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...]
Queens, Knights, and Knightmares
The material distribution queen and knight against queen and knight is not so well dealt with in the rich literature of the royal game. I want to demonstrate the guideline that a slight initiative weighs heavily, as with the endgame rook and knight against rook and knight. A) Magnus mighty queen The queen and knight duo can be very strong when they cooperate well. 157.01 Carlsen,M (2881) - Agdestein,S (2628) 2nd Norway Chess 2014 Stavanger NOR (9), 13.06.2014 42.Nc3!? Magnus increases his pressure on the light squares to provoke the opening of inroads. 42...bxc4+? Now Black cannot stop the invasion of the queen. After 42...Qa5! it is more or less equal, as the following … [Read more...]
Petrosian: Move by Move
by Thomas Engqvist Petrosian's Style According to the English player and writer P.H. Clarke, in his preface to Petrosian's Best Games of Chess, the 9th world champion was a pragmatist. Clarke defines the meaning of that abstract word like this: "One who does what is needed to meet the requirements of a position and, on the whole, makes no attempt to impose his own wishes on it." Petrosian didn't agree he was a pragmatic player in his Chess Logic, and we should respect and pay attention to what he wrote about himself. However, his definition of pragmatism was different: "A pragmatic approach in chess occurs when a chess-player for the sake of the result (win, draw) offers an … [Read more...]
Watching Chess Online and Other Matters
Over the last few weeks I have been watching a lot of chess tournaments online. Hitherto I tended to do this only for world championship matches and candidates tournaments but, having an upgraded broadband service at home since last summer, the experience has been more satisfying. Also I took note of something one of the fellow competitors of my own generation said to me during the Irish Championship; he had, I think, been maintaining his playing strength partly through following top games online. I agree. It does much more for tactical awareness as well as maintaining one's sense of what is new and topical in the openings compared with reading about tournaments afterwards in chess … [Read more...]
In Houdini’s Footsteps, Part Two
I will say a few words about the book Lessons with a Grandmaster by Boris Gulko and Joel Sneed, from which the last game we looked at in the August 2014 column was taken. Actually this is not even one book, but two, and now a third is being prepared. I was studying the second volume just before writing this article. The books are structured in an unusual way; in my view, they should be both interesting and useful to readers of various levels - from amateurs to grandmasters. Gulko shows his student and co-author his best games (in the first volume positional advantages, and in the second tactical ones), suggesting that he answer questions associated with the search for the best moves. … [Read more...]
Building an Opening Repertoire
Tutorial: Building an Opening Repertoire by Mark Donlan This month we will look at using ChessBase 12, or any similar database program to some extent, to build an opening repertoire. Players will sometimes lament, usually after a loss, that they do not have any good openings. Yet it is rarely the opening that is at fault. It is usually a tactic on which the game turns. With regard to the opening these players seldom study it in a formulaic way, and often do not play long enough time controls in which to expect perfection in any phase of the game. First let's consider some maxims from chess authors to define our parameters: "The importance of opening theory is grossly … [Read more...]
Chess Mazes #374
Chess Mazes #374 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...]
Dynamic Openings
by Carsten Hansen Reviewed this Month The Tarrasch Defence: Move by Move by Sam Collins The Extreme Caro-Kann: Attacking Black with 3.f3 by Alexey Bezgodov Playing the Trompowsky: An Attacking Repertoire by Richard Pert Play the Accelerated Dragon by Peter Lalic This month we will look at four recent books on openings that have a decent following at many levels, but are not currently as popular as their reputation suggests. The Tarrasch Defence: Move by Move by Sam Collins, Everyman Chess 2014, Figurine Algebraic Notation, Paperback, 254pp. $27.95 (ChessCafe Price $23.87); Ebook $21.95 In my February 2012 column, we looked at the very advanced Grandmaster Repertoire: … [Read more...]