Contents of ChessBase Magazine 93

The main database CBM 93

The ChessBase Magazine 93 database appears as an icon labeled "93 CBM" in the main database window of ChessBase 8.0. Double-clicking the icon will produce a list of 1491 entries. At the top of the list there are some text reports. Then the first tournament games begin.

You can browse through this list of games, but we remind you again that it is better to click one of the tabs at the top to get a different overview. The most important tab here is "Tournament". When you click it you get a list of the different tournaments included in this issue. If you right-click the list you can sort the tournaments according to name, place, nation, date, category, etc. "Category" sorts the strongest tournaments to the top.

Another way to access the games is by clicking on "Players". Right near the top you will find the most successful of the bunch, Vishy Anand, who won the super-tournament in Wijk aan Zee. If you right-click his name and select "Statistics" you will get a display you may not have seen before.

ChessBase gives you a list of his opponents, the tournaments and the openings. Each list can be separately sorted, and you can generate cross tables of the tournaments. Try using this function on your Big or Mega Database. And do it to an unknown player. You will see how easy it is to get a substantial amount of information on anybody, very quickly and without any technical hassles.

The most important tournament is, of course, is the Corus Wijk aan Zee, which was won by Anand, closely followed by Judit Polgar (the player of CBM 93). Judit has been displaying top form, not only at Wijk but also in Benidorm, where she shared first with Ruslan Ponomariov. In the latest FIDE rating list she is once again in the top ten, with a 2715 rating, easily and by far the highest any female player has achieved in the history of the game.

Of the 91 games of the Corus tournament 41 contain extensive annotations. In Benidorm 66 games were played, and 20 have been annotated by our experts. There is a total of almost 500 annotated games in the main database of CBM 93.

Another interesting tournament is the German Championship in Saarbrücken. It was a very dramatic affair, with 17-year-old Arkadij Naiditsch looking like the certain winner right until the end. But then Arkadij lost his last two games and Thomas Luther, who was in hot pursuit, won both of his. Luther took the title for the second time (the first was in 1993). Here is a beautiful game from the penultimate round:

Hübner,R (2640) – Luther,T (2538) [B01] GER-ch 74th Saarbruecken (8), 29.11.2002: 1.c4 c6 2.e4 d5 3.exd5 Nf6 4.Qa4 e6 5.dxe6 Bc5 6.Nf3 Ng4 7.d4 Bxd4 8.Nxd4 Qxd4 9.Qc2 Na6 10.Na3 Bxe6 11.h3 Nb4 12.Qd2 Qe4+ 13.Be2 Qxg2 14.Rf1 Nh2 15.Qxb4 0-0-0 16.Nb5 cxb5 17.Bf4.

17...Qxf1+ 18.Bxf1 Nf3+ 19.Ke2 Nd4+ and the white King must move into the discovery or pin. 20.Kd2 Nc6+ 21.Qd6 Rxd6+ 22.Bxd6 Bxc4 and Black had a won endgame 0-1.

Another interesting tournament is Hastings a category 12 with a report by John Henderson. And finally you will not want to miss the X3D rapid chess match between Kasparov and Karpov in New York, which has an illustrated report by John Henderson and Roland Schmaltz.

ChessTheme key

The current issue of ChessBase Magazine contains a new theme key, one which has a completely revised structure and classification.

How do theme keys work. To understand this we have to take a look at keys in general and the ChessBase search mask. The latter offers you a flexible method of searching through a database using a very large number of search criteria. On the other hand there are the so-called "keys" (openings, players, endgame, etc.) which give you access to material that has been pre-classified. Keys have the advantage of being virtually instantaneous.

The theme key combines both methods. A key is defined by the contents of the search mask, and this definition is permanently stored with the key. So the key can be used to classify new games or even a completely different database.

If you right-click an entry in a theme key and select Edit (F2) you will get the search mask that defines the key. You can change it to modify the criteria for games to be classified into that key. If you load a game from a theme key the program will jump to the position that led to the match (if that is possible).

You can use the new theme key supplied with CBM 93 to classify other game collections as well. This is how you apply the key to a different database:

1. Double-click the database to list the contents.

2. Click on the "General themes" tab at the top of the list.

3. Since there is presumably no key present you will get a dialog with four options.

4. Click on the "Select a key" button.

5. In the file selector that appears search for the theme key (93CBM.ckn) on the CBM 93 CD.

The key will be copied and the games of the database will be automatically classified.

Chess Multimedia

Vladislav Tkachiev (Elo 2634) hails from Moscow but spent a lot of his life in the Republic of Kazakhstan. He is now 29 and lives in Cannes, France. He is known as a flamboyant personality, popular amongst his colleagues, with a large following of female admirers. During a chess tournament in Biel, Switzerland, Frederic Friedel had an opportunity to interview him.

The young man does not hold back with his lucid and original views. His English is excellent and he is able to express his thoughts at a very sophisticated level. And he is blessed with a keen sense of humour, spiced with self-deprecating sound bites that make interviews with him all the more endearing.

Almira Skripchenko talks to Anna Dergatschova-Daus

There are also two video reports produced by our roving reporter Anna Dergatschova-Daus. The first is from the XIX. International Open in Capelle la Grande, the second from the Aeroflot Open in Moscow. Both contain rare video footage and still pictures.

Chess Theory

This time we have a large number of theory articles with a comprehensive collection of topical games on each subject. The total number of games and articles in all nine articles is 1758!

[A29] English: The basic position of the variation arises after the moves 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.0-0 Be7 8.a3 0-0 9.b4 Re8 10.d3 Bf8 11.Bb2 a5 12.b5 Nd4.

In his article GM Zoltan Ribli writes: "We see a position which is actually typical for the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence, however, with reversed colours. Black's plan here - Re8 and Bf8 - has been very popular recently. The rook is brought into play and can be active along the e-file.

