: After the standard moves 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.c3 Nc6 5.Nf3 Qb6, our author continued with the not new but rare move 6.Na3. After the exchange 6...cxd4 7.cxd4, Black first has the option of weakening White’s pawn structure with 7...Bxa3 - Robert Ris explains why this, however, is not a good idea for Black! The main continuation is 7...Bb4+, and the game Ris-Korchynskyi continued 8.Bd2 Nge7 9.Nc2 Bxd2+ 10.Qxd2 Qxb2. Black now is a pawn up, but White has strong attacking potential after Black's short castling. In his video, Robert Ris demonstrates the complete game including the novelty 14.Nh4 prepared for that game.

“Lucky bag”: Analyses by Alexander Donchenko, Romain Edouard, Abhijeet Gupta, Rainer Knaak, Fiona Sieber and many more.

The “Lucky bag” of this CBM Extra contains 44 annotated games from various tournaments.

The "Update service" once again delivers over 40,000 new games for your database!

The games from the Update Service are also included in the Mega Update Service 2025, which you can use with the ChessBase 17/18 programs (and a corresponding subscription).

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