Tata Steel 2023: Analyses by Giri, Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa, Donchenko and many more. "Special" on Anthony Miles. Kasimdzhanov, Marin and Zwirs show new opening ideas from Wijk in the video. 11 opening articles with repertoire ideas and much more!
Roven Vogel examines 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 b6!?
Excerpt from ChessBase Magazine #212
Since November last year, a trend caught my eye that I'd like to shed some light on in this article. I noticed that after 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 more and more players chose the somewhat strange 2...b6!?.
The obvious idea is to neutralise the Bg2 with a counterpart on b7. At the same time, Black still wants to keep open the possibility of expanding in the centre with ...c5 or ...Nd7/...e5, which is almost never possible after the classical continuation with 2...c6. The article is mainly divided into two directions:
1) White moves c4 early and leads into Catalan position types
2) White ignores Black and builds up at will
Before I present the two directions in a little more detail, something general. Most White players are probably not very familiar with this second move. Either they haven't come across it themselves, or they consider it unnecessary to deal with this little move theoretically. This inexperience of the otherwise experienced Reti players, plays into the hands of 'us'. But even if this surprise should eventually fizzle out, there is no need to worry about establishing a clear path to white advantage. White can try a few things, but I could not find more than a very slight initiative or unclear positions. So this variation should be more than just a surprise weapon. Now let's get to the content:
Here Levin,F - Bluebaum,M 0-1 and Santos Latasa,J - Alekseenko,K ½-½ offer a first impression of how games can go when White plays energetically with c4 at first, but then finds no plan and adopts a rather innocuous setup of the following type:
But White can, of course, also move the d-pawn to d4 and thus pass into Catalan structures. That this strategy also promises no advantage can be seen in Kourkoulos Arditis,S - Mastrovasilis,A 0-1.
Grandelius,N - Predke,A ½-½ shows another important idea for White. After early c4 dxc4 White can also try to recapture the c4-pawn by Na3.
Not only does the queen not come under fire here, but the influence in the centre (Ne5 ideas) should be strengthened.
Finally, in this section I would like to discuss a structure that can arise when Black is already ready for ...Bxa3 after c4 dxc4/Na3.
This structure promises an interesting strategic struggle, featured, for example, in the 'classical' game Romanishin,O - Beliavsky,A ½-½.
In the second section I would now like to present all the possible 'side variations'. Duda,J - Wojtaszek,R 0-1 shows that Black is not always forced to use this classical setup with ...e6/...Be7, but can also resort to ...g6/...Bg7 if White doesn't care about the centre at all.
Another important position that you should look at a little more closely is the following:
Here Black can choose between two alternatives, either 5...Nf6 or 5...Nd7. 5...Nf6 has the disadvantage that 6.Ne5
followed by c4 becomes possible, as happened in the game Svane,R - Bluebaum,M ½-½.
The advantage of 5...Nf6 over 5...Nd7 again is that it prevents e4. In Efimenko,Z - Eljanov,P 0-1 I discuss that after 5...Nd7 6.e4!
is not a big problem, but it can still prove to be a bit of a nuisance. Which train should now be preferred; I cannot answer conclusively. It rather depends on one's own taste. Objectively, both are ok.
Finally, I deal a bit with the question of how to counter a possible King's Indian Attack. I've come to the conclusion that there are two sensible ways of playing. Either you play a waiting strategy like chess legend Leko in Venkatesh,M - Leko,P 0-1, which is expressed in positions like this one.
Black waits for White to close off the centre early with e5, then castles long.
Or you can choose a completely different structure of the following kind
as in Efimenko,Z - Eljanov,P 0-1. Both ways promise Black good play against the dreaded King's Indian Attack.
Conclusion: It remains exciting to see how White will try to gain an advantage against 2...b6!?. So far I don't see in which direction Black should really have problems and can therefore warmly recommend this little side variation, at least as a secondary idea for one's own repertoire against 1.Nf3.
You can find Roven Vogel’s complete article with all annotated games in ChessBase Magazine #212!
