5/10/2023 – What happens when you find yourself in a lost position? Many chess players - as Jan Markos states in his video for ChessBase Magazine #213 - react to this realisation with a loss of energy or even inner resignation. They make a few more normal moves, and a little later the game is over. In the sixth part of his training series for ChessBase Magazine, Jan Markos explains what it takes to get the maximum out of a lost position in a practical game. Take a look at an excerpt from his video!
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Review of the WR Masters 2023 with analyses from Aronian, Duda, Esipenko, Gukesh, Keymer and Praggnanandhaa. "Special" on Vishy Anand. Opening videos by Mendonca, Bauer and Marin. Opening articles from Caro-Kann to King's Indian and much more.
Especially in a lost position you have nothing to lose, but only to win! That is the first - banal but all the more obvious - statement, which at the same time expresses a change of attitude: in what was previously perceived as an unpleasant or agonising situation, there is suddenly something to gain! Jan Markos' first recommendation is therefore: don't let yourself down the next time you are at a loss, but stay energetic, keep fighting and try to reward yourself! In his video, the Slovakian GM then uses concrete game examples to show various techniques on how to fight against a threatening defeat in the most sensible and promising way.
Excerpt from Jan Markos' video in CBM #213
Complete video playing time in ChessBase Magazine #213: 21:53 minutes
To complement his video, Jan Markos has put together a small collection of training exercises in CBM #213.
Five training tasks
How do you put maximum resistance? Formulate a plan for White and support it with the first move. Markos,J - Jurcik,M
Black to play. What would you try as a last trick? Ding,L - Adams,M
Should Carlsen exchange the queens or keep them on board? What would give him better practical chances to save this lost position? Aronian,L - Carlsen,M
Black is dead lost (engines show something like +5). However, we do not want to give up without a fight. What would you try? Artemiev,V - Nepomniachtchi,I
In this absolutely lost position GM Varga found a cunning trap, and I fell right into it. Can you spot some practical chance for Black here? Markos,J - Varga,Z
You can find the complete video and the solutions to the exercises in the current ChessBase Magazine!
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Save twice with ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues).
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Highlights of ChessBase Magazine #213
The editors' recommendations: from first-class analyses from the WR Masters and the European Individual Championship 2023 to the video series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 3 by Dr Karsten Mueller:
WR Masters 2023: The tournament winner, Levon Aronian, comments on two of his games. Plus analyses by Keymer, Duda and others. Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa each present one of their games in video! - European Individual Championship 2023: The winner Sarana comments on his groundbreaking game against Korobov, plus analyses by Shevchenko, Esipenko, Ponomariov and many others - "Special" on Vishy Anand: exclusive collection of 26 annotated games + contributions on strategy and endgame - French Gambit á la Carlsen: Sergey Grigoriants examines 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 h6!? – 0-0-0 against Bogo-Indian: Spyridon Kapnisis shows how White gets good play after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.a3, long castling not excluded! etc. etc.
Top games and master analyses
WR Masters 2023: Levon Aronian gave his opponents, Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi, no chance in the tiebreak. The tournament winner analyses two of his games. Plus analyses by Vincent Keymer, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and others. Together with Sagar Shah, Gukesh presents his win against Praggnanandhaa in the video. And Pragg also demonstrates his game against Giri in the video!
European Championship 2023: Alexey Sarana prevailed over Kirill Shevchenko and Daniel Dardha thanks to a better second rating. The winner comments on his seminal game against Korobov, Shevchenko comments on two of his best games. Plus analyses by Andrey Esipenko, Ruslan Ponomariov and many others.
Special: Vishy Anand
CBM authors analyse their favourite Vishy Anand games. An exclusive collection of 26 annotated games from 1985 to 2022 awaits you!
Opening videos
Christian Bauer recommends Black to play 5...Nh5 against the London System. Mihail Marin takes the game Esipenko-Aronian from the WR Masters as an opportunity to take a closer look at a Catalan variation that was popular in the 80s and 90s. Plus, Leon Mendonca shows how one should play against the King's Indian side line with 6...Bg4.
