Category: Openings

NPR’s Radiolab Chats with Frank Brady

November 15th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Games, Indian Defences, posts No comments - Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

A friend of mine sent me a link to an episode of Radiolab about “games,” and a ten minute portion of the show is about chess and the concept of the theoretical novelty. Naturally, the show is made by non-chess players, and so their version of the novelty is a bit…. let’s say abstract and philosophical. In any case, it’s an interesting show. Listen to it here. It’s from Aug. 23rd, so if you’re a regular Radiolab listener you’ve likely already heard it, but if you’re not familiar with the show this might be a good introduction. My favorite part of the show was the host’s description of the Marshall Chess Club: spot. on.

In the show, Frank Brady discuses Fischer’s famous game of the century. In the office at the Marshall Chess Club, there is a large poster of the orignal scoresheet from that game that I stare at blankly occasionally, trying to wrap my mind around what it must have been like to play a move like 17…Be6.

I don’t think I’ve ever put this game up on the blog before…so I suppose I should have it up here somewhere. (Notes from Chessgames.com)

Listening to Radiolab reminded me that I hadn’t listened to the Full English Breakfast in a while. This show, their 14th, is their one year anniversary and in it they cover some great stuff in their usual snarky tone. You can hear it here.

Women’s World Chess Championship 2011

November 14th, 2011 · · Catalan, Games, posts No comments - Tags: , , ,

Today, the WWCC kicked off in Albania with a hard fought draw in an Open Catalan between Koneru and Hou.


Abbott: Who had the white pieces?
Costello: No, Hou had the black pieces.
Abbott: So, who had the white pieces?
Costello: No! … Hou had the… (you get the point.)

With Judit Polgar’s recent reentry into top-flight events, she casts a tall and long shadow over anyone who would claim to be the Women’s World Chess Champion. However, I suppose the same could be said of the Men’s World Championship- what with the highest ranked player in the world refusing to play in the candidates matches. In any case, you can watch the the games live on chessgames.com or chess bomb-

Simon Williams: Attacking with the French

November 10th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Book Review, French Defense, Games, Milner-Barry gambit, Openings, posts No comments - Tags: , , , , ,

As anyone who has picked up one knows, the new “Attacking Chess” series of books by everyman are fantastic repertoire manuals filled with interesting ideas and analysis. Hopefully, there will be more coming out soon. As readers of this blog know, Simon Williams is a bit of a hero of mine, so when I saw that he had written a book on the French I snapped up a copy posthaste. (His book on the Classical Dutch blew my mind. Also, for those of you who are interested, GM Williams has a blog! And from perusing it, I found out that he is working on two dvd’s on the Sicilian Dragon!!- can. not. wait.)

In any case, his book on the French has a few interesting ideas. Against the 3.Nd2 he gives 3 chapters worth of lines after 3…Nf6. However, since I prefer to play 3…c5, I skipped that portion of the book. His chapter on the exchange has some great games that I dare say make me excited to face the exchange. Typically, the French exchange leads to either symmetrical or mostly lifeless positions, where one side is merely waiting for the other to make a gross blunder. Naturally, for this exact reason it is wildly popular at the sub 2200 level.

The formula presented in this game is predicated on the awesome idea 9…Bf4. Once black controls so many squares on the kingside of the board, he is able to play 0-0-0 without much worry and launch a pawn avalanche. For anyone who is looking to play the French, this idea is worth its weight in gold! The exchange variation is common among players who don’t wish to take any risks and are hoping for a simple game of chess- this attacking formula is anything but, and is sound enough to work against the likes of Kasparov…


In the chapter on the Advance Variation, which is the first chapter in the book, Williams builds his repertoire around the less common 5…Bd7 instead of the mainline 5…Qb6. While I am not fully convinced by some of his double edged recommendations in this chapter, there are many ideas that did convince that 5…Bd7 offers interesting alternatives to the mainlines. Almost always, this move is played with the plan of opening the position with the break f6.

In the following game, white attempts a Milner-Barry gambit, only to find that it is black who be the one to gambit- and a knight at that.

Highly recommended! here.

Taking Down the French

November 5th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, French Defense, Games, Openings, posts No comments - Tags: , , ,

Here are a couple miniatures against the French defense that I found amusing. The first one is against the legend, Mednis, who surprisingly fell into a mating attack very early in a French-Winawer. The game is taken from Asa Hoffmann’s book, Chess Gladiator which is full of such sporting miniatures and highly creative play reflective of Asa’s signature madman style.


