Chess World Championship Preview - Deja Vu - Combinations by Anand and Carlsen

The second match between Anand and Carlsen is approaching, and it was almost exactly a year ago that I wrote this post below. If you are wondering why these two players are still the best in the world, studying their combinations may give the answers!

 Chess World Championship Preview - Combinations by Anand and Carlsen:
The World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand has been anticipated throughout the chess world since Carlsen qualified from the London Candidates tournament, and there has been no shortage of forecasts. Rather than try to predict the winner, I released a new ebook that gives a preview of the match by showing the best combinations of each player - collected throughout their entire careers. You get a chance to play like the current world champion, or like the future one, if the title changes hands in the 2013 match.
Over 130 annotated test positions will help you better appreciate the enormous tactical strength of both players, while also serving as a tribute to the careers of both players.
You can get the book from Amazon here: World Championship Preview - Combinations by Anand and Carlsen 
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ChessBase - One File Format to Rule them All

As of Chessbase 11 and 12, Chessbase offers to put database files into one file with *.cbone extension. That seems very convenient compared to cbv files that cannot be viewed or modified without unpacking, and sure beats dozens of random extension (cbh, cbg, etc) files that were getting created/deleted behind the scenes in the old paradigm. For emailing games around, or backing up databases, cbone seems great. But I don't want to convert my databases unless I know that the new format is reliable. I will  experiment with cbone in the next while and see how this goes.
So far a couple of issues I can think of are:

• I noticed that read-only cbone files cause errors, even when opened up for viewing
• It is obvious that any older program such as Chessbase Light would not able to read cbone file format

Has anyone else noticed other problems?

Best Combinations - September 2014 (Monthly Chess Tactics Book 9)

The September edition of the Monthly Tactics series is out with over 100 puzzles for you to solve, available in Amazon and Kobo stores.

 

Book description:
This publication is a collection of over 100 best combinations played by strong chess players in tournaments that took place in September 2014. To see the solution for the combination - go to the next page in your e-reader. The book is the ninth in the "Monthly Chess Tactics" series, which provides regular updates with instructive tactical positions from the most recent top chess tournaments. The first eight instalments covered January to August of 2014.

The major tournaments of September 2014 were happening in Bilbao, Spain. The European team championship was won by SOCAR club from Azerbaijan in the open event, and Georgian club Nona in the female section. Anand won the Bilbao Masters chess tournament, held at the same time and location, ahead of Aronian. The October edition will cover the first stage of the next World Championship which will begin with the Grand Prix tournament in Baku, with the world's strongest grandmasters participating.

About the series:

“Monthly Chess Tactics” will allow you to

• Catch up on latest major chess news
• Follow top grandmasters
• Improve your game
• Study combinations any time and anywhere
• Enjoy a collection of annotated puzzles that you have not seen in any other tactics books
• Maintain regular practice by solving several puzzles every day

Playing for Queenside majority in the Endgame

Khairullin – Stander, 2003
 White to move
Solution in  "Endgames By Juniors" Ebook, Video, or viewer below:

Tactical Endgame by Mamedyarov

Black to move.
Solution in  "Endgames By Juniors" Ebook, Video, or viewer below: