Rustam Kasimdzhanov, FIDE World Champion of 2004, describes and analyses one of his finest games, played against Vassily Ivanchuk at the Chess Olympiad in Turin. In the Saizev Variation of the Ruy Lopez, played in the style of the Kasparov vs Karpov matches, Kasimdzhanov used the aggressive 18.g4 line, which is seen here for the first time in top-level chess. He succeeded in keeping the position open and keep the initiative all the way to the end. Both sides displayed an intensely combative spirit in this fighting game, which Kasimdzhanov won with superb endgame technique, after Ivanchuk missed a drawing line.

Click here to start the Video, and listen to this great player from Uzbekistan while he explains the game move by move. And in passing you will learn what world class players discuss at breakfast time during their tournaments.

Vishy Anand has been one of the world?s leading players for more than 15 years. In recent times he has been working hard to gain a victory in one of the great round robin tournaments. The MTel Masters Sofia 2006 was a candidate for such a success, and half way through the event he was leading together with US grandmaster Gata Kamsky, who after a long absence from chess is now back at the top of the world rankings. In the end Anand had to accept a disappointing third place. But of course he once again played some incredible chess. Especially his black win against FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov delighted spectators all over the world. Anand has commented this game in the ChessBase Magazine audio format ? just play through the moves and Vishy?s voice will come on at the critical stages. He has also commented on his game against Rustam Kasimdzhanov in the Bundesliga Season 2005/2006.

Topalov tries to use 14.b4 und 16.Rb1 to generate pressure on the b-file. However, Anand first manoeuvres his bishop in exemplary fashion from b7 to c8 to e6, in order to stop the white play on the queenside. After that he uses the advances 22...d5 und 23...d4 to gain the initiative for himself in the centre. In the diagram position 27...Ng5 launches the decisive attack. The black queen is attacked, but White would have to surrender two rooks in exchange, and decisively weaken his king?s position in the process. So Topalov opted for 28.Ne5 and after 28...Nxh3 29.gxh3 Qg5+ 30.Kh2 Qf5 he found himself on the road to defeat.

The second game which Anand has annotated for this issue comes from the second last round of the German Team Championship (the Bundesliga), and was one of the decisive factors that contributed to Anand?s team OSC Baden-Baden winning the Championship. His opponent, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who plays for the team from Godesberg, produced the novelty 13.Bg5 in the Anti Marshall. With that he offered his opponent the chance to exchange his Ka5 for the white bishop on b3. Anand, however, declined the offer and decided instead to attack the weakened white pawn structure on the queenside. In the board position Anand has just played 17...Qd6 (instead of the intuitively more plausible 17...d6) in order to reserve the d6 square for his knight, which arrived there a few moves later to exert maximum pressure. After 22...Nd6 (Anand: "the key, of course, to Black's play") the white structural weaknesses on the queenside become apparent, and after just 30 moves Kasimdzhanov is forced to resign.

Teimour Radjabov, the young grandmaster from Azerbaijan, was being toted as a future world champion ? even before he landed a victory against Garry Kasparov in Linares. Teimour is one of the ?wild youths? of his country, who even in his early teens was giving his opponents a headache in European Team Championships and in Chess Olympiads. Together with compatriot Shakhriyar Mamedyarov the 18-year-old has now advanced to the club of the 2700+ elite, and leads the FIDE rankings as the strongest Junior in the world. In the current issue of ChessBase Magazine Radjabov has provided commentary for three games from the Chess Olympiad in Turin. Mamedyarov was missing at that event, due to differences with the chess federation. Consequently the Azerbaijani team started badly, but then went on to even enter medal contention. For CBM 113 Teimour has commented on his games against the experienced players Shirov, Ivanchuk and Bologan.

Playing against Vassily Ivanchuk, a man known for his profound knowledge of openings theory, Radjabov left the well-trodden Najdorf paths with an early 13.Bh3 and manoeuvred his queenside knight via c3 and e2 to g3, so that it could be used to support the attack on the black king. Ivanchuk?s counter-attack was not long in coming, and it turned out to be very dynamic and dangerous. The young Azerbaijani found it necessary to play 20.Rd5 and offer his opponent an exchange sacrifice, which Ivanchuk was not ready to accept. So the sacrificial rook remained for four moves on d5, until Radjabov decided to prudently return it to the first rank. The game turned into an enthralling battle, in which both sides sought victory in a kingside attack. On move 31 Radjabov played Rxh4, a spectacular and powerful exchange sacrifice. However, his time was running out and in the following moves he made a number of mistakes and had in the end to content himself with a draw.

