Inside Chess, 1995/25-26 Annotations by GM Yasser Seirawan GM Vladimir Kramnik had a nice start at the Investbank tournament at the expense of GM Jan Timman. I've noted that Kramnik's style of play has a wonderful simplicity. His games often flow smoothly from one advantage to another. In this one, Timman doesn't do anything wrong, but is taken apart nonetheless. Kramnik, Vladimir (2730) – Timman, Jan (2590) Investbank Belgrade (1), 1995 QGD Exchange [D35] 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 Nbd7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c6 7.e3 Be7 I, too, have dabbled in this freeing move. Black forces the exchange of a minor piece in order to relieve his slightly cramped position. The question that … [Read more...]
The ChessCafe Puzzlers Cup
The ChessCafe Puzzlers Cup ChessCafe.com is pleased to announce our second annual puzzle composing competition. The contest is being held as part of The Puzzling Side of Chess, the popular column by Canadian master Jeff Coakley. Make up your own puzzles, send them in, and win prizes. Sounds like fun. Eligibility The ChessCafe Puzzlers Cup is an open contest. Anyone may enter. Entries must be original puzzles composed by the person submitting them, and must not have been published previously. Winners The winning puzzles will be published at the end of November 2014 on The Puzzling Side of Chess. Prizes Each winner will receive a "shop coupon" from … [Read more...]
Race of the Passed Pawns
by Karsten Müller Races and pawn breakthroughs should always be calculated carefully and sometimes a retreat is the real point. 158.01 Hou Yifan (2629) - Ding Liren (2717) ch-CHN 2014 Xinghua (5), 15.03.2014 55.Bxg6! However, not 55.bxc4? d3! and Black survives: 56.Kxd3 (56.cxd3? b3-+) 56...Kxf5 57.c5 Nxf4+=; 55.Kxd4? cxb3 56.cxb3 Kxf5 57.Kc4 Nxf4 58.Kxb4=. 55...d3 55...Kxg6 56.Kxd4 c3 57.Kc4 Kf5 58.Kxb4 Kxf4 59.Kxc3+-. 56.Ke3!! This retreat breaks the wave of pawns. 56.cxd3? cxb3-+. 56...Kxg6 56...dxc2 57.Bxc2+-. 57.bxc4 57.cxd3? cxb3 58.Kd2 Kf5 59.Kc1 Kxf4 60.Kb2 Ke3 61.Kxb3 Kxd3 62.Kxb4=. 57...dxc2 58.Kd2 Kf5 58...b3 is met by 59.c5 Kf5 … [Read more...]
What are the Preferred Tiebreak Criteria?
by Geurt Gijssen Question Dear Geurt, In Blitz games without an increment, you often see players try to flag the opponent by aimlessly shuffling pieces around. I have often wondered why this way of winning games, without showing any plan, can be allowed. The old 10.2 (now G.5) was designed to avoid this in all types of positions, but is only available in Standard/Rapid games without increment, or if all the Blitz games are supervised by a dedicated arbiter. In the final Armageddon game Socko-Foisor of the 2008 World Women Chess Championship, N vs. N occurred on the board, and Foisor tried to appeal to the arbiters for a draw with hand gestures. The arbiters, after flag fall, declared the … [Read more...]
Why Did You Make That Move?
by Dan Heisman Why Did You Make That Move? Quote of the Month: I don’t know why I made that move. One of the main jobs of a chess instructor is to help the student find better moves. But that includes some big assumptions, like the student wants to take the time to find a better move, or that he has some vague idea how. However, another big aspect of instruction is diagnosis, and the main things an instructor diagnoses is chess mistakes, particularly bad moves. There can be many causes for the same bad move: poor time management, lack of one of the three chess visions (tactical, board, and visualization), poor analysis skills, lack of a particular set of knowledge, etc. While the … [Read more...]
Minor Niner
by Jeff Coakley This column features nine puzzles of various types, all involving four minor pieces (BBNN). Whenever applicable, the two bishops must be placed on opposite-coloured squares. 1. Triple Loyd #35 Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has mate in one. 2. Triple Loyd #36 Place the black king on the board so that: A. Black is in checkmate. B. Black is in stalemate. C. White has mate in one. 3. BBNN Defensive Loop Place two bishops and two knights on the board so that each piece is defended exactly once and each piece defends exactly one other piece. The bishops must be on opposite … [Read more...]
A String of Associations
A String of Associations by Mark Dvoretsky Looking at a recent issue of New In Chess magazine (No. 6, 2013), my attention was drawn to the final section of an article by grandmaster Jan Timman. Kunin – Edouard Helsingfors, 2013 Kunin is a grandmaster with roughly 2500 Elo-points. In this position he seems to be worried that Black has doubled rooks on the a-file, because he went in for 22.b5? An utterly unbelievable move. Black’s positional problem has been solved at a stroke: the black knight, with no prospects on b7, has been gifted a magnificent square in c5. Before that, Black didn’t have a single threat. Remarkably enough, the computer isn’t even overly critical here, … [Read more...]
Brown Study: A Question of Edwardian Identity
Brown Study: A Question of Edwardian Identity by Tim Harding One of the problems historians have to confront is not to mix up the people we want to write about, and in fact there was a good book on this subject in 1973, by E. A. Wrigley, called Identifying People in the Past. An updated work on this subject is badly needed in the Internet era, now that there are so many digitised sources for family history, but it needs to be done by somebody who is an expert in using genealogical sources of the hard copy variety as well as electronic sources. Maybe John Townsend, who has written two books of this type of research to do with chess players of the early nineteenth century, would care to … [Read more...]
Opening Repertoire: The Fianchetto System
Opening Repertoire: The Fianchetto System by Damian Lemos Introduction Dealing with dynamic and aggressive defences like the Grünfeld or King’s Indian is not an easy task for White players. Over the years, I’ve tried several variations against both openings, usually choosing lines in which White establishes a strong centre, although Black had lot of resources against those lines too. When I was fourteen years old, I analysed Karpov-Polgar, Las Palmas 1994 (see Chapter 4, Game 25), and was impressed with the former World Champion’s play with White. Then, I realized that the Fianchetto System works well for White for the following reasons: 1. After playing g2-g3 and Bg2, White is … [Read more...]
Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal
A Wonderful Multimedia Product by Davide Nastasio Master Class Vol. 2: Mihail Tal, ChessBase DVD, Running Time 4 hours, 13 min., $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $29.95) This review is about a wonderful new multimedia product. When it comes to chess improvement methods, we often only consider learning from books, and maybe they are best. Yet thanks to the integration of computer, video, audio, and software, we can have chess material that engages all our senses, which broadens our ways to learn. The Master Class series of DVDs starts with Robert James Fischer, rightly the greatest world champion of all, continues with Tal, and now there is already a third installment on Alekhine. I … [Read more...]
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