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[wouf]

Hamburg, June 2010


Dear Chess Friend,

Every day, on chess boards all over the world and here at ChessBase, things happen that every chess enthusiast is interested in. And I would like to tell you what is going on, for example....

From the Tournament Hall: Anand remains World Champion

When Viswanathan Anand agreed to play the World Championship in Sofia, home of his challenger, some were sceptical about whether this was a good decision. "Vishy is the better player but in Sofia Topalov is favourite", Kramnik declared in an interview. However, with hindsight one has to say that this was a very wise decision by Anand. As you know, the trip of Anand and his team from Frankfurt to Sofia was all of a sudden interrupted by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, or, to be more precise, by the cloud of ash it emitted. Anand came by car to Sofia and the trip took him 40 hours. Just imagine, had the match been played in India. There is a good chance the journey from Frankfurt to the venue would have taken considerably longer.

The 12 game match offered very combative chess. There was not a single "grandmaster draw" - all games were fought to the end. Right in the first game Topalov won and took the lead, Anand equalised in the second game and took the lead himself after the fourth game. The Indian dominated the first half of the match, but seemed to run out of steam towards the end. Topalov managed to draw level in the match, and when everybody expected a tie-breaker the challenger made a gross mistake in the last game to lose game and match.

The current ChessBase Magazine (June 2010, No. 136) highlights the games of the match with extensive analyses in ChessBase format and in videos. A good opportunity to relish the analyses of Anish Giri again, analyses which brought the young Dutch grandmaster so much praise when they first appeared on the ChessBase website during the match.

Meanwhile, Anand revealed who helped him for and during the match, among them Anish Giri, Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik. However, Veselin Topalov also had a secret second with very strong calculating powers. More about that later.

Further highlights of this edition of the ChessBase Magazine are the European Championships - the new European champion Ian Nepomniachtchi has annotated the decisive game -, the Women's European Championship - the new European Champion Pia Cramling has annotated two of her games - and the Russian Team Championship, from which Pavel Eljanov, the current shooting star of the tournament scene, has provided instructive comments. Tatiana Kosintseva, won the Women's Grand Prix tournament with a powerful performance and annotates one of her games. And in a video commentary Alexei Shirov reviews the latest season of the Bundesliga, in which he defended the title with his team of Baden-Baden.

ChessBase Magazine; June 2010, No. 136 ...

After Magazine No. 136 had just been published Pavel Eljanov continued his winning streak and won the final Grand Prix tournament in Astrakhan. After Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov established himself as second qualifier for the upcoming candidates tournament. However, if the candidates tournament takes place in Baku, Aronian intends not to play there.

The current season of the French League also came to an end. Thanks to the better second tie-break score the team of Chalons en Champagne became new champions ahead of Evry Grand Roque. The two leading teams had to face each other in the last round. Chalons en Champagne needed only to draw the match to win the championship. However, at a crucial moment of the match Loek Van Wely on the top board had to win with Black against Vugar Gashimov to make up the leeway. In a currently very popular line of the Najdorf the Azerbaijani played a novelty and sacrificed the typically "poisoned" pawn. But Van Wely defended carefully to reach an endgame, in which his bishop pair secured him an advantage. Chalons en Champagne could celebrate winning the championship.




Gashimov-Van Wely...

Off the board the coming elections for the FIDE and ECU presidency cast their shadows. Anatoly Karpov wants to become FIDE president and the question whether to support Karpov or the current president Ilyumzhinov split the Russian Chess Federation. In the form of Robert von Weizsäcker the German Chess Federation, which has a lot of members but only limited influence, nominated a renowned candidate to become new president of the ECU. Both, Karpov and von Weizsäcker, are supported by Garri Kasparov. Together with the German Chess Federation the two world champions gave a joint press conference in Berlin.


Two World Champions (Photo: Knut Koops)

In the evening the German TV Channel ARD provided a studio for a panel discussion about "Chess and Politics".


Crowded house in Berlin




Anatoly Karpov, moderator Markus Spieker, Garry Kasparov, Robert von Weizsäcker, Matthias Deutschmann


Kasparov signs autographs

Although Kasparov and Karpov did not play chess in Berlin, an audience of 250 people filled the studio to capacity. According to the German Chess Federation they could have easily sold 500 tickets.

Rybka 4 has arrived!

