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The English is becoming increasingly popular as White players avoid the heavy theory of 1.e4 or 1.d4 and hope to achieve a small advantage in a safe position. A lot of club players tend to focus on openings against 1.e4 and 1.d4 but neglect to study a response to the English. 1...e5 is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series I provide a complete Black repertoire based on this move. I have several years of experience playing 1...e5 against the English, and it is used regularly by many of the world’s leading grandmasters. Anish Giri is known for his opening preparation and his ideas feature heavily in the chapters.

Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the 7th world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time! Smyslov had a particularly deep understanding of chess. Perhaps influenced by music (he was a trained opera singer), his play was characterised by naturalness and harmony. He cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations, although he knew how to combine brilliantly when necessary. On the other hand, he shied away from unclear intricacies. Smyslov had a special preference for the (early) exchange of queens as a precursor to his brilliant technique, especially in the endgame, where he was considered an absolute luminary. The 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik called Smyslov “the truth in chess”.

Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the 7th world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time! Smyslov had a particularly deep understanding of chess. Perhaps influenced by music (he was a trained opera singer), his play was characterised by naturalness and harmony. He cultivated a clear positional style and even in sharp tactical positions often relied more on his intuition than on concrete calculation of variations, although he knew how to combine brilliantly when necessary. On the other hand, he shied away from unclear intricacies. Smyslov had a special preference for the (early) exchange of queens as a precursor to his brilliant technique, especially in the endgame, where he was considered an absolute luminary. The 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik called Smyslov “the truth in chess”.

The English is becoming increasingly popular as White players avoid the heavy theory of 1.e4 or 1.d4 and hope to achieve a small advantage in a safe position. A lot of club players tend to focus on openings against 1.e4 and 1.d4 but neglect to study a response to the English. 1...e5 is a theoretically sound response with good chances of equality or better in all variations, and in this video series I provide a complete Black repertoire based on this move. I have several years of experience playing 1...e5 against the English, and it is used regularly by many of the world’s leading grandmasters. Anish Giri is known for his opening preparation and his ideas feature heavily in the chapters.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

Tricks and traps, especially in the opening, are a dangerous reality of competitive chess. All sorts of surprises await the unwary player, from devastating sacrifices to cunning move order ploys. A knowledge of such ideas is essential if a player wants to be the hunter rather than the victim.

ChessBase Magazine starts the 2011 issue with a premiere. For the first time a women’s tournament, namely the Women’s World Championship in Antakya in Turkey, constitutes the main theme of the DVD. A lot of games from the WCh have been annotated by the players and even World Champion Hou Yifan, who is just sixteen, comments on two of the wins which were decisive for victory in the race for the title. The other two tournament highlights of this issue are the London Chess Classic with another triumph for Magnus Carlsen and the 53rd Reggio Emilia tournament with its top class field, which ended in a photo finish between Gashimov and Vallejo Pons. Amongst the star authors on the DVD there are World Champion Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Sergei Karjakin, Luke McShane and the two victors of Reggio Emilia. In addition, with its 13 articles on openings the DVD offers you a host of ideas for your repertoire and tailor made training lessons in the fields of strategy, tactics and endgames.

Main points in this DVD are the triumphs awarded to an experienced and to a fresh face. The younger of the two is looking at you from the title picture: Hikaru Nakamura won the Tata Steel Tournament in Wijk aan Zee with a wonderful result of 9 points from 13 games. Vassily Ivanchuk’s result in the Gibraltar Masters was numerically even more impressive: his 10 out of 11 saw him playing at a level of almost 3000 Elo points. You will find on the DVD the games from these two top tournaments with detailed reports as well as games analysed by World Champion Anand, Kramnik, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, McShane, Le Quang Liem and many more. The DVD also once more provides you with a rich source of ideas for your repertoire in 14 openings articles as well as tailor-made training lessons in strategy, tactics and the endgame.

Au revoir, Amber! The 20th and last edition of this classic tournament with its blindfold and rapid chess games, won this year by Levon Aronian, constitutes one of the main themes of this issue. On the DVD there is commentary, e.g., by Magnus Carlsen on his victory over the world champion, and Vugar Gashimov explains the subtleties of his attacking win over Vladimir Kramnik. Our second tournament highlight is the European championship in Aix-les-Bains, which is traditionally contested in the form of a super-strong Open. The three medal winners (Vladimir Potkin, Judit Polgar and Radoslaw Wojtaszek) have all annotated their best games for you. We have yet another highlight in Ruslan Ponomariov’s comments on his games in the Russian Team Championship. With its 14 openings articles, the DVD offers a whole host of suggestions for your repertoire, in addition to training databases to sharpen your strategic and tactical instincts.

Back to No. 1. Magnus Carlsen won the "Kings Tournament" ahead of Sergey Karjakin thanks to the superior tiebreak score and in doing so moved back into pole position in the world ranking list. The tournament from Mediasch in Romania with its two young victors constitutes one of the main focal points of this issue. In the candidates matches in Kazan it was anything but a breakthrough for youth. The winner was the oldest participant Boris Gelfand and he is the one who has the right to challenge World Champion Anand next year. On the DVD Gelfand annotates two of the key games on the way to the greatest triumph of his career so far. Other highlights: the tournaments in Lublin (Shirov was victorious and demonstrates his wins in video format), Havana (Le Quang Liem annotates) and the Ukrainian individual championship (won by Ponomariov, annotations by Eljanov). At the same time the DVD offers with its 13 openings articles all sorts of suggestions for your opening repertoire as well as training databases for the sharpening up of your strategic an tactical instincts.