The second game is also by Hoffmann, though this one is not in his book and is one that he shared with me one night at the Marshall Chess Club. It’s an Alekhine-Chatard attack, a variation of the French I often play against players I’m certain that they will not immediately respond with 4…dxe4, entering the morozevich-burn variation as advocated by creative madman Dzindzashvili. The Alekhine-Chatard attack is just too good to be true. White’s attack really plays itself and there are an inconceivable number of “natural” looking moves that black can play that lead to his destruction (such as an early c5 allowing Nb5! to only name one.)

In any case, the following game contains a painfully long king march that Asa claims to have spotted from move 10 on through it’s conclusion. The move 10…Nf8 is an obviously blunder. While the knight often ends up on this square in the Alekhine-Chatard, in this exact position where the tactical shot Nxd5 is available, it is clearly not correct. From move 11 on, mate is inevitable.

A Gorgeous Queen’s Indian Game

November 4th, 2011 · · Games, Indian Defences, New York Chess, posts, Queens Indian No comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

As many of the readers of this blog know, i spend an awful lot of time at the Marshall Chess Club, and so I was thrilled to see this video on the USCF’s website in which some of our regular players talk about the club. In the video, the manager of the club says that the Marshall Chess Club is one of the most famous chess clubs in the country. However, this is a bit of an understatement, as it is actually one of the most famous chess clubs in the world!

To wit, a tourist from Sweden who was in New York on business recently stopped by the club to check out the hallowed halls where Fischer did battle as a teenager. His name was Jan Lundin, and he has recently achieved his first GM norm and was nice enough to share the game with me which proved decisive for his norm result. I thought I would share this gem with you.

In the game, the Grandmaster playing white against Lundin was angling for a win, and played a sharp gambit to try and create complications. However, black found a way to give up his queen for a decisive amount of material and handled the technical ending that resulted with aplomb. In particular, the King march which begins with 53…Kc5 is an impressive and bold plan.

An Interesting Attacking Plan in the Scandinavian

October 5th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Games, New York Chess, Openings, posts, Scandinavian 2 comments - Tags: , , , , ,

This last weekend I played a small round robbin in Greenpoint under the auspices of Brooklyn64, and played the following game with my friend Paul Munson. He knew that I liked to play the Scandinavian with 3…Qd6, and so avoided this variaiton by delaying Nc3. I showed the game to Mitch Fitsko, who suggested an interesting attacking idea. The attacking idea is so quick and deadly it reminds me of the Finnish sniper Simo Hayha- a.k.a. “White Death,” who single handedly killed 542 Russian Soldiers during the “Winter War” with the Soviet Union. He supposedly kept snow in his moth to hide his breath from other snipers, and has to have been one of the most deadly snipers in history. In any case-this quick trigger plan in the scando is just as deadly…

The idea involves a quick queenside castle and all out assault on white after the passive Nf3, and Be2 response to the scando- an example would be after the moves- 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 Qxd5 3.Nf3 Bg4 4.Be3 Nc6 5.d4 0-0-0… giving us the following position:

Following is my game with Paul Munson, in which both of us played remarkably passively, yet I luckily still managed to win as paul made a mistake in time trouble. It seemed to me as though he should have played Ne5 sometime early in the middle game, and follow up with f4 clamping down on the center of the board.

Another theme in the game is the battle for control over the d5 square. Naturally, in the e6, c6 Caro-Kann pawn structure, if white can attack by simply pushing d5, then black is likely in trouble.

The Cocksure Cochrane Gambit

October 3rd, 2011 · · 1. e4 e5, Games, Openings, Petroff Defense, posts, sidelines 2 comments - Tags: , , , ,

After losing a game recently to the Petroff, I decided to forgo the sideline that had only ever brought me spotty success for the whacky Cochrane Gambit. For those of you aren’t familiar, it occurs after the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nxf7 Kxf7 5.d4…

White gives up a knight for two pawns and to draw black’s king out into the open. Current theory frowns on the variation, but there are a few GM’s who have bagged some beautiful victories with it, such as Vitolins, who played it regularly, and Sulskis more recently.

In any case, below find some instructive games, along with some theoretical material for the brave among you who want to give this a shot.



