A University Education Review by Davide Nastasio Power Strategy 1, by Mihail Marin, ChessBase, Video running time: 4 hours 52 min., $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.96) When I was in college I was frustrated with the education system because every year they would test us on what kind of learner we were (visual, auditory, or tactile), and then independently from the results they would just give us a heavy 2,000+ page book to read. I'm not against books, but as a tactile learner my brain is clearly dominated by movement, color, and geometric shapes. So, while one of the best books on the middlegame was written by Nimzowitsch, between his metaphors from a previous century and the translation, … [Read more...]
The New McCutcheon
Learn the McCutcheon Review by Steve Goldberg The New McCutcheon, by Rustam Kasimdzhanov, 2014 ChessBase, DVD, 4 hours, 42 minutes playing time. $34.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.87) Particularly for a player looking for a Black repertoire response to 1.e4, The New McCutcheon by Rustam Kasimdzhanov is an excellent choice. The McCutcheon French is reached after 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4. So what is “new” about this? Kasimdzhanov explains that 5.e5 h6 6.Bd2 used to be the main variation, with 6.Bc1 and 6.Bh4 also common continuations. But now, he states, 6.Be3 is the primary follow-up. In this DVD, former world champion Kasimdzhanov reviews all of these variations, and … [Read more...]
Knowing the King’s Indian is a Must!
Knowing the King's Indian is a Must! Review by Davide Nastasio Winning Against King's Indian with the Main Line, by Mihail Marin, ChessBase, 4 hours 11 min, $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.96) I don't play the King's Indian, and I'm not sure if I will play it in the future. So why did I get this DVD? Because in the last fifty years or so the greatest battles of the greatest chess players have been fought around this opening. Thus, the road to mastery is clear: knowing the King's Indian is a must! Just as it is important to read the classics of chess literature, it is equally essential to become familiar with classical structures. And the King's Indian teaches a player about all aspects … [Read more...]
Hours of Chess Fun
Hours of Chess Fun by Steve Goldberg First Steps in Pawn Structures, by Andrew Martin, 2014 ChessBase, DVD, approx. 4 hours playing time. $29.95 (ChessCafe Price $22.46) Andrew Martin gets right to the point in explaining his purpose in producing First Steps in Pawn Structures: "The purpose of this DVD is to focus on pawns, pawn structure, and to demonstrate exactly how pawns can play a pivotal role in our favorite game ... Pawn weaknesses don't necessarily lose, but you have to know how to handle them. Pawns are important because they facilitate the proper development of the pieces." There are several aspects to this DVD. The primary segment consists of analysis of 22 … [Read more...]
Unlucky 13
Unlucky 13 by Mark Donlan Tutorial: How to install ChessBase 13, by ChessBase, DVD, Various pricing Thirteen might be a lucky number for Garry Kasparov, but it’s not for ChessBase. This column was designed to be a walk-through for installing the latest iteration of their flagship product ChessBase 13. Yet things didn’t go quite so smoothly as I’ve come to expect from ChessBase products. Perhaps it has something to do with only meeting the minimum requirements rather than the recommended requirements. I’ve found it is usually beneficial to meet the latter, rather than the former. However, even though I was installing on a Windows Vista machine, it is one that meets the recommended … [Read more...]
Creating a Multimedia Database
Tutorial: Creating a Multimedia Database by Mark Donlan In the tutorial Creating a Personal Tournament Book we looked at how to create a personal ebook from the web in ChessBase 12 using the No Logo Norway 2014 tournament as an example. This month we will examine how to create a multimedia database similar to the ChessBase Media System DVDs using the 2014 Carlsen-Anand world championship match as an example. In the previous column we saw how to import web pages into a database text file. Here we will learn how to embed videos. The video file must be in the Windows .wmv format. You could also embed pictures (.bmp) and sound files (.wav) if you so wished. A database text is not a game … [Read more...]
ABC of the English Opening
An Alternative Tool to Learn the Opening by Davide Nastasio ABC of the English Opening, by Lorin D'Costa, ChessBase, Video running time: 7 hours As an amateur who competes in many tournaments throughout the year, I am interested in learning about openings and the ideas behind them. Unfortunately, as an adult with limited time, I cannot really read chess books in any great depth. The magnus opus of the English Opening was written by GM Marin for Quality Chess, a beautiful set of three books in the Grandmaster Repertoire series, with a total of 1,187 pages! If I only had the time to read it. So as an alternative tool for learning the openings, I find the Fritz Trainer DVDs enormously … [Read more...]
Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal
A Wonderful Multimedia Product by Davide Nastasio Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal, ChessBase DVD, Running Time 4 hours, 13 min., $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.95) This review is about a wonderful new multimedia product. When it comes to chess improvement methods, we often only consider learning from books, and maybe they are best. Yet thanks to the integration of computer, video, audio, and software, we can have chess material that engages all our senses, which broadens our ways to learn. The Master Class series of DVDs starts with Robert James Fischer, rightly the greatest world champion of all, continues with Tal, and now there is already a third installment on Alekhine. I … [Read more...]
Building an Opening Repertoire
Tutorial: Building an Opening Repertoire by Mark Donlan This month we will look at using ChessBase 12, or any similar database program to some extent, to build an opening repertoire. Players will sometimes lament, usually after a loss, that they do not have any good openings. Yet it is rarely the opening that is at fault. It is usually a tactic on which the game turns. With regard to the opening these players seldom study it in a formulaic way, and often do not play long enough time controls in which to expect perfection in any phase of the game. First let's consider some maxims from chess authors to define our parameters: "The importance of opening theory is grossly … [Read more...]