
CBM 222: India strikes Double Gold!
ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Our columnist, Nagesh Havanur takes a look at a recent issue, CBM 222. 7703 games from the FIDE Chess Olympiad, 28 annotated, 11 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, 5 demo. lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Nordibek Abdusattorov, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri and Wesley So among others. The icing on the cake is a special feature on Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi with 4 videos.
Review by Nagesh Havanur
Even as I write these lines, the World Championship Match has drawn to a close in Singapore. Gukesh has set a record by winning the title at the age of eighteen.
https://en.chessbase.com/post/world-championship-2024-g14
The ascent of the young player on the chess Olympus began with his triumph at the Candidates’ Tournament early this year
He also led the way for the Indian Team winning Gold in the recent Chess Olympiad. This issue is devoted to the grand event and offers games and their analysis.
The critical moment for the Indian Team was the encounter with the USA Team in the penultimate10th round. While Praggnanandhaa lost to Wesley So, Gukesh beat Caruana and Erigaisi beat Dominguez. Anish Giri annotates the face-off between Gukesh and Caruana:
The extraordinary tension of the match is summed up by Wesley So who annotates his game with Praggnanandhaa in this issue:
As such, the USA Team did not do badly. However, Caruana and Wesley So lost one game each. Dominguez lost two games. Only Aronian was unbeaten.
Five teams tied for second place with 17 match points in the open section, with the United States and Uzbekistan securing silver and bronze, respectively, based on tiebreaks. China, Serbia, and Armenia came close and lost out on Sonneborn-Berger points.
The Uzbekistan team suffered losses on account of the poor form of Sindarov and Yakubboev. The Chinese Team went down on results for more than one reason. World Champion Ding Liren was still in a poor state, bogged down by 7 draws and one loss. In the end the Chinese Team did not even field him against Gukesh in the crucial India-China Match. Wei Yi who faced Gukesh conceded defeat after a marathon game lasting 80 moves:
The Indian Team made 21/22 points far ahead of these runner-up teams, with Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi finishing on a record score of 9/10.
Who could have posed a challenge to the Indian Team? Only the Russian team. However, Russia has been banned from official FIDE competitions on account of the invasion of Ukraine. Curiously, Israel has not faced a similar ban from the FIDE competitions in spite of its invasion of Palestine.
Both Ukraine and Palestine Teams deserve special mention for participation in this Olympiad although they were nowhere near the prize list.
The Ukraine Team was led by Vasyl Ivanchuk, and he had mixed results, beating Wesley So among others. It was his encounter with Richard Rapport that turned out to be entertaining.
On seeing this game our first impression is that the Ukrainian maverick went too far with his king march. But matters are not so clear after White plays 20.Bh6! instead of 20.Be5??
I was also surprised to see players from the other war-torn state, Palestine participating in the Olympiad.
Ms Rasika Ratnaparkhi, reporting for ChessBase India wrote, “They faced visa and travel issues and the Palestine Team was one of them. After a long battle, they finally made it to the venue to battle on the board. Chess players in Palestine have fewer opportunities, limited access to coaches, and fewer chess clubs. That’s why, competing in Olympiad is a very big opportunity for them to get international exposure.”
I would have liked to see here a more detailed coverage of the Women’s Olympiad in this issue.
In terms of human interest the participation of children made a great impact on the chess Olympiad. It’s hard to believe that these tiny tots had come to represent their lands and play. In the near future we shall see and hear more of them.
An Indian Special
This issue has a special feature on Dommaraju Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi with 4 videos, one each on their opening play and style
Opening videos
There are 3 opening videos in this issue. In the first video young Felix Blohberger offers analysis of a line in the Spanish Anti-Berlin (C65):
It’s interesting to note that the line is from a game that he lost as Black to Benjamin Gledura in the Olympiad.
In the second video Jan Werle offers a discussion of a long line in the Sicilian Sveshnikov (B33)
In the third video Nico Zwirs introduces an opening novelty in the Symmetrical English Opening with which he recently won a game with Christian Gloeckler in Sparkassen Chess Trophy, Dortmund (an event that he also won).
Take your pick.
Opening Surveys
There are as many as 11 opening surveys ranging from the Evans Gambit to the English Opening in this issue. Among them I would single out the analysis of the Evans Gambit by Tanmay Srinath. The following game was seen in a tournament with an unusual theme. Players were offered positions from great games in chess history and they had to make their own moves. Tanmay Srinath has chosen the following game with a detailed view of the opening that was once a battleground of ideas between Steinitz and Chigorin.
Carlsen-Anand 2024
Besides opening surveys, this issue has standard features on tactics, strategy and the endgame.
In the Modern Classics series Dorian Rogozenco’s video commentary on the 10th Game of the Kasparov-Anand World Championship Match 1995 deserves special mention. As is known, Anand was leading the Match after winning the 9th Game. However, in this 10th game Kasparov prevailed with his superior opening preparation and sharp middlegame tactics.
Endgame Play
In the regular column “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge” Karsten Müller offers a demo. lecture on opposite-coloured bishops. The icing on the cake is his analysis of selected rook endgames from the Olympiad.
This section also offers a column, “Readers write” in which we find contributions by well-known experts like Zoran Petronijevic, Frits Fritschy and newcomers, Stefan Gottuk and Markus Hochgraefe.
Summing up
The main database of the issue has 7703 games of which 28 are deeply annotated. There is much else in this DVD that deserves to be explored. Apart from the players I have already mentioned, the commentators include Nordibek Abdusattorov, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri and Wesley So among others. It may be noted that there are more annotated games in the opening and training sections of this issue. Well, practice makes perfect.
Notes:
1)The official site of the FIDE Chess Olympiad offers a visual and aural feast, capturing the great team tournament:
2) There are more annotated games from the Olympiad in CBM 222 Exra Issue:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/new-cbm-extra-222-with-olympia-special