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...]
Chess Mazes: Toronto Style
Chess Mazes: Toronto Style by Jeff Coakley People have been making mazes since before history began. The monumental labyrinths of ancient Egypt and Crete date back over 4,000 years. Mazes come in all shapes and sizes. Some are just lines on a sheet of paper. Others are big enough to walk through. The hedge maze shown below is located in St. Louis, the chess capital of the United States. Mazes are constructed from all sorts of material. They can even be made with chess pieces! Here are the instructions for the puzzles in this column. Chess Mazes 1. The object is to capture the black king in the stipulated number of moves (the shortest path through the maze). 2. Only one … [Read more...]
An Extremely Exciting Game
This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Newsletter #133. 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. by Csaba Balogh Svetushkin,D (2580) - Kryvoruchko,Y (2708) TCh-ESP Div Honor 2014 Linares ESP (3.1), 06.09.2014 Sicilian Defence [B40] An extremely exciting game was played in the Spanish team championship. It was not perfect, but both players found remarkable ideas in a very difficult middle game! 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 Black is ready to play a sharp Paulsen variation in the Sicilian, but White prefers to keep the position closed … [Read more...]
Little King Moves
Let's talk about the king. It is supposed to be a weak piece. Actually, it can be a fairly strong piece, since it guards all the circumambient squares. On its inherent merits, a king is slightly stronger than either a bishop or knight, and slightly weaker than a rook. But it is always on the board, and in the endgame its use can be decisive. Many tactics truly depend on the active help of the friendly king. There can be mating nets, piece traps, and other nasty things once the attacking king gets going. Now the king's involvement does not have to be a big production. Sometimes it makes a small move, which translates to a big advantage. And that is the case here. For each of the problems in … [Read more...]
Minor Historical Joyrides
by Olimpiu G. Urcan Undoubtedly, the most valuable chess history research is that which concentrates on little-explored primary material, old newspaper chess columns included. Immersed in such vast material either in a local library's microfilm section or logged in to a digital repository online, an experienced researcher generally keeps in mind two distinct matters: first, precise information closely related to a specific undergoing project (e.g., a biography, a history of a chess club, a tournament monograph, and so forth); secondly, often fueled by an incurable optimism, he keeps a more general lookout for the "big names," that is forgotten games played by some of the best players of a … [Read more...]
A New Style
This is my fiftieth chronicle, but I still feel privileged to be able to write about our fine CC sport. You can find the previous columns in the ChessCafe.com Archives. Last month I wrote about my new openings: the English as white, and the Caro-Kann and King's Indian as black. My games with these new openings have advanced to between ten and twenty moves and I am satisfied with the resulting positions. I am not worse in any game and may have a small edge in a few. The English can be played in many ways. Presently, I prefer the classical variations with 1.c4, followed by 2.Nc3. After that I vary between 3.g3 and 4.g3. There is also the Kosten/Marin alternative with 2.g3, which I use … [Read more...]
Annotations by GM Mikhail Tseitlin
From Inside Chess, 1995/16 Tseitlin,Mikhail (2440) - Dvoirys,Semen (2550) 10th Cappelle la Grande, 1994 Sicilian Rossolimo [B51] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nc6 3...Bd7 is more often played. 4.0-0 Bd7 5.c3 Nf6 6.Re1 a6 7.Ba4 My view is that neither 7.Bf1 nor 7.Bxc6 gives White any advantage. 7...b5 The most common reply, though 7...c4 has given Black better results for the most part. 8.Bc2 e5 9.a4! b4?! I think that 9..Be7 is stronger. The opening moves were made rather quickly. In our previous game, I played 10.d4 here. 10.h3 Perhaps this move, so typical in the Spanish, is a novelty here. [It is very difficult to say for sure these days what is a novelty and … [Read more...]
Still Many Things to Explain
Question Can an Italian Regional Arbiter with a FIDE Licence officiate a FIDE Rapid/Blitz tournament in another country? Regards! Arbitro Regionale Vincenzo Zaccaria (Italy) Answer I refer to Article 0.3 of the Introduction of the FIDE Rating Regulations effective from 1 July 2014 in the FIDE Handbook: All arbiters of a FIDE rated tournament shall be licensed otherwise the tournament shall not be rated. Based on this Article, yes it is possible, in my opinion, because I do not see any restriction regarding the nationality of the arbiter in a FIDE-rated event. The only requirement is that he needs to be licensed. Question Hi Geurt, Regarding the very last question in your August … [Read more...]
Learning Endgames
Quote of the Month: Until you are master strength you don't have to know more than about two dozen exact endings. The Quote of the Month is from GM Andy Soltis's book Studying Chess Made Easy, and can be found in his chapter "Overcoming Endgame Phobia." This chapter is full of good, practical advice, but the quote I selected is at the heart of Soltis's main point. In order to understand it, you need to know what Soltis's meant by "exact endgames." He defines these as endings with "only a few pieces and pawns. They are important because they can occur at the end of many other endgames and because their outcome is certain. Every exact endgame is either a forced win or a forced draw." I … [Read more...]
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