ChessBase Magazine 135, April '10

De unge stjernene i Wijk-aan-Zee-turneringen, Anish Giri og Magnus Carlsen, kan smile på forsiden av den nye ChessBase Magazine 135. Her er det selvfølgelig godt stoff med dem begge og med mange bidrag fra ledende stormestere.

Åpningsartikler i denne utgaven:

Stohl: English A29

1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Nd4 By simplifying with 4...Nd4 Black makes his life somewhat easier, because the positions become less complicated and if becomes hard for White to demonstrate any advantage.

Marin: Alekhine Defence B03

1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6 exd6

With 4.c4 and the exchange on d6 White is not being particularly ambitious, But Black must still know what he is doing. As Marin shows in his article, really accurate play is even required, and sometimes the precise order of opening moves has its role to play.

Grivas: Sicilian B33

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Bg5 In the second part of his series on the Grivas Sicilian our Greek author looks into White’s bishop move 7.Bg5 (the Poseidon Variation), which is not especially popular but which does have a certain significance, because positions arise there which are also reached by other move orders.

Kritz: Sicilian B42

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Qg4 Bf6 The bishop manoeuvre Bc5-e7-f6 is just as unusual as it has previously been successful. But Kritz sketches out here an as yet unplayed setup which promises White an advantage.

Kuzmin: Sicilian B94

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 The knight move is not reckoned to quite good enough by the top players, but that could change. Alexey Kuzmin has brought together the latest developments and can see splendid counterplay for Black.

Moskalenko: French Defence C00

1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2 Black needs to know what he is doing against the Reti Gambit, because it is difficult to find the correct moves over the board. In a very concentrated survey Moskalenko shows how things go.

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 The evaluation of the position in the diagram is of enormous importance for the evaluation of the move 4.e5 and with it the whole Steinitz System. Langrock’s investigation is appropriately thorough.

Hazai/Lukacs: Scotch C45

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3 Nge7 7.Qd2 After the move 7.Qd2 (instead of the main variation 7.Bc4) there are numerous wrong replies, but the authors show that after the correct moves, 7...a6 and 7...0-0 Black has good prospects.

Skembris: Two Knights Defence C58

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 Apparently Black’s prospects after 6...Bd7 instead of the main move 6...c6) have so far been underestimated, because, as our author shows, Black has several promising continuations after 7.Qe2 Be7 8.Nc3 0-0 9.0-0.

Erenburg: Ruy Lopez C65

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d4 With the move 4.d4 White can in a radical fashion prevent the Berlin endgame. Some of the resulting variations are very sharp and Black must also work hard for equality.

Postny: Ruy Lopez C65

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Bc5 5.c3 0-0 6.d4 Bb6 After looking at 5.Nxe5 in CBM 134 our Israeli author now examines the main variation, which begins with 5.c3. But recent games have shown that here too it is difficult for White to achieve an opening advantage.

Karolyi: Queen's Gambit Accepted D24

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 e6 5.Nc3 Our Hungarian author, who helped develop the theory of his variation over 20 years ago, suggests at this point two continuations for Black - 5...exd5 and 5...Nf6 - and both appear to lead to equality.

Krasenkow: Queen's Indian Defence E12

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 In the first part of his series on the Petrosian System the author looks into variations in which Black does not play 4...Bb7. Here Black just scrapes past equality.