A hot summer for chess means that the new issue of ChessBase Magazine contains five really top tournaments. Starting with the World Team Championship in Ningbo in China and the Russian Championship in Moscow via classic tournaments in Biel and Dortmund going all the way to the Botvinnik Memorial, in which the four best players in the world tested their rapid chess skills against each other. A particular theme this time is the Chess Festival in Biel (see cover). On the DVD you will find more than three hours of video analysis and with contributions from Carlsen, Morozevich, Shirov, Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana and Pelletier all the participants have something to say to you. Amongst the other star authors in the issue there are Kramnik, Aronian, Ponomariov, Le Quang and Hou Yifan. Not to mention the 11 openings articles with thorough analysis and ideas for your repertoire which await you.

It seems to be the right time for comebacks. This year Boris Gelfand surprised us by winning the WCh candidates tournament, Judit Polgar and Alexander Morozevich made their return to top chess in impressive fashion. And now it is the turn of Peter Svidler who all of a sudden is proceeding from one success to the next. The previous youth world champion won the FIDE World Cup without conceding a single defeat. Then he and his team from St. Petersburg were successful in the European club championship, the second tournament highlight of this issue. Thanks to a successful tie-break against Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen was able to celebrate victory in this year’s Grand-Slam final. This strongest tournament of the year is of course a further theme of this issue. Amongst the star authors on the DVD we have Carlsen, Karjakin, Polgar, Eljanov, Caruana, Gashimov, Volokitin, Vitiugov, Sutovsky etc. In addition to that you will find 12 up-to-the-minute openings articles with extensive analysis and ideas for your repertoire.

In this first issue of the New Year you will find all the players at the very pinnacle of world chess. All the top players have been active in tournaments in these last few months: Magnus Carlsen (winner of the Tal Memorial), Vladimir Kramnik (victor in the London Chess Classic), World Champion Vishy Anand and his challenger Boris Gelfand, and also Aronian, Radjabov, Topalov, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Gashimov, Nakamura, Caruana etc. etc. And the list of star authors on this DVD scarcely differs from the above one: the best and most successful players, namely Carlsen, Kramnik, Anand, Aronian, Giri, Karjakin, Caruana, Meier, Fridman, etc annotate their latest games for you. A particular highlight of this edition is formed by the good 10 hours of live analysis from the players at the London Chess Classic. In addition, the DVD offers you 11 openings articles on, for example, the Ruy Lopez, the French and the Nimzo-Indian: another long series of exciting ideas for your repertoire.

This year too, the series of world class tournaments opened with the classic in Wijk aan Zee. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian, the two leaders of the world ranking list, were in the starting blocks. This time it was the Armenian who made the running in a high-class event with a lot of decisive games. As well as Aronian and Carlsen, Caruana, Radjabov, Karjakin and van Wely have annotated their strongest games from Wijk. The second tournament highlight is the Open in Gibraltar which is getting stronger from year to year. The sensation this time was Hou Yifan, who shared first place with Nigel Short and in doing so defeated opponents such as Shirov, Le Quang and ... Judit Polgar. The women's world champion annotates on the DVD her historic duel with the still (?) strongest woman player in the world. At the same time with its 13 openings articles the DVD again offers numerous ideas for your repertoire and suggestions as to what to play, e.g. a weapon against the Volga Gambit (4.Nf3), a strategic recommendation against the Maroczy Bind in the Sicilian, a re-discovered move in the in French Advance Variation and a completely new development in the Exchange Variation of the Queen's Gambit.

The focus of this issue consists of two top tournaments with diametrically opposed formats: the "Zurich Chess Challenge" saw the encounter of Vladimir Kramnik and Levon Aronian in a friendly match consisting of six games and ending, when you consider their closeness in strength, in a 3:3 draw. The European Championship in Plovdiv, on the other hand, was once more a giant tournament with far over 300 participants, including 180 grandmasters. Here there was a sole winner in Dmitry Jakovenko (title picture) with 8.5 out of 11. The new European Champion is, along with Kramnik, Karjakin, Bologan, Shirov, Inarkiev etc. one of our star authors. You will also find on the DVD 13 openings articles, which cover the usual wide spectrum: from the Dutch via the French Winawer to the topical "Westphalia Variation" in the Queen's Gambit. That means something for everyone!

World Champion Vishy Anand successfully defended his title for the third time. But against Boris Gelfand it was closer than ever before. The WCh match in Moscow - with, e.g., analysis by the challenger - constitutes the main theme of this issue. The WCh special on the DVD: Anand's second Rustam Kasimdzhanov reports on the match in an extensive video interview and gives you information about all the games. The second elite tournament in this issue also took place in Moscow. At the Tal Memorial Magnus Carlsen came out ahead once more after a tournament in which the lead kept changing. On the DVD Gelfand, Caruana, Radjabov and Andreikin (e.g.) annotate their best games. In addition with its 13 openings articles, the DVD offers a whole host of suggestions and discoveries: authors such as Mihail Marin, Michal Krasenkow and Evgeny Postny have contributed articles covering all sorts of openings from the English to the Grünfeld Defence.