Category: Indian Defences

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.

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.

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.

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.

KAMSKY CRUSHES TOPALOV IN GAME 2!

May 6th, 2011 · · Games, Grunfeld, Indian Defences, Openings, posts No comments - Tags: , , ,

I could hardly believe my eyes early this morning when Topalov played the wacky 0-0-0 in a Qb3 Grunfeld, inviting black’s bishops to bear down upon his king position like an army of elephants. The game is a gorgeous masterpiece for several reasons. Watching the game live with my engine going, there were several interesting tactical shots that Kamsky no doubt saw but chose not to enter into, preferring to totally clamp down on Topalov’s position with unassuming pawn pushes that left his pieces uncoordinated and his king gasping for air.

The game features an odd h pawn thrust by Topa who failed to grasp the peril of his position.

Once again, all other games were draws and so Kamsky is the first of the contenders to draw blood, and he appears to be in top form. Great analysis of the match as always over at Chessdom. I absolutely cannot wait to see the game tomorrow when Kamksy will have the white pieces again.

The New Yorker Profiles Magnus

March 21st, 2011 · · Games, Kings Indian Defense, posts 2 comments - Tags: , , ,

I have been a subscriber of The New Yorker Magazine for nearly ten years now and have been patiently waiting for an article about chess. There may have been a mention about Kasparov’s political aspirations here or there in that time (snooze…), but apart from that, I recall only a paucity of chess related material, which is surprising considering the demographic to whom the New Yorker is marketed. Perhaps not surprisingly, it took an enigmatic figure like Carlsen to entice the notoriously choosy editors to finally run a profile of a chess player. The article appeared in the March 21st edition, and has already been given ample treatment by the chess blogosphere elsewhere, such as over on Greengard’s “chess ninja.”

I was eager to see how the article would handle chess. Would it describe positions in detail or risk losing most readers by getting bogged down in the vocabulary of opening theory? Would they …gasp…include a diagram? In the first few paragraphs of the article, D.T. Max describes the game in Wijk Aan Zee where Carlsen whipped out the Chigorin against Kramnik, something which most chess players would quickly be able to decipher from the author’s awkward attempt to describe the principals of opening theory in passing to an audience who likely neither understood the ideas as presented nor appreciated how Carlsen was breaking them. In any case, this was my favorite part of the article and from there I have to say it managed to disappoint me, much as Magnus’s career has done.

A year ago, I like many people was smitten with Magnus. I had Magnus fever, a symptom of which was a certain kind of myopia that blinded me to his negative traits, such that to my eyes he basked in a glow of Caissa’s benediction and could do no wrong. It goes without saying that this is no longer the case. Notwithstanding his disappointing decision to back out of the World Championship Cycle just at the moment when it was starting to look like something most chess players have been demanding for years, Magnus has irked me lately for other reasons. His former humility has given way to an arrogance that borders on megalomania. For instance, his comment that Giri could “never be as strong as me” (which was mentioned in the New Yorker article) smacks of something a professional wrestler might scream into a camera to intimidate his opponent, but certainly not something a professional chess player should say about a quickly improving young talent. That Giri destroyed Magnus in a mere 22 moves with black only a short time later only highlights the degree of Carlsen’s misperception of his own strength.

In any case, despite the fact that there is likely nothing in the profile which you do not already know about Magnus, I have to say that it’s worth reading and as you would expect, disgustingly well-written. It will not be on the news stands much longer though, so grab a copy ASAP before the March 28th edition comes out.

My Friend’s First Tango with a GM

March 18th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Games, Kings Indian Defense, New York Chess, posts 3 comments - Tags:

My Friend Szymon, who a lot of my readers probably know from the Tea Lounge in Park Slope or as the captain of our New York Commercial Chess League Team, recently played in the 4 rated games tournament on thursday nights at the Marshall, and had the luck of being paired with GM Kekelidze. The game is actually very interesting, and certainly instructive for any KID players out there. I’m including Szymon’s notes and his pgn below:

My First Game Ever With a Grandmaster
Yesterday I went to the Marshall Chess Club for their G30 (actually this is 25min with 5sec delay) tournament, which they always have on Thursdays and I started to play in these once a month this year. They run them in the Swiss system, which means that in the first round, being rated in provisional 1800′s, I’m always paired up, and this time was no different- I had to play grandmaster (!) Mikheil Kekelidze, rated 2460 FIDE and 2536 USCF. I expected to be wiped off the board and proceed to the next round, but anyway I just wanted to play him like I would anyone else, that’s my approach- play the board, not the man. And it turned out to be a King’s Indian, where we both didn’t play the Classical Variation in the best fashion, but entering the middlegame, he was better, having deprived me of my light-squared bishop. And that was the point where I started playing better and better and making him think (probably at that point he could already think about the game going downhill), and the resistance I put forced concessions from him, which, after the queen exchange, amazingly, brought me a position which is really good, shame that I didn’t hold it longer and started thinking what to do to REALLY draw this game, because that’s where the advantage was lost. I should have been a little bit bolder and not have played 42…fxg3 for example. With both of us very low on the clock, he saw a beautiful tactic in the end and the inevitable happened. But managing to play a 49-move game against a grandmaster is something that I would never think I’m able to pull off. Please check the game for my comments and variations.

