Archive for the ‘Life beyond the chess board’ Category

The unlikeliest aficionado

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Any ideas on who this is?

Any ideas on who this is?

Unsure? Here’s some video action please click on the following link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAjaeGMB51c. It is of course Russian GM Peter Svidler, who as you may know is a genuinely nice guy. I have known for some time that he is a fan of cricket but he doesn’t talk about it much. With that said I have found an interview from the Yorkshire Chess Association. It’s worth a read for fans of both games, here it is: http://yorkshirechess.org/interview-with-peter-svidler/#comment-10170

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How to and not to describe the knight

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged , on July 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

How to describe the knight

The following pages are taken from Donner’s The King (New In Chess 2006). For those who don’t know Donner is a great writer with a style all his own, of which the following passage is typical in many respects.

don1 don2 don3

don4

Diagram from Rowson’s very good book ‘The Seven Deadly Chess Sins’ (Gambit 2000), pg. 122. Question, if the knight is on the edge of a board, does it still move in a circle?

More on Donner here, https://mccreadyandchess.com/2014/02/24/the-love-of-wood

How not to describe the knight

William Ward (more on him to come soon) once wrote a much maligned Laws of Chess, here is his account of the knight:

‘The Knight may be moved in any direction from the square on which it stands to the next square but one of a different colour, passing over the intermediate square, whether such square be occupied or not.’ (http://www.chessarbitersassociation.co.uk/Laws1912.pdf) more information can be found in Edward Winter’s good site here (http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/laws1.html).

We experienced players can probably guess what Ward wants to say but would someone new to chess understand Ward’s concept of the ‘intermediate square’?

Donner

Donner

220px-Jan_Hein_Donner_1978

Oops, that’s Donner.

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The dangers of auto-pilot

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged on July 8, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Most of us play through the opening on auto-pilot, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing provided we are prepared. But when your opponent plays something unfamiliar and we continue to play what seem like natural developing moves, mistakes can be easily made. Take the following game for example, yet another howler from The quickest victories of all time by Burgess, pg 8.

M.Vokac – P.Bazant Czech ch (Turnov) 1996

1. b4 d5

2. Bb2 Nd7

3. Nf3 Ngf6

4. e3 g6

5. c4 cxd4

6. Bxc4 Bg7??

e1

A reasonable set-up for black if it weren’t for the bishop on c4!

7. Bxf7! RESIGNS (with Ng5 and Qb3 to come)

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An immortal game?

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 5, 2015| Leave a Comment »

The young Chinese superstar Wei Ju has played an ‘immortal game’ apparently. Immortal, in chess terms means unforgettable. In retrospect such terms carry weight but for any game to be described as such within days of being played deserves the annotation (?!) pehaps that says more about the media culture that exists at present rather than the game itself methinks…um…well…erm…the good news is that it is a fantastically interesting game and may well never be forgotten. I shall say no more, here is Kingcrusher’s emotionally charged account of the game, you can decide for yourself what status it should have or go onto to have. Enjoy.

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Old habits die hard…

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on July 1, 2015| 2 Comments »

After having a break of over ten years from chess it is easy to convince yourself that you are something of a reformed character over the board, so I was disappointed with myself to see an old habit return, that of throwing in the towel before it’s necessary. I’ve been playing with the Lucas Program (http://www-lucaschess.rhcloud.com/) a lot recently and decided to see how far up the ladder I could go regarding the numerous engines it has. I’ve made it to Chispa 4.0.3, which has a rating of 2227 but I can’t quite beat it. After a long game which I was only slightly worse, I reached the following position (I am black so black pawns go up the board) and resigned thinking that I couldn’t stop the f-pawn. However, I missed something, can you see what it is?

23

What should black play here after 53 f6?

53. …Kd7 doesn’t work as 54. c6+ and a pawn will queen. I looked at most but not all knight moves available, overlooking that if black plays 53. … Na4 he can, at least, draw the game. The point is that if 54. f7 Nxc5 55 f8=Q Ne6+ (and winning), white must play 55. f8=N

1

I assume that after 55. …a5 black is not losing.

After such a long game where I was slightly worse for most of it, thinking I was now lost, I stopped analyzing short of seeing the counter-intuitive 53. … Na4. Tsk, tsk, tsk.

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It pays to have a title!

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged on June 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Some of us untitled players may wonder whether being titled matters. It certainly does. The higher the title the greater the perks it provides. Take for instance when Hou Yifan, the then Women’s World Champion came to Bangkok to play in 2012. There was a $10,000 appearance fee generously paid by a local retiree (sorry, not allowed to name him), and a penthouse suite at the Dusit Thani for 2 weeks was provided also -free of charge of course!

In turn, there were a few duties to fulfill, such as a simul against a select few, a photo shoot here and there, and perhaps an interview. Thankfully, Hou Yifan made a genuine effort to win the tournament, which cannot be said for all Bangkok’s guest GMs, some of whom, in the belief they have already made their money, begin each round the worse for wear after a night on the town.

hou-yifan-media-sonrisa

GM Hou Yifan, a pleasant person to meet.

nightlife-bangkok

A trap that has caught many GMs out whilst visiting Thailand.