Christian Bauer: London System 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Ne5 Mihail Marin: Catalan 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Nh5 Leon Mendonca: King's Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Bg4
New ideas for your repertoire
From Caro-Kann to King’s Indian – ChessBase Magazine #213 comes with 11 opening with new trends and ideas:
Evgeny Postny: Caro-Kann Exchange Variation with 8.Qe1 Petera Papp: Sicilian 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 g6 3.c3 Tanmay Srinath: Sicilian Najdorf 6.h3 e5 7.Nb3 Sergey Gigoriants: French 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 h6 Krisztian Szabo: Petroff 6.Bd3 Bd6 7.0-0 0-0 8.c4 c6 9.Re1 Martin Lorenzini: Four Knights Game 4...Nd4 5.Bc4 Bc5 Christian Braun: Ruy Lopez Anti-Berlin 4.d3 Bc5 5.Bg5 Robert Ris: Queen's Gambit Accepted 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ Lars Schandorff: QG Exchange Variation with 9...Ne8 Alexey Kuzmin: Gruenfeld Fianchetto System with 7.a4 Yago Santiago: King's Indian 5.h3 0-0 6.Bg5
Knaak: Topical opening traps
Rainer Knaak presents you with eight current traps - from the Ruy Loez to the Slav, three of them additionally in FritzTrainer video format.
“All in One”
Based on the game Predke-Spyropoulos from the Novi Sad Open 2022, Spyridon Kapnisis shows a weapon against the Bogo-Indian popular among club players: after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.a3 Bxd2+ 6.Qxd2 d6 7.Nc3 Nbd7 8.e4 e5 White surprisingly lets 9.0-0-0 follow!
Ris: "Move by Move"
With the game Szabo-Stepanencu from the Romanian Championship 2023, Robert Ris has not chosen a world-class game this time. But this encounter has it all! “An absolute masterpiece that I couldn't resist sharing with you.”
Rogozenco: "Modern classics"
The game Karpov-Yussupov (1983) is a real masterpiece of positional play. In this encounter, the then World Champion demonstrated in exemplary fashion how to stop any active play by the opponent through perfect prophylaxis.
Markos: Practical tips for the tournament player - "How to play in a lost position"
In the sixth episode of his training series, Jan Markos gives tips on how to play in an objectively lost position to perhaps avert defeat in the end!
Marin: "Anand as a positional ace"
Strategy expert Mihail Marin sheds light on the strategic skills of the 15th World Champion with a special focus on the categories "Pawn play", "Initiative" and "Dominance and blockade". Incl. video introduction and two training units in interactive video format!
Reeh: "Rapid chess tricks"
In the tactics article with 37 games, tactics expert Oliver Reeh has compiled material from current rapid chess tournaments. You can solve his three favourite combinations move by move in the interactive video format with feedback function!
Mueller: Video series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" - Part 3: King and Pawn vs. King
Dr Karsten Mueller continues his training series. Following an introductory video, your technique is called for in three interactive videos!
ChessBase Magazine trial subscription with 33% savings advantage and thank you bonus!*
Try out ChessBase Magazine now! Order the ChessBase Magazine taster package! Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for thespecial price of only 39.90 €(instead of 59,85 € for buying them individually). As a thank you, you will also receive 3 months ChessBase Premium Membership free of charge.
*Bonus for new subscribers only, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months!
ChessBase Magazine one year subscription - plus original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB *
Save twice with ChessBase Magazine: For the annual subscription to ChessBase Magazine you’ll pay only €99.70 per year (compared to €119.70 for the 6 individual issues).
* Bonus only for new subscribers, i.e. there was no CBM subscription for 12 months! As a new subscriber you will receive the original ChessBase USB stick with 128 GB
In this 60-minute course, IM Andrew Martin introduces you to a flexible and refreshingly simple opening setup - that Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura has used to rack up numerous impressive wins.
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