7/4/2018 – In the latest magazine issue #4 from New In Chess, you can find an in-depth story on the U.S. Championship by GM Alejandro Ramirez: "The tallest king In St. Louis". Sam Shankland's win kicked off a remarkable streak — in a matter of two months, he jumped from 2671 to 2727. He gained 59 Elo points in a span of just 60 days and raced to the rank of world number 27, jumping from being a strong grandmaster to a super elite player. NIC shares this excerpt from their feature story. Photo: Lennart Ootes
new: ChessBase Magazine 225
Chess Festival Prague 2025 with analyses by Aravindh, Giri, Gurel, Navara and others. ‘Special’: 27 highly entertaining miniatures. Opening videos by Werle, King and Ris. 10 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. ChessBase Magazine offers first-class training material for club players and professionals! World-class players analyse their brilliant games and explain the ideas behind the moves. Opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in tactics, strategy and endgames show you the tricks and techniques you need to be a successful tournament player! Available as a direct download (incl. booklet as pdf file) or booklet with download key by post. Included in delivery: ChessBase Magazine #225 as “ChessBase Book” for iPad, tablet, Mac etc.!
No other World Champion was more infamous both inside and outside the chess world than Bobby Fischer. On this DVD, a team of experts shows you the winning techniques and strategies employed by the 11th World Champion.
Grandmaster Dorian Rogozenco delves into Fischer’s openings, and retraces the development of his repertoire. What variations did Fischer play, and what sources did he use to arm himself against the best Soviet players? Mihail Marin explains Fischer’s particular style and his special strategic talent in annotated games against Spassky, Taimanov and other greats. Karsten Müller is not just a leading international endgame expert, but also a true Fischer connoisseur.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
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The final sprint
The three last rounds were focused on only three people. Caruana, Shankland, and So as the outsider looking in. It was easy to predict that Shankland and Caruana would fight tooth and nail for every full point every game, but the outcome of the last rounds was amazing. ‘I’ve never been tied for the lead with three rounds to go, scored 2½/3 and not even shared first’, said an incredulous Caruana.
Things started off in a strange game between Shankland and St. Louis University’s Yaroslav Zherebukh. After winning a piece due to a mistake by his opponent, Shankland contained the counterplay and obtained a decisive advantage, which he let slip little by little until Zherebukh had a certain draw. Not finding it, he kept misplaying the endgame, and eventually lost it. Caruana was unable to break through Nakamura’s defences, and was lucky that Nakamura rejected the following combination:
After suffering for a while, Caruana misstepped and was forced into this position. Here Nakamura played 46...♖d8 and the game ended in a draw after 53 moves.
In a bullet game Nakamura finds 46...♕xe4, plays it and collects the full point. Nakamura finds the move and for some odd reason does not play it.
After 46...♕xe4 47.♕xe4 ♗xe4 48.♖xe4 ♘xb2 the passed pawn is impossible to stop. There are too many checks with the knight and White’s pieces are constantly getting forked. The only try is: 49.♔e2 ♘xc4! 50.♗c3 b2 51.♗xb2 ♘xb2. We reach this position basically by force. Caruana asked Nakamura after the game if he had not seen 46...♕xe4, to which he replied that he had, but that he thought that this endgame was unclear. That is baffling.
With two rounds to go, Shankland had established a half-point lead, but he had to face Onischuk with Black in the penultimate round. Besides Nakamura, Onischuk was certainly the most negative surprise of the event. Going from second place last year to a dismal 3/11 is hard to explain. Probably the truth is that everyone, even someone as strong and consistent as Onischuk, can have a bad tournament once in a while. Shankland was on fire, and despite missing a simple win in the middle of the game, he convincingly outplayed his opponent with no chances at all.
Well, why am I telling you anything, here are the annotations by the winner!
Alexander Onischuk 0-1 Sam Shankland (annotated by Shankland)
The Ragozin is being played by every top grandmaster in the world - it is time you also add it to your repertoire to get interesting and dynamic positions against 1. d4! GM Alejandro Ramirez analyses every single move that White can play once the Ragozin is reached, but due to several transpositional possibilities he always emphasises strategic goals to keep in mind.
