Chess Informant 123 - Hawaiian Edition (Informator)

CHESS OR FOOTBALL?
By GM Rafael Leitão

My tickets are in hand for the last 16 and quarter finals of the World Cup. Unfortunately I might have to play a chess team championship and forfeit what can be a ‘more or less’ interesting World Cup clash like Brazil vs. Italy in the quarter finals.

But what is stronger in this real Brazilian? A passion for chess or the once in a lifetime chance to see his national team playing a big soccer match on home turf?

Well, we will see ... watch out if a camera happens to spot me in the stadium and I hope you will remember this year as the one in which Chess Informant dedicated its cover page to Brazil – since our sport should unite all nations, with body and mind, throughout the whole world...

GM Ivan Sokolov also starts his own column, beginning with an elaboration of the theme of chasing the king in the early phase of the game. Here you will see some magnificent examples of romantic-style play, taken from the latest practice.

Experienced GM Eduardas Rozentalis provides a master class on how to assess the right moment to exchange off into a pawn endgame. In such critical positions, the correct decision can lead to victory, the wrong choice to heartbreak... So do study this article and safeguard yourself!

Endgame strategy is the speciality of German GM Karsten Müller, who here concentrates on the necessary technique to win with two bishops against bishop and knight – which can even be equivalent to a significant material advantage.

European Individual Championship (Yerevan) - exclusive annotations by the 2014 European champion GM Alexander Motylev , runner-up GM David Anton Guijarro and 4th placed GM Dragan Solak.

Georgian GM Ketevan Arakhamia, who emigrated to the UK after her marriage and subsequently repeatedly won not only the British Women’s Championship but also the full Scottish title too! Here she focuses on today’s female chess scene, so often unjustly neglected yet replete with exciting games where tactics rule and sparks will fly! Such was the case in the rollercoaster Women’s World Championship in Rapid and Blitz, where, as Ketevan explains, the process of intuitive decision-making assumed great importance.

Then we have our regular grandmaster columnists: GM Mihail Marin, who teaches the art of analysis by comparing the play of past masters to those of the present, with particular emphasis on nuances of central pawn attacks; GM Sarunas Sulskis, who reports on Magnus Carlsen’s dramatic victory in the Gashimov Memorial; GM Alex Yermolinsky, who makes a chess pilgrimage to the Sin City of Las Vegas; GM Alex Ipatov, who highlights young players in his North German team who are making such an impact on the Bundesliga; GM Rafael Leitão, who pays tribute to a very special visitor to his native Brazil – none less than the world champion Magnus Carlsen himself.

Technical material is also not neglected with GM Vassilios Kotronias presenting the second part of his comprehensive study of the c3 Sicilian – making it truly a book within a book!

Chess Informant Labs also feature:

• The Scotch by young lion GM Robert Aghysarian and his mentor GM Tigran Nalbandian
• The Slav by GM Ivan Ivanisevic
• The King’s Indian by GM Robert Markus

And not to forget our traditional selection of 200 annotated games, played in the past months, and test yourself positions for combinations, endings, and studies...