CHESS PUBLISHING

Reviewed by John Watson

http://www.chesspublishing.com is the site of Chess Publishing, which I reviewed a couple of years back, but haven’t discussed since. This is a paid site that offers systematic, current online analysis of chess openings. Annotations are done by GMs and IMs. The reader can go over games and notes on the site, and the supplementary program ChessPub allows one to play over, organize, and download all the games that have been annotated by the contributors over the years.

Each opening site is updated monthly with annotations of games selected from the latest tournaments. Subscribers play over games and analysis on javascript boards. They can also download the e-books for every variation, which are PDF files with the masters’ overview of each variation and references to every game in the ChessPub database. Subscribers therefore get access to the enormous amount of material that has previously been published on the site; a new subscription is like buying many complete books of annotated opening material. It’s a great bargain. I recommend that you go to the site to check out the various features and pricing. Subscribers can also get feedback on their theoretical questions.

Ten of the twelve contributors are GMs and the other two are IMs. Each one is a specialist in the openings they discuss, and almost all have been contributors to the theory involved. One great advantage to this site is that the important games are selected by these masters and are annotated with pertinent suggestions and opinions. Here’s a quick summary of a few of the sites’ writers, with an example or two about what I saw in some of their recent stuff:

I have used Neil McDonald’s French Defense site for years to help me keep up with the latest games. His analysis has gone directly into my books and articles. This month’s annotated games include, among others: (a) a main line of the 3...Be7 Tarrasch (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.Bd3 c5 5.dxc5 Nf6 6.Qe2 Nc6 7.Ngf3 Nb4 8.Nb3 Nxd3+ 9.cxd3 a5 10.Bg5 a4 11.Nbd2 h6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6, etc.). He includes a game with high theory played between two 2200 players!; (b) a new look at the problem line 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ngf3 g6, when 8.h4 has given Black trouble, but M Gurevich played the simple 8...Be7 intending 9.h5 g5 which leaves White to make something out of this line; (c) 3 games with the latest discussion of the MacCutcheon line with 6.Be3 (after 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.e5 h6); (d) an innovation in the venerable old Winawer line 6...Ne7 7.Qg4 Qc7 that revitalizes Black’s play with a new 23rd move!

Nigel Davies takes a different approach in his 1.e4 e5 column, devoting it all to the same variation: the “Delayed Exchange of the Ruy Lopez Deferred” (which we used to call the “Delayed Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation”): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Bxc6 dxc6.

He examines 7.Qe1 and 7.Nc3 in detail. I think that casting a wider net, as McDonald does, is more useful to most players, but some will prefer an in-depth look which in this case gets to the bottom of a fashionable variation. In any case, the archives of games cover just about any 1.e4 e5 line one might want to investigate.

Chris Ward handles Dragon Sicilian theory, an infinite subject to be plumbed by devotees of this opening (the Accelerated Fianchetto is also part of this site). Ward is one of the world’s leading experts on the Dragon so he won’t miss much. Andrew Martin takes on the tough job of covering “other” defenses to 1.e4 such as the Caro-Kann, Pirc/Modern, Alekhine’s, Scandinavian, etc. That takes a lot of expertise in dissimilar positions. Part of his latest Caro-Kann section features Speelman playing 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3, a variation that is suddenly receiving serious attention.

The largest set of critical top-level games in any opening must be that in the Open Sicilian. John Fedorowicz takes on the Najdorf, Rauzer, Sveshnikov, Sozin, Taimanov, Paulsen, Scheveningen, etc. John has recently co-authored a book with Nick DeFirmian about the English Attack that occurs in a range of Sicilian variations, and he knows what he’s doing on both sides of this opening. For those who don’t play 3.d4 or need to know what to do about the alternatives, the well-known writer Gary Lane is in charge of variations such as the Bb5 systems, 2.c3, and the Closed Sicilian. These are always popular, all the more so among players of average-or-below-average strength.