Back to the World Championship match: the secret second of Veselin Topalov before and after the World Championship was ... Rybka 4. The program ran in a multiprocessor version on a "cluster" with more than 100 processors and delivered in-depth calculations in certain opening variations. Allegedly, team Topalov secured the exclusive services of the new Rybka engine for a high price - rumours spoke of about 100 000 Euros. We are happy to be able to offer Rybka 4 to our customers at a considerably lower price.



IIn an interview Vasik Rajlich, author of Rybka, revealed how he worked on developing the program. He said certain things in the program were changed and afterwards tested in a number of automatic matches between engines. The changes leading to better results remain, the other changes are discarded.

Together with the engine, which is available in two versions - Rybka 4 for single processor computers and Deep Rybka 4 for multiprocessor computers - a Rybka book was published. It contains a lot more lines and analyses and well-founded evaluations than the standard book which comes with the program. Author of the book is Jiri Dufek.


Rybka 4...

Deep Rybka 4...

Rybka Book 4...



New Video-DVDs:

We already praised Nigel Short in the previous chess letter. His talent as storyteller and commentator is well known. However, the challenger in the World Championship match against Kasparov in 1993 also has great abilities as a chess trainer. His two volume work "Nigel Short's greatest Hits" does not only explore recent chess history with the former wunderkind as your guide - with their many fantastic chess games the videos also offer deep insights into the way world class players think.


Nigel Short (right) with Robert von Weizsäcker in Berlin

Now volume 2 appeared:

Nigel Short's greatest Hits Vol 1...

Nigel Short's greatest Hits Vol 2...

After years of great productivity Alexei Shirov has finished his DVD publications for the time being. Shirov has mainly used his own games to present topical high level games with various openings and he first of all shed light on the Sicilian, the Ruy Lopez, and the Slav and Semi-Slav Defence with their various lines and stages of development.

With "The Slav and Semi-Slav revisited" Shirov has now published a revised new edition of his Slav DVD and has taken a close look at various topical lines of this extremely popular defence against 1.d4. Another enlarged and revised new edition is "The Advance Caro–Kann 2nd edition." Here the Latvian-Spanish top player shows the most recent developments in the Caro-Kann Advance Variation. With his "Guide to the Tkachiev Ruy Lopez" the inspired tactician has now broached a new topic: currently, the line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O b5 6.Bb3 Bc5 is not only Shirov's favourite defence against 1.e4, but also Anand's and that of many other players. With this DVD, which for the time being will be his last, Shirov gives a thorough introduction to this variation, which is very often concrete and tactical.

Alexei Shirov: The Slav and Semi-Slav revisited...

Alexej Shirov: The Advance Caro–Kann 2nd edition...

Alexei Shirov: Guide to the Tkachiev Ruy Lopez...




Behind the Scenes:

Currently we are at work on a new series which has received the working title "Opening Tutorial".

The series presents videos with introductions to various openings. The whole series is to comprise five volumes - classically divided into "Open Games", "Semi-Open Games", "Queen Pawn Openings ", "Indian Openings" and "Flank Openings". The volumes will appear in bilingual form, that is for each lesson the DVD will contain an English and a German video. The videos are recorded by various authors who are experts in the respective openings.

At the moment, clips for the German videos have been recorded by Jan Gustafsson, Niclas Huschenbeth, Klaus Bischoff und Elisabeth Pähtz.



Essentially, Jan Gustafsson is a specialist in each opening


Klaus Bischoff visualises his role when commentating


Elisabeth Pähtz, two time World Junior Champion, in the studio

For the English part Adrian Mikhalchishin, Lawrence Trent and Lars Schandorff already made videos. Each volume will also contain an extensive accompanying booklet, which will be bilingual as well. Volume I, Open Games with twice 24 lessons will appear in the autumn.


Adrian Mikhalchishin, who is quite busy as a trainer, has also recorded a DVD
about pawn structures in the centre


Lawrence Trent

Lawrence Trent let us in on a secret. His favourite hobby besides chess is "Salsa Dancing". After recording for almost a week in the ChessBase studio he went roaming through Hamburg to find a Salsa Club and it did not take him long to find one. Without going into too much detail: a good Salsa dancer has a good chance to add a couple of very attractive female fans of this hobby to his Facebook list of friends.

I wish a good summer!

Yours, André Schulz

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