ChessBase Journal affords a window to the world {of professional} chess and it additionally offers arsenal for the match participant. The most recent concern, CBM 209 is simply out. In the meantime here’s a assessment of a latest concern. It affords video games from two main occasions, Superbet Chess Basic, Bucharest 2022 and European Particular person Championship. 2055 video games (49 annotated), 11 opening surveys, 12 demo lectures and workouts for coaching. Annotators embody Anish Giri, Matthias Blübaum, Gabriel Sargissian, Yuriy Kuzubov and Karsten Müller amongst others. The icing on the cake is a flashback on the 1997 FIDE World Championship Particular with 323 video games and a commentary.
CBM 208: Maxime shines and Matthias scores
Overview by Nagesh Havanur
At the same time as I write these strains, The Saint Louis Fast & Blitz Match has come to a detailed with Ali Reza Firouzja profitable the occasion. It was a star-studded discipline with Aronian, Caruana, , Mamedyarov, Nepomniachtchi and Nakamura amongst others. One participant who didn’t fulfil an early promise of success was Maxime Vacher-Lagrave from France. Maxime is a effective expertise with a variable kind and unpredictable outcomes. Sooner or later you assume, he’s down and out, and the subsequent day he’s up in a race for the primary place in a match. That is what occurred within the Superbet Chess Basic Bucharest 2022. Maxime shared the identical variety of factors (5.5/9) with Wesley So and Levon Aronian. Within the fast play-off he defeated each his rivals to return first. This concern affords all of the video games from the occasion. Anish Giri annotates a essential encounter from spherical 4:
Video Credit score: Chess -ThanhCong On-line
Vachier Lagrave-Caruana, SuperbetClassic Bucharest 2022
The race for the European title
This time the European Particular person Championship was weakened by the absence of the Russian gamers on account of the warfare in Ukraine and the resultant FIDE ban on their participation. Nonetheless, the occasion was not dangerous with as many as 317 gamers competing for honours. Ultimately the match turned out to be a race between Matthias Blübaum and Gabriel Sargissian who each completed with 8.5 out of 11. With the higher tiebreak the German GM was declared the winner. On this concern he annotates his win over Yuriy Kuzubov.
Matthias Blübaum – Yuriy Kuzubov, European Championship 2022 (obtain pgn)
Opening movies and surveys
There are 3 opening movies on this concern. The primary affords a lesson on the Slav Defence by Mihail Marin. The second contains a lecture on a line within the Grünfeld Alternate Variation by Dorian Rogozenco. The third offers a lecture on the Ragozin Variation of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Take your choose.
There are as many as 11 opening surveys starting from the Sicilian Sveshnikov to the Schara-Hennig Gambit. I’d single out at the least two of them.
The Schara-Hennig Gambit (D32) is analysed right here by Lucian Miron. Let me supply a sideline by means of appetizer.
A sideline within the Schara-Henning Gambit (obtain pgn)
The opposite survey is the evaluation of an offbeat line within the London System by Tanmay Srinath. He affords certainly one of his personal video games by means of illustration. I’m providing the identical with out his commentary. That’sworth a glance.
Srinath-Kurpnieks, ICCF 2021 (obtain pgn)
Once I checked my Correspondence Chess Database I discovered as many as 64 video games performed by him. Fairly a number of of them are of theoretical significance.
A Match Particular
This concern carries a particular characteristic on the FIDE World Championship Match 1997 with 323 video games of which 22 are annotated. There may be additionally a video lecture by Mihail Marin on numerous middlegame plans employed by gamers on this match.
As identified on this characteristic, this was not a world championship within the strict sense of the phrase. Kasparov who was already outdoors the FIDE refused the invitation to this match with scorn. “I’m the World Champion. So what is that this for?” That was kind of how he noticed it. Kramnik refused to take part as Karpov was instantly seeded to the ultimate. Others like Anand protested, however did play. The names of contestants on this knockout occasion reads just like the Who’s who of contemporary chess: Smyslov, Korchnoi, Portisch, Beliavsky, Vaganian, Yusupov, Timman, Shirov, Ivanchuk, Judit Polgar, Quick and Morozevich, to say a number of.
Two duels from this match are most memorable. One is the Anand-Khalifman recreation from the third spherical. Martin Breutigam recreates the entire scene of the battle and its thrilling course on this concern:
Anand-Khalifman, FIDE World Chess Championship 1997 (obtain pgn)
The opposite is the decisive blitz recreation between Anand and Adams within the final spherical:
Video Credit score: Shareurknowledge
Anand-Adams, FIDE World Chess Championship 1997 (obtain pgn)
A recreation filled with vicissitudes!
For now I shall not touch upon the aftermath of this match. That’s one other story altogether.
An Alekhine traditional remembered
Yet another characteristic deserves particular point out. It’s the commentary on the sport, Reti-Alekhne by Dorian Rogozenco. Alekhine himself regarded it as one of many two finest video games he ever performed (the opposite being Bogoljubov-Alekhine, Hastings 1922). Right here I’ve room just for the naked rating of the sport:
Reti-Alekhine, Baden-Baden 1925 (obtain pgn)
Moreover opening surveys, this concern has normal options on techniques, technique and the endgame. A brand new characteristic launched here’s a video lecture on time administration by Jan Markos. A sensible lesson for severe match gamers.
Summing up
The primary database of the problem has 2055 video games of which 49 are deeply annotated. The annotators embody Anish Giri, Matthias Blübaum, Gabriel Sargissian, Yuriy Kuzubov, Mihail Marin, Dorian Rogozenco and Karsten Müller amongst others.
The writer
Prof. Nagesh Havanur (in any other case often called “chessbibliophile”) is a senior tutorial and analysis scholar. He taught English in Mumbai for greater than three a long time and has now settled in Bangalore, India. His pursuits embody chess historical past, biography and opening idea. He has been writing on the Royal Sport for almost three a long time. His articles and opinions have appeared on a number of websites and magazines.