Naka Wins in Wijk with off-beat Nimzo Gambit

January 22nd, 2011 · · Nimzo-Indian No comments - Tags: ,

Today at Tata, Anand drew his game with Grischuk, and a majority of the other games were decisive. The standings can be found here. By far the most interesting game to my eyes was the L’Ami- Nakamura game, in which Nakamura played the volatile gambit 6…b5 in the Nimzo-Indian. L’Ami declined to accept the gambit, as black gets explosive pressure in return for the pawn, and the game entered very quiet waters. Interestingly, the ending found Nakamura with a knight pair vs L’Ami’s bishop pair, but Nakamura coordinated his knights amazingly well, deep in the open pastures of white’s position, and managed to force resignation. Incidentally, this line in the nimzo was recommended by Andrew Martin in his book “Secret Weapons,” which oddly has a pistol on the cover and which I bought on ebay for three dollars a year ago (it’s now selling for 80 on amazon- go figure.) In any case, how wild to see such a move in high level chess- no question- Nakamura is the most interesting player in Group A. Tomorrow is one of the most exciting games of the tournament- Anand-Carlsen. I can’t wait- I will be watching it live at the Marshall Chess Club while I direct tomorrow’s tournament, checking in between rounds to see whether Anand can teach the kid a lesson about what it takes to be world champion.

In any case, here is Naka’s game-

The Czech Benoni: An Incredibly Instructive Game

January 16th, 2011 · · Annotated Games, Benoni, Games, posts, uncommon No comments - Tags: , , , , ,


Last week I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Asa Hoffman at the Marshall Chess Club on “unorthodox openings.” Since Asa plays exclusively off-beat openings, the lecture was really a selection of his games which he thought were particularly instructive. One such game was the following, which I begged him for a copy of and he surprisingly allowed me to have. The game is instructive for a few reasons, but if nothing else it is an amazing introduction to the Czech Benoni with annotated ideas that give enough material to even start playing the opening immediately. Another reason I love this game is because of the interesting plans that Asa finds. The most aesthetically interesting one involves the geometric pattern he traces with his bishop in order to arrive at an ideal square.

An Interesting Idea in the King’s Indian Defense: Gallagher’s Gambit

December 21st, 2010 · · Annotated Games, Games, Kings Indian Defense, Openings, posts One comment - Tags: , ,

I’ve heard it said that if black is willing to give up a pawn in the opening than he should have no problems. Last night, while going over some instructive games in John Watson’s eye-opening manual entitled “Chess Strategy in Action,” I came across the following idea. In a chapter entitled “Surrendering the Center,” Watson demonstrates how black breaks classical chess rules by giving up the center, as well as a center pawn in exchange for incredibly fast piece coordination and development. The plan involves black exchanging off his e pawn for white’s d pawn, and later blasting away at white’s position with a gambit. Gallagher’s idea is to exchange on d4 in the following diagram, then following up with Re8, a6, Rb8, b5, c5 and hitting white’s center with everything he’s got.

Naturally, this leaves the d6 pawn weak, but black plans on gaining a tempo off the queen if she captures it with the rook lift to b6, then doubling rooks by shifting it along the third rank to e6. This attacking scheme is so straightforward that any King’s Indian Defense player should have it in his back pocket for the next time he faces the ubiquitous fianchetto variation.

In the following game, Watson declares that black is winning easily after move 23. A quick glance at the position demonstrates just how much activity he got in return for his d-pawn.

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Mecking v. Fischer 1970, Buenos Aires, Grunfeld with 4.Bg5

November 26th, 2010 · · Book Review, Grunfeld, Openings, posts No comments - Tags: , , ,

I recently came across a biography of the Brazilian GM Henrique Mecking titled “Latin Chess Genius,” edited and written by Stephen W. Gordon. I particularly liked Gordon’s inscription: “For the girls, the only reason I do anything,” which no doubt refers to his daughters but is also a rather humorous double entendre, since to think of a chess player writing a chess book “for the ladies” is in itself pretty laughable… in any case, the book is wonderful for a few reasons. First of all, it contains a wealth of biographical insight condensed into only 20 or so pages, providing the reader with details about Mecking’s illness and its effects on his career, as well as filling in a few gaps with anecdotes from his showdowns with the worlds greatest. In the 1960′s and 70′s, Mecking was a breakout chess player who scored well against the top players of the day, reaching a candidates match with Kortchnoi which he lost by 2 points, tragically weakened by illness.

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Play the 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian, by Yuri Yakovich

November 7th, 2010 · · Book Review, Nimzo-Indian, posts No comments - Tags: , , , ,

Yuri Yakovich, who previously authored an incredible book on the sveshnikov sicilian for Gambit as well, has produced a fantastic little book here, which I highly recommend for the following reasons: First of all, the book is not a massive treatise that requires months of your time, but instead is on a nice playable sideline, although the reader has to be prepared to play a saemisch nimzo-indian when adopting this move order, the theory of 4.f3 is not overwhelming, as it may be in the 4.e3 (Rubinstein) or the 4.Qc2 (Capablanca) Nimzo-Indian systems. Here, in less than one hundred pages, Yuri Yakovich gives a nice overview of this system, covering at least two options for white in all lines, and offering thematic, recurring ideas along the way, which gives the reader an intuitive feel for the positions very quickly.

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The Rat Defense! An explosive repertoire for black

November 4th, 2010 · · Book Review, Old Indian, Pirc defense, posts No comments - Tags: ,

rat

This book is amazing! I found two entirely new and mind-blowingly creative openings in this book (which i will discuss below) covered in detail, which give the reader an enormous amount of transpositional possibilities. I am not a titled player, and so these sidelines may not be so surprising to someone who is, but to my eyes they get pretty high marks in the “surprise” department. What’s more, they score very well practically. A lot of opening books begin with an introduction that goes something like this: No time to study theory? Want to play something simple and solid? Then (fill in the blank with a boring opening) is perfect for you!

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A game of chess with Howard Stern

November 4th, 2010 · · Games, Kings Indian Defense, posts No comments - Tags: , ,

Last Winter, I played in my first tournament at the Marshall Chess Club and I finished second.  Since then, I have played in several other competitive events, my best finish being first place at the u1600 at the marshall. My game with howard and comments, after the jump….

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