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Highlights of ChessBase Magazine #212
These are the editors' recommendations – from first-class analyses from the Tata Steel Masters and Challengers 2023 to the endgame series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" by Dr Karsten Mueller:
Tata Steel 2023: Anish Giri comments on three of his games, plus analyses by Praggnanandhaa, Jorden van Foreest, Peter Heine Nielsen, the winner of the Challenger, Alexander Donchenko and many others. Dorian Rogozenco presents two games in the video that were decisive for the outcome of the Masters!
Rapid Highlights: Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Peter Heine Nielsen analyse selected games from the Rapid Chess World Championship and the Meltwater Champions Chess Final 2022.
CBM authors analyse their favourite game of the Englishman (1955-2001). Exclusive collection of 21 annotated games from the years 1978 to 2001.
When should you accept a draw offer and when not? Which emotional aspects can influence our decision, and how can we block them out as best we can? Don’t miss part 5 of the training series “Practical Tips for the Tournament Player” with GM Jan Markos. Video + small collection of exercises.
Robert Ris shows Magnus Carlsen's fantastic game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov from the 2022 Rapid World Championship. Can you find the moves of the triple world champion?
Spyridon Kapnisis presents the Scotch Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Bc4 Bc5 5.Ng5!? After 5...Nh6 6.Nxf7 Nxf7 7.Bxf7+ Kxf7 8.Qh5+ White wins back the piece on c5 and has in any case already achieved a partial success.
All three opening videos pick up current ideas from the top tournament in Wijk aan Zee! Rustam Kasimdzhanov examines the Ruy Lopez with 8.a4 b4 9.a5, which came on the board twice at the "Masters". Nico Zwirs examines Magnus Carlsen's idea of 7...Bg4 in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit. And Mihail Marin puts the Evans Gambit from Beerdsen-Pechac from the "Challengers" to the test.
Rustam Kasimdzhanov: Ruy Lopez
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0-0 8.a4 b4 9.a5
Mihail Marin: Evans Gambit
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Ba5 6.d4 d6 7.Qb3 Qd7 8.0-0 Bb6 9.Nbd2
Nico Zwirs: Queen’s Gambit Exchange Variation
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 Be7 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Bg4
From the Reti Opening to the King's Indian - ChessBase Magazine #212 offers 11 opening articles with new ideas for your repertoire!
Vogel: Reti Opening 1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 b6
Kuzmin: English 1...e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 e4 4.Ng5 c6
Sumets: Caro-Kann Exchange 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6
Papp: Najdorf 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 h6 8.Bh4 Qb6 9.a3
Santiago: French 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 a6!?
Schandorff: Scotch with 4...Bc5 and 7...a5!?
Ris: Italian Ulvestad Variation 5...b5!?
Srinath: Open Ruy Lopez Part II
Postny: Nimzo-Indian 4.Nf3 0-0 5.Bg5 c5 6.Rc1
Grigoriants: Catalan 6...dxc4 7.Qc2 b5 8.a4
Szabo: King's Indian 5.Be2 0-0 6.Be3 e5 7.d5
“From the English Opening to the Queen’s Gambit” – Rainer Knaak takes a close look at eight traps from current tournament practice (incl. three FritzTrainer videos)
Mihail Marin presents the legend from England, Anthony Miles, as a universal player and explains how strategy and tactics worked together harmoniously in his best games. Including a detailed video introduction and – for the first time in CBM – two interactive training videos!
Dorian Rogozenco shows one of the most spectacular games from the match "Soviet Union vs. the Rest of the World" in 1970: Bent Larsen came to blows on the first board of the world selection in only 17 moves. against world champion Boris Spassky! Part 3 of the new video series.
Sometimes it is simply necessary to part with one's queen. Oliver Reeh's article contains 32 games, peppered with plenty of training exercises. Plus three interactive videos with our author’s favourite combinations.
The endgame expert Dr Karsten Mueller continues his training series with the topic "Rook + Pawn vs. Rook". Also: Endgame highlights of Anthony Miles.
Order now in the ChessBase Shop !
Try out ChessBase Magazine now! Order the ChessBase Magazine taster package!
Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for the special 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!
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