[A64] Benoni with g3: Albert Kapengut deals with the position that arises after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 g6 4.Nc3 d6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.g3 0-0 7.Bg2 e6 8.0-0 exd5 9.cxd5 a6 10.a4 Nbd7 11.Nd2 Re8 12.h3 Rb8 13.Nc4 Nb6.

The attached database contains 196 selected games, 157 of which are annotated, and in 15 games Kapengut has worked over the comments of other authors. "It is interesting that while preparing this material, I used not only some fragments written almost 20 years ago, but also the unpublished three-volume edition of the Modern Benoni," he writes.

[A84] Dutch Sonewall e3: Jerzy Konikowski's article is entitled "A weapon against the Stonewall set-up". It looks at an interesting variation which can occur both in the Slav and in the Dutch Defence. The move order at issue is: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 e6 4.e3. Playing this way, White wants to avoid the unclear Noteboom System after a possible 4.Nf3 dxc4. However, Black now gets the opportunity to choose a Stonewall set-up: 4...f5 5.g4!? With this energetic strike, White just wants to crack open the opponent's pawn structure. The plan is considered as promising for the first player, for the half-open g-file offers him good attacking chances on the kingside.

[B07] Pirc with 4.Be3 c6 5.h3: Sergey Erenburg's article deals with the position that arises after the following opening moves: 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 c6 5.h3.

According to Mega Database the move 5.h3 appeared for the first time in the game Gesos,P-Petran,P 0-1 in the Hungarian Championship in 1975. "Basically it isn't recommendable to play with the edge pawns in the opening as long as the development isn't completed," writes the author, "but in this particular position 5.h3 has an important function - to prevent Ng4. Many strong players choose this line to fight for an advantage against the Pirc Defence, the statistics of this database proves this fact."

[B66] Sicilian Rauzer: GM Avrukh Boris looks at the lines after the opening 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 h6 9.Nxc6!? For the first time this move occurred in 1947 in the game Panov-Aronin, but after 9...bxc6 Panov continued with 10 Bh4 and Black got comfortable play. 9...bxc6 10.Bf4 d5 11.Qe3!

"This key move was introduced into practice in 1997 by Santo-Roman in his game against Campos Moreno, unfortunately without success. Shortly after in the same year, Andrei Shchekachev started to use this line temporarily with great results. Andrei really introduced new strong ideas for the white position, and undoubtfully he is the first classic of this variation."

[C63] Jaenisch Gambit: In part 7 of their series Alexander Bangiev and Peter Leisebein look at the alternatives after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5.

The article deals with the moves 4.Qe2, 4.exf5 and 4.Bxc6. The conclusion of the authors: "All in all, one can say that only 4.Nc3 gives White winning possibilities, however, it requires considerable playing strength to convert the small advantage in the main line 4...fxe4 5.Nxe4 Nf6! Resembling a King's Gambit, the Jänisch Gambit represents a good possibility against the Ruy Lopez!"

[C82] Open Ruy Lopez: The main position of this opening database arises after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.de5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 Be7 11.Bc2 Bg4 12.Re1.

GM Victor Mikhalevski: "This position is extremely popular among GMs, even at the very top level. After Kasparov's brilliant win in the 10th game of his match against Anand in New York 1995 with the variation 10...d4 11.Ng5!, many players have tried to switch to this less ambitious line for Black."

[E15] Queen's Indian 5.Nbd2 d5: After the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Nbd2 d5

GM Alik Gershon writes: "This position has gained in popularity in the last few years and can now be seen in many top level encounters, with 2700 GM's playing it with both colours. One of the main reasons for the growing popularity is the freshness in the relatively unexplored and complex positions with hanging central pawns for Black. White began opting for 5.Nbd2 after he proved to have very little in the old classical lines after 5.b3, where Black seems to have found a way to obtain a comfortable play."

[E38] Nimzo-Indian Defence: GM Vitali Golod looks at the position after the moves 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 c5 5.dxc5 Na6 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.Qxc3 Nxc5 8.b4.

"During the last years this variation became a very popular line against 4.Qc2 for Black and in return against 5...Na6 for white, especially in grandmaster play. There is a very high percentage of IMs and GMs who used this variation - according to Mega2003, about 40% of the games were played by chess experts with the white pieces."

Other Chess databases

On the CBM 93 CD you will find a number of other databases dealing with different areas of chess. Each of these sections is written by a leading expert and will help you improve your chess skills.

ICCF Telechess
The Correspondence Chess section contains no less than 8750 games from the highest levels of International Email and postal correspondence tournaments. Over 100 are annotated.

93 Strategy
In part two of his article "The very real complexity of Colour Complexes" Peter Wells deals with colour complexes and the bishop pair, and the strange relationship between different colour complexes. The article contains 7 didactically annotated examples.

93 Endgame
The endgame section by GM H.J. Hecht contains 82 articles and examples and deals mainly with the ending bishop vs knight.

93 Tactics
In his article entitled "In the Line of Fire" Valery Atlas writes: "Selecting training positions for the present tactical database, I came across many games in which the spectacular sacrifices or beautiful winning combinations were the only way to avoid defeat. The ability to make the right decisions in the critical positions when your own pieces are in the line of fire is a great skill which distinguishes excellent chess players."

Fritz Forum
This time our computer chess forum contains a very nice illustrated report on the computer tournament in Paderborn, written by Fritz author Mathias Feist. That's the good news. The bad news is that Mathias has written it in German, so you may have to take a crash course to read it. Still. All 50 games of the tournament are there. It was won by Fritz 8, which suffered a setback in round 5, when it ran into an openings trap by Shredder. The final results are given in the cross table below.