ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.
Maybe the best openings DVD ever!??
Review by Bob Long -
www.chessco.com
Hallelujah! What a DVD. Former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov lays it all on the line. Let’s go through a list of winning attributes:
1. His English speaking and understanding of idiomatic language is unbelievable! Sometimes he sounds slightly sing-songy as he changes inflection due to enthusiasm, but when he gets down to business, he is business and he doesn’t say one thing and mean something else. His expressions and understanding of our language is top drawer.
2. This guy was touted by one such as Kasparov as being world championship caliber (he beat, in succession: Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Topalov, and Adams) on the way to the world chess championship title..
Click here to start the introductory video (in reduced quality)...3. He explains the rigors of knock out matches and how important it is to win with black in the first game of the first round (he has lots of insights like this throughout the 3 hr and 25 min. DVD.)
4. And here’s the part I like most: he is UPBEAT on the King’s Indian and even tells a delightful story about Petrosian feeding his family for years off of the white side of the King’s Indian. Then, as he played Fischer in 1970 at the USSR vs. the rest of the world match, he opened with 1. c4 and when Fischer replied 1… g6, he gave Fischer’s move an exclam and then the Tiger went on to lose. He was no longer feeding his family from the white side of the King’s Indian. I’ll explain more in part 5… next.
5. Rustam “believes” that White has been engaging in a propaganda war against Black’s KID play, just so that Black won’t play it! This doesn’t work for Kasimdzhanov… he’ll play the KID no matter what you say or play, and he has the wins he illustrates to prove it.
6. He is his own man and understands the KID deeply and still finds new ideas for Black. He is also a lightning fast thinker and excels in speed and rapid chess. He still does. He’s funny and profound. He tackles a couple games on the “bayonet” variation joking that he doesn’t know (or care) where that name came from.
7. He annotates a number of games on the classical, g3, Saemisch, b4 (Bayonet) and gives us a classic Letelier-Fischer game (with a great Q sac). There’s more, but I am doing this off the top of my head. He also has a “lecture” (as he calls them) on pawn structure. He tells great stories too.
8. He would like to do another ChessBase DVD on the King’s Indian and I would like him to do this also. This man is good and I will give you one more reason why you should get this DVD:
9. He doesn’t believe the KID is played out. He doesn’t believe White has such an advantage that Black should give up. He believes there are some “unorthodox” systems still available to Black and he shows one where he (Black) holds up his attack on the K-side to go over to the Q-side and scare the pants off of White. He’s what I said “exists” a long time ago—the discoverer of the new and hearty and who doesn’t listen to the weaker GMs making pronouncements he doesn’t believe as he goes his own way and continues to win. I am sure many White opponents are not crazy about facing an inventor who is similar to Bronstein in his younger days.
I’ve seen videos and DVDs on the King’s Indian and I’ve read books on it. In one sitting you will get more out of this DVD in terms of reasons why, structures, tactics, and reality than any place else I have seen. It’s like a course in the King’s Indian for those who know something about the KID but not nearly as much as they should. When he gets stymied in one place, he goes somewhere else, and then comes back to bop his opponent over the head. He has belief in his prowess and I’m sure his opponents believe it too.