Youth and experience is a theme which plays some sort of role in all four top tournaments covered in this issue.

In the Shanghai Masters which has just finished the youngest player in the field, the Chinese player Wang Hao, had little joy and even lost both his games against the outstanding victor in the tournament, Alexei Shirov.

On the other hand youth showed its teeth in the match of the generations in Amsterdam and notched up a start to finish victory which was never in any danger against the "Experience" team.

The tournament of the "Young GMs" in Biel saw them competing against each other and it was Caruana who secured the title in a play-off. And at the Chess Meeting in Dortmund, 19 year old Vietnamese player Le Quang Liem was just as much a surprise as the brilliant tournament victory by Ponomariov.

TOP TOURNAMENTS

• Shanghai: Shirov dominates his opponents
• Dortmund: Ponomariov shines
• Biel: Caruana after a play-off
• Amsterdam: young stars win

WORLD CLASS PLAYERS COMMENT

• Shirov presents his games from Shanghai (four videos)
• Ponomariov analyses his Catalan victory over Kramnik
• Caruana with two annotated games
• Gelfand shows how he defeated Nakamura
•  Other annotated games by, e.g. Adams, Giri, Le Quang Liem, N. Kosintseva, Muzychuk

Opening Survey

Anic: Old Indian Defence A55
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Nbd7 4.e4 e5 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Be2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 a6 9.Rd1 Qc7 10.Bg5 Re8 11.Rac1 Qb8

Knaak: Nimzowitsch Defence B00
1.e4 Nc6 3.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.d5 Nb8 

Kritz: Caro-Kann B12
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 c5 6.Be3

Grivas: Sicilian B33
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Nf6 6.Nc3 e6 7.Be3 Qc7

Karolyi: Sicilian B92
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.0-0 0-0 9.Kh1 Nc6

Ftacnik: Sicilian B96
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Nc6

Bojkov: Ruy Lopez C92
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Rb8 10.d4 exd4 11.cxd4 d5

Stohl: Ruy Lopez C92
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a4

Postny: Slav Defence D18
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.a4 Bf5 6.Nh4 e6 7.Nxf5 exf5 8.e3 Bb4 9.Bxc4 0-0 10.0-0 Nbd7

Kuzmin: Catalan E01
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bd6 6.Bg2

Krasenkow: Queen's Indian Defence E12
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.a3 Bb7 5.Nc3 d5 6.cxd5 Nxd5 7.Qc2 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Be7 9.e4 0-0 10.Bd3 c5 11.0-0

Schipkov: King's Indian Defence E81
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0-0 6.Be3 c5 7.Nge2 Nc6 8.d5 Ne5 9.Ng3