Chess Mazes #381 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...]
Bishop’s Opening [C25]
Bishop's Opening [C25] The topic for this February is a back to basics Bishop's Opening in a variation where slightly inaccurate play by Black lets White get an early and powerful Qg4. 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 This move targets the f7-square, which is always the weakest square for Black at the start of the game since only the king defends it. 2...Bc5 This is sort of unusual because it is committal: Black knows that the knights belong on c6 and f6, but the bishop may be useful on several possible squares. For example, Black does give up the possibility of playing ...Bb4 versus the Vienna Game and has to be prepared for the game to transpose to the King's Gambit Declined if White pursues … [Read more...]
Old Fashioned
Old Fashioned by Gary Lane What are the good and bad points about a line in the Trompowsky? Jeremy Mitchell from the United Kingdom e-mailed to comment on the variation 1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 and now 3 Bh4. His questions is "What should I do next because White is supposed to play 3 Bf3. Is it any good and if not how do I win?'' It is certainly true that the variation with 3 Bh4 is considered to be old fashioned having been particularly popular in the 1980s. However, the current craze to revive old lines with the help of computer software has reinstated some openings that were previously dismissed by the books. Here is a glorious game by an elite grandmaster from Azerbaijan who beats … [Read more...]
Two Pounds of Bologan and Pick Up the Czech
Two Pounds of Bologan and Pick Up the Czech by Jim Rizzitano Reviewed this Month New In Chess Yearbook 112 edited by Genna Sosonko Bologan’s Black Weapons in the Open Games by Victor Bologan The Czech Benoni in Action by Asa Hoffman and Greg Keener This month I will review two titles from New In Chess: New In Chess Yearbook 112 and Bologan's Black Weapons in the Open Games, along with the Mongoose Press title The Czech Benoni in Action. New In Chess Yearbook 112 by New In Chess 2014, Figurine Algebraic Notation, 256pp. Hardcover, $39.95 (ChessCafe Price $32.37); Paperback, $33.95 (ChessCafe Price $27.47) Condensed Contents: Opening Highlights (2 pages) Your V … [Read more...]
Outranking by Outflanking
Outranking by Outflanking by Bruce Pandolfini In the opening, when you flank, you develop a bishop to the side and aim it at the center. In the endgame, when you outflank, well, you don't do the opposite. That is, you don't develop a bishop to the center and aim it at the flank. Good old endgame. It's full of all kinds of themes and fancy names to designate those themes. The concept of outflanking: that's a military term in real life, but what's it got to do with chess? Chess experts and theorists seem to use it in slightly different ways. Nevertheless, for many endgame enthusiasts, outflanking tends to refer to maneuvers by which one king, primarily using the opposition, is able to … [Read more...]
Clash of the Titans: Fischer-Weinstein
This month we present a lightly edited excerpt from Chess Evolution Newsletter #150. 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. Clash of the Titans: Fischer-Weinstein by Kamil Miton Fischer,Robert James - Weinstein,Raymond Allen USA-ch New York (1), 18.12.1960 French Defense [C19] 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 Ne7 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 c5 7.a4!? In general this move is very useful but in this concrete position White usually plays other moves: 7.Qg4 0-0 (7...Qc7 leads to very complex play after 8.Qxg7 Rg8 9.Qxh7 cxd4 10.Ne2 Nbc6 11.f4 Bd7 12.Qd3 … [Read more...]
The Dude Abides
The Dude Abides by Jeff Coakley February is artist appreciation month at the Cafe gallery. Currently on display is a selection of fine work by one of the great puzzle masters of all time, Henry Dudeney. ...Our lives are largely spent in solving puzzles; for what is a puzzle but a perplexing question? And from our childhood upwards we are perpetually asking questions or trying to answer them." Henry Ernest Dudeney (1857-1930) worked most of his life as a civil servant in Sussex, England. But he made his mark on the world as a mathematician and composer of puzzles. His early creations were published in various newspapers under the pseudonym "Sphinx". He also collaborated for … [Read more...]
Make Your Own Database
Make Your Own Database by Bo Bredenhof During the weekends I set aside some time now and then to build myself a new up-to-date database (DB) for CC searches. I seldom use a DB package, outside of what comes bundled with other software, but make my own every few years. Maybe it is because I am stubborn; or more likely because I want to create something myself. This time I started with the best chess engine DB I had: the Houdini4 Pro DB from 2013. It contained games from late fall 2012. In order to update the OTB part of it, I went to the website "The Week In Chess" (TWIC). They are kind enough to have an archive of weekly OTB files covering all important games played in tournaments … [Read more...]
The Immortal Quiescence Error Game
Novice Nook #163 The Immortal Quiescence Error Game by Dan Heisman Quote of the Month: Quiescent is quiet - there are no more forcing moves of consequence. In Quiescence Errors we examined the very frequent mistake of stopping analysis too soon. A most common example is a missed pseudo-sacrifice (some call it "sham sacrifice") combination which starts with giving up material but soon gains it back - and more - by force in the next few moves. One reason why amateurs get problems they see in books but miss those same combinations in games is that they start with a pseudo-sacrifice. In a problem the reader, if he is a lower-rated player, has the implicit instruction "Keep looking! … [Read more...]
Tarrasch’s Tempo
Endgame Corner #161 by Karsten Müller Tarrasch's Tempo Ronald Wieck wrote in to say, "I believe you will be interested in a discovery by IM Bernard Zuckerman." Of course I was very interested, as an old and famous rook ending was concerned. He had talked to Bernard Zuckerman on the phone: "Bernard and I were talking about rook endings and right before we hung up, he asked me if I was familiar with Rubinstein's draw with Tarrasch at San Sebastian, 1911. Proudly, I announced that I was. He pressed on with, "but did you ever wonder what happens if Tarrasch gains a tempo?" And indeed Zuckerman, who did not use a computer, seems to be right. Tarrasch could have won: 161.01 … [Read more...]
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