“So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris”, wrote Eugene Manchester in his review for ChessCafe yesterday, about ChessVibes Openings.

Which openings are hot in top level chess? Which are not? Receive the latest opening novelties right in your mailbox with ChessVibes Openings, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) covering the latest openings news, co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft and Robert Ris and published by ChessVibes.

July 1, 2009: Eugene Manchester reviews ChessVibes Openings for ChessCafe

In the July 1 issue of ChessCafe's Book Review (mirror here) ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by Eugene Manchester. Some quotes: "So, who-ya-gonna-call? Opening busters? Not quite. For the reasonable price of 25 euros per year, once a week you can receive intelligent, interesting opening surveys and analysis presented by a team lead by Dutch IMs Merijn van Delft & Robert Ris."

"The format and presentation are consistently of high quality, with variety of coverage and opening analysis."

"The cost per year is roughly equivalent to a good chess book. Each week you get a four- page issue packed with opening analysis, at least two thoroughly annotated games with one or more of that week’s featured openings, a glimpse into the world of the latest opening novelties, in short, a quality weekly opening report."

What is ChessVibes Openings?

Every issue consists of a ZIP archive file, including both the PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of three pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

• What's hot? A round-up of this week's important opening developments, with statistics about the frequence and score of the week's most important opening novelty (page 1)
• What's not? Which openings are not recommended at the moment, according to the top players? And why not? (page 1)
• Game of the week Each week you'll find the theoretically most important game analysed by our two IMs, with a detailed survey of the opening phase (page 2).
• This week's harvest Four more new important opening ideas from this week (page 3) revealed and described with explanation of the opening and early middlegame (page 3).
• Opening expert Every week an opening expert is covered, explaining the GM's expertise and showing a key game with annotations (page 4). Examples from the first two issues: Teimour Radjabov (King's Indian with Black), Alexey Dreev (White: Nimzo-Indian; Black: Caro-Kann and Slav).

Latest issue: #26, July 1, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #26 The latest opening developments of the last week of June 2009. All about the Taimanov Sicilian which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Ruy Lopez, 3...Nge7
• Sicilian Najdorf, 6.Bg5 Nbd7
• Sicilian Dragon, 9.0-0-0
• Queen‚Äôs Indian, 4.g3 Bb4+

This week's opening is expert is French GM Christian Bauer.

Previous issue: #25, June 24, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #25 The latest opening developments of the fourth week of June 2009. All about the Open Catalan which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Sicilian Four Knights
• Sicilian, Taimanov
• King‚Äôs Indian, Exchange Variation
• Gr?ºnfeld, Exchange Variation

This week's opening is expert is Cuba's number one GM Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Older issues: #19-24, May 13-June 17, 2009

ChessVibes Openings #19 The latest opening developments of the second week of May 2009. All about the Chebanenko Slav (5.e3 b5 6.c5) which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Accelerated Dragon
• French, Rubinstein
• Semi-Slav, Marshall Gambit
• Gr?ºnfeld, 3.f3

This week's opening is expert is GM Yuri Shulman.

ChessVibes Openings #20 The latest opening developments of the third week of May 2009. All about the 6.Bg5 Najdorf which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Sicilian Najdorf, 6.Be3
• Sicilian Dragon, 12.Kb1 b5
• Slav, 6.Ne5
• Gr?ºnfeld, 4.Bf4

This week's opening is expert is GM Hikaru Nakamura.

ChessVibes Openings #21 The latest opening developments of the fourth week of May 2009. All about the Sveshnikov with 9.Bxf6 with which Alexei Shirov beat Magnus Carlsen, our Game of the Week, to win the M-Tel Masters 2009. Other lines that are covered:

• Petroff, 3.d4
• Ruy Lopez, Zaitsev
• Semi-Slav, Botvinnik
• Catalan/Benoni

This week's opening is expert is GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly.

ChessVibes Openings #22 The latest opening developments of the end May and early June 2009. All about the Slav with 6.Ne5 which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Sicilian, Najdorf 6.Bg5
• Semi-Slav, Meran
• Gr?ºnfeld, g3-system
• King‚Äôs Indian, 7.Be3

This week's opening is expert is GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev.

ChessVibes Openings #23 The latest opening developments of the second week of June 2009. All about the move 6.Qf3!? against the Sicilian Najdorf which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Petroff, 8.Re1
• Ruy Lopez, Zaitsev5
• Sicilian Dragon 9.0-0-0
• Gr?ºnfeld, 5.Qb3, 7...a6

This week's opening is expert is GM Alexander Motylev.

ChessVibes Openings #24 The latest opening developments of the third week of June 2009. All about the Bayonet Attack of the King's Indian which is analysed in our Game of the Week. Other lines that are covered:

• Petroff, main line
• Ruy Lopez, Exchange
• Scandinavian, 3...Qd6
• Nimzo-Indian, 4.Qc2 d5

This week's opening is expert is GM Vugar Gashimov.

Ehm... can I have a look?

Here's what ChessVibes Openings #16 (April 22, 2009) looks like:



FREE SAMPLE ISSUE - ChessVibes Openings #16 - click to download!

• What's hot? A round-up of the most important opening developments of mid-April, including statistics about the frequence and score of the Chebanenko position after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Bd2 Nhf6
• What's not? This week 1.e4 e5 was hot, as the top players categorically avoided the Semi-Open Games. Interestingly, the classical 1...d5 was also much more popular than the more modern answers to 1.d4, at the FIDE Grand Prix in Nalchik.
• Game of the week "‚ÄúI didn‚Äôt spend much time on it before the game, but I prepared seriously for this tournament and we did investigate this line,‚Äù Peter Leko said at the press conference in Nalchik, after his game against Sergei Karjakin. Page two has a closer look at this highly interesting draw in the Chebanenko.
• This week's harvest For more opening ideas from the Ruy Lopez Marshall, Sicilian Taimanov, Queen's Indian and Ragozin Defence.
• Opening expert This week Rustam Kasimdzhanov is highlighted. The former FIDE World Champion and current second of Anand has a broad repertoire, switching from hypersharp openings like Dragon and Anti-Moscow to positional Queen‚Äôs Gambit lines.

FREE SAMPLE ISSUE - ChessVibes Openings #16 - click to download!

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A one-year subscription is € 25 (that’s less than € 0.50 per issue!) - for price in US $ click here

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Just let us know and we'll send you all previous issues!

May 7, 2009: GM Hedinn Steingrimsson reviews ChessVibes Openings for Chess Today

In issues 3103 (Thursday, May 7) of Chess Today, the daily chess newspaper which also comes into your inbox by email in PDF, ChessVibes Openings was reviewed by GM Hedinn Steingrimsson from Iceland. Some quotes: "What I like about ChessVibes Openings is their focus on the trend and discoveries that are revealed in super tournaments and by very strong players. It makes sense for all tournament chess players and opening theoreticians to follow these developments and getting an overview from ChessVibes Openings definitely saves time."

"I find it positive that there is consistency in the openings covered so that the readers will with time have a certain repertoire available based on different theoretical articles from ChessVibes about e.g. the Anti-Moscow Variation."

"For those that really want to find out how to get a better position out of the opening and are willing to enter complications and do some homework in order to succeed, ChessVibes Openings can be recommended."