Mikhail Tal's meteoric rise shook the chess world in the late 1950s, taking him straight to the very top. His victory over Botvinnik in the 1960 match won him the world title. In the process, the 'Wizard from Riga' thrilled fans with his unprecedented combination style – “There are two kinds of sacrifices - correct ones and mine!” For CBM 211 we invited our authors to comment on their favourite Mikhail Tal games. The total of 21 encounters, the last played in 1991, show the eighth World Champion above all, in his element - as a brilliant tactician. A little-known game from the National Open in Chicago 1988 is presented by Yannick Pelletier in CBM 211 - you can watch his analysis in abridged form here. Enjoy!
With ChessBase Magazine #211 Karsten Mueller starts a new training series, which is not about endgame finesse on grandmaster level, but about basic techniques, which are worth learning for every ambitious chess player. And without them you won't get far at a higher level. The topic of the first article is the endgame rook vs. pawn. As clear as the balance of power is in this endgame, you have to know a few rules of thumb and techniques in order to always be able to treat the position correctly. You can watch Karsten Mueller's video introduction to his new series here!
October saw the start of the new Bundesliga season. In ChessBase Magazine #211 participants from various teams comment on their games from the first rounds, including the stars from the cover - Pavel Eljanov, Loek van Wely and Luke McShane - as well as Nils Grandelius, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Ivan Saric, Ivan Cheparinov, Gawain Jones, Nikita Vitiugov, Erwin L'Ami, Dennis Wagner, Daniil Yuffa, Georg Meier, Jan-Christian Schröder, Thai Dai Van Nguyen and Michael Prusikin. In addition, David Navara presents his game against Luke McShane in a detailed video analysis and Rustam Kasimdhzanov reviews his Black victory against Julian Kramer, also in the video. "The Analysis" of the issue comes from Erwin l'Ami – A Queen’s Gambit Accepted in which the Dutch GM actually had his opponent perfectly pegged out. Enjoy!
ChessBase Magazine 211 chessbase.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chessbase.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Online chess with its short time controls has also led to a renaissance of romantic openings like the King's Gambit. After the moves 1.e4 e5 2.f4 gxf4 3.Nf3 Black is faced with a fundamental decision. Should one try to hold the extra pawn on f4 with g7-g5 at all costs? With little time on the clock and against a potential theory expert, this involves some risks. So should one instead focus less on the material but on development and good piece play? With 3.Ne7!? Sergey Grigoriants recommends the second approach in his article for CBM #211 The "Bacrot Variation" is of course no refutation of the King's Gambit, "but it is an excellent practical choice for Black". Take a look!