ChessBase Magazine Vol. 101 contains 1758 games, over 450 with expert annotations. In addition there are over 6000 high-quality correspondence chess games, section on tactics, strategy, endgames, and extensive theory articles, all by experts in the field. The multimedia section contains video footage of a press conference with Vladimir Kramnik and Peter Leko in Hamburg.
Contents of ChessBase Magazine 101
By Frederic Friedel
The main database CBM 101
When you start the ChessBase Magazine 101 CD a database icon labelled “101 CBM” appears in the main database window of ChessBase 8.0. Double-click this icon (or click it and hit Enter, or right-click the icon and click “Open”) and you will get a list of the 1758 games and reports contained in this magazine. Over 450 of the games are annotated.
A good way to get an overview of the material is to click on the “Tournament” tab at the top of the list. This produces a list of the different tournaments, which can be sorted by right-clicking the list.
You can sort the tournament list by name, place, nation, date, category, etc. “Type” will give you regular tournaments, Swiss, team, knockout and rapid events in separate blocks; “Category” sorts the strongest tournaments to the top.
Tournaments
The strongest tournament in the CBM 101 is the category 15 Sarajevo Bosnia, which was won in stunning style by the Spanish GM Alexei Shirov (he hails from Latvia). Shirov lost no games, and drew only three, to chalk up a total of 7.5 points in nine rounds, a point and a half ahead of the field. His Elo performance was 2892. Of the 45 games played in Bosnia 25 are annotated.
There are four category 13 tournaments on the CD:
- the Capablanca Memorial in Havanna, won by Lenier Dominguez with a 2814 performance;
- Karadjordje Serbia, with Dimitrios Mastrovasilis and Kiril Georgiev tying for first; with 2730 performances;
- Sigeman & Co in Malmö/Copenhagen, taken by Peter Heine Nielsen with a 2683 performance (Nielsen lost his game to 14-year-old wunderkind Magnus Carlsen, who came third with a 2649 performance);
- and Zalaegerszeg, won by Ferenc Berkes with a 2670 performance.
In an age where people are deeply concerned about the many draws in chess we would do well to look at the statistics of these top tournaments:
| Tournament | |||
| Sarajevo Bosnia | |||
| Capablanca Memorial | |||
| Karadjordje Serbia | |||
| Sigeman & Co | |||
| Zalaegerszeg |
Draw your own conclusions.
Multimedia
On May 12th of this year the first Classical World Chess Championship in four years was announced by the sponsors and organisers. It was done in a press conference, which was staged in the exclusive Hamburg hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. The world championship between Vladimir Kramnik and challenger Peter Leko will take place in Switzerland from September 25 to October 18 this year. The location is the Centro Dannemann and the prize fund one million Swiss Francs, which currently converts to US $772,700 or €649,100.
The press conference in Hamburg announcing the Classical Chess World Championship in Switzerland
The press invitation started with the drawing of colours – with a new and interesting twist. Adriana Madeira, a representative of Dannemann, selected a square, f5, which was not revealed to the players.
Then Kramnik and Leko started a blitz game, and the first to place a piece on the selected square got White in game one of the match. Peter Leko was the first to move a piece (a knight) to f5, so he will be White in game one on September 25th.
Theory
A34: English Opening
In the English Opening after 1.c4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nb4 6.Bc4 Nd3+ 7.Ke2 Nf4+ 8.Kf1 Ne6 9.b4!? cxb4White usually plays 10.Nd5.
But in his article GM Viktor Gavrikov discusses the less popular continuation 10.Ne2, which seems more logical to him.
White is ready to occupy the centre with d2-d4 and is going to use his space advantage to create threats against the black king. It is interesting that the statistics is clearly in White’s favour: out of 15 games, he won 11 and lost only 2! Gavrikov concludes that this version of the pawn sacrifice – 9.b4!? cxb4 10.Ne2 – offers White strong initiative and deserves further investigation.
