2.d6 is Black's favourite Sicilian. In the new CBM #215 Christian Braun presents a concept for White with 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5!? that is attractive in various respects: White immediately forces the pace, leads the game into terrain that is often unknown to the opponent and gets "dynamic and powerful play" with little risk of his own. You don't need to learn too many variations by heart in this straightforward system either. Take a look at the article in CBM #215 and then do a first practical test on the chess server right away!
World-class chess explained in video: Dorian Rogozenco shows two wins of Hikaru Nakamura from Norway Chess 2023, including the decisive last-round game against Fabiano Caruana – Sharjah Masters 2023: Analyses by tournament winner Arjun Erigaisi as well as Ivan Cheparinov, Grigoriy Oparin, Thai Dai Van Ngyuen and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan – “Special” on Hikaru Nakamura: exclusive collection of 19 encounters with detailed commentary from 2007 to 2023 – Action in the centre: Christian Braun's Anti-Sicilian recipe 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5!? - "Nakamura's strategy in practice": Mihail Marin sheds light on the US American's skills, incl. two interactive videos and a large collection of exercises – Rossolimo á la Carlsen: Daniel King recommends the cutting-edge 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e5!? for Black. - "Basic Knowledge" Part #5: Karsten Mueller reveals tips and tricks in the endgame with two pawns against one. incl. two interactive training vi
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.