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Oops! I totally forgot about our monthly forum where we talk and discuss the Bulletin, and obviously you all missed it so much  http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-october-2014 Anyway, another Bulletin, another great article by Dejan Bojkov. Have you guys seen that Dejan is now doing regular analysis of the games embedded in Peter Dogger's news posts? Dejan will be doing this for roughly 8-10 popular news posts a month! More high level chess content for ambitious players (like you Bullet subscribers). His review of the best games of September was great! David Smerdon gave some of the best answers to any Beyond the Board interview yet. For sure. I was literally laughing out loud (I think that's LLOLing if you're keeping track at home ).  I think the most enjoyable read overall though was Gawain Jones' article on the 5.g4 Philidor. Topical. Tactical. Exciting. Great work! I'm not going to over-kill this since we are a month behind and likely, most are looking forward to the November Bulletin by now anyway.  Please continue to submit your games to be analyzed by Roman though! With analysis of course! Here http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/bulletin-member-analysis-submission Danny

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-march-2014 Let the discussion begin! I'd really like to hear what some of our "lower rated" subscribers think of our new "Grandmaster Tips for Beginners" column. This month by GM Yermolinsky. Anyway, I think the sexy topic was definitely Tamir Nabaty's piece on the *new* Veresov (1.d4, 2.Nc3 3.Bf4). Like I said in the notes, makes we want to play 1.d4! With the Candidates going though, I think the best piece for discussion is Watson's "History of the Candidates". A little preview of the future - he's already working on the *next* time frame that he didn't cover for the NEXT Candidates tournament! Watson delivers as usual... still one of the best authors in the chess world! I think my favorite GM Harikrishna answer was what he would do if he was President / a World Leader... Anyway, let us know your thoughts! Danny

Let us have it! The good! The bad! The ugly! And things you'd like to see us cover! I expect the thread to be hopping, especially if there are topical openings and games you think Peter and I should assign to our list of Grandmaster Authors! Let's do this!

In this forum, any member of the Master's Bulletin Group can submit their game to be considered for our Member Analysis Column. Requirements / Guidelines: Subscription to the Master's Bulletin is NOT required to submit a game; No rating restrictions (members of any level can submit); Game must include small note, stating reason to be considered; Game must include analysis from member; Games with better, more thoughtful insights will likely be chosen. "Self Analysis and Assesments" (ie, not just computer / engine opinions) are better, to provide more opportunities for instruction from the analyzing International or Grandmaster; Analysis and instruction will be available only in Bulletin - with potential for video lectures down the road; Thanks! Submit away! We don't have much time for March, so likely first come first serve! Danny Rensch

GM Carlsen Magnus ROUND 2 42nd Olympiad Baku 2016 Open https://youtu.be/0-boc30A-hg?list=PLqW6-cvnDtO8ro6BtzAnsFc1esBTfckck

Coul it be more awesome? http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-september-2014 First things first, what do you guys think of the new design? http://grab.by/Awiu - designed to quickly get everyone where they need to go (Master's Section, Amateur's / Beginner's Section, For Everyone, etc - with Anchor Tags!) - clear descriptions of each article / column - plus it looks sexy Thoughts (from subscribers and non-alike if you see the image! How can we make this better???) Secondly, Dan Heisman's column was all we thought it could be and more. This *really* feels like the "rounded out content" we needed for tournament players around 1200-1600 level. Thirdly, lowest price we've ever had. Now: $19.99 3 months $34.99 6 months $59.99 1 year And yes, that's in Dollars not Euros My review: Would love to know what games Erwin l'Ami feels *could* have made the honorable mentions list so we can review them. His choices were awesome, but I'd like to know the other gems from the Olympiad that maybe not everyone saw? Wonder if Hari thinks the ...Bf5 King's Indian will continue to see life at the top levels, or if it was just a phad, aberation for some surprise purpose? Sounds silly to say, but I thought Arthur and Robert's columns were the best yet! Great fun with "Mickey's Bishop" (and really instructive) and I thought the tandem endgame was suprisingly more instructive than we thought. That's what happens when you combine Super GM approach / technique with Amateur's making half the moves Anyway, I'll try to get the authors to comment on the questions here for you all! Danny PS - Loved Negi, Dzindzi and Ehlvest's work too! In fact, Ehlvest may have just delievered the best Tips for Beginner's we've ever had. Really instructive stuff, well thought out, and well organized in the presenation. Here's a peak: http://grab.by/Awj2

