Friday, August 22, 2008

Chessbase's Anand DVDs

Ok, I admit it. I have a soft spot for the current undisputed world champion Viswanathan Anand.

The Indian super-grandmaster is hard to dislike. No one can deny that Anand has been a good ambassador of the royal game and his conduct OTB has always been above reproach.

I have always had a liking for Anand's rather direct and unpretentious play.

And guess what Chessbase decides to do?

Viswanathan Anand: My Career Vol. 1

Viswanathan Anand: My Career Vol. 2

Which means I have a good idea of where the money for my Christmas presents are going.... much to the dismay of my wife.

And yes, I hate Chessbase. They're evil. ;)

Speaking of Anand, I do wish he releases an update to his book: Vishy Anand, My Best Games.

The period spanning 2000 onwards (where the book stopped) has been very scant on details while Anand has won quite a number of tournaments since then, sometimes with incredible play.

Take for example, this Tal-style lesson in the art of sacrificing material he gave to young Sergey Karjakin at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament in 2006 or this killer Knight lesson to Magnus Carlsen at Linares-Morelia 2007.

3 comments:

  1. So are the DVD's interactive with Chessbase or are they to watched on a tv? I know that sounds like a silly questions but I really don't know!

    Do you really think Chessbase is evil or was that sarcasm?

    Have a good one!

    Tommyg

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  2. Great choice of games, both of them are just plain spectacular... These guys are just unreal in their understanding of the game.

    And yeah, I share your sentiment about Chessbase. I own various of their DVDs, and most recently I've gone through 6 out of 7 of the Daniel King Power Play series. Good stuff. Those Anand ones look tempting... :)

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  3. Tommyg: The DVDs are interactive and can only be played on a computer and not on a normal DVD player unfortunately.

    Nah, I meant that in a joking sense. That was meant as a sarcasm, mainly because some of Chessbase DVDs are spectacular while others have been duds. Their main idea of course was promotion for their DVDs. They can be like an accident sometimes, you don't really want to watch (buy it) but you cannot look away.

    Chessaholic: Thanks for the compliments. 6 out of 7 King DVDs... my, you have a lot of dosh! :)

    I am 99% sure of getting those Anand DVDs. I like King's presentation style. Witty and humorous. Do you know that he plans to release a total of 12 Power Play series? I think Greg (http://gregschess.blogspot.com) mentioned it in an earlier post of his.

    cheers

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