Fortune was kinder to Radjabov in his game against Viktor Bologan. Playing black in a Sicilian with 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 he was able to get rid of his double pawns on the c-file quite quickly with the thrust c6-c5-c4, and after 16 moves he had a clear advantage. In the diagram position after 16...Rfe8 Black is threatening unpleasant consequences after Bxf4 and also Bb5. With this deceptive quiet rook move Black uncovers the bad piece coordination and especially the pawn weaknesses in the white position, which become clear after the forced 17.exd5.

Radjabov produced a strategically fine and instructive game in the Ruy Lopez Exchange Variation with 5...Bg4 against Alexei Shirov. The latter played the unusual continuation 9...Be6, exchanging the bishop in the very next move on b3. Radjabov used the resulting advantage in development to quickly win control of the centre. In the diagram position the soon-to-be world championship challenger played 18.Bf4! and forced his opponent to produce a just about decisive weakness with 18...f6. After the interspersed check 18...Nxf3+ White could simply play 19.Qxf3 Qd7 20.Rac1 Rc8 21.Qg3, and the black pawn on c7 would be lost. But also after the game continuation 18...f6 19.Nd4 Kf7 20.Qb3 White has a clear advantage.

Sergei Tiviakov, who lives in and plays for Holland, is currently experiencing a second springtime. Of course the 33-year-old Tiviakov has always been one of the top group of grandmasters in the world. But in the meantime he has on occasion even crossed the 2700 mark. He is one of the players who really love chess, travelling to a large number of tournaments and playing energetically in all of them. In addition Tiviakov is interested in different cultures and has submitted interesting picture reports for the ChessBase news pages.

Playing for the Dutch team Tiviakov won a gold medal at the European Championship in Gothenburg in 2005. At the Chess Olympiad in Turin things did not go so well for his team, but that was certainly not Tiviakov?s fault.

For this issue of ChessBase Magazine he has thoroughly analysed two of his games. One is from the surprise upset of the Olympic favourites Russia, who lost to the Dutch team in round six. In this encounter Tiviakov faced Peter Svidler on board two. Once again he chose the Scandinavian Defence with 3...Qd6. Even though it is relatively recently that he added this line to his repertoire he has been able to use it well against the likes of Anand, Svidler, Grischuk and Kamsky. And after the new game against Svidler Tiviakov feels more than ever convinced that this variation is a solid and eminently playable opening for Black. Svidler may have produced the novelty with 8.Bf4, improving on White?s play, but he underestimated the positional strength of the black knight manoeuvre Nd7-b6-c4-a5-c6. After 27 moves he saw no alternative but to agree to a draw.

After the win against Russia the Netherlands had to face the eventual Gold medal winners Armenia. The resulting 1:3 loss was the beginning of the end of any medal aspirations, especially since the Dutch team lost their next two matches as well. Tiviakov had a tough fight already in the opening against the world-class Armenian GM Vladimir Akopian, even though he normally feels quite safe in the Queen?s Indian. Akopian went for the ambitious 7.Re1 and chanced upon a hole in Tiviakov?s preparation. After the novelty 15.Bg5 White already has a clear advantage, according to our commentator. Tiviakov draws far-reaching conclusions from this game and his analysis of it, and thinks a re-evaluation of the entire 7.Re1 line is required.

Loek van Wely had a moment of triumph at the Olympiad with a novelty cooked up in home analysis. In his game against Rogelio Antonio of the Philippines, playing a popular variation of the Nimzo Indian (4.Qc2 d5), he uncorked 14.Bg2 and then 16.g5, which is a clear improvement over his recent game against Joel Lautier in the Dutch league 2005/2006. In his analysis the six-time Dutch champion remarks that for chess professionals these days the use of computer programs makes it easy to find a move like 16.g5. He may be right, but part of the quality of a world class grandmaster is the ability to sense in which positions improvements may still be available. In the game against Antonio after the exchange of queens with 16?Nxc4 17.gxf6 the black initiative almost immediately disappeared, and soon van Wely?s opponent was forced to resign the game.

Loek van Wely?s game against Alexander Grischuk was not quite as successful. Here, too, a Nimzo Indian with 4.Qc2 (in this case followed by 4...0-0 5.a3 Bxc3 6.Qxc3) appeared on the board. But this time it was the Dutch GM who was caught napping. After Grischuk's 10...Ng5 he had to think hard and long before coming up with a sharp novelty: 11.h4. The exchange of knights on f3 opens up the g-file for the white rook, and the black king is under direct attack. In fact, as van Wely shows in his analysis, White could have launched a deadly attack on his 21st move. Instead he went for a promising endgame and, after a number of inaccuracies, saw all his advantages and chances to win disappear into thin air.