ChessBase and the Mega Database by Jim Rizzitano Reviewed this Month ChessBase 13 by ChessBase Mega Database 2015 by ChessBase This month I will review two software titles from ChessBase: ChessBase 13 and Mega Database 2015. This software is useful for both master level and club players. Chess software has become an essential tool for efficient chess study. The majority of chess players utilize software to record games and prepare openings – chess software is also indispensable for writing chess books and publishing to the web. The ChessBase software program is the industry-standard tool utilized by both professional and club players to record and study their own games. A … [Read more...]
Chess Mazes #379
Chess Mazes #379 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...]
The Nimzovich Defense [B00]
The Nimzovich Defense [B00] by Abby Marshall The Nimzovich Defense, 1.e4 Nc6, is the subject of this month's column. It bears a strong resemblance to the themes of the Chigorin Defense 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nc6 even though the former is a king-pawn opening. Besides the obvious early ...Nc6, the two openings also have cramped space, pawn pushes like ...e5 in the center, and concede the bishop-pair to take advantage of a lead in development in common. 1.e4 Nc6 In April 2013 I covered a similar offbeat system, 1...b6, from White's perspective. 2.d4 This is the most natural, but actually gives Black a couple of interesting choices. To cut down on Black's options, it might be better to … [Read more...]
Excellent Intuition
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...]
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...]
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