A65: Benoni f3
Albert Kapengut’s article is entitled “At the Crossroads of Modern Theory Ways”. In his introduction the author writes:
Considering the progress of the modern theory of chess openings in a slightly abstract manner, it is notable that variations born at the crossroads of different systems or even openings are developing most intensely. This thesis can be witnessed clearly through the example of a variation of the Half Saemisch System of the King’s Indian Defense, which makes a transition to some variations of the Modern Benoni Defense. In this article almost all the games reached the critical position from the KID.
Authors like John Watson in Guide to the Modern Benoni, Gambit Publication 2001, and Attila Schneider in Die Komplette Moderne Benoni Verteidigung, Reinhold Dreier 1997, called it Kapengut’s 7.f3 System. The author of this article has a number of publications on this topic, above all the monograph A65 in Chess Informant and several articles in the New in Chess Yearbook.
It should be mentioned that, as far as the construction of the material is concerned, this topic is the most difficult that I have encountered during my 40 years as a theoretician! There are not only endless transpositions and varying move numbers leading to one and the same position, but even worse, the different routes for the white knights, for example from Ng1- h3- f2 or Ng1-e2-c1-d3-f2 to the combination of Nb1-c3-d1-f2 and Ng1-e2-c3. Therefore, for the sake of convenience, some games are mentioned several times, emphasizing the most important features in a particular set-up.
Since the frame of this article is restricted, the only plans examined here are those involving the manoeuvre Ng1-e2-g3-h1-f2 with Black’s reaction h7-(h6)-h5-h4 and f7-f5. Twenty years ago, Black’s plan looked risky, but now it has become the basic weapon.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 e6 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f3 Bg7 8.Be3 0-0 9. Nge2 Nbd7 10.Ng3 a6 11.a4 Ne5 12.Be2 h5 13.0-0 Nh7 14.Qd2 h4 15.Nh1 f5 16.Nf2.
Let me say a few words in general about the move order and the strategic ideas behind the scenario of the variation. Of course, the title move order is just one among many because this position has arisen by various ways. Sometimes White might not hurry to define the location of his black-squared bishop and move the king’s knight to the square g3 first, provoking the aggressive march of the h-pawn h7-h5-h4 early by this manouevre. The Nf2 is multifunctionally located: it defends the pawn e4 critical for the Modern Benoni, prevents the black pawn advance g4 and h3 and defends the king against potential threats along the diagonal a7-g1. At the same time, it can easily move to the more aggressive square on d3, supporting the breakthrough e5 or the counter b4. Alternatively, in the event of an exchange on f5, the same knight can move f2-h3-f4(g5), preparing an invasion to e6. The alternative withdrawal of the knight to f1 is a valuable separate topic.
At the same time, White abandons the timesaving manouevre Ng1-h3-f2 because the opponent can prevent it by delaying Nbd7. Sometimes the critical positions of the variations appear with the inclusion of the moves 6.Bg5 h6 7.Be3.
If the actual move order of the game differs from the “normalized” move order, this is marked by “*”. Sometimes White refrains from Qd2, because from the starting position the queen is also useful for his breakthrough plan f3-f4 and e4-e5 as it controls the g4 square. In turn, Black can choose to implement the plan with f7-f5 as early as possible, not wasting tempi for generally useful moves like Re8 or Nbd7 and, of course, Nd7-e5. Usually, the latter manouevre has occurred from the KID move order.
The article is divided into two parts. The first part is the critical position of the variation from the diagram. The other contains possible deviations, e.g. the inclusion of a6 a4, White attempts to play the transfer Ng3-h1-f2 without Black's advance h5-h4 or his blocking this advance by h2-h3.
Recently White does not hurry to define the position of the black-squared bishop and waits until Black goes h7-h5 so that the bishop can get to g5 in one step instead of Bc1-e3 or Bc1-g5-h6-Be3. Sometimes White allows Black to develop initiative on the queenside with b5, and concentrates all of his pieces for a breakthrough in the centre and some initiative on the kingside.
By the way, for the first time in CBM I have included additional exercise selections such as tactical training and typical ideas.
