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When I look at my chess career, probably the best games
 that I played were in the Sicilian defense. –Alexei Shirov

With the ability to now incorporate video, Chessbase products have taken a giant leap forward over the past few years.  (Although my dream program would be an “interactive video,” where you play against a talking video GM who instantly sees your move and then comments on it in real time!  Sort of like how Fritz warns you when you’ve made a move that “you will regret” but in this case it’s the grandmaster you are playing on the video who sort of frowns and then comments on how pathetic your move is and how he is going to crush you unless you take it back!  Hey, if/when they ever do invent this program, remember you heard it here first!)

Okay, first up on today’s menu is the Latvian genius (who has been living in Spain for the last several years), GM Alexei Shirov, who is currently rated 2699 and ranked 18^th in the world (according to FIDE’s April 2006 list).  While this is a bit low for Alexei (he was #5 in the world just two years ago), you can never count him out as he did defeat Kramnik in a match in 1998 and really did deserve a shot at Kasparov.  (Don’t get me started!)

This DVD contains a total of 3 hours and 50 minutes of instruction on how to play against the Sicilian defense according to Shirov (he is White in all the games.)  Here’s a breakdown of the material by segment (as listed on the contents page, which is the first thing you see when you open the program):

·         Intro & Kan Variation (40:33)

·         Taimanov Variation (34:51)

·         Paulsen System (30:03)

·         Sveshnikov Variation (23:10)

·         Rossolimo Variation 1 (31:04)

·         Rossolimo Variation 2 (30:48)

·         Richter-Rauzer Attack 1 (16:38)

·         Richter-Rauzer Attack 2 (23:19)

Shirov begins his introduction with some surprisingly candid statements (I’ve made a few small edits to make it easier to read):

Hello.  After making the first DVD on the Spanish opening, I thought about what would be the next topic to touch.  Although I wanted to go on with the explanations of certain ideas of the openings…I thought I would choose the Sicilian defense…something stopped me from doing the exact same kind of DVD as I did on the Spanish game.

 

The reason was that I didn’t feel that I could do the same kind of work… the Spanish game is something I feel I really understand and have good practical results and knowledge of the basic ideas.

 

In the Sicilian Defense, although I have played it all my chess career, I still feel I cannot call myself an expert.  There are some lines that I know quite well of course, and I’m able to say exactly what’s going on.  But there are more and more recent developments that I see from the games of other leading players… that I realize some of my old assessments could be wrong, and therefore it would be difficult for me to say that in this line White should play this and not that.

Wow, talk about being brutally honest!  Of course, everything is relative.  Although Shirov doesn’t consider himself an expert on the Sicilian, he probably knows more about it than 99.9% of the chess players on the planet.  Still, his modesty is refreshing.  What’s more, he has a real passion for the Sicilian as his next comment reveals to us:

At the same time the Sicilian defense is an opening I still feel a preference for whether I play it as Black or against it as White.  When I look at my chess career, probably the best games that I played were in the Sicilian defense.

Wow, that’s quite an endorsement for the Sicilian.  And with that Shirov begins to take us through the first game on the DVD, which is a rapid-play game against Ivanchuk from Tallinn, 1996.  Alexei says he’s not sure if the opening is called the Paulson or the Taimanov, because when Fischer beat Taimanov in 1972, all the Russian chess books deleted Taimanov’s name and called it the Paulson opening!

After the moves 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0–0 [Diagram]

Here Shirov played the stunning 16.Nd5!?, sacrificing a whole knight against Ivanchuk:

Shirov has just played the piece sacrifice 16. Nd5!?

Now, if you were playing over this game from a database, you might appreciate the knight sac, but what you wouldn’t get would be (a) Shirov’s thinking behind the move and (b) Ivanchuk’s reaction to it.  However, here is where having Alexei commentating on his own games right before your eyes really pays off:

I didn’t have any clear plan on how to continue, I just went for this piece sacrifice.  I couldn’t say that Ivanchuk was visibly surprised… he gave a certain thought to this position, but since it was a rapid game he decided not to think too long (and took the knight).

After 16...exd5 17.e6 0–0, Alexei says that he was surprised that Ivanchuk castled here, as he thought the black king would be too exposed.  Unfortunately, he responded too quickly and played an inaccuracy: 18.Rd3?!:

While this move looks tempting, (preparing to swing the rook over to the g-file where Black’s king sits) he explains that he should have played 18.exf7+ followed by 19.Bxh5 when White, even though down a piece, still has an attack going due to Black’s exposed king.  Unfortunately, after 18.Rd3?!, he realized he had to force a draw:

18…h4 19.Rff3 Kh7 20.Rg3 hxg3 21.Rxg3 f6 22.Rh3+ Kg7 23.Rg3+ ½–½

This game illustrates a nice feature of this DVD; namely that you get to see games that you might not normally look at.  After all, how many of us would take the time to go over a 23 move draw?  Yet there’s no doubt that the idea of the Knight sac that Shirov came up with in this game is very interesting and instructive, regardless of the game’s result.

Here is a quick list of what I liked and didn’t like about this DVD:

Pros

The first pro can be summed up in one word: VALUE. For only $32.58 you get to spend 3½ hours with an elite GM going over some of his most interesting and creative games.  It is quite instructive to see him click through his games and discuss his thinking behind his moves.  Occasionally, he will suddenly spot a new idea in the position and like a jazz singer begin to “go off” spontaneously on this new idea.  Watching and listening to this chess genius analyze his own games can’t help but improve your own game.

There are some humorous moments on the DVD, such as when Alexei is starting to click through his game against the French GM Lauren Fressinet, and he notices that the move order is incorrect.  He gets this amused look on his face and then comments how the database has got the wrong move order!  And now, not only does he give the correct move order, but he explains how sometimes when the players move quickly the electronic board can’t keep up and so just “guesses” at the move order so it can quickly get to the current position on the board.  (This bit of info makes me wonder how many other games in the database have an incorrect move order!?)

From an appearance standpoint, Alexei looks very good.  He is wearing a nice looking brown jacket and dress shirt that stands out well against the grey backdrop.

Cons

Shirov is pretty low key on this video, if not a little subdued (I felt like yelling at the monitor, “Hey, somebody get Alexei some coffee!”)  In fact, I swear he even yawns while going over the Ivanchuk game.  Still, he has a quiet self-confidence that does come through (although no one is going to mistake him for Korchnoi... who on his video (put out by Chessbase last year) was a bouncing ball of energy!)

A few times during the presentation he has trouble operating the pieces and they refuse to go where he wants them to.  This makes for some awkward pauses in the action as he tries to get things sorted out.

For some reason the first three games are labeled “Kan” variation on the contents page of the DVD, yet Shirov (correctly, of course) refers to the opening as the “Paulson” variation on the video.

The Bottom Line

If you play the Sicilian, this is a must purchase.  And even if you don’t play the Sicilian, I think you will still learn a lot about how to play exciting, mega-creative chess from one of the greatest minds of our generation.  I mean, imagine if you could take a 3½-hour private lesson from GM Shirov, what would that cost!?  Let’s be conservative and say that he is in a good mood, likes you, and “only” charges you $100.00 per hour.  Thus, you would pay $350.00 and once the experience was over, that would be it.  However, with this DVD you can watch it again and again.  Of course, you can’t ask the DVD questions like you could if he was really there, but hey, what do you want for 32 bucks!?  On a scale of 1-10, My Best Games in the Sicilian by Alexei Shirov gets a 9.
 

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