ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. Nagesh Havanur takes a look at the current issue, CBM 229. All games from the FIDE World Cup Tournament, 27 annotated, 11 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, demo. lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Sam Shankland, Wei Yi and Nodirbek Yakubboev and Gabriel Sargissian among others. The icing on the cake is the Special feature, “Giri’s Gems” offering 8 Best Games from the year 2025.
Review by Nagesh Havanur
My initial response to this issue was a slight disappointment. No sign of Carlsen, Caruana and Nakamura. Besides, only one major tournament finds coverage. That’s the FIDE World Cup 2025. However, “The play’s the thing” as the Bard once put it. The tournament saw the fall of many veterans, Vasyl Ivanchuk, Levon Aronian, Michael Adams and Peter Leko among others. So did young talents like Praggnanandhaa, Daniil Dubov and Arjun Erigaisi. In the end it became a contest between Javokhir Sindarov, Wei Yi and Andrey Esipenko. Here is the decisive game between Sindarov and Wei Yi:
Wei Yi-Sindarov, FIDE World Cup 2025 (download pgn)
A dramatic game that Wei Yi deserved to draw and Sindarov deserved to win. In this issue Anish Giri annotates a different game:
Sindarov-Svane, FIDE World Cup 2025 (download pgn)
Andrey Esipenko played very well until he lost to Wei Yi with a terrible blunder. Watch the fateful moment at 2:02:25/2:19:45.
Wei Yi-Esipenko, FIDE World Cup 2025 (download pgn)
It speaks for his determination that he recovered from this debacle and went on to beat Nodirbek Yakubboev in the final round. As a result, he was placed third. Esipenko’a best performance was with the experienced US Grandmaster, Sam Shankland.
Shankland- Esipenko, FIDE World Cup 2025 (download pgn)
The defeat in the hands of Esipenko put Sam Shankland out of the race for the World Cup. That’s a pity as among other participants he was the most determined of them all. In this issue he annotates his games with Daniil Dubov and Vasyl Ivanchuk.
Here Vasyl Ivanchuk deserves special mention. His native land, Ukraine has been under siege for the last 3 years and the veteran battles on irrespective of the result. Shankland shows great respect and sympathy for the Ukrainian maverick in his commentary:
Ivanchuk-Shankland, FIDE World Cup 2025 (download pgn)
Now that we have had a bird’s eye view of the race for the World Cup, a few observations on this issue are in order. The report on the World Cup here is too short. For a detailed narrative readers may check out the reports on the news page here when the tournament was in progress.
A digital magazine like the CBM is well-placed to re-create the human drama of chess tournaments with pictures and videos.
A CBM Special
This time there is a special feature, Giri’s Gems. Here Anish Giri annotates eight very good games played during the year 2025. Anish Giri’s commentary offers a judicious blend of explanation and analysis. Let us see one here:
Caruana -Erigaisi, Norway 2025 (download pgn)
A battle of generations so to speak!
Opening videos
There are 3 opening videos in this issue. The first of them is on the Open Spanish (C80) by Mihail Marin. The second on the Closed Sicilian with 8.h4 (B25) is by Danny King. The third is on the King’s Indian, 6…Na6 Variation (E95) by Felix Blohberger.
Take your pick.
Opening Surveys
There are as many as 11 articles on the openings ranging from the Cao-Kann to the King’s Indian. Among them I would single out Robert Ris’ analysis of the Ruy Lopez Marshall Attack with 11…Bb7!? (C89) and Yago Santiago’s analysis the Grünfeld Exchange Variation with 10.h4!? (E87).
First, we consider the treatment of the Marshall Attack by Robert Ris. As is known, the standard line is 11…c6 and it has been heavily analysed. 11…Bb7 is not unknown, but relatively less tested. I found a correspondence game that vindicates Ris’ analysis.
There is an interesting moment in the game. Black avoids playing the line, 23…Qh2+ 24. Kf1 Qh1+ 25.Ke2 as he cannot continue with 25…Re8+. The result is a well-fought draw.
Now let us consider the analysis of 10 h4 in the Grünfeld Exchange Variation by Yago Santiago. The idea itself is not entirely new. Young Boris Spassky essayed it way back in the 1950s. In recent years Carlsen has also tried it. However, Yago Santiago gives it a sharp edge and it is not easy for Black to find a draw. Here is a bird’s eye view of his analysis.
Besides opening surveys, this issue has standard features on tactics, strategy and the endgame.
Endgame Play
In the regular column “Fundamental Endgame Knowledge” Karsten Müller offers a video lecture on the rook versus knight endgames. In another video he presents endgame highlights of the FIDE World Cup, Goa.
This section also offers a column, “Readers write” in which we find contributions on the endgame by experts, Zoran Petronijevic and Rene Kalmes.
I was a bit curious when I saw the analysis position of the following ending. A tragicomedy of errors as late Mark Dvoresky would have put it.
Summing up
The main database of the issue has 668 games of which 27 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 Matthias Bluebaum and Nils Grandelius 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
!) For more info. on the FIDE World Cup, Goa, readers may check out the official site: https://worldcup2025.fide.com/
There are also reports on the ChessBase News Page like the following:
https://en.chessbase.com/post/world-cup-2025-r8tb
Last but not least is a detailed report in the New In Chess Magazine, #08, 2025
https://www.newinchess.com/new-in-chess-2025-8