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Opposite-coloured bishops (OCB) are tricky beasts. In many (but not all!) endgames, they turn the fight on the board into a boring tea-party, mostly ending in a draw. Many club players therefore expect that in the middlegame they will behave similarly. However, nothing can be further from truth. | Photo: <a href="https://pixabay.com/de/vectors/schach-bischof-meeple-schwarz-wei%C3%9F-36303/">pixabay</a>.
The Italian Game has become popular again in top chess in recent years, not least because it often leads to interesting positions rich in content. In ChessBase Magazine #214 Sergey Grigoriants uses games by Nakamura, Carlsen, Kasimdzhanov and others to show a concept that promises Black "relatively easy play": with 10...Re8 Black prepares the exchange of the light-squared bishops on e6.
Spassky is considered one of the most gifted players ever. A fine attacker and equally strong in the middlegame and endgame, the term universal style was coined for him. For CBM 214 we invited our authors to comment on their favourite Boris Spassky games. The result is a collection of 27 first-class annotated Spassky games from the period 1949 to 1989. You can take a look at two samples here. Enjoy!
Evgeny Postny examines in the current ChessBase Magazine #214 the variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3 Nc6 5.c3 Nf6 6.h3 (which, in contrast to the main continuation 6.Bf4, prevents the development of Black's bishop to g4) with the active advance 6...e5. From Postny's point of view a sound reaction, which “offers Black adequate play in all variations” even though an isolani on d5 will be involved.
The column "All in One" was introduced in in ChessBase Magazine about four years ago. On the basis of a single, but very extensively annotated game, you learn everything you need to know about a specific opening line. A compact format with which you can improve your know-how without much effort. In the current ChessBase Magazine #214 Igor Stohl introduces you to the Hippopotamus setup, a system that can be used with Black against practically anything.