The first issue of 2009 looks back to the great events at the end of last year. The Chess Olympiad, the object of great excitement and expectation in Germany, constitutes, not only because of the number of games and analyses, the major theme of the DVD.

Other highlights include the FIDE Grand Prix in Elista, the continuation of which is today something about which we must be anxious and the super-strong tournament in Nanjing in China. Amongst the star authors in this issue you will find Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Boris Gelfand, Loek van Wely, Vugar Gashimov and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu.

There are further training lessons, some in video format, under the various headings, e.g. in Dr. Karsten Müller’s Endgame column, the Trap by Rainer Knaak or Tactics by Oliver Reeh (see the list of links at the start of this page). The column New DVDs offers you further video clips in Chess Media format a preview of new Fritztrainer DVDs from ChessBase.

Opening Surveys:
- Kritz: Scandinavian Defence 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Be2 Nc6 5.d4 0-0-0 6.c4
- Marin: Pirc Defence 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.Be3 c6 5.Qd2 Nbd7 6.f3 b5
- Hazai/Lukacs: Caro-Kann 1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Ne5
- Karolyi: Sicilian 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7 9.f3 Be7 10.Be3
- Langrock: French Defence 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Be7 4.e5
- Marin: Italian Game 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6
- Bojkov: Ruy Lopez 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 f6 6.d4 exd4 7.Nxd4 c5
- Ftacnik: Chigorin Defence 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6
- Krasenkow: Semi-Slav 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.g4 dxc4 8.Bxc4
- Postny: Grünfeld Defence  1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Nf3 c5 8.Rb1 0-0 9.Be2 b6 10.0-0 Bb7 11.d5
- Grivas: Bogoindian Defence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2
- Kuzmin: Queen's Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Bg2 c5 7.d5!? exd5 8.cxd5
- Stohl: Nimzoindian Defence 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.dxc5 f5