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Chessville
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ChessBase Magazine 99 Reviewed By Prof. Nagesh Havanur
When a visitor praised the nonchalantly elegant style of Brummell’s cravat, the ‘Beau’ turned to his valet. “Show him our failures,” he said, whereupon the man went into the dressing room and brought back a huge silver tray of crumpled and discarded cravats. That old anecdote narrated by Assiac holds some significance for all those labors of love that missed the mark in the end. Much has been made of the effortless ease with which Anand dominated the Wijk aan Zee. But perfection eluded the Maestro from Madras in the early rounds of the tournament. The following game is a striking example of missed opportunity:
Apart from games of Wijk aan Zee tournament (won by Anand ahead of Leko and Adams) there are also games from important events like Bundesliga, Hastings and Pamplona. Aficionados of rapid chess would be delighted to find games from Bali international tournament (won by Topalov ahead of Anand). In all , this CD offers 1264 games of which 440 are annotated. There are two Multimedia Reports. The first carries a long interview with Yasser Seirawan on his efforts to bring about the re-unification of the chess world and its aftermath. The convoluted course of chess politics deserves no comment here. The second Report deals with the Wijk aan Zee tournament. The images of players have bright visual appeal. There are also interviews with the Women’s World Champion Zhu Chen and GM Julio Granda Zuniga. The star of the show in this Report is, of course, the Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen who won the Wijk aan Zee C Tournament with the score of 10½ / 13 points. Magnus is a charming kid exuding quiet confidence and playful spirit. But the interviewer Anna Dergatschova fails to strike the right wavelength with him. The conversations with him are too brief. The questions are inane and meet with a lukewarm response. Yet Magnus is worth watching in this CD. One should also make a special mention of Carlsen Senior, a sober and sensible parent. He is well-aware of the necessity of normal childhood for Magnus. He is not too swayed by public adulation and media attention to his talented son, and anxious to ensure that his son has proper education and healthy upbringing. The regular feature on Semi-Slav Defence ( D43-D49) by GM Christopher Lutz offers a critical survey with annotated games. Unfortunately, this time also the article in German has not been translated into English. The main section on Theory has eight texts on openings with select databases by acknowledged experts in the field:
For some inexplicable reason the last database on King’s Indian 9.b4 does not find its place in this CD, although it has been listed.
The section on Strategy concludes GM Peter Wells’series on Material Imbalances, dealing with Rook versus Two Minor Pieces.
The Telechess section edited by GM Roberto Alvarez and GM Juan Morgado offers a window to the world of correspondence chess. In this issue there are 8136 correspondence games of which 33 are annotated. The annotated games represent the cutting edge of opening theory. Do not miss the games of the former world champion Umansky and the present World Champion Hamarat. There are little treasures in the vast collection of unannotated games like the following:
Recommended
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