B22: Sicilian Alapin
The basic position of the variation analysed by GM Dorian Rogozenko, arises after 1.e4 c5 2.c3 Nf6 3.e5 Nd5 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nf3 Nc6 6.cxd4 d6 7.Bc4 Nb6 8.Bb5 dxe5 9.Nxe5 Bd7 10.Nxd7 Qxd7 11.Nc3.
In recent years this became one of the main positions of the Sicilian Alapin with 2...Nf6. Initially it was considered by theory to be completely equal, but thanks to efforts of several inventive players on the White side, things turned out to be more complicated and therefore a detailed research is required. The point is that White's lead in development together with the time factor is often more valuable than Black's better pawn structure.
GM Dorian Rogozenko
In the diagrammed position White threatens 12.d5. Black has two main options: 11...Rd8 and 11...e6. After the rare 11...a6 12.Bxc6, Black must take back with the pawn since 12...Qxc6 13.d5 allows White a strong initiative. So 12...bxc6 13.0-0 and now the best move is 13...g6!, which offers Black good chances to equalize in a slightly inferior position This is generally typical for the whole line – White keeps an edge in many positions, but with accurate play Black should be able to reach a draw.
B86: Sicilian Sozin-Variation
The development of the bishop on to the a2-g8 diagonal is among the sharpest weapons against the Sicilian Defence. For this reason the move Bf1-c4 enjoys great popularity with those players who like positions full of tactical motifs. In his contribution Jerzy Konikowski looks into the variation after the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bc4 e6 7.0-0.
White first of all puts his monarch into safety and is ready to sacrifice a central pawn. If this is to be the case, the most important thing is a rapid mobilization of his forces in order to make a quick start on some action against the opposing king.
7...b5 8.Bb3 b4. Driving the knight away from its active position. 9.Na4.
This is the critical position for this variation. In the diagram position 9...Nxe4 would be too dangerous, since after 10.Re1 White gets a strong initiative for the pawn, which is good compensation for the material he has sacrificed. But other moves also give White good attacking prospects.
Konikowski concludes that the move 8...b4 is too risky, since White can quickly build up a kingside attack with Rf1-e1 and f2-f4-f5. For that reason, instead of 8...b4 he recommends the move 8...Be7, with chances for both sides.
D15 The Slav 4...a6
“News in the Chebanenko” is the title of the article by IM Sergey Klimov. The line arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 a6.
The Chebanenko is without any doubt one of the most popular and still not so widely researched ways of playing the Slav with black. It is played by a lot of elite players (Kasparov, Morozevich, Shirov, Bareev, Grischuk) as well as top 100 players like Khalifman, Bacrot, Movsesian, Malakhov, Volkov, Smirnov and others.
This survey deals with the latest games in this variation played in spring - summer 2004 (the last games being from the FIDE WCC 2004 in Tripoli). We will stress upon some of the lines that have become critical now.
Conclusions of the author: In spite of some problems in the main variation 5.e3 b5 6.b3 Bg4 7.Be2 Nbd7 8.0-0 e6 9.h3 Bh5 10.Bb2 Bd6 11.Ne5 Bxe2 12.Nxe2 Qc7 13. cxd5 cxd5 14.Rc1 Qb8,
all in all the Chebanenko seems to be quite playable now, especially if Black wants to hold a slightly worse position. In the lines 15.Nxd7 Kxd7 Black has had good results recently – so White is to prove that his advantage is really enough for playing for a win.
After 5.c5 the latest games show that the most solid continuation for Black is 5...Nh5. Here White has some problems in the variation 6.Be3, especially after the fresh idea 6...Nhf6!?. So maybe he should go for 6.e3 (or 6.Bd2), but it is not simple to fight for an edge there either. The continuations 5.e3 b5 6.b3 and 5.c5 are quite playable for Black, but he has to avoid some of the forced variations.
The real problem for Black is that in most cases (especially after 5.e3) White holds a small positional advantage. It is hard to counter when your opponent exerts some pressure on the only opened line, the c-file. On the other side, it is very hard for White to convert his small pressure into real advantage.
