The match of the year between World Champion Vishy Anand and his challenger Veselin Topalov went the full distance, i.e. 12 tournament games, and yet at the end the decision was quite unexpected and came much more quickly than one might have thought. On the DVD of ChessBase Magazine 136 you will find all the games with extensive annotations. Other high points of the last weeks and months have been the European Championships for both men and women. In those there were victories on the one hand for youthful creativity and on the other for experience and serenity. As for the Russian Team Championships we have their best games annotated by top players such as Pavel Eljanov and Fabiano Caruana. And last but not least, Alexei Shirov shows you some of his latest brilliancies from the Bundesliga in video format.

World Championship Sofia 2010
You could see the relief on the World Champion's face when after the win in the 12th game his title defence had been successfully completed. It had been perhaps the hardest match of his career so far. In interviews after the WCh Anand showed himself, e.g., surprised by Topalov's match strategy. This was because, in contradiction to what one has been used to with him, the Bulgarian hardly varied his openings at all and entered into a theoretical duel with Anand with each colour. All the twelve games from Sofia with extensive commentary by Igor Stohl, Michal Krasenkow, Mihail Marin and Anish Giri.

European Championship in Rijeka 
Compared to other sports, the title of European Champion is in chess much less important. There are various reasons for this. On one hand, for years the ECh has been played in the form of an open tournament in which even pure amateurs can take part. So it is rare for a top ten player to stray into a ECh. A further peculiarity of the chess world is that the ECh also functions as a qualifying tournament, namely for the FIDE World Cup. So the motivation for most of the grandmasters lies in getting one of the 23 qualifying places rather than the title itself. The young Russian GM Jan Nepomniachtchi showed in his games, that he also had designs on the title itself. In rounds 9 and 11 he scored the two decisive wins which he need to win the ECh.

Some gleanings from the Bundesliga 
Only OSG Baden-Baden can become champions of Germany. They have done so for the fifth time in a row. Ever present: Alexei Shirov. In most matches he occupied top board for the team from Baden and in his 7 out of 10 he posted his usual good score. On this DVD he annotates two of his games in video format. The 2009/2010 season was in any case an exciting one, because the team from Werder Bremen managed to beat the champions in round 10, thereby remaining in the race for the title right up until the end. Shirov’s first annotated game comes from this match against Bremen.

 

Russian Team Championship in Sochi
As in previous years the Russian Team Championship was played in the Hotel Dagomys in Sochi on the Black Sea coast. The premier league consisted of ten teams, and with Grischuk, Ivanchuk, Svidler, Wang Yue. Jakovenko, Gelfand, Karjakin, Eljanov, Caruana, Movsesian etc. there were once more some absolutely world class players in the starting blocks. At the end it was the team ShSM-64 which won by a nose with 16 points. The only team points which Gelfand, Karjakin & Co conceded were one each against the team from Ural and the St Petersburger SPb Chess Fed. The latter team occupied second place two points behind the victors. You will find on the DVD all the games from the Russian Premier League as well as an extensive tournament report. 

 

From the opening trap to the endgame study
Training in ChessBase Magazine begins with the very first moves and covers all the phases of a game of chess. The 13 up-to-date openings articles with their many ideas and suggestions for your repertoire can be found here or above among the links. The subtle opening trap starts on move 9. Click here, to reach Rainer Knaak’s column (including its Fritztrainer video). You will also find in video format contributions on the opening by Valeri Lilov (Keres Attack, Leningrad Dutch und Ilyin-Zhenevsky Dutch). These videos and other recordings in Chess Media Format can be accessed under the heading Fritztrainer. The topic of Peter Wells' Strategy column is: 'Exploring a complex structure: the isolated doubled c-pawns'. In Daniel King's ever popular Move by Move there is a game in the Nimzo Indian. And in the columns Tactics and Endgame Oliver Reeh and Karsten Müller have once more brought together for you the best from recent tournament practice.

 

Opening Surveys

 

Marin: Alekhine Defence B03

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 dxe5 6.fxe5 g6 7.Nc3 Bg7

 

Skembris: Caro-Kann B16

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gxf6

 

Grivas: Sicilian B33

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.g3

 

Erenburg: Sicilian B80

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e6 7.f3 b5 8.Qd2 b4 9.Nce2

 

Kuzmin: Sicilian B84

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 (Be3) 6...Nbd7

 

Langrock: French Defence C11

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 a6 11.Qf2

 

Stohl: Ruy Lopez C77

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.d3 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 a6

 

Ftacnik: Slav Defence D12

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 Be4

 

Karolyi: Queen's Gambit Accepted D20

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e3 e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4 Bd6

 

Hazai/Lukacs: Queen's Gambit D35

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 Nf6 6.e3 Bf5

 

Postny: Queen's Gambit D39

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bxf6 Qxf6

 

Schipkov: Bogo-Indian Defence E11

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 0-0 5.a3 Be7 6.e4 d5

 

Krasenkow: Queen's Indian Defence E12

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Bb7 5.Nc3