CHESSBOOK REVIEWS

Latest book reviews of 1 February  2026

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                                                                                                                    Chess Books

CARLSEN GOES APE: A World Chess Champion Plays 1.b4 by  Marek Soszynski
2026
198 pages
ISBN    9798276403908
Price $26.06

The English correspondence chess master Marek Soszynski explains at the hand of  Magnus Carlsen’s 21 exciting  blitz games  with  the move 1.b4 also known in the chess world as the Orangutan opening.
Magnus is probably the best blitz player in the world and it surprised me to see games with moves as 1.b4 e5 2.Nf3? e4 3.Nd4 Bxb4 4.Bb2 Nf6 5.Nf5 0-0 6.g4? and the great Magus had a easy win even after a big error from black  on move 32.
It reminds me at the words of Angus Dunnington in his book Winning Unorthodox Openings,
Such a blatant opening move is sure to confuse most opponents and white has the advantage that this opening move is not very well explored.
Interesting to mention are the first 3 opening sections where I found lines as 1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.Bxe5 Nf6 4.c3! The rare Magnus Method!
Model game two: Carlsen,Magnus (2847) - Giri,Anish (2780) [A00]
FTX Crypto Cup Prelim chess24.com INT (6), 24.05.2021
1.b4 e5 2.Bb2 Bxb4 3.Bxe5 Nf6 4.c3 Be7 5.g3 d6 6.Bxf6 Bxf6 7.Bg2 0-0 8.e3 d5 9.Ne2 c6 10.d4 Bf5 11.Nd2 Nd7 12.0-0 Re8 13.c4 dxc4 14.Nxc4 Qc7 15.Rc1 Rad8 16.Nf4 Nb6 17.Nxb6 Qxb6 18.Qa4 g6 19.Rc3 Bg5 20.Rb3 Qc7 21.Qxa7 Re7 22.Nd3 Bxd3 23.Rxd3 c5 24.Rc3 b6 25.Qxc7 Rxc7 26.Rb1 Rd6 27.a4 Bf6 28.Bf1 Rcd7 29.dxc5 Bxc3 30.cxd6 Rxd6 31.Rc1 Rc6 32.Rd1 Rc7 33.Rd6 Ba5 34.Bb5 Kg7 35.e4 Rc1+ 36.Kg2 Rc2 37.e5 Bb4 38.Rf6 Be7 39.Rxb6 Rxf2+ 40.Kxf2 Bc5+ 41.Kf3 Bxb6 42.Ke4 Kf8 43.Kd5 Ke7 44.g4 h5 45.h3 hxg4 46.hxg4 Ba5 47.Bd3 Bd2 48.Bc2 Be1 49.Bd3 Bd2 50.Ba6 Be1 51.Bc8 Kd8 52.e6 fxe6+ 53.Bxe6 Kc7 ½-½
Conclusion: This book is great fun!   
                                                                                                                   Chess DVD's

ChessBase Magazine issue 229
January  2026
ChessBase
 http://www.chessbase.com
E-Mail info@chessbase.com
ISSN 1432-8992
Euro 21,90
System requirements:
Minimum: Pentium III 1 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Windows Vista, XP (Service Pack 3), DirectX9 graphic card with 256 MB RAM, DVD-ROM drive, Windows Media Player 9, ChessBase 12/Fritz 13 or included Reader and internet connection for program activation. Recommended: PC Intel Core i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 GB RAM, Windows 8.1 or Windows 10, DirectX10 graphic card (or compatible) with 512 MB RAM or better, 10




This ChessBase 229 Magazine comes as download with 6 files,list of all opening articles,4 installation files plus a ChessBase Magazine PDF file.
Included are over 7 hours of video files from players as  Felix Blohberger, Martin Breutigam, Daniel King, Jan Markos, Mihail Marin, Dr Karsten Mueller, Michael Prusikin, Oliver Reeh, Robert Ris and Dorian Rogozenco – FIDE World Cup 2025: Analyses by Adams, Bluebaum, Donchenko, Grandelius, Shankland, Wei Yi, Wojtaszek and many more – Marshal Attack – just develop: Robert Ris praises the modern 11…Bb7!? – “Giri’s Gems”: The world-class player looks back at eight games from top tournaments of 2025
The main file holds 669 entries and a small 28 of them are heavy loaded with annotations.
Interesting to mention are: Opening discoveries from the World Cup! Mihail Marin takes a close look at the rarely played move 12...dxc3 in the critical variation of the Open Spanish, which leads to a rich position with chances for both sides. Felix Blohberger takes up Jorden van Foreest's King's Indian with 6...Na6 and 8...exd4. And Daniel King takes up Richard Rapport's concept of 8.h4 (i.e. before castling) in the Closed Sicilian.
Felix Blohberger: King's Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 Na6
Mihail Marin: Open Spanish
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3
Daniel King: Closed Sicilian
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 Nc6 5.d3 d6 6.f4 e6 7.Nf3 Nge7 8.h4
Opening files: Petra Papp: English 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4
Balázs Csonka: English 4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 Bxc3
Sergey Grigoriants: Caro-Kann Advance Variation 4.h4 h5 5.Bd3
Martin Lorenzini: Sicilian Rossolimo Variation 3...e5 4.0-0 Bd6 5.d4
Tanmay Srinath: Sicilian Rauzer Variation 6...e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0-0-0 Bd7
Evgeny Postny: Philidor 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4
Robert Ris: Spanish Marshall Attack with 11...Bb7!?
Renato Quintiliano: Semi-Slav Meran Variation 8.Be2
Yago Santiago: Gruenfeld Exchange Variation 10.h4
Spyridon Kapnisis: Catalan with 5...Bd7!?, 6...Bc6 and long castling
Christian Braun: King's Indian 6.Be3 a6 7.Nge2 Nbd7 8.Qd2
And more for example: Fundamental Endgame Knowledge – Part 19: Rook versus Knight by GM Karsten Mueller!
Conclusion: Super material for a bargain price!