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World class players explain the ideas behind their moves. Opening specialists present current trends and exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in terms of tactics, strategy and endgame show you exactly the tricks and techniques that you need to be a successful tournament player!
Our starting position arises after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.0-0 Nf6 5.d3 d6 6.c3 a6 7.a4 Ba7 8.Nbd2 0-0 9.h3 h6 10.Re1 Re8!?.
The entry point of my article. This position can be reached via many move orders, as is usual in the Italian. Both players have made the most natural moves. Playing 10...Re8!?, Black wants to trade White's light-squared bishop with ...Be6, but does not wish to have the structure with ...fxe6. Their main idea after ...Be6 is to prepare for the d6-d5 push. After Bxe6 Rxe6, the rook on e6 is placed well: it can be transferred to g6 at some point or, after d6-d5/dxe4, also to d6.
10...Re8!? is one of the most reliable ways for Black to go. I recommend it because handling this position is fairly easy, Black's moves are relatively straightforward. As a main advocate of this line I would highlight Hikaru Nakamura, who employed it in many games. Magnus Carlsen has also played it a few times. I tried it myself too and reached good positions after the opening.
From the diagram, I'll investigate these white continuations: A) 11.Qb3, B) 11.Bb3, C) 11.Nf1 and D) 11.b4.
An intriguing attempt, as White is trying to provoke some miscoordination of Black's pieces, and stops the ...Be6 move for the moment. Chigaev is the specialist in this variation. 11...Qd7. The most natural reply, overprotecting the f7-pawn and threatening ...Na5.
12.a5. The point of White's strategy is that the a5 pawn ensures space advantage, which could be unpleasant for Black in some endgames. Now the solid 12...Rb8 followed by ...Be6 is okay - as happened in my game Chigaev,M - Grigoriants,S 1/2, but the most accurate is 12...b5! which presents a pawn sacrifice.
A rare, harmless line. 11...Be6 12.a5 (if 12.Bc2 to avoid the bishop trade, then 12...a5! - an important move, stopping White's b2-b4) and now 12...d5 as played in Antipov,M - Nakamura,H 0-1 is okay, but trading the bishops with 12...Bxb3 is simpler. After 13.Qxb3 Qd7 followed by d6-d5, Black is okay.
A standard, yet harmless way of playing. After trading the bishops and pushing ...d5, Black will be fine. As we will see in the forthcoming games, White could only hope for some queenside pressure, and the knight would be more flexible on d2 - with the opportunity of jumping b3-c5 in some variations. 11...Be6! 12.Bxe6 Rxe6 and now White has three different main lines: C1) 13.Ng3, C2) 13.Be3 and C3) 13.b4.
C1) 13.Ng3
allows Black to solve the opening problems after 13...d5,
threatening to take on e4 or just a6-a5 to prevent b2-b4 (Puranik,A - Kasimdzhanov,R 0-1).
C2) 13.Be3 is also harmless. After 13...Bxe3 14.Nxe3 d5! 15.Qc2 (a usual move to protect the e4 pawn)
comes the important 15...a5!. Black is in-time to stop b4, which could be the only active plan for White. 16.Rad1 Qd7!. Simply preparing ...Rd8. 17.Qb3 Rd8! Black safely protects the d5-pawn and is okay, see Anand,V - Grischuk,A 1/2.
C3) 13.b4!?
The best move here. White is grabbing space on the queenside. 13...d5! 14.Qc2 Qd7 15.Be3.
A simple attitude! White trades bishops, hoping that in the resulting position their knights would be more flexible. 15...Bxe3 16.Nxe3 Ne7!?.
Black needs to regroup their pieces a little, since the knight on c6 will never feel comfortable. After a complicated battle, Carlsen won a nice game, see Esipenko,A - Carlsen,M 0-1.
This is the most fashionable and challenging modern approach to this position. White grabs space on the queenside, keeping the knight on d2. If Black later executes the pawn pushes ...d5 and ...b5, the white knight will target the c5 square from b3. 11...Be6 12.Bxe6 Rxe6 13.Qc2. A standard square for the queen. White overprotects the e4 pawn and avoids the possible queen trade on the d-file. 13...Qd7. A useful move, Black should not hurry with d6-d5 as long as the knight is on d2. 14.Rb1!?
An attempt to provoke some weakening in Black's position. 14...b5! (14...Ne7?! is an inaccuracy). White has some advantage after 15.Nf1. It's advisable to read the comments of one the best players in the world, Alireza Firouzja, on his victory in Firouzja,A - Tari,A 1-0). 15.Ra1. It looks weird to just go back and lose a tempo, but now the pawn on b5 causes problems for Black. Having overprotected a4, White intends to put up some pressure on the a-file, combined with play on the kingside. 15...Rae8!?. An active move, keeping the attacking potential of the e6 rook in reserve - Rg6 at some point or after ...d5/...dxe4, followed by Rd6. See the details in So,W - Nakamura,H 1/2.