So much fun! http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-august-2014 One of our youngest ever contributors is also one of our highest rated ever in GM Robin van Kampen this month! Robin reviews games from Biel, Dortmund, the ACP Championship AND one of his own games from the Dutch Championship. Engaging with Robin via email, I had to tell him to do *less* analysis rather than more , as he really enjoyed diving into the games of Caruana from Dortmund (but then again, given Fabiano's play, who wouldn't). Can't miss that. My favorite part of this month's magazine this month for sure.  Yermo Strikes Again (should be the sequel name to Star Wars Episode VII???) with a detailed breakdown of "The Bent System" played by Kasimdzhanov recently... and in his normal "Yermo Style"  he provides as many stories and "history lessons" as we allow him to along the way! We only have to censor his "non-PG-rated" versions of the tales! First time contributor, GM Dlugy also wrote a brilliant piece that *EVERY CHESS.COM MEMBER* should want to read. He talkes about the best openings for Blitz and reviews top games from the World Blitz and Rapid Champs Dubai.  Question for Maxim? What would you say the best blitz openings are for ONLINE blitz play specifically, or do you apply the same logic you explained in the Bulletin article as far as what makes a good blitz opening?  GM Bartek Macieja was honest and forthcoming in his Beyond the Board interview. Enjoyed his answers on his organization (The Association of Chess Professionals - and you can see their website here http://www.chessprofessionals.org/ )  If I HAD to choose between Arthur and Robert's regular columns as far as which was my favorite this month, I'd have to go with Arthur (sorry Robert). His "Mysterious Bishop" and history lesson involved therein was enlightening! IM Lilov comments on his tips for beginners (great for lower rated members here) while Roman does more member game analysis! PLEASE SUBMIT MORE GAMES TO BE ANALYZED HERE: http://www.chess.com/groups/forumview/bulletin-member-analysis-submission AND you MUST include some analysis work of your own! Thanks team! Your favorite parts? First person to guess my favorite tip of Lilov's 5 gets a 3 month subscription  -- don't you love Danny's subjective contests?  Ready, Freddy, Go! 

How could I have forgotten to give my opinion *last* month's Bulletin? #shameonme Obviously you were all really upset Well, if you missed it and still haven't subscribed, then #shameonyou -- BUT here's a quick recap of June's TMB and my favorite parts! Please leave your thoughts and opinions as well. Have ideas of where we can get better? Let me know! Anyway, to the 'Review-Cave' (I think that works): GM Friedel's (or as I call him, Joshy-Poshy) review of the top 5 games from May was FANTASTIC! We will definitely be bringing Josh back! The play of Moro (Poikovsky) and So (Capablanca) made it easy... but his analysis was great nonetheless! Question for Josh: How did you choose the games? Especially from the U.S. Championship and WHAT games would have made your honorable mention if we had offered to pay you double to double the mount of games analyzed Irina's interview was great. No real questions there! Thanks to her for doing that and look forward to her Death Match later this month (July 26th)! Uncle Suat and Danya were as good as we thought they'd be for the opening articles (I think we will be seeing MORE of the KIA at the high levels of chess) -- and our regular dudes (Robert, Arthur, Afek, and Roman) were also awesome. Whatever happened to GM Magesh doing Your Games Analyzed on Chess.com/TV? I think you guys should message him and bug him -- BUT anyway, you can find him in this month's GM Tips for Beginners. Question for our readers: If you could pick ANYONE in the world for a Beyond the Board interview, who would it be and why? Gimme something good and I might make it happen!!! Danny