Continue reading »

Upsets at the World Cup

September 5th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Endgame, Games, Open Ruy Lopez, posts, Ruy Lopez, Semi-Slav No comments - Tags: , , , , , , ,

(left: Polgar sisters as child prodigies playing 3D Risk)

In the Sunday NYTimes, FM Dylan Loeb McClain has a column where he covers the hot novelties and interesting chess tidbits that addicted chess fanatics such as myself crave. This last Sunday, while at Variety coffee shop slamming a stumptown ‘spro at 8a.m. before biking to the Marshall Chess Club, I picked up his column and saw this article. Sam Shankland upset Peter Leko at the World Cup- who could have seen that coming. It goes without saying that at No. 19 in the World, Leko is an elite GM. Thus, beating him with the black pieces is a major achievement for our own S. Shankland. The game is a Semi-Slav, which arrives at a curious position where Black’s pieces shuffle on the 3 ranks while white appears to have a better position for most of the game. Then, like an avalanche, Black’s kingside pawns start rolling forward and block out white’s dark square bishop, leaving black with a golden knight that is centrally placed. The game is nothing short of a positional masterpiece from the young American.

In my last post I think I lamented how most GM’s don’t have their own websites in an era where shameless self-promotion has become more than socially acceptable – almost mandated- but it turns out I spoke too soon. Sam Shankland has a site of his own here, and it’s not bad actually! Granted it isn’t a 20 thousand Euro website the way that Jan Gustafsson’s appears to be, but it isn’t an early 1990′s GeoCities looking chess website either, so kudos Sam.

Another upset which caught my eye was Judit Polgar eliminating the top seeded Karjakin in the World Cup. The masterful endgame is nicely analyzed over at ChessVibes (for no charge- believe it or not!)

Apparently, after having some babies Judit is back in action and gunning for an elite top spot again. How amazing would it be to see her in the candidates next time around? Having a female World Champion could give a lot of good publicity to chess and perhaps entice more women to play in general- like a gender specific Bobby Fischer effect. There’s no question that if any woman on the planet has a shot it’s Judit.

ok chess geeks -swoon-

If that game was juicy enough- in their second game Judit whipped out the Ruy Lopez Open as black to drawn (Swoon again!).

As those of you who follow this blog know, we have a bit of a love affair with the Ruy Lopez Open- check it out- I have all three Chess Informant Monographs on the subject by the hero of line himself!!

Naturally, the following game demonstrates Polgar’s ability to control the position and hold the draw.

I have to admit- despite all of the shenanigans her sister has been involved with here concerning the USCF (and I won’t mention specifics as I don’t want to be sued for defamation – ugh- ) i’m still a fan of Judit and wish her well.

ein Geshenk von Nikola

September 4th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, English Opening, Games, posts, Reti No comments - Tags: , , , , , ,

So this summer I was stuck in New York while most of my friends went to far away places, returning with stories of long distance bike touring, late night parties and proof that everywhere else is better than here. While I battled hurricanes and earthquakes, they were drinking strong beer on the continent and bronzing themselves on far away beaches.


Luckily, one of my friends took pity on me and brought me back an awesome chess journal from abroad: Schach: deutsch schachzeitung 8.

This little ‘zine is packed with interviews, games, articles, and – I daresay – journalism. I’m going to see if I can get a subscription somehow here in the states. One interesting article was an interview with the awesome Jan Gustafsson, who runs one of the best chess blogs on the internet. As an aside, it’s strange that more GM’s don’t have websites with commentary.

In any case, one whacky game that caught my eye from the magazine (perhaps a bad example as most of the games analyzed in the ‘zine were of a very high quality) was the following one.

The move from this game which caught my eye was not the early h4, h5 (where was this played, Washington Square Park?) but rather the push by white c5! It’s an idea which isn’t new at all, but which is new to me. I first encountered it in Wojo’s Weapons Volume 2, in which Dean Ippolito gives a number of fantastic lines for white against the Kings Indian Defense. One such line was the following: 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.d4 d6 6.0-0 Nc6 7.Nc3 e5 8.d5 Ne7 9.c5!? giving the following position:

the idea behind this early pawn push is in its most cursory explanation to attack black on the queenside before black has time for kingside expansion and a straightforward KID style attack. If dxc5 is simply terrible- it goes without saying- after 9…Ne8 10.cxd6 cxd6 white has the ability to seize control of the c-file, and gain space on the queenside quickly with plans like Qd1-Qb3, and a4,a5 etc. This plan is nastier than it looks and is so simple that it’s almost scandalous how well it works in practice. Naturally, black should try 10.Nxd6, but the resulting position is hardly the straightforward KID that most practitioners of this line had envisioned. That little kernel of chess knowledge brought to you by Dean Ippolito’s Wojo’s weapons- two books that I highly recommend for the Catalan player.

