For many years, the tournament year has begun with a chess double act. The Corus Tournament in Wijk, perhaps the best that the international tournament scene has to offer, is rapidly followed by the “intercontinental” event Morelia/Linares.

The traditional tournament in Linares enjoyed the title of the “Wimbledon of chess”, but a few years ago ran into a period of drought with less exciting tournaments. The double round super tournament which has been played for 10 years soon got over that and moved its first round to Mexico. So all that is now water under the bridge.

The journey from Morelia to Linares between the first and second series of rounds is however particularly demanding for the players. Not everyone is able to cope in the same way with that hassle, and perhaps in the second series the play of some has too often been a bit lacklustre. Others, on the other hand really come into bloom only when they reach Spain.

This year the tournament produced a remarkably high number of entertaining games at the very highest level. Several of these world class players have felt called to annotate their masterpieces for the readers of ChessBase Magazine. Several other top class tournaments were being played in parallel to the tournament for super grandmasters.

In the analyses in this issue of the magazine you will find above all the Aeroflot Open in Moscow – not quite such a strong field as previously - and the German Bundesliga. Amongst the openings surveyed, it is the Alekhine Defence which has attracted the greatest attention from the theoreticians, but see for yourself ...