GM Ruslan Scherbakov covers the vast amounts of 1.d4 d5 material. One of the top-level games features a new idea in a Slav Defense variation popularized by Morozevich: B Jobava – K Kulaots, Istanbul 2004 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Ne5 Nbd7 7.Nxc4 Qc7 8.g3 e5 9.dxe5 Nxe5 10.Bf4 Nfd7 11.Bg2 g5 12.Bxe5 Nxe5 13.Qd4!? (a daring and very interesting try)

13...f6 14.0–0–0 Nxc4 15.Qxc4 Bd6 16.Be4 Bh3 17.Qd3 Be5 18.Bf5 Bxf5 19.Qxf5 Qc8 20.Qe4 0–0 21.h4 g4 22.Rd2 Qe6 23.Rhd1 Rf7 24.Rd6 Qxd6 25.Rxd6 Bxd6 26.Qxg4+ Kf8 27.Qf5 Be5 28.Ne4 Rd8 29.e3 Rd5 30.Qc8+ Kg7 31.g4 c5 32.f4 Bc7 33.g5 Bd8 34.gxf6+ Bxf6 35.Qe6 Rd3 36.Nd6, 1–0. A nice game.

Glenn Flear has a challenging section of “Daring Defenses” covering the Benko, Budapest, and Dutch. This wouldn’t be so bad, but they’ve given him the entire Grünfeld Defence as well! I’m not sure why the Grünfeld is more “daring” than the King’s Indian, Benoni, or other defenses, but it’s a handful for any player. One can choose sidelines (slightly depressing ones for Black), but the mainline Grünfeld theory is getting outrageously theoretical. It’s a little depressing that even 13-year-old Magnus Carlsen is involved in gross feats of memorization, here deviating from theory on move 33:

M Carlsen – E L’Ami,Gausdal 2004: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 0–0 9.0–0 Nc6 10.Be3 Bg4 11.f3 Na5 12.Bd3 cxd4 13.cxd4 Be6 14.d5 Bxa1 15.Qxa1 f6 16.Bh6 Re8 17.Kh1 Rc8 18.Nf4 Bd7 19.e5 Nc4 20.e6 Ba4 21.Nxg6 hxg6 22.Bxg6 Ne5 23.Be4 Bc2 24.Bxc2 Rxc2 25.Qd1 Qc7 26.f4 Rc1 27.Qxc1 Qxc1 28.Rxc1 Ng4 29.h3 Nxh6 30.g4 Rd8 31.Rc7 Kf8 32.Rd7 Nf7

33.h4 (the novelty! 33.Rxb7 is “normal”, and apparently about equal...) 33...b5 34.Kg2 a5 35.Kf3 a4 36.Ke3 b4 37.Ra7 Nh6 38.g5 Nf5+ 39.Ke4 Nd6+ 40.Kf3 fxg5 41.hxg5 b3 42.Rxa4 b2 43.Rb4 Nc4 44.Kg4 Rd6 45.Rb8+ Kg7 46.f5 Rb6 47.Rxb6 Nxb6 48.d6 exd6 49.f6+ Kf8, 0–1. Ouch! All that study for nought.

In case you were thinking that the site is limited to critical and mostly tactical lines, John Emms has a column on the Nimzo-Indian (mixed, it is true, with the Benoni), which is still the most important 1.d4 defense around and the linchpin of a great many grandmasters’ repertoires. As with other contributors, John has written about and specialized in these openings.

The English Opening, Reti, Bird and other flank openings are chosen by Tony Kosten. As one might expect, the games tend to be highly positional and slow-going, but there is always an exception, for example, K Lie – A Fedorov, Copenhagen 2004: 1.c4 g6 2.g3 Bg7 3.Bg2 c5 4.Nc3 Nc6 5.a3 a5 6.Nf3 e5 7.d4!!? (an old idea of Miles’) 7...cxd4 8.Nb5 d6 9.e3 Nge7 10.exd4 0–0 11.0–0 a4 12.Re1 Nf5 13.Bg5 Qb6 14.d5 Ncd4 15.Nfxd4 Nxd4 16.Nxd4 exd4 17.Rc1 Bf5 18.g4 Bd7 19.Re7... etc. (eventually drawn). Kosten has written a popular repertoire book about the English Opening.

This product is well worth the price of admission. There’s no better way to keep current with and learn openings at the same time. You can subscribe to one, several, or all individual opening sites. Visit www.chesspublishing.com to learn more.