Sam Shankland briefly glances at the game Robson-So as he places the playing room in full concentration during his game against Onischuk | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Meanwhile, also with black, Caruana evaporated Zherebukh, keeping the tension alive. Round 10 had a very curious statistic. Three players scored their only full point of the tournament: Xiong (over Lenderman), Liang (over Izoria) and Nakamura (over Akobian). If someone had predicted this before the event, with Nakamura being one of the players and Xiong coming from a 2800+ performance in his previous tournament, I would have been incredulous.
The last round was set, one more hurdle for Shankland: boy-wonder Awonder Liang, with White. As it was not unreasonable to expect that Caruana, also with White, would outplay Onischuk and take the full point (as indeed happened), Shankland needed a win.
Sam Shankland 1-0 Awonder Liang (annotated by Alex Yermolinsky)
Note: In New In Chess the same is annotated by Shankland himself
The Caro-Kann Defence is one of the most solid replies for Black after 1.e4. Bologan's choice of the Advance Variation for White is because of the complex strategical play in which White has a long-term space advantage.
They both know Black is completely lost. Awonder Liang will soon resign. Sam Shankland patiently awaits the greatest moment in his career so far. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Finally US Champion! I had dreamt of this moment for as long as I could remember, and I was glad to play a strong final game to clinch the title, a 2700+ rating, $50,000, and the satisfaction of playing the best tournament of my career so far.
About New In Chess Magazine
New In Chess is read by club players in 116 countries.
8 issues a year
800 pages a year of the very best in chess
game annotations by the best players on the planet
on-the-spot tournament reports
columns both serious and hilarious
in-depth interviews
'Secrets of Opening Surprises'
chess history that comes to life
an honest GM opinion on the latest chess books
exclusive columns by Judit Polgar, Nigel Short, Hans Ree and Parimarjan Negi
the digital edition is available for iPad or iPhone, for Android tablet or phone and for Windows desktop and notebook (Windows 8 and 10)
The magazine has regular contributions from all the world’s best players: Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Vishy Anand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov, Alexander Grischuk, Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan. Editor-in-chief is Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam.
Sam Shankland: The tallest king In St. Louis Caruana, So or Nakamura, who would be the new US Champion? Well, none of them, as Sam Shankland claimed the title, pocketed $ 50,000 and finally crossed the 2700 ELO mark.
Magnus Carlsen: Hat-trick in Shamkir ‘Mediocre’ play proved good enough for Magnus Carlsen to win the Vugar Gashimov Memorial for the third time (with a 2884 performance).
Fabiano Caruana continued Only four days after the Candidates in Berlin, Fabiano Caruana sat down to play ... Magnus Carlsen! The American won the Grenke Classic. Vincent Keymer (13) sensationally claimed the Grenke Open.
Nigel Short Columnist Nigel Short explains why he is running for FIDE President.
Judit Polgar Time-trouble is no good, Judit Polgar warns, but can produce fascinating chess.
New In ChessNew In Chess (NIC) was founded in 1984 and appears eight times a year. It is read by club players in 116 countries. A yearly subscription for eight issues costs €79.99.
Instead of forcing you to memorise endless lines, Raja focuses on clear plans, typical ideas, and attacking motifs that you can apply in your own games without delay. A short, focused, and practical repertoire.
FIDE World Cup 2025 with analyses by Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Shankland, Wei Yi and many more. Opening videos by Blohberger, King and Marin. 11 exciting opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
GM Blohberger presents a complete two-part repertoire for Black: practical, clear, and flexible – instead of endless theory, you’ll get straightforward concepts and strategies that are easy to learn and apply.
Opening videos: Sipke Ernst brings the Ulvestad Variation up to date + Part II of ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’. Special: Jan Werle shows highlights from the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 in the video. ‘Lucky bag’ with 40 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
€14.90
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