Au revoir, Amber! The 20th and last edition of this classic tournament with its blindfold and rapid chess games, won this year by Levon Aronian, constitutes one of the main themes of this issue. On the DVD there is commentary, e.g., by Magnus Carlsen on his victory over the world champion, and Vugar Gashimov explains the subtleties of his attacking win over Vladimir Kramnik. Our second tournament highlight is the European championship in Aix-les-Bains, which is traditionally contested in the form of a super-strong Open. The three medal winners (Vladimir Potkin, Judit Polgar and Radoslaw Wojtaszek) have all annotated their best games for you. We have yet another highlight in Ruslan Ponomariov’s comments on his games in the Russian Team Championship. With its 14 openings articles, the DVD offers a whole host of suggestions for your repertoire, in addition to training databases to sharpen your strategic and tactical instincts.

 

In his introductory video Hamburg grandmaster Karsten Müller introduces in his accustomed trenchant manner the contents of this issue and casts a first glance over selected highlights such as Magnus Carlsen’s victory with Black over Vishy Anand or the way the new European Champion Vladimir Potkin defeated Ter Sahakyan. On this occasion, Müller has selected from the openings articles two repertoire suggestions for Black, on one hand a weapon against the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation and on the other a solid setup against the Evans Gambit. What Karsten Müller does not mention is his own endgame column and his detailed endgame analyses in video format, in which games from the Amber Tournament are also put under the microscope. These too are articles which you should on no account miss!

 

In his video retrospective Dorian Rogozenco also brings together for you the tournament highlights of the past months. For example, he demonstrates for you some tactical subtleties from the game Jobava-Potkin, which was important in deciding who would win the European championship. From the Amber Tournament the Romanian grandmaster presents some moments from the blindfold game Kramnik-Ivanchuk. Follow Rogozenco’s analysis and be prepared to be surprised at how accurately these strong players are able to handle such complicated positions even in blindfold chess!

 

Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament
20 years ago the twice world correspondence chess champion and chess patron Joop van Oosterom made a present to the world of chess of a unique world class tournament in which the players measure their powers in a very special way. The participants met each other in mini-matches, consisting of one game of blindfold chess and one of rapid chess in each case. Luxury accommodation in top class hotels and the circumstance that they could not lose any Elo points contributed to the creation of a special and tense atmosphere. After twenty years it is all over, because for health reasons the sponsor is stopping his support. For the third time it was Levon Aronian who wrote his name into the list of victors. He set this up with his excellent performance in the blindfold section of the tournament: 8.5 out of 11. Magnus Carlsen was well ahead of his competitors in the rapid chess section with 9.5 out of 11, but that was not enough to compensate for his average performance in blindfold chess.

 

European Championship in Aix-les-Bains
"There are things which are more of a reason to celebrate than a birthday", was how the new European champion Vladimir Potkin summed things up when looking back over the so far greatest success of his chess career. There is no doubt that 28 year old Russian deserved his victory. From the very start he set about matters courageously (5 out of 5) and led the field on his own until round 8. The decisive step to victory in the race for the title was taken in a spectacular victory with Black in the second last round against Jobava. On the DVD Potkin analyses this game and also his victory from round 4 (see below). The fact that even among top players taking a rest from chess can have a positive effect on motivation and creativity can be seen from the performance of Judit Polgar. Still the leading woman on the world ranking list, she demonstrated courageous and sometimes speculative chess and finished in third place on the same number of points as Potkin and the silver medal winner Wojtaszek. On the DVD she annotates in detail two of her best wins.

 

Russian Team Championship
This year’s Russian Team Championship ended in a neck and neck race between two teams: the team with Ponomariov, Motylev, Areshchenko, Inarkiev, Bologan, full of top Russian players, Tomsk-400 led until half-way and was caught up in the eighth round by the foreign legion in the form of “Schachmagazin 64”. Surprisingly on top board for Shsm-64 was Boris Gelfand, although he had to bear in mind a considerably more important date at the candidates tournament in Kasan not long afterwards. Things were extremely close at the end. After eleven rounds the victorious team of Gelfand, Wang Hao, Caruana, Giri, Riazantsev, Grachev, Potkin, Najer was only half a board point ahead of their pursuers. New Russian team champion Fabiano Caruana and runner-up Ruslan Ponomariov have both annotated remarkable games.

