Page 4 - Igor Stohl News Today

When White wants to tackle the Sicilian Najdorf Variation — 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 — very directly, 6.Bg5 is a popular choice. After 6...e6 7.f4 the rare 7...b5, the Polugaevsky Variation, leads to sharp and difficult positions. Petra Papp brings the theory of this variation up to date in her article for ChessBase Magazine #207, explaining typical strategies and motifs for both sides.

Bent Larsen is the "hero" of the new issue of ChessBase Magazine. In CBM #207 our authors — among others Emanuel Berg, Jan Markos and Yannick Pelletier — comment on their favourite game of the great Dane. CBM readers can expect a collection of 19 special encounters from the period 1956 to 1998. In addition, Mihail Marin presents Larsen as a "universal player" in his strategy column and Karsten Mueller analyses a selection of Larsen's best endgames. You can watch the L...

The Alapin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.c3) is a very solid system for White. Logically, you have no chance to avoid it with Black, if you play the Sicilian. So you should be well-prepared when answering 1.e4 with ...c5. In the new ChessBase Magazine #207, Markus Ragger presents a complete repertoire against the Alapin: after 2...d5 3.exd5 he recommends the side line 3...Nf6, which leads to sharp play and completely different structures than one would expect in a normal c3-Sicilian. In CBM #207 you will...

ChessBase Magazine #207 provides, among many other things, all the games from the FIDE Grand Prix 2022 series, which was played in Berlin and Belgrade from February to April. Andrey Esipenko, Anish Giri, Grigoriy Oparin, Alexandr Predke, Sam Shankland, Wesley So, Vidit Gujrathi and Nikita Vitiugov are some of the Grand Prix participants who commented on their best games. Wesley So, who won the third tournament but missed out on qualifying to the Candidates Tournament, examines his victory over L...

The new ChessBase Magazine #205 offers a wealth of ideas and recommendations for your repertoire. The topics of the eleven opening articles in the new issue range from the Benko Gambit (4.cxb5 a6 5.b6 e6), the French Tarrasch (8.0-0 g5!), the Ruy Lopez (5.Qe2) to recipes against the King's Indian (after 6.Be2). Sergey Grigoriants looks at a topic that will interest many chess fans: He presents an active repertoire against the London System! However, you have to be ready to sacrifice a pawn w...

In his ChessBase Magazine column "Topical opening traps", GM Rainer Knaak regularly examines examples from current tournament practice. He also presents three of them in the video analysis in each CBM. Especially for club players, his contributions offer exciting suggestions. Thanks to the range of topics, you should be able to find something for your own repertoire in every issue! In addition, the trap expert often shows variations that are rarely seen in top-level chess but must be o...

ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess and it also provides arsenal for the tournament player. CBM #204 contains 1226 games (26 annotated), 9 opening surveys, lectures and exercises for training. Annotators include Peter Heine Nielsen, Alireza Firouzja, Romain Edouard and Anish Giri, to mention a few. The icing on the cake is the Judit Polgar Special, a tribute to the former child prodigy who crossed swords with the best of them all, from Kasparov to Carlsen. Ou...

Some of these opening proposals are solid and safe, but you also find interesting, double-edged gambits. Robert Ris recently presented such a gambit: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nd5!?.    But can White really play this way – moving the knight twice before completing his development and neglecting to defend e4? At any rate, some strong players, including Jorden van Foreest and Alexey Shirov, have recently made use of this idea in various online tournaments and achi...

The young Magnus Carlsen Ditching the double fianchetto! Patrick Zelbel‘s aggressive recipe 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0–0 0–0 5.d4 d6 6.b3 e5! The bishops‘ squeeze! White killer queen on h5 Dangerous living for Black - 33 x tactics Carlsen - So 0-1! Endgame special rook and bishop vs. rook Thorsten Cmiel explains all you need to know in practice Italian à la Dubov Play like the 15-year-old Magnus! Along with Simon Williams go through the game Carlsen-Gronn “Move by Move“ Gamb...

€29.90 Firouzja wins, Duda escapes The most important result of round 3 was Pentala Harikrishna’s win with black over former sole leader Nils Grandelius. However, we also saw Jan-Krzysztof Duda barely escaping in a double-edged struggle against Fabiano Caruana, and Alireza Firouzja showing impressive endgame technique to get his first victory of the event. Special: AVRO 1938. "All in One": Anish Giri and Igor Stohl dissect two topical opening lines. Analyses from Norway Che...