Videos on the London System, King's Indian and Catalan

by ChessBase
5/7/2023 – In ChessBase Magazine #213 you can find three video analyses of current opening variations: Christian Bauer recommends the trendy 5...Nh5 against the London System. Leon Mendonca uses one of his games from the current Bundesliga season to show how one should play against the King's Indian sideline 6...Bg4. And Mihail Marin takes the game Esipenko-Aronian from the WR Masters 2023 as an opportunity to take a closer look at a Catalan variation that was popular in the 80s and 90s. You can watch an excerpt from Christian Bauer's video here!

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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!

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Opening videos in ChessBase Magazine #213

Christian Bauer: "A trendy line to meet the London System"

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.Nbd2 Nh5

With the move 5…Nh5 Black immediately attacks the London Bishop on f4. Christian Bauer examines White's various reactions in his detailed analysis (just under 50 minutes of playing time): 6.dxc5 – which allows the exchange of the bishop – as well as the moves 6.Bg5 and 6.Be5. After 6.dx5, the French grandmaster explains how Black, after 6...Nxf4 7.exf4 g6, gains compensation for the pawn with active piece play and can exploit the worse white pawn structure. In the other variations, too, Bauer succeeds in his video in presenting ways to equalise for Black and in doing so incorporating various tips for practice.  

Excerpt from Christian Bauer's video analysis in CBM #213

Complete video playing time in ChessBase Magazine #213: 49 minutes

Leon Mendonca: King's Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 Bg4

Leon Mendonca was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE at the age of 14. This season the now 17-year-old Indian is playing in the German Bundesliga for the first time. In this video he reviews his Bundesliga game against Dalibor Stojanovic from early February. His opponent tried to surprise him in the King's Indian with the rare variation 6...Bg4. But as Mendonca mentions in his video, this very variation was part of his own repertoire a few years ago... In his analysis he presents the basic idea of Black’s play and explains what White should avoid at all costs and how he can gain a permanent advantage. In his 45-minute video, Mendonca describes in detail the course of his thoughts and makes following his game up to the final combination particularly interesting and instructive.

Mihail Marin: Catalan

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 c5 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Ne5

In the game Esipenko-Aronian, the later tournament winner of the WR Masters 2023 came under a lot of pressure in the opening. Mihail Marin examines the variation 7.Ne5, which was popular in the 80s and 90s but is rarely used today. After the moves 7...Bd7 8.Nxc4 cxd4 9.Bf4 Nd5 10.Nd6+ Bd6 11.Bxd6 Nde7 12.Nd2 0-0 13.Qb3 White has a pawn less but a clear plus in the activity of his pieces. In the long run, Black will try to advance his centre pawns, but especially his knight pair on c6 and e7 causes problems in view of the active white bishop pair. In his video Marin analyses the moves tried out by Black so far, 13...b6, 13...Re8 and 13...Bc8 (Aronian's choice). In the game Esipenko gained a fantastic position with two minor pieces against rook and pawn, but in the end he couldn't make use of his advantage.  

ChessBase Magazine #213

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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 #213

 Order now in the ChessBase Shop !

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 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!

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


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