Tal - Stoyko, Simultaneous Exhibit 1990

Tal - Stoyko 1990
Black to play.

Tal - Stoyko 1990
Black to play.

I have annoted the game Mikhail Tal - Steve Stoyko, Simultaneous Exhibit 1990. I was visiting with Steve when he found the game score after many years. "I sacced a piece against Tal," he said as he handed it to me. It was an impressive performance by both players and a very interesting game. In the two diagrammed positions, Stoyko plays combinations that do not win material but do improve his position significantly and help to create winning chances for Black.

Erenburg Wins 2nd NJ Futurity

Ippolito - Erenburg
Black to play

Twenty-five-year-old Israeli GM Sergey Erenburg won the 2nd NJ Futurity International with a score of 7.5/9, a full point ahead of his nearest competitor, GM Leonid Yudasin.  Erenburg drew all three of the other GMs in the event and beat everyone else.  I have analyzed his best game, against IM Dean Ippolito, which justly won the brilliancy prize donated by Pete Tamburro (see "Two Brilliancies from the 2nd NJ Futurity 2008").  Ippolito's Dean of Chess Academy hosted the tourney, which ran from July 7-11.  

Black plays a shocker in the diagram above, going on to win in scintillating style.  I have also analyzed the game Ju - Scekic, which featured the gambit 1.e4 d5 2.exd5 c6!?!  White played a bit too passively and was eventually overcome with a vigorous attack.  Scekic demonstrated an aggressive style in the event and his games are worth a look.

Erenburg also took clear first place at last year's NJ Futurity.  No norms were scored in either tournament.  I have posted the rest of the games online. You can also view the PGN file of all games from the NJSCF site or download the CBV from NJoyChess.

Related articles:

• Erenburg Wins NJ Futurity Again by Jennifer Shahade at USCF
  
• NJ Futurity II -- Erenburg Repeats! at the NJ Knockouts Blog
  
• Ehlvest and Erenburg Lead Futurity, New Jersey Futurity Starts and Erenburg Wins NJ Futurity (2007) by Jennifer Shahade
  

Chess Helps Hostages

Hostages display the chess set that helped them survive.

ChessBase News reports that the rescued American hostages held by the FARC in the Columbian jungles told a CNN interviewer how chess helped them survive their harrowing ordeal.  One of the hostages took three months to carve a chess set by hand using a broken piece of machete, and the hundreds of hours that he and his fellow hostages spent playing the game helped them achieve a sense of freedom and escape that made it possible to survive.

Chessidim

There is an interesting article today in the New Jersey Jewish Standard titled "Chessidim" by Josh Lipowsky (USCF 1650) which details the important role that Jews have played in the history of chess.  An accompanying article by the same author discusses "Bobby Fischer: The Self-Hating Jewish Champion."

This is not the first time that the historical importance of Jewish chess players has been highlighted.  There have been a number of books (especially by Victor Keats), articles (see "Chess and Jews" by Edward Winter), and websites ("Jews in Chess") on the phenomenon.  A New York Times article a few years back ("Researchers Say Intelligence and Diseases May Be Linked in Ashkenazic Genes" -- see also ChessBase News) even suggested a genetic link, caused by the social marginalization of Ashkenazi Jews to"occupations that required more than usual mental agility."  Whatever the reason, there is no question that Jewish players have made important contributions to the game and Mr. Lipowsky's articles do a good job of detailing their history.

NJ Futurity Broadcast at NJSCF

Scekic - Erenburg, NJ Futurity
Black to play and win

The New Jersey State Chess Federation website is posting a live broadcast of games from the NJ Futurity International, which features four GMs, four IMs, and the talented young players Evan Ju and Mackenzie Molner. It is being held at the Dean of Chess Academy.

Other coverage:
New Jersey Knockouts Blog
"New Jersey Futurity Starts" by Jennifer Shahade at USCF
Schedule posted at NJoyChess

More Second Chances

Sherer - Goeller
White to play

Isn't it always the case: we think we played a good game at the club in the evening, but by the next day the computer shows us what a mess it really was.  Lately, though, I have learned to see the errors in the course of a chess game more positively, as evidence that there are always second chances.  My game with young Max Sherer in the Kenilworth Chess Club's Summer Tourney offers another example of that.  After missing my best continuation, I tried for some back-rank tactics with 21...Rd1? (see diagram above), when White has a chance to turn the tables.  Fortunately, he missed it, giving me a second chance to win the game....

