Publisher: Chessbase, 2007, DVD
The Gruenfeld Indian is an active and dynamic reply to 1.d4 which can lead to complex and extremely sharp positions. So it’s no wonder that also Alexei Shirov included this opening – which at its début in tournament practice was called ”hypermodern” – into his repertoire. At the candidates’ final against Vladimir Kramnik in Cazorla in 1998, he exclusively – and successfully – trusted the Gruenfeld Indian with Black; the victory over Kramnik gave him the right to play a WCh match versus Kasparov. In the fi rst part of the DVD Shirov extensivey comments his five Black games from the Kramnik match, giving deep insights into opening preparation and match strategy on highest level. In the second part Shirov reveals, among other things, how in his opposite-coloured bishop endgame against Topalov in Linares in 1998 he found the amazing and unique move, which will secure the game a place in chess history forever. And this is not the only fl ash of inspiration the Super Grandmaster will present in his videos.
Video running time: 5:25 hours
Alexei Shirov was born in Riga just like world champion Mihail Tal, and also his playing style reminds many chess fans of the young Tal. In the beginning of the 90ies, a comet-like rise brought the young Latvian to the world top within the shortest of time. Being no older than 22 years, he already had an Elo rating of nearly 2750 and belonged to the absolute elite. Since then Shirov has been one of the best players in the world, delighting all chess fans with original and amazing ideas on the board.
System requirements: Pentium-Processor at 300 Mhz or higher, 64 MB RAM, Windows XP, Windows Vista, DVD drive, mouse, soundcard
