Time flies. We've already published three issues of ChessVibes Training and sent them to a growing number of subscribers. "Really fantastic material. Keep on doing this fine work," a happy chess fan from Germany told us. So... what did we cover so far in our brand new magazine?

ChessVibes Training #1

• Giri's Grab Bag - GM Anish Giri discusses one of the most exciting games he played in Wijk aan Zee this year, against Alexander Grischuk. Crazy stuff happened in mutual time trouble!
• Guess the move - In his weekly game quiz, IM Merijn van Delft shows the game Carlsen-Wang Hao and gives you the opportunity to find the moves played by the young Norwegian.
• Improve your play - In his first article, IM Thomas Willemze covers the subject 'Bishop cornered by a mobile pawn chain' and gives several examples of a bishop being dominated or even trapped by pawns.
• Tactics, tactics - 12 tactical exercises selected by IM Robert Ris.
• Practical endings - IM Robert Ris gives a clear explanation of the practical rook ending from Cheparinov-Hess, Moscow 2011

ChessVibes Training #2

• Giri's Grab Bag - GM Anish Giri discusses arguably the most spectacular game from the FIDE Candidates matches: Mamedyarov-Gelfand. Great play by the Israeli GM who has seven pawns for a rook at some point.
• Guess the move - In his weekly game quiz, IM Merijn van Delft discusses the game Dzagnidze-Mkrtchian in which a lead in development is used to create a direct mating attack.
• Improve your play - In his second article, IM Thomas Willemze covers the move ...h6 by Black, which is often useful to keep pieces away from g5 or to create some luft for the king. However, when facing an attack on the kingside, it can be a serious weakness.
• Tactics, tactics - 12 tactical exercises selected by IM Robert Ris.
• Practical endings - IM Robert Ris gives a clear explanation of the ending Zmarzly-Malaniuk, a crystal clear example of a bishop dominating a knight.

ChessVibes Training #3

• Giri's Grab Bag - At the Russian Team Championship in April, GM Anish Giri was sitting next to the board Caruana-Zontakh. As a close witness, Giri tells the story about Zontakh trying to confuse Caruana in time trouble. However, at the critical point he didn’t believe he’d actually managed to do it!
• Guess the move - In his weekly game quiz, IM Merijn van Delft discusses Wojtaszek-Hracek in which the talented Polish GM uses the theme of domination throughout the game.
• Improve your play - In his third article, IM Thomas Willemze covers a typical Rossolimo game. White develops quickly and tries to achieve something right out of the opening. If Black survives, he gets two strong bishops as a reward.
• Tactics, tactics - 12 tactical exercises selected by IM Robert Ris.
• Practical endings - IM Robert Ris shows the instructive bishop ending Polgar-Guseinov that seems very drawish, but a closer look reveals hidden problems for Black.

Want to improve your chess? See more combinations, understand middle game plans, hear about useful endgame motifs? Receive the best chess tips available with ChessVibes Training, a weekly PDF magazine (+ PGN!) co-authored by International Masters Merijn van Delft, Robert Ris and Thomas Willemze, and including a weekly column by top GM Anish Giri.

What is ChessVibes Training?

Every issue consists of a PDF Magazine and the accompanying PGN file. The PDF consists of eight pages (A4 size) with the following contents:

• Giri's Grab Bag - A weekly column by GM Anish Giri in which he tells about his tournament practice and his excitement and worries during a top level chess game.
• Guess the move - A weekly game quiz by IM Merijn van Delft that gives you the opportunity to solve problems that GMs couldn't. What move did they play? Can you calculate as deeply? Give it a try and see how many points you score this week!
• Improve your play - An interactive section by IM Thomas Willemze that discusses games from our readers. Yes, that's you! You can send in your game(s) and Thomas will pinpoint mistakes and possible improvements from a number of amateur games every week.
• Tactics, tactics - 12 tactical exercises carefully selected by IM Robert Ris, arranged in increasing level. Regular tactical training is highly important to maintain your top form, and now it will be easier than ever with new diagrams delivered in your mailbox every week!
• Practical endings - IM Robert Ris gives a clear explanation of a recent endgame played by strong players, focusing on text rather than variations. Every week a typical endgame theme is discussed, sometimes with the emphasis on the theory, but always providing you with useful guidelines.

The magazine will be published every week on Saturday morning, so that you can devote your weekend to studying chess! We'll launch at the start of May 2011, so the first issue will be sent out on Saturday, May 7th.

Recent material, digitally

For their sections in the magazine the authors will mostly use recent games and fragments. However, if needed they will return to a classic example if it explains the basic theme the best. In any case, ChessVibes Training will provide excellent, additional training material to existing books and manuals with the advantage of being published digitally - you can enjoy all material in your Chessbase or Fritz or other software, or on your iPhone or iPad!

Interactive

For several reasons, this magazine will be different from other magazines in the market. An important aspect of ChessVibes Training is that it will be interactive.

For our section Improve your play we need your input! If you have a question about a game you played, just send it to us and maybe it will be discussed in the next issue of ChessVibes Training so that you and all other subscribers can learn from it!

Meet the ChessVibes Training team

GM Anish Giri - top grandmaster, currently the world's number 43		IM Merijn van Delft - highly experienced, full-time trainer, author and tournament player		IM Robert Ris - highly experienced trainer and tournament player		IM Thomas Willemze - highly experienced trainer, talent coach for the Dutch Chess Federation and tournament player

Pricing and paying

As a subscriber you'll receive the PDF Magazine (8 pages) and accompanying PGN files in your mailbox every week. The basic price is € 40* for a full year but you can also choose other options. Payments can be done via Paypal, by credit card after creating a Paypal account (which takes about a minute), bank transfer or iDEAL. Just click on the option that suits you most!




Please note that you'll be creating a recurring payment, which means that after the chosen period another payment will be made via Paypal and your subscription will be renewed automatically. Naturally you can always decide to cancel your subscription instead and cancel the recurring Paypal payment.

Bank transfer

Please drop us an email if you prefer to pay by bank transfer!

iDEAL

For Dutch clients it's possible to pay for a 1-year subscription via iDEAL, the Dutch online bank system with which you can pay safely, secure and comfortably. Just click on the logo on the right.

ChessVibes Openings and ChessVibes Training

Our other magazine ChessVibes Openings, which is 4 pages, costs € 28 a year. If you're already a subscriber to CVO, you should have received a newsletter this week that announced a serious discount. Not a CVO subscriber yet, and interested in getting both magazines? The two separate magazine subscriptions are 28 + 40 = 68 Euro but if you go for both you only pay 60 Euro! (click for price in US$)