ChessBase Magazine #229
From the FIDE World Cup 2025 to Daniel King’s opening video on the Closed Sicilian and Oliver Reeh’s tactical contribution ‘Hello e-fine!’ to another fortress classic by Dorian Rogozenco.
Over 7 hours of video playing time with Felix Blohberger, Martin Breutigam, Daniel King, Jan Markos, Mihail Marin, Dr Karsten Mueller, Michael Prusikin, Oliver Reeh, Robert Ris and Dorian Rogozenco.
Top games and master analyses
FIDE World Cup 2025: 206 players competed in the knockout tournament in Goa, India. The main focus was on three additional tickets for the 2026 Candidates Tournament. Sindarov won the tournament, defeating Wei Yi in the final. Andrey Esipenko won the match for third place against Nodirbek Yakubboev. The top three finishers will be there at the end of March 2026 when the challenger to World Champion Gukesh will be crowned. In this edition, Wei Yi, Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Grandelius, Harikrishna, Lodici, Shankland, Sevian, Wojtaszek, Yakubboev and many others comment on their best games from the World Cup.
Opening videos
Opening discoveries from the World Cup! Mihail Marin takes a close look at the rarely played move 12…dxc3 in the critical variation of the Open Spanish, which leads to a rich position with chances for both sides. Felix Blohberger takes up Jorden van Foreest’s King’s Indian with 6…Na6 and 8…exd4. And Daniel King takes up Richard Rapport’s concept of 8.h4 (i.e. before castling) in the Closed Sicilian.
Felix Blohberger: King’s Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 Na6
Mihail Marin: Open Spanish
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3
Daniel King: Closed Sicilian
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.f4 e6 7.Nf3 Nge7 8.h4
The Fortress
Part III on classic fortresses with bishop + pawn against rook + pawn. This time, both sides still have two pawns each on the g- and h-files. And yet, with a little special knowledge, the defender can hold certain positions to a draw without much effort!
“Major pieces among themselves”
Once all the minor pieces have been exchanged, the game often takes on a character all of its own. In his article, strategy expert Mihail Marin uses numerous training exercises to address both elementary positional factors and complex structures.
New ideas for your opening repertoire
Caro-Kann Advance Variation, Spanish Marshall Attack, Catalan with …0-0-0 and much more!
ChessBase Magazine #229 offers 11 opening articles with new ideas for every ambitious player!
Petra Papp: English 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4
Balázs Csonka: English 4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 Bxc3
Sergey Grigoriants: Caro-Kann Advance Variation 4.h4 h5 5.Bd3
Martin Lorenzini: Sicilian Rossolimo Variation 3…e5 4.0-0 Bd6 5.d4
Tanmay Srinath: Sicilian Rauzer Variation 6…e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7
Evgeny Postny: Philidor 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4
Robert Ris: Spanish Marshall Attack with 11…Bb7!?
Renato Quintiliano: Semi-Slav Meran Variation 8.Be2
Yago Santiago: Gruenfeld Exchange Variation 10.h4
Spyridon Kapnisis: Catalan with 5…Bd7!?, 6…Bc6 and long castling
Christian Braun: King’s Indian 6.Be3 a6 7.Nge2 Nbd7 8.Qd2
Opening traps: French Tarrasch
This time it’s Black’s turn. Even after the solid 3.Nd2, it can sometimes be over quickly for White – Michael Prusikin shows three examples in the video with training questions.
Move by Move
Nodirbek Abdusattorov dominated the London Chess Classic 2025 with 7.5 points from 9 games! Robert Ris has selected the Uzbek’s winning game against Nikita Vitiugov for his interactive training column. Enjoy!
Modern Classics
Dorian Rogozenco presents a brilliant winning game by Veselin Topalov against Vishy Anand (Sofia 2005). A highly tactical battle which, thanks to the novelty 11.Ng5 and the subsequent knight sacrifice on f7, also played an important role in the development of the Queen’s Indian Defence with 4.g3.
Practical tips for tournament players: “Exchange sacrifices”
Club players often shy away from investing material in their own position with the help of an exchange sacrifice in order to gain a better perspective for the course of the game. Jan Markos wants to do something about this and presents examples of successful exchange sacrifices from master practice (games by Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen) in his article.
„Hello e-file!“
If the opponent has failed to bring the king to safety by castling, completely opening up the e-file is a common attacking tactic. Oliver Reeh’s tactics article contains over 100 training questions and four interactive videos.
Fundamental Endgame Knowledge – Part 19: Rook versus Knight
In the introductory video, our expert presents the most important techniques. Then it’s your turn in two interactive training videos! Dr Karsten Mueller also presents endgame highlights from the 2025 World Cup (video introduction + analyses).
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