The Chess Mind

A few weeks ago I started receiving ChessVibes Openings (CVO), and would like to add slightly to my comments from this post. What I've noticed is that the authors seem to have found a good niche. While the level of detail and original analysis they bring to the super-tournaments is not at the level of Mikhail Golubev in Chess Today (or even this blog, sometimes), there are at least two things you get from CVO you're less likely to receive elsewhere.

First, they more often draw attention to games played in very strong events not generally considered to be "super-tournaments" than most of the instant-analysis sites. That's useful. Second, they do a nice job of noting trends, which is especially helpful when one is trying to orient oneself in a new opening. In sum, while those of you with easily maintained repertoires or a lack of interest in what the pros are doing in the openings needn't bother with CVO, I think it does have value for opening fanatics, and isn't rendered superfluous by ChessPublishing.com or Chess Today (or even this blog, or the conjunction of the three).