Chess and Second Chances

McAuliffe - Goeller
White to move after 14.Qe2 Qd7

Goeller - Kernighan
White to move after 22...h3

Goeller - Kernighan
White to move after 26...h2

I played a couple of games in the Kenilworth Chess Club's Summer Tournament, which I took the time to annotate for my own benefit and thought I'd share: see Goeller - Kernighan and McAuliffe - Goeller.  Both were played at Game 60 and have some error on both sides.  And both reached complicated tactical positions with lots of possibilities. Looking through these games, I was reminded of how you often have second chances in chess. You just have to be awake to claim them.

In his article "The Bobby Fischer That We Loved" in Chess Life, GM Larry Evans reprints an interview he did with Frank Brady in which he says: "I subscribe to a theory of the second resource. That is, no matter how bad your position, if it’s not totally lost, you will reach a point during the game where you will be presented with an opportunity to win or draw if you take advantage of it."  

Nowhere is that "second resource" more common than in amateur games, where you will typically get even a third or fourth resource before the end.  In his book Rapid Chess Improvement, Michael de la Maza suggests using a computer to construct "evaluation graphs" of your games so that you can see where you lost concentration or lost the thread.  I imagine the graphs for most amateur games would show quite a bit of fluctuation.

The diagrams above show three moments from my two games where second or third chances were missed.  

In the first diagram, which could have occured in the game had McAuliffe chosen the more natural 14.Qe2 rather than 14.Qc2, White has a hidden resource after my intended 14...Qd7.  Surprisingly, his best move would then be 15.Ng5! and if 15...h6 (which I had intended) then 16.Nde4! leads to advantageous simplifications for White.

In my game with Kernighan, I tossed away a pawn early in the game but fought back rather well into a complicated middlegame with mutual chances.  In the second diagram above, after 22...h3, I had the chance for a very strong attacking plan with 23.Qg4!! intending Qg7 (which Kernighan had seen).  If then 23... h2 24. Nxh2! Rxh2 25. Qg7 Ke7 (25... Qe7 26. Rb8) 26. Qf6+ Kd7 27. Nb6+ Rxb6 28. Qxd8+ Kxd8 29. Rxb6 is close to winning.  Best would likely be 23... Qe7 24. Rb8 Kd7 25. Rxc8!? Kxc8 26. Qg7  and White has the edge in a complicated game.

In the third diagram, after 26...h2, I missed my second second chance by playing the passive 27.Rh1? when I could have gone on the counter-attack with 27. Ra1!! as pointed out by a class C player after the game. Fritz says it basically forces a draw against best play by Black.  If 27...h1=Q? then White is actually winning after 28.Rxa2! And if 27... Rc7 28. Nxc8! Qxc8 29. Qf6! Rxg5 (29... h1=Q 30. Qg7 wins!) 30. Qxg5 Qb8 31. Rxf8+ Kxf8 32. Qh6+ Kg8 33. Qg5+ Kf8 34. Qh6+ Kg8 (34... Ke7 35. Qf6+) 35. Qg5+ forces a draw.   Relatively best may be 27... Rb7 when 28. Rh1  is about equal and a huge improvement over the game.

The 2008 Kenilworth Summer Tourney (or KST) continues every Thursday until the end of August and it is never too late to join.  Check out The Chess Coroner's blog for continuing coverage and games.  And be awake to your second chances.

Anand on the Indian Origins of Chess

"The March of Chess" from India

In a Time Magazine essay titled "The Indian Defense," reigning world chess champion Viswanathan Anand writes about how the origins of the game helped him to feel entitled to pursue the crown:

In 1991, at my first international tournament, in Reggio Emilia in northern Italy, a Russian grandmaster condescendingly told me I could at best be a coffee-house player because I had not been tutored in the Soviet school of chess, which then dominated the sport. With the arrogance of youth — I was 21 — I thought to myself, "But didn't we Indians invent chess? Why shouldn't I have my own route to the top of the sport?"  

It would take me 17 years to find that route, and along the way I've had hundreds of conversations about the origins of chess — with players, fans, officials, taxi drivers, barbers and who knows how many people who sat next to me on a plane.  I've heard the ownership of chess being claimed by Russians, Chinese, Ukrainians, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Spaniards and Greeks. My own view is that the sport belongs to everybody who plays it, but the question of its origins is easy enough to answer: chess comes from India.

An interesting personal reflection and worth a look.  Hat tip: ChessBase News.

