Knowing the King's Indian is a Must! Review by Davide Nastasio Winning Against King's Indian with the Main Line, by Mihail Marin, ChessBase, 4 hours 11 min, $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.96) I don't play the King's Indian, and I'm not sure if I will play it in the future. So why did I get this DVD? Because in the last fifty years or so the greatest battles of the greatest chess players have been fought around this opening. Thus, the road to mastery is clear: knowing the King's Indian is a must! Just as it is important to read the classics of chess literature, it is equally essential to become familiar with classical structures. And the King's Indian teaches a player about all aspects … [Read more...]
Archives for February 2015
The Five Coin Dudeney
The Five Coin Dudeney by Jeff Coakley Get out your lucky pennies. It's Friday the 13th! And time for round two of artist appreciation month, featuring four more puzzles by the great Henry Dudeney. Plus a couple Cafe originals. "It is extraordinary what fascination a good puzzle has for a great many people. We know the thing to be of trivial importance, yet we are impelled to master it, and when we have succeeded there is a pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that are a quite sufficient reward for our trouble, even when there is no prize to be won. What is this mysterious charm that many find irresistible? Why do we like to be puzzled? The curious thing is that directly the enigma … [Read more...]
Lessons with a Grandmaster II
Lessons with a Grandmaster II by Boris Gulko and Dr. Joel R. Sneed Boris: So we meet again to continue our study of the mystical teachings of chess. Joel: Yes! Working with you on the first book had a major impact on my playing. I added several hundred points to my rating. Immediately after completing the book I scored 4 out of 5 with 2 draws and 3 wins at the Marshall Chess Club under-2000 tournament in New York. I tied for first and had a performance rating of 2100! My increased playing strength is a direct reflection of the work we did studying your games, solving exercises, and, in general, listening to you talk about chess. I will never forget the experience of going over your … [Read more...]
Chinese Heading for World Domination
Chinese Heading for World Domination by Tim Harding As most readers will recall, the People's Republic of China won the chess Olympiad for the first time in Tromsø last August. The question began to be asked, how long before a Chinese player challenges for the world championship. China, it will be recalled, has already had three women's world champions, including the current holder. Several young players performed excellently and the whole team had only one lost game in the 44 played. Ding Liren, on board two, was particularly impressive. Then in December Yu Yangyi, who was also on that team, won the very strong open in Qatar, confidently crushing early leader Anish Giri in the … [Read more...]
Further Investigations of a Standard Structure
Further Investigations of a Standard Structure There are some openings where this structure (with doubled pawns on Black's f-file) appears from the very first moves. Rauzer's Attack in the Sicilian is too complex and wide-ranging a topic for us even to touch on here. And as for the French Defense variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 de5.Nxe4 Be7 6.Bxf6 gf, or the Caro-Kann variation 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 de4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+ gf - they have long since gone out of style, so there's no point in delving into them. I shall only present one example each of the above-cited openings. Sigurjonsson - Dvoretsky Wijk aan Zee 1975 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 5.ed (this was a popular … [Read more...]
Chess Mazes #381
Chess Mazes #381 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 … [Read more...]
Bishop’s Opening [C25]
Bishop's Opening [C25] The topic for this February is a back to basics Bishop's Opening in a variation where slightly inaccurate play by Black lets White get an early and powerful Qg4. 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 This move targets the f7-square, which is always the weakest square for Black at the start of the game since only the king defends it. 2...Bc5 This is sort of unusual because it is committal: Black knows that the knights belong on c6 and f6, but the bishop may be useful on several possible squares. For example, Black does give up the possibility of playing ...Bb4 versus the Vienna Game and has to be prepared for the game to transpose to the King's Gambit Declined if White pursues … [Read more...]
Old Fashioned
Old Fashioned by Gary Lane What are the good and bad points about a line in the Trompowsky? Jeremy Mitchell from the United Kingdom e-mailed to comment on the variation 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 and now 3 Bh4. His questions is "What should I do next because White is supposed to play 3 Bf3. Is it any good and if not how do I win?'' It is certainly true that the variation with 3 Bh4 is considered to be old fashioned having been particularly popular in the 1980s. However, the current craze to revive old lines with the help of computer software has reinstated some openings that were previously dismissed by the books. Here is a glorious game by an elite grandmaster from Azerbaijan who beats … [Read more...]
Two Pounds of Bologan and Pick Up the Czech
Two Pounds of Bologan and Pick Up the Czech by Jim Rizzitano Reviewed this Month New In Chess Yearbook 112 edited by Genna Sosonko Bologan’s Black Weapons in the Open Games by Victor Bologan The Czech Benoni in Action by Asa Hoffman and Greg Keener This month I will review two titles from New In Chess: New In Chess Yearbook 112 and Bologan's Black Weapons in the Open Games, along with the Mongoose Press title The Czech Benoni in Action. New In Chess Yearbook 112 by New In Chess 2014, Figurine Algebraic Notation, 256pp. Hardcover, $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $32.37); Paperback, $33.95 (ChessCafe Price $27.47) Condensed Contents: Opening Highlights (2 pages) Your … [Read more...]