Chess Mazes #378 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 p … [Read more...]
The King’s Gambit [C30]
The King’s Gambit [C30] by Abby Marshall Recently I have become interested again in a particular way of declining the King's Gambit, my favorite. 1.e4 e5 2.f4 d6 This is hardly Black's most challenging response, so I never studied it deeply. It is solid and Black can equalize if White is not aggressive. For the sake of providing an overview of other common sense moves Black can also try moving the knights. 2...Nf6 This is a decent option with some preparation, but White can get an edge. 3.Nf3 (3.fxe5 This is what I used to play. I eventually decided there is not enough juice in the position for White to win. 3...Nxe4 4.Nf3 Ng5 The knight will be a target in the center. 5.d4 N … [Read more...]
Go!
Go! by Gary Lane How to beat the Dutch with 1 Nf3? This is the question posed by Marin Thomas from England who has been trying numerous lines against the Dutch but with little success. He e-mailed to say, "I play 1 Nf3 but when they play the Dutch Defence how should I continue? I have played the risky 2 e4 which I like but don't trust. Which attacking opening should I play?" I think someone with experience with gambit lines should go for it by playing the Lisitsyn Gambit. This is a clever line which involves the sacrifice of a pawn and has been well known since the 1940s. It has enjoyed a recent surge of popularity with many elite players employing it, including on a couple of … [Read more...]
Kasparov, Patterns, and Rulebreakers
Kasparov, Patterns, and Rulebreakers by Jim Rizzitano Reviewed this Month Garry Kasparov on Garry Kasparov Part III: 1993-2005 by Garry Kasparov Improve Your Chess Pattern Recognition by Arthur van de Oudeweetering Play Unconventional Chess and Win by Noam A. Manella and Zeev Zohar This month I will review three recent titles: two from Everyman Chess and one from New in Chess. These books should satisfy both master level and club players. Game collections written by world champions belong to a special category of timeless chess books – classics by Alekhine, Botvinnik, Tal, and Fischer spring to mind. This type of book may seem less relevant in the age of instant information and M … [Read more...]
Magnus Carlsen was Very, Very Lucky!
This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Newsletter #143. 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. Magnus Carlsen was Very, Very Lucky! by Arkadij Naiditsch Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (6), 15.11.2014 Sicilian Kan [B41] We often hear people say that World Champions never blunder. In fact, World Champions blunder very rarely and even more rarely a one-move tactic. And what is even more rare is that after a blunder the opponent doesn't use the mistake, and this is precisely the case … [Read more...]
Chess Cafe Puzzlers Cup: The Big Day
by Jeff Coakley Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the awards ceremony of the 2014 Puzzlers Cup. Tonight we are pleased to present the five winning problems from our second annual puzzle composing competition. Special thanks to our generous sponsor ChessCafe.com for hosting the event. Each winner will receive a “shop coupon” from Shop.ChessCafe.com, which can be applied to any purchase from their extensive selection of chess products. The value of the coupons is as follows: First prize $150 Second prize $100 Third prize $75 Honourable Mentions 2 x $50 Like last year, we received many interesting puzzles. The difficult task of selecting the five winners was performed b … [Read more...]
How to Answer 1.d4 in CC
How to Answer 1.d4 in CC by Bo Bredenhof Last month I discussed my experiences in how to answer 1.e4. This time I will talk about different answers to 1.d4. I have tried many different opening variations over the years. I believe I started with 1...d5, with the Tartakower Defense as my main variation. This is very solid, and GM Adams has had a lot of success with it in OTB games. There is a problem of course; White do not have to comply. He often chooses the Exchange variation or the Bf4 QGD, just to mention two common alternatives. Both of these can be very difficult for Black to handle; and are more solid for White. The winning chances for Black are small in these variations. I … [Read more...]
That’s Entertainment
Lasker, Simultaneous Exhibitions, and the Languages of Chess Performance by John S. Hilbert Chess has been likened to many things, and perhaps most often to art. The “artist at the chessboard” image has been dragged forth often enough to warrant status as a venerable, if tiresome, cliché. Likening chess to sport has an equally long and listless pedigree. My favorite metaphor for the game is that of language: a language of the mind, requiring all the thought and effort involved in the learning of a foreign language, in order to speak it fluently, eloquently and forcefully across the board. Undoubtedly this metaphor has ancient roots as well. There are more recent examples of it, of cour … [Read more...]
Knight Tricks Bishop
by Bruce Pandolfini There is that silly opening principle/maxim "knights before bishops." And everyone knows that bishops are better than knights, right? Well, not always, for either truism. Now it is generally considered to be an easier task for a bishop to trap a knight, say by corralling it, than for a knight to snare a bishop. Perhaps. But knights also have their strengths. They can jump over things, though not tall buildings in a single bound. They can, however, do their special prancing, and that can lead to all kinds of insidious forks. The latter class of stratagem is mainly what happens in this present pack of ten. Just when the bishop thinks it is safe to take a swim, it forgets … [Read more...]
The Lost Match: Rubinstein – Marshall, Warsaw 1908
Inside Chess, 1988/9 The Lost Match: Rubinstein – Marshall, Warsaw 1908 by IM Nikolay Minev There are many famous and fascinating matches in chess history. This is the strange story about one of them: the match between Akiba Rubinstein and Frank Marshall held in Warsaw, October 25 -November 14, 1908. A match not mentioned anywhere at that time, and even now, after 80 years, one which still remains in shadows. That a match between these two all-time greats is virtually unknown may strain credulity. The facts – rather, the lack of facts – prove otherwise. The match is not reported in The Yearbook of Chess (London, 1907-1917); nor does it appear in the extremely popular series by Miese … [Read more...]
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