Interestingly, today I met a gentleman at the Marshall chess club who was from Poland and claimed to have worked with Wojo a long time ago- and also to be the programmer behind “swiss perfect,” the main competitor of Swiss Sys, the tournament pairing software commonly used in the U.S. to run major tournaments. He had a handful of interesting anecdotes to share- one which I did not know was that Wojo himself was a second to Tal at a young age.

Back to Schach-

another game from Schach: Deutschland Zeitung which caught my eye was the following gem between two Americans- Lenderman and Kamsky.

THE DZINDZI INDIAN

August 31st, 2011 · · Dzindzi Indian, posts 2 comments - Tags: , , , , ,

Last night at the Marshall Chess Club, I attended a superb lecture by GM Ron Henley on Crushing White: The DZINDZI INDIAN!: An Easy To Learn Chess Opening & Strategy (Volume 1)
, which is an incredibly odd opening on which Henley has just written. The lecture was superb not merely because of the eye opening ideas contained in the opening, but also because the way in which Henley approached variations by pointing out the pluses and minuses of each move along the way.

OK, I’m going to be honest with you, before the lecture I described the opening as “insane,” “scandalous,” and akin to “cursing in church.” However, I’m not sure if this speaks to Henley’s persuasive power or the rich and long term strategic nature of the opening- I’m a convert- this opening rules. The one threshold issue is, most strong players simply wont let you play it against them and will force you into playing a pirc or modern.

That being said- the opening is characterized by the following position, which occurs after the moves 1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c5 4. d5 Bxc3!? 5.bxc3 f5


If you just take a look at this position- it looks wretched for black in so many ways. First of all, he has ceded the bishop pair out of the opening, and what’s worse, has opened up the dark squares on his kingside only to immediately give away the dark square bishop. What’s more, from this position, it looks very hard to find a reasonable plan for black at first to compensate for the structural weakness of his position.

I assure you, dear readers, all is not so simple.

First of all, white’s doubled pawns are juicy little nibblets which black will threaten to torture for the entire game. Black will in general have excellent play on the light squares, and his knights will be excellently placed and as you will see dance circles around white’s hemmed in bishops. An ideal development scheme for black is Q to a5, the Queenside knight routed to either b6 or e5 via d7, Bd7, the kingside knight wants to go to e4, and finally 0-0-0 putting the king in a bullet proof bunker.

A good thematic piece placement is demonstrated below:

Like many sideline openings recommended by the Georgian visionary, this one involves a long term strategic plan. Blacks goal is to win white’s doubled pawns, and then win the game. With this goal in mind, any exchange of queens will likely favor black, as his minor pieces will be more active and able to quickly gang up on white’s target weaknesses, the doubled pawns.

Another interesting point which you must keep in mind, is that as white contorts his pieces to hold onto the doubled pawns, many tactics will present themselves on the opposite side of the board, such as various pins and classic overloading tactics. Oddly, despite the fact that white has a space advantage in this opening, it is often black who is quickly counterattacking due to his lead in development.

So- here are some thematic ideas. First of all, the white player when confronted with this position will likely react in one of two ways- (1) conservative moves such as e3, g3 etc, or (2) aggressive moves such as h4, g4, e4.

Most likely the vast majority of sub-2000 players when confronted with such a position will play something conservative. These lines all give black great play. First of all, e3 has the obvious drawback that the dark square bishop is now forever a prisoner behind pawns, for this reason alone i would reject the move without first developing the dark square bishop somewhere outside the pawn chain. Our second idea, g3 with the idea of a kingside fianchetto is not ideal either, as it removes one of the few precious defenders of the tender c4 pawn.

Without belaboring the point- passive play will lead to black’s knights dancing happily all over the board.

Therefore, white must seek to blast open the position right away with moves like e4, g4, or h4. As I mentioned above, white has the bishop pair and black is looking for play on the light squares and the e4 square in particular, so a direct challenge to this plan is likely the most correct path for white. Yet even here black’s long term strategic goals are still within reach.

The Philidor with g6!?

August 18th, 2011 · · Games, Openings, Philidor defense, posts 4 comments - Tags: , , ,

The other day, I was chatting with IM Renato Naranja about an idea that Nick Conticello showed him. It involves playing an early g6 in the Philidor, thus taking it into some sort of weird Pirc territory. The position in question occurs after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 g6!?

After glancing at the position, i thought that white should have an advantage after playing f4 and simply going for it in the center. However, with each variation I tried from this starting point, Renato easily demonstrated the flexibility of black’s position.