Even now, the Chebanenko seems to be unresearched compared to the Meran or 4...dxc4 – this is one of its main pluses.
D17: Slav Defence
The topic of the article by GM Boris Avrukh deals with the Morozevich Variation which arises after the following opening moves: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7. Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 g5!? 12.Ne3(12.Nxe5 gxf4 13.Nxd7 0-0-0 is another popular line) 12...gxf4 13.Nf5.
Recently this line has gained huge popularity, thanks to Alexander Morozevich, who is rightly famous for his adventurous chess. Actually the 11...g5 move was first tried in the game Corral Blanco-Lopez de Lemma in 1986, but Morozevich was the person who introduced this move against no other than Garry Kasparov in 2000. Nowadays this line is a frequent guest in tournament practice. There are many top grandmasters who use this line constantly, viz. Shirov, Anand, Morozevich, Gelfand, Nielsen and others.
After 13...0-0-0 White has three options at his disposal: the first, 14.gxf4? is a clear mistake which allows Black to seize the initiative; 14 0-0 is quite a playable alternative to the main move, 14.Qc2, which is without any doubts the most ambitious continuation.
This is the key position of the whole line. In the diagram position the main priority for White is to force Black to take on g3, after which White can try to use Black's weak pawn on the kingside. At the same time sometimes White has the opportunity to seize the initiative on the queenside. Black, on the other hand, should try to find good squares for his minor pieces while waiting for an opportunity to attack the white king in case of short castle.
The database includes all fresh practical material up to July 2004. There are 45 selected games in this database, 13 of them are annotated by the author especially for this database. Furthermore, there is a deep opening key developed for the database.
Conclusion of Avrukh’s investigations: This variation of the Slav Defence remains strategically very complicated for both sides. Obviously, Black has three playable alternatives (in the second diagram above), 14...Ng6 (the latest novelty of Morozevich), 14...Bb4 and the most popular 14...Nc5. There are no doubts that there will definitely be more attempts by the first player to find improvements in all those lines. Right now Ponomariov's move 16.Qe4 looks like the most critical direction. There should be still enough scope for more research.
D38: Ragozin
The basic position of the variation, explored by GM Zoltan Ribli arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 g5 8.Bg3 Ne4 9.Nd2 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Bxc3 11.Rc1.
White is a pawn down, but he has better piece development and the black kingside is weakened. Black has three possible continuations: 11...Bxd2+?!, 11...Ba5 and 11...Bb2. Naturally 11...Bxd4?? would not be very good because of 12.Qa4+ Nc6 13.Rxc6 – with a win for White. The move 11...Bxd2+ has only been played in the older game Adorjan,A - Kurajica,B ½-½, in which, after 12.Qxd2 Nc6 13.h4 White had more than sufficient compensation for the pawn.
Conclusion of Ribli’s analysis: the whole variation with 7...g5 is rather risky for Black. In some lines he can defend his extra pawn, but White always has (at least) full compensation. But where there is material equality (in the variation II. 11...Bb2) White gets a small positional advantage because of his sound pawn structure. On the other hand, the whole variation leads to good practical chess and in many games Black achieves his tactical counterchances.
E15: Queen's Indian 5.Qa4
The starting point for GM Alik Gershon’s survey is the position resulting after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qa4.
This continuation is one of the chief alternatives to the main line 5.b3. In recent years, more and more top class GMs have added this move to their repertoires for a few reasons:
1. The positions arising after 5.b3 seem to be too much explored, with little space left for further lab work.
2. This move leads to slightly better positions for White, with minimum risk.
3. The ground is (or was a couple of years ago, to be exact) relatively unexplored.
The next series of moves is made almost automatically nowadays: 5...Bb7 6.Bg2 c5 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.0-0 Be7 9.Nc3 0-0 10.Bf4 Na6 11.Rfd1 Nc5 12.Qc2 Qc8, after which the following position arises:
Here White has two main options: 13.Rac1 and 13.Rd4. Loek van Wely is the main devotee to the first, and has been forcing the "Linares guys" to work hard on this line for the last few years. It seems, however, that they were successful in their homework, and White (including van Wely himself) switched to 13.Rd4 in search for a better life. Let us look at both moves:
13.Rac1. For a long time this has been the main and virtually only possible continuation for White. After the more or less forced13...Nce4 14.Nd4 Nxc3 15.Qxc3 a6 16.Qb3 Bxg2 17.Kxg2 Qb7+ 18.Qf3 Ra7, we reach one of the most popular positions (mainly thanks to van Wely and Leko) in top GM games in 2003.
