by Dan Heisman Why Did You Make That Move? Quote of the Month: I don’t know why I made that move. One of the main jobs of a chess instructor is to help the student find better moves. But that includes some big assumptions, like the student wants to take the time to find a better move, or that he has some vague idea how. However, another big aspect of instruction is diagnosis, and the main things an instructor diagnoses is chess mistakes, particularly bad moves. There can be many causes for the same bad move: poor time management, lack of one of the three chess visions (tactical, board, and visualization), poor analysis skills, lack of a particular set of knowledge, etc. While the … [Read more...]
Archives for October 2014
Minor Niner
by Jeff Coakley This column features nine puzzles of various types, all involving four minor pieces (BBNN). Whenever applicable, the two bishops must be placed on opposite-coloured squares. 1. Triple Loyd #35 Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has mate in one. 2. Triple Loyd #36 Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has mate in one. 3. BBNN Defensive Loop Place two bishops and two knights on the board so that each piece is defended exactly once and each piece defends exactly one other piece. The bishops must be on opposite … [Read more...]
A String of Associations
A String of Associations by Mark Dvoretsky Looking at a recent issue of New In Chess magazine (No. 6, 2013), my attention was drawn to the final section of an article by grandmaster Jan Timman. Kunin – Edouard Helsingfors, 2013 Kunin is a grandmaster with roughly 2500 Elo-points. In this position he seems to be worried that Black has doubled rooks on the a-file, because he went in for 22.b5? An utterly unbelievable move. Black’s positional problem has been solved at a stroke: the black knight, with no prospects on b7, has been gifted a magnificent square in c5. Before that, Black didn’t have a single threat. Remarkably enough, the computer isn’t even overly critical here, … [Read more...]
Brown Study: A Question of Edwardian Identity
Brown Study: A Question of Edwardian Identity by Tim Harding One of the problems historians have to confront is not to mix up the people we want to write about, and in fact there was a good book on this subject in 1973, by E. A. Wrigley, called Identifying People in the Past. An updated work on this subject is badly needed in the Internet era, now that there are so many digitised sources for family history, but it needs to be done by somebody who is an expert in using genealogical sources of the hard copy variety as well as electronic sources. Maybe John Townsend, who has written two books of this type of research to do with chess players of the early nineteenth century, would care to … [Read more...]
Opening Repertoire: The Fianchetto System
Opening Repertoire: The Fianchetto System by Damian Lemos Introduction Dealing with dynamic and aggressive defences like the Grünfeld or King’s Indian is not an easy task for White players. Over the years, I’ve tried several variations against both openings, usually choosing lines in which White establishes a strong centre, although Black had lot of resources against those lines too. When I was fourteen years old, I analysed Karpov-Polgar, Las Palmas 1994 (see Chapter 4, Game 25), and was impressed with the former World Champion’s play with White. Then, I realized that the Fianchetto System works well for White for the following reasons: 1. After playing g2-g3 and Bg2, White is … [Read more...]
Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal
A Wonderful Multimedia Product by Davide Nastasio Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal, ChessBase DVD, Running Time 4 hours, 13 min., $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.95) This review is about a wonderful new multimedia product. When it comes to chess improvement methods, we often only consider learning from books, and maybe they are best. Yet thanks to the integration of computer, video, audio, and software, we can have chess material that engages all our senses, which broadens our ways to learn. The Master Class series of DVDs starts with Robert James Fischer, rightly the greatest world champion of all, continues with Tal, and now there is already a third installment on Alekhine. I … [Read more...]
Chess Mazes #375
There are two types of chess mazes: checking and mating. For bishop, rook, and knight mazes the play is to check the black king. For queen, pawn, and king mazes the object is to checkmate the enemy king; here checks are not allowed. The rules in common for each type of maze are as follows: Black never moves. Only the maze piece (in the case of pawns – the maze units) may move. A maze piece may never move to a square where it can be captured by enemy forces. A maze piece may capture undefended enemy forces. Plus we look for the shortest solution. Helpers in queen and king mazes are frozen to the diagram position, unable to move or be removed. In pawn mazes promoted pawns are … [Read more...]
Rumble in the Jungle
Rumble in the Jungle by Gary Lane Can an opening known as the Lion be a danger in tournaments? Kevin Winter from England is a keen player of the opening and e-mailed to say, "What do you make of the Black Lion? It is very popular in England and I have played it hundreds of times with great success. Even Carlsen, Vachier Lagrave, and most notably Rapport have played it; see the game of Bok v Rapport. Jobova essayed it in reverse, again against Bok. I would welcome your 'take' on it. There is a lot of history to it; thinking Blackburne, Marco, and Alekhine. Still relatively unknown." I suspect the first thing is to explain the origin of the name of the opening, because the Black Lion … [Read more...]
A Sparkling Debut and Too Much C.R.A.P.
A Sparkling Debut and Too Much C.R.A.P. by Jim Rizzitano Reviewed this Month Grandmaster Repertoire: 1.e4 Volume 1 by Parimarjan Negi The Trompowsky Attack: Move by Move by Cyrus Lakdawala Grandmaster Repertoire 18: The Sicilian Sveshnikov by Vassilios Kotronias Play the Accelerated Dragon by Peter Lalic This month I will review four recent titles: two in the Quality Chess Grandmaster Repertoire series, one in the Everyman Chess Move by Move series, and another book from Everyman Chess. The two Grandmaster Repertoire books are for advanced players and the Everyman titles are primarily for club players. The two happiest days in the life of a chess book author are: The day he … [Read more...]
The Benko Gambit [A59]
The Benko Gambit [A59] by Abby Marshall This month's column also comes from a reader request: what to do as white against the Volga-Benko Gambit. Dante Zuniga from Canada wrote, “I always look forward to your monthly column. My problem is in regard to the Benko Gambit. It seems that the lines are easier to play for black than white. I hope you can give me a system that I can use for white.” 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 b5 Pal Benko popularized this opening in the 1960s. It had been used by several high-level players a couple decades before this and in Russia it is called the Volga Gambit. 3...e6 is the most common move outside the gambit. 4.Nc3 exd5 5.cxd5 d6 6.e4 g6 7.f4 is the Modern … [Read more...]