I can’t condone playing like this (the philidor…my word…other than Master Jim West- who can get away with playing such a defense?) but it is always eye opening to see a new idea so early on – especially one that seems so logical. As I progress (can I call it progress?) I’m reaching the conclusion that it’s best to deviate early and focus your study time on tactics, tactics, tactics, so fresh and original ideas- such as this one and those presented in the New in Chess SOS series- are worth their weight in gold for both surprise value and conservation of study time. The awesome thing about this variation is two IM’s seem to think it is solid as a rock for black- which is good enough for me. Who says originality is dead in chess? I seem to come across these amazing new little gems all the time- and I’m a patzer!

Following are some games I found over on chess labs featuring this variation.


An Instructive Loss

July 20th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Catalan, Games, posts 4 comments - Tags: , , ,

An Interesting Slav

July 12th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Games, posts, Slav Defense One comment - Tags: , ,

The following game was given to me by Rudy Blumenfeld, who requested that I help him submit it to Informant. I’m still figuring out how to add the informant symbols to a document, but in the meantime I thought I would share it with you my dear readers. It’s in a very popular system against the slav with g3 a la catalan. Admittedly, Black goes terribly wrong, early, but the game is extremely instructive in my opinion for how white can maximize his use of the light squares in this topical line.

Enjoy

ZOOM 001: Zero Hour for Operative Opening Models

June 19th, 2011 · · Alekhine's Defense, Book Review, Caro-Kann, French Defense, Grunfeld, Openings, posts, Scandinavian No comments - Tags: ,

Together with Steffen Zeuthen, the late Bent Larsen authored this enterprising book, which adopts an academic approach to an opening system which can be played with both colors.ZOOM 001: Zero hour for operative opening models
The so-called ZOOM 001 model, is the grunfeld defense, played with either color, no matter what the opponent attempts to play. Surprisingly, this turns out to be entirely viable and often transposes into many other openings. The book begins with an introduction that reads like the back of a Dr. Bronner’s soap bottle. “The basic theme is: Pressure against d4! Please do not forget that!” The first few pages are bullet points- all of which begin with “ZOOM 001 is…” For instance: “ZOOM 001 is a minimax system- once you have grasped the basic ideas your chess becomes powerful, logical, coherent, flexible, dynamic, – well, funny.”

“ZOOM 001 is a masterfile for thinking. ZOOM 001 is pattern-recognition.”

Then we are told that “Chess is by nature a game built on communication – a language marked by aggression – a discussion.”

The book argues that the basic structures of the Caro Kann, Scandinavian, Alekhine’s defense, and French defense all overlap in the ZOOM 001 system.

“And in the Alekhine defense you will find many of the Grunfeld ideas repeated. It is rather interesting to know that the Grunfeld Indian Defense was born in the 20′s – and so was Alekhine’s defense! – and both GMs were very pleased playing each other’s defense!! A provocative defense – interchangeable ideas – A LANGUAGE – a way of thinking, a powerful way of discussing!!!”

That’s not a typo, it’s a triple exclam. The whole book reads like something hastily written by someone high on stimulants. It’s perhaps the most hilariously bombastic text I have ever read that manages to actually make some coherent points here and there. It breaks up the opening “patterns” into 8 “sub-models,” lettered A-H, and offers a massive game collection ordered accordingly, with the first half being ZOOM 001 with black and second half ZOOM 001 with white. By choosing this approach, the authors hope to leave behind previous opening names which seek to hide the fact that many identical positions appear in the ECO under different codes, and instead focus simply on recurring patterns and themes. There is no question that the half of the book dedicated to the Grunfeld with black is an interesting, if out-dated game collection. Nor is there any doubt that the simple 1.d4, 2.Nf3, 3.g3 opening is entirely playable. But I have to say, if the Grunfeld has the reputation of being a fighting defense, full of vigor, piece activity, and interesting counter-attacking lines- than the same system with white seems a bit stilted, a little less dynamic. In any case, Larsen loved to play stilted systems with white- such as his 1.b3/english/reti/KIA systems, so it comes as no surprise to see his name on the cover of a book that advocates such a solid if simple setup for white. Honestly, I have to say the book is a fantastic game collection and I would recommend picking up a copy if you find one somewhere that isn’t insanely overpriced.

Harikrishna Loses First Game at 4th NY International

June 18th, 2011 · · 1. e4 e5, Games, New York Chess, Openings, posts, Ruy Lopez No comments - Tags: ,

The 4th annual NY International started with a major upset on board one, with top seed Harikrishna surprisingly losing his game to Alex Ostrovsky. The game was a tense Ruy Lopez, where white maintained the tension in the center and emerged from complications with a clear winning plan of pushing his central pawns.

Left, Harikrishna ponders his position.

Shabalov on board two won his first game as expected.