White gets a slightly better endgame by force, but Black proved to be solid enough to hold on with surprising ease.
13.Rd4. After the tries to obtain any promising advantage after 13.Rac1, White switched to 13.Rd4 preventing Black from occupying the e4-square. At first, Black's main attempts concentrated on 13...d5 14.cxd5 exd5, producing decent results, although with slightly passive play. However, another alternative, 14...Nxd5, was introduced into practice in Kuzmin,A-Ravi,T, Goodricke Open 2002, ½-½. This game was left unnoticed until Peter Leko started playing it in 2004 and, as it seems, took away all White's hopes in this line.
All in all, Black seems to be just fine in all lines, although after 13.Rac1 White can try and exploit his space advantage.
Endgame
Starting from ChessBase Magazine vol. 5 (May 1988), GM Hajo Hecht provided the endgame section. His last instalment appeared in the Jubilee Issue of ChessBase Magazine (vol. 100), 16 years later. With CBM 101 his successor GM Dr Karsten Müller takes over the endgames section. Karsten writes:
May I welcome you to the endgame section of the CBM. Over the years, my predecessor managed to provide readers not only with good analyses but also with a presentation which swept you through some pretty dry material in the most exciting way possible. Let’s see if I can keep it up as long as he did!
The main theme of the first report is “Fortress or hovel?”, dealing with rook endings, rook against bishop and the bishop pair. In addition he takes a look at a whole array of other endings, which you can find in the database.
(6) Bologan,V (2665) - Dizdarevic,E (2520) [B19]
Sarajevo Bosnia Sarajevo (5), 22.05.2004 [Mueller,Karsten]
Black gives away the fruits of his hard work with 64...Ke8? and had to resign after 65.Ke6! (Opposition 65....Kd8 66.Kd6 Kc8 67.Kxc6 Kb8 (67...Kd8 68.Kb7+–) 68.Kd7 Ka8 69.c6 Kb8 70.c7+ Ka8 71.c8Q mate.A bitter blow!
So where did Black go astray? Try to work it out in your head before you look at the solution given at the end of this page.
Strategy
In the 100th edition of ChessBase Magazine GM Peter Wells took a serious and practical look at how to optimise your opening play through preparation, understanding and perhaps above all ‘personalisation’ – in short, how to choose and then hone a set of openings which are right for you. In part two of his article, entitled “Opening Preparation –A Practical Guide”, he looks at how opening theory develops and opening study in the computer age.
Tactics
“The Art of Rook Sacrifice” is Part Two of a tactics article started in CBM 98 by GM Valery Atlas. The author writes: “Selecting the training positions for the present database, I was impressed with the amount of games in which victory was achieved by means of spectacular rook sacrifices. In CBM 98, I have already presented several remarkable rook sacrifices, and the present collection of tactical examples offers a good opportunity to continue the exploration of this interesting topic.”
ICCF Telechess
The database of correspondence and email chess games contains seven text reports and over 6000 games. The purpose of the articles is to provide readers with a comprehensive coverage of the game of correspondence chess, whether using post, email or other kinds of transmission, as organised by the International Correspondence Chess Federation and its member federations.
Solution to the endgame Bologan-Dizdarevic given above: 64...Kd7 would have held the fortress: 65.Kf6 Kd8 66.Ke6 Kc7 67.Ke7 Kc8 68.Kd6 Kd8 69.Kxc6 Kc8 70.Kd6 Kd8 71.c6 Kc8 72.c7 stalemate. The a6-pawn dashes all of White’s hopes.
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