Informators egen omtale

THE SINQUEFIELD CUP 2015 The most important and most fiercely contested tournament of the season has just ended in Saint Louis – and won somewhat surprisingly by Levon Aronian. Yes, the Armenian grandmaster’s sudden return to top form, after a string of below par performances, enabled him to convincingly take possession of the Sinquefield Cup, in a contest which also represents the American leg of the new “Grand Tour” which climaxes in London in December.

Our grandmaster contributors have been specially assigned to analyse games from Saint Louis in accordance with their own preferred style of play. Thus GM Sarunas Sulskis uncovers underlying strategic ideas that make the difference between a draw and a win, while GM Michael Roiz, long-term second of former world title challenger Boris Gelfand, takes stock of those tactical skills that are so vital for scoring the full point in close contests at top level. GM Aleksandar Colovic sums up the big picture with an up to date assessment of the “new world order” in today’s chess environment.

SHADOW OVER THE CHAMPION A dark shadow was cast over world champion Magnus Carlsen at the elite “Norway Chess” tournament, and our reporter, GM Mauricio Flores Rios, was determined to find the cause of this rare phenomenon. After all, we have a tendency to regard world champions as invincible gods… Well, that is until they show us their human side! With his customary mathematical precision, Mauricio carries out a thorough investigation by analyzing all nine games that Magnus played in what was his worst tournament for the past five years or so.

CHINESE DRAGONS Four Chinese dragons have leapt out from the mythical world of fairytales into the harsh reality of today’s highly competitive chess arena – their names are Wei Yi, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi and Li Chao. Over the years GM Ivan Sokolov has played against successive generations of Chinese players, but never before has he been as impressed as by the remarkable achievements of this band of 2700+ young brothers-in-arms. And, by way of explanation, he annotates a selection of electrifying games they have played in recent events.

and also:

• GM Alexander Morozevich on The “bad” French bishop
• GM Pentala Harikrishna and his “New Romantics” column
• David against Goliath by GM Keti Arakhamia-Grant
• GM Emanuel Berg on the increasingly popular move 6.h3 against the King’s Indian Defence
• Endgame specialist GM Karsten Mueller focuses on the theme of Rook vs. Bishop
• GM Walter Browne’s very last annotations with his own verbal comments
• GM Vassilios Kotronias on the Alapin Sicilian

All these articles, which make up the first half – and even more! – of Informant 125, are presented in plain English, whereas the second half maintains our half-century tradition of selecting the most interesting games, combinations, endings and studies from recent events with non-verbal annotations by the players themselves or our in-house team of grandmasters and international masters.