Urusov Gambit - The Tricky 3...Nxe4 4.dxe5 Line

A Tactically Charged Position
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5

I continue my re-analysis of the Urusov Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4) with a look at "The Tricky 3...Nxe4 4.dxe5 Line."  The position in the diagram above (with Black to move) is already very tactical.  The Knight is vulnerable at e4, giving White immediate threats, including 5.Qd5 forking f7 and the Knight at e4 and 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Qd5+ followed by Qxe4 winning a pawn and misplacing Black's King. But Black does have the move, and he has a number of attacking ideas of his own, including the f2-assaults 4...Bc5, 4...Qh4, and 4...Nxf2, none of which is effective against precise play.  Black's best move in the position is probably 4...c6, countering White's Qd5 threats and hoping to expand by 5...d5.  After 5.Qe2 Nc5 White keeps an edge but Black has chances.

Urusov Gambit -- Patzer Variation or Refutation?

The Patzer Variation, 4...Bb4+

One of the most difficult lines to prove a White advantage against in the Urusov Gambit is the surprisingly good 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nf3 Bb4+. I have posted two recent games that show the typical struggle in that line, which often develops into a rather tactical endgame, with both Kings in the center and potential targets all over the board. Urusov expert Max Burkett (who sent me the second game) likes to call this "the Patzer Variation," after the phrase "patzer sees a check, patzer plays a check." But it may actually come closest to being a "refutation" of the Urusov, in that it probably allows Black to equalize with precise play. Fortunately, the move continues to be favored only by patzers, so Urusov aficionados will not usually have to face the most precise defense.

Waitzkin on the "Multitasking Virus"

I have always thought that one of the values of chess and other games is that they help us practice the art of focused attention. Josh Waitzkin has written about this in his book The Art of Learning (just out in paperback) and returns to the topic in an essay on the "Multitasking Virus in Our Classrooms" which you can read at the USCF site or, better, in its original form in two posts at the Four Hour Workweek blog: "Multitasking and the End of Learning? -- Part One" and "Part Two" -- which include lots of interesting discussion and commentary from readers and blog-master Tim Ferris (author of The 4-Hour Workweek, which is on my summer reading list.)

FM Tom Bartell Simul at KCC

Max Sherer (foreground) seems to be practicing
for his own simuls as he awaits Bartell's move.

NM Mark Kernighan (left, playing Black) won a
marathon Q v R ending against Bartell.

New Jersey FM Tom Bartell finished +10 =2 -1 in a simultaneous exhibition last night at the Kenilworth Chess Club. The Chess Coroner -- club president John Moldovan -- has posted all of the games online in Java replay and zipped PGN format. Both John and I took early draws (I achieved a winning position with my Left Hook Grand Prix with a3 line -- proving that Tom should read my blog more often!) while club champion NM Mark Kernighan kept the former NJ Open champion (2004 and 2005) late into the evening with a marathon Queen versus Rook ending. We joked that Mark was sure working hard to get back $10, but if you play over that game you might understand that the victory was well deserved and worth the effort.

Bartell - Kernighan
Black to Play and Win

I especially enjoyed Kernighan's method of winning the Rook ending, which is a study in itself. But in the diagram above I should say, "Black to Play and Win -- in almost 50 more moves!" A typical nail-biter for our club champion, who seems to enjoy the challenge of these long and difficult endings.

Despite the loss, Bartell had a good showing. We should also congratulate him for graduating last week from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Sociology. We wish him the best of luck in his job search and in his continuing IM-title hunt.

FM Tom Bartell in Chicago

Bartell - Ginsburg, Chicago 2008
White to play and win.

I have annotated two nice games by New Jersey FM Tom Bartell from the 11th North American FIDE Invitational in Chicago, May 17-23, where he finished tied for 4th and likely missed an IM norm only due to a last round loss.

Tom will be giving a simultaneous exhibition at the Kenilworth Chess Club on Thursday, May 29, beginning at 8:30 p.m. The cost is $10. More details are available at the KCC Minutes blog.

More information about the North American FIDE Invitational can be found at the North American Chess Association site. Games from the event can be found at the Monroi site and all of Tommy's games at The Chess Coroner's site.

Consultation Game Concludes

I was not able to attend the conclusion of the consultation game, but I see that The Chess Coroner has covered it in "Consultation Conclusion," which includes a Java Replay of the whole game. That was a tough ending to try to win for White, and I'm not surprised we should have lost it. We should have listened to FM Steve Stoyko more often, of course, but I'm glad he let the team dictate the course of things! As always, this was a great club event and I hope our example inspires others.