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Good Vibrations Eugene Manchester ChessVibes Openings, ChessVibes 2009, Figurine Algebraic Notation, Four-page PDF Format, € 25 per year, € 1 single issue
And then along came computers, databases, the internet and email. And the world, chess and otherwise, would never be the same. All fairly common knowledge. But there was a built-in flaw: information overload. It was one thing to check out the occasional, albeit theoretically important Najdorf Sicilian or Spanish Marshall, and it was quite another to attempt to plow through thousands – even millions – of games, sort through and boil the information down to a workable, beneficial few. So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris. For this review, I took a look at the last seven issues of ChessVibes (numbers 19-25, going back almost two months). The format and presentation are consistently of high quality, with variety of coverage and opening analysis. Every issue consists of a zipped archive file, including both the PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. Each PDF issue contains the following departments:
The current issue is #25. To try to “put a face” on the general descriptions above, let’s take a look at the contents of issues 19-24: ChessVibes Openings #19 The latest opening developments of the second week of May 2009. All about the Chebanenko Slav (5.e3 b5 6.c5) which is analyzed in the Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Yuri Shulman. (With the permission of ChessVibes, readers are invited to download issue #19 free and examine it first-hand. See the link at the end of this review.) ChessVibes Openings #20 The latest opening developments of the third week of May 2009. All about the 6.Bg5 Najdorf which is analyzed in the Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Hikaru Nakamura. ChessVibes Openings #21 The latest opening developments of the fourth week of May 2009. All about the Sveshnikov with 9.Bxf6 with which Alexei Shirov beat Magnus Carlsen, the Game of the Week, to win the M-Tel Masters 2009. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. ChessVibes Openings #22 The latest opening developments of the end May and early June 2009. All about the Slav with 6.Ne5 which is analyzed in the Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev. ChessVibes Openings #23 The latest opening developments of the second week of June 2009. All about the move 6.Qf3!? against the Sicilian Najdorf which is analyzed in the Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Alexander Motylev. ChessVibes Openings #24 The latest opening developments of the third week of June 2009. All about the Bayonet Attack of the King’s Indian which is analyzed in the Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:
The week’s opening is expert is GM Vugar Gashimov. The most recent issue is #25. The lead article by van Delft and Ris is “Attacking with the Catalan” and this was underscored by the well-annotated game of the week, Caruana-Perez played June 19 at Zafra. The weekly “harvest” features the Sicilian Four Knights, Sicilian Taimanov, King’s Indian Exchange and the Grünfeld Exchange. Finally this issue is finished off with a game by “Opening Expert” Cuban grandmaster Leinier Dominguez Perez and his fine win against Meier played in the 2009 Capablanca Memorial. How do you actually receive the e-zine? Once a week, subscribers are emailed a message containing a link by which the latest issue may be downloaded. Each four-page issue is packed with a lot of quality material, and should be of considerable interest to most chessplayers. But hey, you don’t have to take my word for it. Here is a complete sample issue, #19 (offered with permission of ChessVibes). While you’re at it, you may want to check out the ChessVibes website and discover a few other nuggets. The cost per year is roughly equivalent to a good chess book. Each week you get a four- page issue packed with opening analysis, at least two thoroughly annotated games with one or more of that week’s featured openings, a glimpse into the world of the latest opening novelties, in short, a quality weekly opening report. Not ready to commit for a full year? No problem. For the paltry sum of 1 euro, you can buy a single issue. Either way, you’ll picking up some good chess vibrations… |
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Once upon a time, chessplayers would eagerly await the
arrival of their favorite chess magazine by post, comb through it
zealously, picking out their favorite opening and novelties, checking
for new developments and comparing what they found to established theory
(i.e., their books). Occasionally hard work would yield results. Armed
with a new opening twist, they would proudly – even confidently – engage
in battle, emerge gloriously victorious, or suffer the ignominy of an
undeserved defeat (weren’t all the losses unlucky distortions of fate?).
The cycle was then repeated as necessary.