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A reversed From Gambit? Surely not!

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged on June 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Some games defy belief. Having played 1. f4 for many years, I couldn’t help but laugh with incredulity when I saw this game on pg. 6 of The Quickest Victories of All Time by Graham Burgess (Cadogan). It is one of the funniest games I’ve ever seen, what on earth black was thinking about I don’t know. If it were a football match then we could assume he wanted an early bath!

H.Rost – J.Roscher corr. 1989

1. Nc3!? f5?! That’s not a good start as we Dutch Defense players can testify.

2. e4 dxe4

3. d3 exd3?!

4. Bxd3

If that's not the daftest postion ever to be reached on a chess board then I don't know what is. One more dubious move and black is lost.

If that’s not the daftest postion ever to be reached on a chess board then I don’t know what is. One more dubious move and black is lost. I understand the occasional need for experimentation but really… .

4. …Nf6

5. g4 (Nf3 is better) g6

6. g5 Nh5

2

If this were a true From Gambit, black would have little to worry about here if, I repeat, if he knows what to do as the g-pawn push isn’t anything to worry about.

7. Ne4 d5

8. Ng3 Nxg3

9. hxg3 Bg7?

3

Black had to play Qd6 after which he is holding with a material advantage.

10. Rxh7 O-O?? 

11. Bxg6 Qd6

12. Qh5

4

12. …Qe6

13. Be3 Resigns

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Another Trompowsky disaster

Posted in Life beyond the chess board on June 13, 2015| Leave a Comment »

If people are going to play anti-chess openings, they deserve everything they get.

M. Wickert – M.Adams Islington 1992

1. d4 Nf6

2. Bg5 Ne4

3. Bf4 c5

4. d5 Qb6

5. Nd2 Qxb2

6. Ngf3?? (If Nxe4 then Qxb4+) Nc3

7. Nc4?? Nxd1

0-1

0-1

This is how you play the Trompowsky, Michael Adams beats Kasparov!

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1014405

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‘Forward, into battle!’

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged on June 12, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Tolush, Spassky’s old trainer, was a colourful figure over the board and won many brilliancy prizes in his day. Unfortunately, there were times where he was gung-ho to the point where you wonder whether he deserved the title he had. Here is one game where he fails in spectacular fashion it is, apparently, one of Khalifman’s favourite games: 14th Soviet Championships, Moscow

Tolush – Bondarevsky Boleslavsky (Cafferty’s mistake not mine)

1. d4 Nf6 2. Bg5

The Trompowsky played in the 40s!

The Trompowsky played in the 40s!

2. …c5

3. dxc5 Ne4

4. Bf4 Nc6

5. Qd5

I don't play the Trompowsky but this looks cavalier to me.

I don’t play the Trompowsky but this looks far too cavalier to me. Some kingside development is surely in order here rather than the move actually played.

5. … f5 6. Qxf5

What on earth is going on?

Again this doesn’t seem right. White must now attend to his queen before developing.

6. … d5

7. Qh5+ g6

8. Qh4 Nd4

4

Note that half of white’s moves have been with his queen, which is danger of having no good squares left if black is allowed to play Nf5 on his next move.

9. Be5 Nxc2

5

I think we can say that the opening hasn’t been a great success for white.

10. Kd1 Nxa1

11. Bxh8 Qa5 6 12. Nc3 Nxc3+

13. Bxc3 Qxa2

14. e3 Qxb1+

7

An extraordinary position. How does white get into such a mess within 15 moves? By ignoring just about every opening principle that exists, that’s how.

15. Ke2 d4 Black opens up the position. 8 16. Qxd4 Bd7 Black prepares to castle.

17. Qb4? Hard to understand. Boleslavsky thought Nh3 was better  

17. … O-O-O

18. f4 Nc2

19. Qa5 Qc1 1020. Bd4 Nxd4

21. exd4 Qxb2

11

Still no kingside development!

22. Kf3 Qxd4

23. Ne2 Bc6+

24. Kg4 h5+

25. Kh4 Qf6+

26. Kg3 e5

12

1 – 0

      

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The meekest tiger?

Posted in Life beyond the chess board, tagged on June 11, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Tigran Petrosian, who as we all know went on to become world champion, made a rather nervous start at the Soviet Championships in his debut game. At the 18th Championships in Moscow, 10th November to 12th December 1950, the meekest of all tigers came up against Kotov in the first round.

Here is the game: Kotov – Petrosian

1. d4 d5

2. c4 e6

3. Nc3 Nf6

4. cxd5 exd5

5. Bg5 Be7

6. e3 c6

7. Qc2 Ne4? 

1

9. Bxe7 Qxe7? The king had to capture.

10. Nxd5

11

Courtesy of his previous move, black is already lost but he plays on.

10. …cxd5

11. Qxc8+

2

The whole point. The unguarded bishop is now lost.

11. …Qd8

12. Bb5+ Nc6

13. Bxc6

4 13. …bxc6

14. Qxc6 Resigns. 

6

Two pawns down and with an uncastled king, black resigns. Not quite what you would expect from a future world champion.

Shy_Tiger_by_ladyevil_7

A picture of a distraught Petrosian taken just after the game.

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