At the end of the super-tournament in Wijk an Zee two young heroes were in the spotlight: with a little bit of luck Magnus Carlsen won the top tournament, and at the age of only 15, Anish Giri was victorious in the B-tournament and thus qualified for the tournament for the top players for next year.

On this DVD there are comments on their best games from, e.g., tournament victor Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Alexei Shirov and Nigel Short.

Whereas world champion Anand usually mostly went in controlled fashion with the flow in Wijk, his challenger for the WCh, Veselin Topalov, went about things in his usual combative way in Linares and majestically won the second great tournament highlight of this issue despite a lapse in the last round but one.

On the DVD you will find all the games from these world class tournaments, more than 4 hours of video analysis (e.g. by Shirov and Short about Wijk), 13 up-to-date openings articles with suggestions for your repertoire as well as training contributions in tactics, the middlegame and the endgame. 

World Class Players comment

·       Anand describes his victory over Kramnik
·       Shirov presents 4 games from Wijk in video format
·       Short demonstrates his game against Kramnik
·       Carlsen analyses his win with the French against Karjakin
·       Other annotated games from, e.g. Kramnik, van Wely, Le Quang Liem

Opening Surveys:

Stohl: English A29
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 Nd4

By simplifying with 4...Nd4 Black makes his life somewhat easier, because the positions become less complicated and if becomes hard for White to demonstrate any advantage.

Marin: Alekhine Defence B03
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.exd6 exd6

With 4.c4 and the exchange on d6 White is not being particularly ambitious, But Black must still know what he is doing. As Marin shows in his article, really accurate play is even required, and sometimes the precise order of opening moves has its role to play.

Grivas: Sicilian B33
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Bg5

In the second part of his series on the Grivas Sicilian our Greek author looks into White’s bishop move 7.Bg5 (the Poseidon Variation), which is not especially popular but which does have a certain significance, because positions arise there which are also reached by other move orders.

Kritz: Sicilian B42
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Be7 7.Qg4 Bf6

The bishop manoeuvre Bc5-e7-f6 is just as unusual as it has previously been successful. But Kritz sketches out here an as yet unplayed setup which promises White an advantage.

Kuzmin: Sicilian B94
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 Nbd7 

The knight move is not reckoned to quite good enough by the top players, but that could change. Alexey Kuzmin has brought together the latest developments and can see splendid counterplay for Black.

Moskalenko: French Defence C00
1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2
Black needs to know what he is doing against the Reti Gambit, because it is difficult to find the correct moves over the board. In a very concentrated survey Moskalenko shows how things go.

Langrock: French Defence C11
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 cxd4 8.Nxd4 Bc5 9.Qd2 0-0 10.0-0-0 a6

The evaluation of the position in the diagram is of enormous importance for the evaluation of the move 4.e5 and with it the whole Steinitz System. Langrock’s investigation is appropriately thorough.

Hazai/Lukacs: Scotch C45
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Bc5 5.Be3 Qf6 6.c3 Nge7 7.Qd2

After the move 7.Qd2 (instead of the main variation 7.Bc4) there are numerous wrong replies, but the authors show that after the correct moves, 7...a6 and 7...0-0 Black has good prospects.

Skembris: Two Knights Defence C58
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ Bd7

Apparently Black’s prospects after 6...Bd7 instead of the main move 6...c6) have so far been underestimated, because, as our author shows, Black has several promising continuations after 7.Qe2 Be7 8.Nc3 0-0 9.0-0.

Erenburg: Ruy Lopez C65
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d4

With the move 4.d4 White can in a radical fashion prevent the Berlin endgame. Some of the resulting variations are very sharp and Black must also work hard for equality.

Postny: Ruy Lopez C65
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.0-0 Bc5 5.c3 0-0 6.d4 Bb6

After looking at 5.Nxe5 in CBM 134 our Israeli author now examines the main variation, which begins with 5.c3. But recent games have shown that here too it is difficult for White to achieve an opening advantage.

Karolyi: Queen's Gambit Accepted D24
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 e6 5.Nc3

Our Hungarian author, who helped develop the theory of his variation over 20 years ago, suggests at this point two continuations for Black  - 5...exd5 and 5...Nf6 - and both appear to lead to equality.

Krasenkow: Queen's Indian Defence E12
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3

In the first part of his series on the Petrosian System the author looks into variations in which Black does not play 4...Bb7. Here Black just scrapes past equality.