Alexei Shirov: The Slav and Semi-Slav Revisited

ChessBase Fritztrainer Eröffnung, Englisch, ISBN: 978-3-86681-173-7, 2010.

Niveau: Turnierspieler, Profi

The Slav and Semi-Slav revisited For Shirov the Slav and the Semi-Slav form one huge and common opening. Of course it is a mighty opening complex and the DVD cannot give a complete picture of it, but in the areas he chooses to highlight our author is an absolute expert and capable of giving the deepest possible insights into the secrets of this extremely solid opening. First, Shirov deals with the pure Slav. A lot of his time is spent on the modern treatment of it with 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 e6, which Kramnik brought back into fashion and which since then has been employed by several world class players. In the second part the author turns to the Semi- Slav. In his intro he explains the latest discoveries in the Shirov/Shabalov Attack with 7.g4. Then come some games with a quiet setup for White (6.Qc2 or 6.Bd3), before at the close he presents three games in the Botvinnik System, a setup which obviously suits Shirov since in his great success in Sofia 2009 he was able to stand fast against Carlsen and Topalov with it. Video running time: 8 Hours

Alexei Shirov wurde wie Weltmeister Mihail Tal in Riga geboren, und auch sein Stil erinnert viele Fans an den jungen 'Schachzauberer'. Anfang der 90er Jahre katapultierte ein kometenhafter Aufstieg den heranwachsenden Letten in kürzester Zeit in die Weltspitze. Mit gerade einmal 22 Jahren hatte er eine Elozahl von nahezu 2750 und gehörte damit zur absoluten Elite. Seitdem ist Shirov einer der besten Spieler der Welt, der alle Schachfans mit originellen und verblüffenden Ideen am Brett begeistert.