Conclusion: Against the Italian there are several decent lines, though equalising is never easy. I think 10...Re8!? followed by ...Be6 gives relatively easy play for Black. White gets a little pull at best, but everywhere the defender's position is acceptable. Apart from the details featured in this opening survey, I recommend the reader to briefly look at Nakamura's many many (blitz) games as Black to familiarise yourself with the kind of tricks he has up his sleeve in this line.
You can find the full article with all games and analyses in the new ChessBase Magazine #214!
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From the World Championship match Ding Liren against Ian Nepomniachtchi to repertoire ideas for Dutch, Najdorf or Scandinavian or the series "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" Part 4 by Dr. Karsten Mueller:
Over 7 hours of video playing time with U14 World Champion Ilamparthi, Ivan Sokolov, Jan Markos, Mihail Marin, Dorian Rogozenco et al.
World Championship 2023: Anish Giri, Hou Yifan, Sam Shankland and Wesley So comment on the most important games of a highly entertaining duel.
TePe Sigeman: The veteran Peter Svidler put several young top players in their place at the tournament in Malmö. Analyses of the tournament winner as well as Abhimanyu Mishra, Boris Gelfand, Nils Grandelius and Jorden van Foreest.
CBM authors analyse their favourite game of the 10th World Champion. An exclusive collection of 27 annotated games from the period 1949 to 1989 awaits you!
The Hippopotamus Defence – a setup against everything! Igor Stohl dissects the game Tomashevsky-Carlsen with the opening moves 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.Nf3 a6 5.a4 b6 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0 Ne7 8.Re1 Bb7 9.Bf4 Nd7 10.Qd2 h6
With 9.5 out of 11, the now 14-year-old Ilamparthi won the 2022 U14 World Championship. Play through the decisive moments of his games together with Sagar Shah and the young champion - in interactive format with video feedback!
Ivan Sokolov checks Gukesh's novelty and pawn sacrifice 9.Qc2 in the Catalan from the Menorca Open 2023 - "excellent preparation by Gukesh!" Sipke Ernst examines the novelty 8.h4 in the Ragozin Variation, which was discussed in the duel between his compatriots Van Foreest and Giri at the Tata Steel tournament 2023. And Mihail Marin takes up the opening line 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 c5 4.Be2 Nc6 5.0-0, which came up on the board in the 12th game of the World Championship match, among others.
Ivan Sokolov: Catalan
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.g3 dxc4 6.Bg2 b5 7.Ne5 a6 8.0-0 Bb7 9.Qc2
Sipke Ernst: Queen's Gambit Ragozin Variation
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bf4 Ne4 7.Rc1 Nc6 8.h4
Mihail Marin: Queen's Pawn Opening
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 c5 4.Be2 Nc6 5.0-0
From the Dutch to the King’s Indian –ChessBase Magazine #214 comes with 11 opening articles and lots of new ideas!
Kapnisis: Dutch 1.d4 f5 2.e4Lorenzini: Scandinavian 3…Qa5 with 7.Ne5
Postny: Caro-Kann Exchange Variation 6.h3 e5
Ris: Sicilian Sveshnikov 7.Bg5 a6 8.Na3 b5 9.Nab1
Quintiliano: Najdorf Poisoned Pawn Variation (I)
Papp: French Winawer Variation 5.Bd2 (Part I)
Grigoriants: Italian for insiders 10...Re8
Rosell: Ruy Lopez Delayed Steinitz 4.Ba4 d6
Kuzmin: QG Exchange 6.Bf4 c6 7.e3 Bf5 8.Nh4!?
Sumets: Catalan 6.0-0 dxc4 7 Ne5 Qd6
Szabo: King's Indian 5.Be2 0-0 6.h4
"Queens: flexible, lively or even dancing" - Rainer Knaak presents eight traps from current tournament practice. Including three FritzTrainer videos!
Robert Ris chose the eighth game of the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi for his interactive video – a fascinating game in which the new World Champion missed the win, however.
The Karpov-Yussupov game (1983) is a "real masterpiece of positional play". In this game, the then World Champion demonstrated in an exemplary manner how to prevent any active play on the part of his opponent through perfect prophylaxis.
Should you aim for symmetrical positions if you want to play safe in a game? Jan Markos explains what is important in these positions and why small differences are of great importance!
Strategy expert Mihail Marin sheds light on the strategy of the 10th World Champion on the basis of games before he won the World Championship title in 1969 - because as Korchnoi once said, Spassky played his best chess sometime between 1958 and 1963.
In the tactics article with 45 games, our expert Oliver Reeh has compiled material for more than one training session. His four favourite combinations are best solved move by move in the interactive video format with feedback function!
Karsten Mueller continues his training series. Following an introductory video, your technique is called for in three interactive videos! In addition, Mueller provides a contribution with the most beautiful endgames by Boris Spassky (video introduction + analyses).
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Read ChessBase Magazine for 6 months (= 3 issues) for the special price of only € 44.90 € (instead of € 65,70 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 € 109.90 per year (compared to € 131.40 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
