ChessBase Magazine 219 (+DVD)

Highlights

From the top tournament Prague Masters 2024 with analyses by Abdusattorov, Navara, Nguyen, Praggnanandhaa and many more to Jan Marko's "Practical tips for tournament players" and Karsten Mueller's video course "Fundamental Endgame Knowledge".

Over 6 hours of video playing time with Christian Bauer, Felix Blohberger, Rainer Knaak, Jan Markos, Mihail Marin, Karsten Müller, Oliver Reeh, Robert Ris, Dorian Rogozenco and Nico Zwirs - Prague Masters 2024: analyses by tournament winner Nodirbek Abdusattorov as well as Erwin l'Ami, David Navara, Thai Dai Van Nguyen, Praggnanandhaa and many more. - "Special" on Fabiano Caruana: CBM authors show their favourite games of the world no. 2 - exclusive collection of 26 annotated games from 2007 to 2023 – A fresh English repertoire: Felix Blohberger presents an idea based on the game Gukesh-Navara from the Prague Masters 2024 with 3.e3 and 4.Qb3 (video) – Everything okay for Black: Sergey Grigoriants updates 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3 d5!? – Active defence: Jan Markos shows in his series "Practical tips for the tournament player" which strategy you should pursue in a pressure situation – Endgames with knight versus pawn(s): "Knight check shadow", "Karpov distance" and what else you need to know, part #9 of Dr Karsten Mueller’s video course and much more.

Top games and master analyses

Prague Chess Festival 2024: Nodirbek Abdusattorov was already the tournament winner of the Masters after his victory in the preliminary round against his closest rival, Parham Maghsoodloo, and ended up winning by 1.5 points. The Uzbek comments on this hard-fought game in this issue. Moreover, the runners-up Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Praggnanandhaa as well as David Navara and Mateusz Bartel from the Masters comment on their best games. In the Challengers, the young IM Ediz Gurel from Turkey came out on top and thus qualified for next year's Masters. Erwin l'Ami, Abhimanyu Mishra and Jaime Santos Latasa provide analyses from the Challengers.

Special: Fabiano Caruana

ChessBase Magazine authors analyse their favourite game of the American top player. An exclusive collection of 26 annotated games from 2007 to 2023 awaits you!

All in One

Everything you need to know about a variation in a single, extensively annotated game: Romain Edouard devotes himself to a special variation in the Sicilian Dragon: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 0-0 8.Qd2 Nc6 9.Bc4 Nd7 - and makes a clear recommendation for White!

Opening videos

Our new author, Felix Blohberger, takes the recent game Gukesh-Navara from the Prague Masters 2024 as an opportunity to take a closer look at the set-up 3.e3 Nc6 4.Qb3 in the English Opening. Christian Bauer examines the "Marshall Gambit of the Slav Defence": 1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 c6 4.e4. And Nico Zwirs provides an update to his "60-Minutes" video course on the Italian Game with 6.Lg5.

Felix Blohberger: English
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.e3 Nc6 4.Qb3
Christian Bauer: Slav Defence
1.c4 e6 2.Nc3 d5 3.d4 c6 4.e4
Nico Zwirs: Italian Game
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.d3 Nf6 5.c3 d6 6.Bg5

New ideas for your repertoire

From the Reti Opening to the King's Indian - ChessBase Magazine #219 offers 11 opening articles with new ideas for every repertoire!

Robert Ris: Reti 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d4 4.Bg2 Nc6
Lars Schandorff: Caro-Kann Advance V. 3...Bf5 4.h4 h6
Imre Hera: Sicilian Paulsen Variation with 7.Qd3
Alexey Kuzmin: Sicilian Najdorf Variation 6.h3 e5 7.Nf3
Patrick Zelbel: Philidor Defence 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Rg1
Krisztian Szabo: Ruy Lopez Anti-Marhsall 8.h3 Na5
Tanmay Srinath: Semi Tarrasch 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 and 11.h3
Evgeny Postny: Semi Slav Botvinnik System 10...Be7
Sergey Grigoriants: Gruenfeld 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.f3
Balazs Csonka: Nimzo Indian 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 c5 6.a3
Christian Braun: King's Indian 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d6 5.Nf3 Bf5

"Fabulous Fabiano"

Strategy expert Mihail Marin analyses selected games by the American and works out a guiding principle of his game: the attack! Including video introduction and two training sessions in which you can follow in Caruana's footsteps together with our expert.

Special: Pelletier's pearls

The renowned ChessBase author Yannick Pelletier opens his personal treasure chest - four classics with illuminating comments on the opening, middlegame and, above all, the endgame.

Topical opening traps

“A bit of Legal’s mate“, “Trapped in three ways“ and much more . – Rainer Knaak presents eight traps from current tournament practice - from the Van Geet Opening (1.Nc3) to the Budapest Gambit and the French Defence.

“Move by Move”

Creative play right from the start! In Nodirbek Abdusattorov against Ju Wenjun from the Tata Steel Masters 2024, the game entered uncharted territory after just a few moves. Play through this high-class encounter move by move with Robert Ris in his interactive training session!

"Modern Classics"

Botvinnik-Keres (1952) was the trigger for many strong grandmasters to include the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit with 5.Bg5 in their own repertoire - Dorian Rogozenco shows the strategies and motifs that are still relevant today!

Practical Tips for the Tournament Player: “Active defence”

In his training series, Jan Markos shows you which strategy you should pursue in a pressure situation in order to increase your chances and thus your score!

"All eyes on f7!"

In this tactics article with 34 games, Oliver Reeh has compiled training material from recent tournaments. You can solve his four favourite combinations move by move in the interactive training format with video feedback!

"Fundamental Endgame Knowledge" - Part 9: Pawn(s) vs. knight

"Knight check shadow", "Karpov distance" and much more. Karsten Mueller continues his training series. Following an introductory video, your technique is in demand in two interactive videos! Mueller also provides a contribution with the most beautiful endgames by Fabiano Caruana (video introduction + analyses).