Four top tournaments are waiting for you in the new issue of ChessBase Magazine: The Kings Tournament in Bazna, the FIDE Grand Prix in Astrakhan, the Capablanca Memprial in Havanna, and the Karpov Tournament in Poikovski. Remarkably: the winners are also the star authors of the new DVD. Magnus Carlsen, Pavel Eljanov, Sergej Karjakin, Victor Bologan among other top players explain their best games in depth. The 12 opening articles offer lots of new ideas for your repertoire. For instance Knut Nevens shows you how to counter the Dutch Defence with 2.Bg5, Igor Stohl continues his analysis of 5.d3 in the Ruy Lopez, and Evgeny Postny explains the new perspectives in the Slav with 6.Qh4. There are also several lectures in video format. German GM Leonid Kritz starts a series of lectures on the Steinitz System in the French Defence, and Lars Schandorff shows you how to attack with White in the Kings Gambit with 2...Bc5.

As the final games of the WCh match between Anand and Topalov were being played in Sofia, the last tournament of the Grand Prix series was starting in Astrakhan in Russia, with at stake the second starting place in the candidates’ tournament to choose the next WCh challenger. Eljanov underlined his outstanding form and went on to win the tournament itself in majestic fashion. Radjabov was a happy second as that place in Astrakhan secured for him the qualification for the candidates’ tournament. In June there followed another three top tournaments: in the Karpov Tournament in Poikovsky the winners were Karjakin and Bologan. Ivanchuk dominated the field in the Capablanca Memorial on Cuba. And finally Carlsen turned the "Kings Tournament" in Bazna in Romania into an impressive one-man-show. You will find all the games from these four top tournaments on the DVD. The tournament victors in each case are also the star authors of this issue: Carlsen, Eljanov, Karjakin, Bologan, Radjabov and many others have annotated their best games for you.

Introductory videos

The Hamburg grandmaster Karsten Müller will show you in his video introduction what is waiting for you on this DVD. In the games Carlsen-Radjabov and Riazantsev-Karjakin he immediately introduces you to two of the absolute highlights and explains the critical moments for you. From the total of 12 opening articles, his particular recommendations are Knut Neven’s repertoire suggestion of 2.Bg5 against the Dutch Defence and Evgeny Postny’s article on the Slav Queen’s Gambit with 6.Nh4, in which Carlsen was able to come up with an improvement over a Kasparov game from the 1980s.
 
In his introductory videos, GM Dorian Rogozenco takes his usual look back over the tournament highlights of the last two months. In the first video he pays tribute to the performance of Pavel Eljanov in the FIDE Grand Prix and gives as an example of the latter’s extraordinary strategic understanding his win against Inarkiev, which happened in a variation of the Caro-Kann which had until then been considered disadvantage for Black. In addition, Rogozenco presents a win of the joint victor of the Karpov Tournament, Viktor Bologan, in which Black was also able to come up with an improvement in the Caro-Kann Defence.

In his second video the Romanian GM reports on the top tournaments in Havana and Bazna. Vassily Ivanchuk’s fascinating victory over Short in the first round of the Capablanca Memorials is also touched on, as is a series of interesting games from the "Kings Tournament", e.g. Ponomariov’s innovation against Nisipeanu’s Blumenfeld Gambit and Gelfand’s victory over Wang Yue, which the Israeli himself annotates in detail on the DVD. And of course Rogozenco also takes a look at the performance of the once more outstanding victor of the tournament, Magnus Carlsen.  

"Kings Tournament"
Played in the Transylvanian towns of Mediash and Bazna, the "Kings Tournament" turned into a one-man-show by Magnus Carlsen. At the start, the Norwegian super star did not quite manage to get going and in rounds 1 to 3 had to be content in each case with a draw. But then he crushed the field with four consecutive victories. Magnus Carlsen has annotated his round 7 game against Teimour Radjabov for this issue of ChessBase Magazine. 

Boris Gelfand was the only one who was able to keep up to some extent with the young Norwegian till shortly before the end. Even if at the end he still had to share second place with Radjabov, this overall tournament performance confirms the constant good form he has been in for some months. His first round victory over Chinese player Wang Yue is the result of a brilliant strategic performance. Gelfand himself annotates extensively this game, in which not a single piece was taken between moves 17 and 44, but during which time a powerful amount of manoeuvring was carried out.

For local hero Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu the Kings Tournament is an attractive challenge. Nisipeanu annotates his first round win against Radjabov on the DVD and also his draw with Black with the victor of the tournament.

Capablanca Memorial
After an up and down phase, Vassily Ivanchuk was back in the groove in the Capablanca Memorial in Cuba with an impressive tournament victory and an Elo performance of 2893.From the very start the Ukrainian set to in furious fashion and went straight to the head of the field with victories over  Short and Alekseev. Two further wins against Nepomniachtchi and Buzon meant that he finished with a comfortable +4 and a 1st place which was never in any danger. Igor Stohl and Evgeny Postny have annotated two of the tournament winner’s victories which are worth seeing.

Karpov chess tournament
Sergey Karjakin and Viktor Bologan were the victors in this year’s Karpov Chess Tournament in Poikovsky in Russia. Right till the end it was a hard-fought contest. Before the final round there were four players sharing the lead and all four had the advantage of the white pieces for their final game. The foundations for his tournament victory were Sergey Karjakin’s games with White, in which he scored the +3 on which he finished the tournament. He has analysed for the DVD one of these games with White: Karjakin-Sokolov.

For Viktor Bologan, who has been a constant guest in Poikovsky since 2001, the tournament was unspectacular for a long time. An opening victory against Sokolov was followed by a series of draws and also a defeat, and after 8 rounds he was on a score of 50 %. Was that to be it? In round 9 there then followed a victory over Jobava with the Caro-Kann Advance Variation. And in round 10 the Moldavian had another victory, once again in the Caro-Kann, but this time with Black against the Panov Attack. In the analysis of this game Bologan takes a close look at his opponent’s handling of the opening.

FIDE Grand Prix Astrakhan
In the video introduction to the previous ChessBase Magazine Jan Gustafsson had spoken very appreciatively about the development and the style of the ever improving Ukrainian Pavel Eljanov. The winner of the tournament annotates two of his wins with Black on the DVD, including his pioneering victory over Radjabov in the ninth round, with which Eljanov finally established himself in the lead.

From the opening trap to the endgame study
Training in ChessBase Magazine begins with the very first move and includes all the phases of a game of chess. The up-to-date 12 openings articles with their numerous ideas and suggestions for your repertoire can be found here or above among the links. The subtle opening trap starts on the 6th move; click here, to access Rainer Knaak’s column (including its Fritztrainer video). You will also find in video format the openings articles by Valeri Lilov (Dutch Staunton Gambit), Leonid Kritz (French Steinitz) and Lars Schandorff (King’s Gambit). You will find these videos and other recordings in Chess Media format in the fritztrainer column. Peter Wells’ subject in his strategy column strategy column this time is: "Pawn Races in the Open Sicilian Part 1". In Daniel King’s long running Move by Move it is a game in the Caro-Kann which is on the menu. And in the tactics and the endgame column, Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller have once more collected for you all that is best in recent tournament practice.