Chess Rule Journal 219 – Review

The following review appeared in Glarean Magatin by Walter Eigenmann. Reprinted with kind permission.

Chess Base Magazine Issue 219 (Chess Periodical)

Modern chess in the mirror of analysis

The popular “Chessbase Magazine” from the Hamburg chess software company of the same name has now reached issue 220. The periodical, which appears six times a year and is packed with game analyses, tournament reports and interactive instructional videos, has long earned a lasting place among amateur and professional players. We took a closer look at the number 219.

Since its beginnings, one of CBM's “core competencies” has been to commentate on interesting new (and also not so new) games from international tournaments. The first issue of the magazine was published in 1987 and contained about 1,000 games (both annotated and non-annotated), at that time on a 3.5-inch disc…

[Chessbase Magazin 219 – Start-Seite mit Abdusattorov – Rezension im Glarean Magazin] After 220 issues, the periodical had completely changed. The focus now is on high-quality commentary, interactive tutorial videos, and imparting basic knowledge about the three game stages: opening, middle game, and endgame. It seems that the specific study of variants of common opening systems is still very popular.

Six hours of video chess

Links: Chess Rule Magazine 219 –
Table of Contents of CBM-219: From the opening repertoire…

One of the content it focuses on, which is also useful for amateurs, is nearly six hours of instructional videos, some of which are interactive and cover a wide range of chess themes and motifs. It begins with “opening videos” by leading international masters Bloberger, Bauer and Zweers on English, Slavic and Italian complexes, while long-time CBM author GM Karsten Müller, as an expert in the endgame, focuses this time on the relevant finishing practices of “knights vs. farmers (farmers)”. .

No. 219 contains a total of more than 200 games – with an emphasis on the 6th Prague Chess Festival, won by the Uzbek “boy prodigy” N. Abdul Satorov, beating top-tier competitors such as Pragnanananda, Gokish, Rapport and Kemer. .

The second featured event in this CBM edition with suspended games is the traditional America's Cup from March 2024, which also featured world-class players such as Caruana, Shankland, Sue and Dominguez at the start, and had prize money totaling $400,000 won by Aronian. .

High-profile commentators

Right: Chessbase 219 Magazine – Table of Contents 2 –
…until the final training

CBM-219 features famous commentators such as Rainer Knack, Mikhail Marin, Olivier Reh, and Carsten Müller, but also several guest authors who were “only” used in two or three games. In all, the tally impressively includes nearly 50 of the best players who have commented, from Noderbek Abdulsatorov to Patrik Zilbel.

The dedicated aim of the Chessbase magazine series is to cover as wide a target audience as possible through its analytical and educational content. This is essentially what has been achieved with this edition. In particular, the possibilities of multimedia technologies (including cloud communications), which have been increasingly used since Issue 217, contribute to the acceptance and dissemination of this format.

While the professional and tournament level players should once again get their money's worth with this edition, by far the largest segment of chess players, namely the 1700-2000 Elo league, would like to see more material that more closely meets their specific content needs. It is best to take into account the calculation. This may open up additional groups of buyers and readers for the magazine.

Above: Tactical exercises with GM Jan Markos video teacher in Chessbase Magazine No. 219

Hamburg chess rule: Chess Base Magazine, Issue 219Or download online (with PDF printout) or DVD (with booklet)