 

From the opening trap to the endgame study
Training in ChessBase Magazine starts with the very first moves and covers all the different phases of the game of chess. The 14 openings articles containing up-to-date analysis along with many ideas and suggestions for your repertoire can be found here or above among the links. This time Rainer Knaak’s opening Trap (including a Fritztrainer video) contains a trap from the Sicilian with 2...g6 3.d4 Bg7 (B27), and at the same time offers a whole repertoire for White against Black’s setup. You will also find in video format openings articles by Leonid Kritz (French Winawer Variation), Sam Collins (Sicilian Sveshnikov), Valeri Lilov (Sicilian Rossolimo) and Adrian Mikhalchishin (Queen’s Gambit Accepted). You will find these videos and another clip by Nigel Davies in the Fritztrainer column. In his strategy column Peter Wells deals with: "Doubled f-pawns in front of the castled king: part II – the safety of the king in its wider positional context". In Daniel King’s long running Move by Move it is a Catalan game which is up for discussion, see diagram on the left. And in their columns on tactics (subject: mini materialists) and the endgame (subject: domination) both Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller have once more brought together all that is best in recent tournament practice for you.

 

Opening Surveys
Grivas: Sicilian B33 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Bd3 d6 8.0-0 a6 9.a4 Qc7
In the Hermes Variation (9.a4) the spread of the queenside by means of ...b5 is prevented, but this does not profit White to any great extent because compared to the Scheveningen System the Nb3 is badly placed and a kingside attack achieves nothing.
Postny: Sicilian B48 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Sc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.0-0-0 Bb4 9.f3 Ne5 10.Nb3 b5 11.Qe1
While winning his title, new European champion Vladimir Potkin won a very nice game against the extremely up-to-date setup with 11.Qe1, but nevertheless Evgeny Postny has discovered an advantage for White. But he also presents a good alternative for Black.
Moskalenko: French C01 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5
Viktor Moskalenko is an enthusiast of the French Defence and so it comes as no surprise that he is also unafraid of the Exchange Variation. In his article the grandmaster introduces several plans for Black.
Dembo: Evans Gambit C51 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Be7
Inspired by Jan Gustafssons DVD “Open games” Yelena Dembo offers in her contribution a complete repertoire against the Evans Gambit. According to her investigations, Black has at least a level game in all lines.
Kritz: Two Knights Defence C58 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3
After 8.Bd3 White has the option, if needed, to go with his knight from g5 to e4. Kritz analyses five different replies, but none of them is completely satisfactory for Black.
Breutigam: Ruy Lopez C68 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.g4 Bg6 8.Nxe5 Qh4 9.Qf3 f6 10.Nxg6 hxg6
With 6...Bh5 (instead of the usual 6...h5) Black offers a pawn sacrifice, which White should accept if he wants to play for an advantage. After it we soon end up in the position in the diagram, which promises Black interesting play.
Kuzmin: Anti-Slav D23 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bf5 6.g3 e6 7.Bg2 Nbd7 8.0-0 Be7 9.e3 0-0 10.Rd1
The position can also arise via the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, but it is much more significant as a weapon against the Slav. Holding back Nc3 involves a few subtleties, which Alexey Kuzmin explains in his article.
Stohl: Queen's Gambit Accepted D27 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Bb3
In the first part of his repertoire for White based on 7.Bb3, Igor Stohl examines a few side-lines as well as the principled 7...b5, followed by 8.a4. After that 8...c4 appears to be surprisingly strong.
Krasenkow: Semi-Slav D46 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 a6
By playing 9...a6 instead of the major alternatives 9...b5 and 9...e5, Black keeps in reserve precisely those two moves and in addition he is ready to play 9...c5 in many lines. The main variation goes 10.Rd1 b5, and according to Krasenkow’s analysis White has no advantage.
Schandorff: Queen's Gambit D52 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4 9.Rc1 h6 10.Bh4 c5 11.Bc4
The variation with 10...c5 in the Cambridge Springs is considered promising, see also the contribution from Rogozenco in CBM 118. But in Wijk aan Zee Shirov twice had to admit defeat against the so far little played 11.Bc4.
Hazai/Lukacs: Queen's Gambit D56 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6
The Lasker Variation of the Orthodox Queen’s Gambit is fashionable at the moment. Laszlo Hazai and Peter Lukacs examine 9.Rc1 which is almost always played nowadays, but White can hardly achieve anything against best play by Black.
Avrukh: Catalan E05 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4
For a while, the move 8.a4 was unfashionable, but Boris Gelfand has been showing a few new ideas in the variation with 10.Bf4 and since then players with Black have been endeavouring, so far in vain, to achieve complete equality.
Marin: Bogo-Indian E11 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.Nc3 b6
Mihail Marin continues his series on Bogo-Indian Variations involving...a5 with an article on 5...b6, the move which is most frequently played in the position. Black should be able to keep things level with accurate play.
Schipkov: King's Indian E83 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nge2 a6 8.Qd2 Bd7
In an earlier article Boris Schipkov showed that after the old main move 8...Rb8 Black is faced with difficulties after 9.Rc1. Now the question is whether 8...Bd7 (intending 9.Rc1?! b5!) can represent a better alternative.