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.

TOP TOURNAMENTS
• European Championship Aix-les-Bains
• Amber Monaco

OPENINGS
• Avrukh: The Catalan with 8.a4
• Dembo: Evans Gambit 5...Be7
• a total of 14 opening articles 

WORLD CLASS PLAYERS COMMENT
• Magnus Carlsen
• Vugar Gashimov
•  Vladimir Potkin
• Radek Wojtaszek
•  Judit Polgar
• Ruslan Ponomariov
•  Viktor Bologan
• Fabiano Caruana
• Peter Heine Nielsen
• Alexander Motylev

Opening Surveys

Grivas: Sicilian B33
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Bd3 d6 8.0-0 a6 9.a4 Qc7
    
Postny: Sicilian B48
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Sc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.0-0-0 Bb4 9.f3 Ne5 10.Nb3 b5 11.Qe1
 
Moskalenko: French C01
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5
    
Dembo: Evans Gambit C51
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Be7
    
Kritz: Two Knights Defence C58
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.Ng5 d5 5.exd5 Na5 6.Bb5+ c6 7.dxc6 bxc6 8.Bd3
    
Breutigam: Ruy Lopez C68
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3 Bh5 7.g4 Bg6 8.Nxe5 Qh4 9.Qf3 f6 10.Nxg6 hxg6
    
Kuzmin: Anti-Slav D23
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 dxc4 5.Qxc4 Bf5 6.g3 e6 7.Bg2 Nbd7 8.0-0 Be7 9.e3 0-0 10.Rd1
    
Stohl: Queen's Gambit Accepted D27
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 e6 5.Bxc4 c5 6.0-0 a6 7.Bb3
    
Krasenkow: Semi-Slav D46
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bd3 0-0 8.0-0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 a6
    
Schandorff: Queen's Gambit D52
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.e3 Qa5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Qd2 Bb4 9.Rc1 h6 10.Bh4 c5 11.Bc4
    
Hazai/Lukacs: Queen's Gambit D56
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3 h6 7.Bh4 Ne4 8.Bxe7 Qxe7 9.Rc1 c6
    
Avrukh: Catalan E05
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.a4 Bd7 9.Qxc4 Bc6 10.Bf4
    
Marin: Bogo-Indian E11
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 a5 5.Nc3 b6
    
Schipkov: King's Indian E83
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 Nc6 7.Nge2 a6 8.Qd2 Bd7