This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Newsletter #147. CEWN is released every Friday of the week, the newsletter contains twenty-plus pages of great chess material written by top grandmasters Arkadij Naiditsch and Csaba Balogh. Excellent Intuition by Csaba Balogh Jarmula,Lukasz (2307) - Sibashvili,Giorgi (2387) World Youth U16 Olympiad Gyor HUN (8.1), 19.12.2014 Blumenfeld Gambit [E10] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 Once again the Blumenfeld Gambit! It looks like it is a very popular weapon in youth tournaments. I must admit that I also employed this variation when I was younger. 5.e4!? A shocking move, but it looks extremely strong! … [Read more...]
Archives for December 2014
A Few Cheerful Days on the Normal Side
A Few Cheerful Days on the Normal Side After another year of fun and puzzles, it's time again for our holiday break to "the normal side of chess". Like the ghosts of columns past, we have an assortment of direct mates, endgame studies, and game positions. Let's hear it for 2015. Cheers, everyone! 1 White to mate in two Nothing is more enticing for potential solvers than a spacious two-move mate. Merediths (8-12 pieces) and miniatures (7 or less) are natural-born crowd-pleasers. 2 White to mate in two Next up is a basic winning rook endgame. Unfortunately, you are playing blitz and you only have time for three more moves. Can you score the point? 3 White to mate in … [Read more...]
A Secure Opening for White
A Secure Opening for White by Bo Bredenhof Last month I recommended the Leningrad Dutch as a secure choice against the queen pawn openings. This time I will have a look at the white side. Most players select 1.e4 or 1.d4. It is understandable but probably not optimal if one wants an opening in CC primarily to avoid losses. Both lead to very large opening complexes depending on black's answer. It is then impossible to avoid entering an opening or variation where your opponent is much more experienced. Instead I am looking for a relatively small opening where it is possible to become my own expert, and where I decide what type of position we will play. If you already play the … [Read more...]
A Forgotten Kaufmann Game
A Forgotten Kaufmann Game by Olimpiu G. Urcan One of the chief difficulties of researching lesser lights in the field of chess biography is finding an adequate number of representative game scores. This proved a particularly challenging task when working together with the Vienna-based Dr. Peter Michael Braunwarth on Arthur Kaufmann: A Chess Biography (McFarland, 2012). Despite assiduous searches in Viennese archives, our volume recovered only 71 games played by Kaufmann throughout his chess career between the 1890s and 1930s. Considering Kaufmann's enigmatic life and his highly intermittent chess play in Vienna, that's a reasonably satisfactory number. However, disregarding many such … [Read more...]
Two Against One Leaves None
Two Against One Leaves None by Bruce Pandolfini You can take it back to the Borgias. Hey, you can take it back further, maybe to the Greek City States. You can even get antediluvian. But why do that? You don't have to go back that far. Let's look no further back than the 1960s. I'm especially thinking of that revelatory experience, that game-changing movie, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." So tell me, when the three bad guys faced off in the end, what happened when two ganged up against one? The two won, right? That brings us to this month's offering, the situation of bishop and knight vs. bishop. With nothing else on the board, it's remarkable all the tactics that can emerge to … [Read more...]
Interview With Yasser Seirawan
Inside Chess, 1989/24 Interview With Yasser Seirawan by Mike Franett Yasser Seirawan was born of an English mother and a Syrian father on March 24, 1960, in Damascus, Syria. In 1964 the Seirawans moved to England. They emigrated to the United States in 1967, and in the spring of 1972 the family moved to the Seattle. In the fall of that year twelve-year-old Yasser began to play chess in the local hang-outs. At-the time, I was the Washington State Champion and soon felt a little like the New Orieans city champion in the 1840s. Something was happening, and I definitely knew what it was. I found it fascinating to watch this talent grow. In a few years, Yasser was a Master and our new … [Read more...]
Proof Games: Switchback City
Proof Games: Switchback City The task in a proof game is to show how a given position can be reached in a legal game. The puzzles in this column have a move stipulation. The position must be reached in a precise number of moves, no more and no less. With one exception, they are proof games in 4.0 which means four moves by each side. There is a distinct lack of strategy in these games. But the moves are legal. Proof Game #37 The diagrammed position, with White to play, was reached in a game after each player made exactly four moves. Can you figure out how? A switchback is a move in a chess problem where a piece returns to a square that it previously stood on. This tactic can … [Read more...]
Chess Tables
Chess Tables by Geurt Gijssen Regarding chess tables, the FIDE Handbook sets forth the following in the Tournament Regulations: The size of a table should have a minimum length of twice the length of the chessboard and a width of 15 – 20 cm more than the chessboard. It is recommended to use tables with a minimum size of 120 x 80 cm for top level FIDE tournaments. The height of a table and the chairs should be comfortable for the players. Any noise when moving the chairs should be avoided. During the meeting of the Technical Commission in Tromsö it was discussed to change this Article as follows: For all official FIDE Tournaments the length of the table is 110 cm (with 15% tolerance). … [Read more...]
Odds and Ends #2
Novice Nook #162 Odds and Ends #2 by Dan Heisman Quote of the Month: A lost opportunity to learn something leaves you at best stagnant.. Some of my favorite Novice Nooks cover more than one short subject: Techniques A Fistful of Lessons Examples of Chess Logic Odds and Ends Just because a subject was not “large” enough to merit an entire column did not mean it was any less important than ones that do. In fact, sometimes important advice about improving at chess is short and sweet, and that brevity may actually help the reader get the point. Pick Your Opponent’s Brain As mentioned in My Top Tips for Improvement, one of the best ways to improve is to hang out with … [Read more...]
More Deep Duels
Endgame Corner #160 by Karsten Müller More Deep Duels It is a coincidence that not only FM Dr Heinrich Rolletschek has sent me a deep analysis of a same-colored bishop ending, which was published in Endgame Corner #159, but also GM Efstratios Grivas and Harald Fietz. I want to thank them that they have given permission to publish it in my column. I want to start with another example: 160.01 Onischuk,Alexander (2668) - Naroditsky,Daniel (2543) ch-USA 2014 Saint Louis USA (10.4), 18.05.2014 White's extra pawn can be converted, but care is required as White's king can not invade easily: 51.Bf5!? The direct 51.f5? violates the endgame principle do not rush because of51...Bc8 … [Read more...]