Rajkovic: Top 12+1 Vol. 1 - VI-XII / 2000

"Chess players stopped playing the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez (C 69), after opening books declared that it should lead to no advantage for White. Then Bobby Fischer employed the line three times in the Havana Olympiad 1966 and won all three: thus an opening rose from the dead and still thrives today.

Like fashion designers, leading chess players are arbiters of which openings are good and which should be discarded. However, the paths they blaze do not generally stay open for a single season only: but rather, being based on a deep understanding of strategy and long experience, have a considerable and often an indefinite lifespan.

When Mikhail Botvinnik adopted the Grünfeld Defence as part of his opening repertoire, he declared that only in this opening could Black give up the centre and get such free development for his pieces. In the Alekhine Defence, in contrast, Black forces White's pawns to advance in order to accelerate his development by attacking them. Many have followed the example of Botvinnik and Alekhine, precisely because they are two former world champions.

Top 12+1 offers chess players exactly the information they need to know: what the best of them play and what the best of them think is the best; how the top players on the rating list react to 1.e4 or 1.d4 and which systems they choose against specific defences such as different lines of the Sicilian; which openings the elite choose against particularly aggressive opponents and how they play for a draw?

Naturally Top 12+1 supplies different answers to these and other questions for the different members of this elite: since their individual playing styles and opening repertoires are all different. This gives the reader a wide range of options to consider when designing his or her ownopening repertoire. And statistical analyses can help the process by showing the frerquency of different openings and percentage results obtained.

Top 12+1 is to appear every six months. By so doing, it will, amongst other things, provide a "safety net" discouraging the reader from adopting opening lines which have visibly fallen from grace during the period.

It will also provide clues as to whether the members of the elite will continue to play the same lines against particular opponents or opt for a change. And there should be considerable continuity since we can suppose that the top dozen on the rating list will remain pretty constant at least over a short period.

The opening is an essential phase of chess. New ideas arise in them and old ones are discarded and the final result of a game is greatly influenced by the outcome of the opening battle. You can learn openings by heart but it's much better to do so in conjunction with study of the games of top grandmasters.

The short introductory texts on each player were written by grandmaster Dusan Rajkovic, one of people behind this new periodical."

"Preface:

Chess players stopped playing the Exchange Variation of the Ruy Lopez (C 69), after opening books declared that it should lead to no advantage for White. Then Bobby Fischer employed the line three times in the Havana Olympiad 1966 and won all three: thus an opening rose from the dead and still thrives today.

Like fashion designers, leading chess players are arbiters of which openings are good and which should be discarded. However, the paths they blaze do not generally stay open for a single season only: but rather, being based on a deep understanding of strategy and long experience, have a considerable and often an indefinite lifespan.

When Mikhail Botvinnik adopted the Grünfeld Defence as part of his opening repertoire, he declared that only in this opening could Black give up the centre and get such free development for his pieces. In the Alekhine Defence, in contrast, Black forces White's pawns to advance in order to accelerate his development by attacking them. Many have followed the example of Botvinnik and Alekhine, precisely because they are two former world champions.

Top 12+1 offers chess players exactly the information they need to know: what the best of them play and what the best of them think is the best; how the top players on the rating list react to 1.e4 or 1.d4 and which systems they choose against specific defences such as different lines of the Sicilian; which openings the elite choose against particularly aggressive opponents and how they play for a draw?

Naturally Top 12+1 supplies different answers to these and other questions for the different members of this elite: since their individual playing styles and opening repertoires are all different. This gives the reader a wide range of options to consider when designing his or her ownopening repertoire. And statistical analyses can help the process by showing the frerquency of different openings and percentage results obtained.

Top 12+1 is to appear every six months. By so doing, it will, amongst other things, provide a "safety net" discouraging the reader from adopting opening lines which have visibly fallen from grace during the period.

It will also provide clues as to whether the members of the elite will continue to play the same lines against particular opponents or opt for a change. And there should be considerable continuity since we can suppose that the top dozen on the rating list will remain pretty constant at least over a short period.

The opening is an essential phase of chess. New ideas arise in them and old ones are discarded and the final result of a game is greatly influenced by the outcome of the opening battle. You can learn openings by heart but it's much better to do so in conjunction with study of the games of top grandmasters.

The short introductory texts on each player were written by grandmaster Dusan Rajkovic, one of people behind this new periodical."

248 Seiten, kartoniert, Verlag Informator