Ipatov, Shabolov, Meier, Lenderman! Awesome featured articles! http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-july-2014 I spent a lot of personal time on this issue, co-writting the "Aronian's Ragozin" piece with Alex Lenderman, and I think it turned out great. Not biased at all  Amazing how often Magnus plays *slightly* dubious moves like fxg3 in his game with Aronian from Norway... yet wins the game and gets away with it in the end anyway  #gofigure Anyway, Meier's article on the topical "Agdestein French" is interesting to say the least. I have a biased that all French lines are bad  but Georg did a pretty good job convincing me otherwise.  QUESTION FOR GEORG: What is your prediction on whether we will see Agdestein's line played by those in the top 10 moving forward in the next year?  I wish Shabalov would tell us some details from that party! Bojkov did such a good job with the tips for beginners, I wonder if we should get him to start a video series on the idea? All those in favor? Anyway, I won't drone on... your thoughts on the issue? Danny

Again, here is the preview article: http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-may-2014 I have to say (knowing full well my opinion will be viewed as biased ) -- I think this is one of our best issues yet! Maybe best! I'm going to give my thoughts and ask some questions from our authors, and we hope you will too! #1 -- LOVED Yermo's work on the games from Shamkir! The analysis of the Nakamura vs Carlsen game was fantastic! I think Yermo selected great games showing WHY Carlsen is Carlsen... and we almost forget he actually lost two games! I have two questions: 1) Alex, you make a comment in the beginning of the Nakamura game here http://grab.by/wVl8 about the openings being chosen against Carlse. Despite Nakamura not converting two games he had big advantages in in this line, do you think we will see it again by Hikaru or someone else against Magnus? 2) You talk about Fabiano's confidence against Magnus clearly being at an all time high (or maybe his confidence in general). Who do you think the short list of players are who are NOT intimidated by Carlsen? #2 -- Tania Sachdev's interview was just fantastic! I still won't reveal who her favorite player of the opposite sex is but the answer won't surprise you. Questions for subscribers / members: 1) Who would you like to see Tania play in a Death Match? 2) With Tania also being a "Red Bull Sponsored Athlete" like Hikaru Nakamura, do you think this will be a continuing trend for top professionals in our sport? #3-- Macieja and Tiviakov's pieces on the Vienna and Dragon respectively were great! Dragon players, beware! Sergey feels similar to how I do about the Dragon for Black ! Check it out! #4 -- Our "Three International Master Musketeers" : Ris, Afek and van de Oudeweetering were great as usual... but I have to say my favorite was Ris's selection of interesting rook endings, inspired by the late Vugar Gashimov. It's always instructive and fun to see "seemlingly simple" rook endings played and misplayed by the world's elite! #5 -- Finally, but maybe most importantly, I think IM Bartholomew's "Grandmaster Tips for Beginners" are absolute gold! So much for not being a GM I have several questions for John: 1) So many of your tips seemed to be "positionally based"? Was that on purpose because you see it as a misunderstood area by many players of that level, or just your mood that day? 2) Your comments http://grab.by/wVjq about "allowing your opponent to make 'unforced errors' like in Tennis were great! How often do you think player's of the sub 1600 level don't repeat when maybe they could have / should have? 3) Finally, one of my student's (former students now) definitely needed to hear your last comment about making "improving moves" when no clear plan exists. I won't name his name (oops, member Texag06 ) could benefit from that advice I've given him many times... Thanks to all our authors! Get involved witih comments fans and subscribe! Danny

Q: Does it cost money? A: Yes Q: How do I get it? A: By subscribing you will get a PDF and PGN each month Pricing details and other questions may be answered here: http://shop.chessvibes.com/the-masters-bulletin

Best comment? Shankland's favorite player of the opposite sex ! Anyway, I enjoyed analyzing the Vienna (a line I knew nothing about) and contributing my thoughts to Macieja's work. Looking forward to part 2 next month! I can say from an inside course that GM Shankland MIGHT have just played GM Postny (author of our Grunfeld article) a few days ago in Europe and they MIGHT have played the Rb1 line  - Wanna know the result? Message Sam!  Anyone else? Have some fun! What did you like, what didn't you like! Danny

Chess.com's Preview Article for the January Issue of the 2014 Master's Bulletin can be found here: http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-january-2014 Let the discussion begin! You're favorite? Least Favorite? Assuming you've read the magazine - no trolling in this group please!

http://www.chess.com/article/view/the-masters-bulletin-february-2014 Newest issue featuring the brand new "Beyond the Board" column with GM Erwin l'Ami!