New in Chess Yearbook 142

Yearbook 142 har som alltid glimrende stoff om mange åpninger, men er faktisk den siste i serien fra New In Chess. Forlaget startet med årbøkene da computeralderen kom og slutter etter 38 år når computeralderen har tatt helt over.

Den siste utgaven har i tillegg til det faste gode stoffet også tekster fra de involverte, inkludert dagens redaktør Jan Timman, om disse årbøkenes stolte historie og hele 385 artikkelforfattere fordelt på over 35.000 sider! Mange kommer til å savne New In Chess Yearbook i de neste årene.

Forlagets egen omtale:

In this final Yearbook of the series, managing editor Peter Boel has written a concluding article in which he looks back on 38 years of covering opening novelties and trends and cooperating with no less than 385 authors over time. The article features special contributions by colleague editors René Olthof and Frank Erwich and by Chief Editor Jan Timman.

Forum

In the FORUM Section, the winner of the 2021 Novelty of the Year is presented to you. He is also the overall Novelty of the Year winner! René Olthof looks at various very (extremely) early g2-g4 outings in the opening and celebrates the return of Alexei ‘Fire on Board’ Shirov. We have two elaborate pieces by Wayne Gradl, a topical correspondence game by Ahmet Odeev in the 7.Nd5 Sveshnikov, a follow-up on Dubov’s 6.b4 gambit in the Giuoco Piano by Peter Boel and the continuation of a heated discussion on the Fegatello Variation by Karsten Müller and José Lopez Senra.

From Our Own Correspondent

Erwin l’Ami’s final instalment of this popular column is no less than 17 pages long! He analyses five correspondence games extensively, in a broad range of openings: the Classical Nimzo-Indian, the Sämisch King’s Indian (an attacking gem!), the Anti-Grünfeld with 5.h4, Karpov’s 4 ... Nd7 move in the Caro-Kann, and an Anti-Slav Gambit in the Réti Opening.

Reviews

Glenn Flear covers a wide spectrum of books on 1.e4 openings this time – from specialized lines to entire repertoires. The reader will become acquainted with Ranko Szuhanek’s book Beating the Najdorf rare lines, Michael Roiz’s new volume in the Grandmaster Repertoire series on the Berlin Defence, a new product by the illustrious duo Richard Palliser & Simon Williams on sharp gambit lines called Grandmaster Gambits 1.e4 and, last but not least, James Rizzitano’s sensible but frequently surprising Modern Chess Opening Repertoire for White.

Åpningsartiklene denne gang:

1.e4 openings

Sicilian Defence - Rossolimo Variation 3....f6 4..c3 - Stohl

Sicilian Defence - Grand Prix Attack 2..c3 d6 - Matinian

French Defence - Steinitz Variation 4.e5 - Smerdon

French Defence - McCutcheon Variation 4....b4 - Warmerdam

Caro-Kann Defence - Two Knights Variation 3...dxe4 - Bosch

Petroff Defence - Steinitz Variation 3.d4 - Fogarasi

Ruy Lopez - Berlin Defence 6..a4 e4 - Timman

Ruy Lopez - Cozio Defence 3...g6 - Flear

Ruy Lopez - Dilworth Variation 11....xf2 - Sokolov

Scotch Opening - Mieses Variation 5..xc6 - Ponomariov

1.d4 openings

Slav Defence - Slav Gambit 5.e4 - Kuljasevic

Slav Defence - Semi-Slav 5..b3 - Ris

Tarrasch Defence - Semi-Tarrasch 4...c5 - Vilela

Catalan Opening - Early Divergences 4....d6 - Ikonnikov

Nimzo-Indian Defence - Rubinstein Variation 5....e8 - Odegov

Nimzo-Indian Defence - Classical Variation 4..c2 d5 - Lukacs and Hazai

Grünfeld Indian Defence - Exchange Variation 7..f3 - Gupta

King’s Indian Defence - Old Main Line 7....bd7 - Szabo

King’s Indian Defence - Fianchetto Variation 6...c6 - Fishbein

Queen’s Pawn Defence - Colle System 3...c5 - Olthof

Others

English Opening - Mikenas Variation 3.e4 d5 - Cummings

Réti Opening - Early Divergences 2.b3 - Ilczuk and Panczyk

Réti Opening - Early Divergences 2....d7 - Karolyi

Fra introen til René Olthof som deltok i hele prosjektet gjennom 38 år:

The New In Chess project was the result of the advent of the computer in the early 1980s – first, main frames, and subsequently also the personal computer. The first New In Chess Yearbook appeared in 1984. The concept behind it was an annual update of the New In Chess Key Book – hence the name Yearbook! We presented the latest developments in opening theory without text, using the Elsevier International Chess Data Information System Database. The total input from the period of January 1st 1983 till April 0th 1984 was 2,521 games, which had tripled in May 1985.

In Yearbook 4 (1986), editor Paul van der Sterren started writing introductions to guide the readers through the latest trends.

The first six volumes were a good 500 pages thick, but in 1988 the format changed to four 248-page issues a year, and we also introduced the traditional theoretical articles at that point. The very first one, by Polish IM Henryk Dobosz, discussed one of the most controversial lines of the Meran Slav at the time: the highly tactical Rellstab Variation. Eleven pages packed with brand-new analyses. I remember Valery Salov exclaiming in sheer desperation: ‘Some Polish fool has published all of my home preparation!’.

A variety of esteemed theoreticians contributed over the years. A.C. van der Tak, Adrian Mikhalchishin and the Hungarian duo Peter Lukacs/Laszlo Hazai are on the top of that list, which also features household names such as Kapengut, Dlugy, Sveshnikov, Shamkovich, Ivanchuk, Sakaev, Vitolins, Nikitin, Golubev, Glek, Tiviakov, Shulman and the most famous of them all: young Vladimir Kramnik.