The Kenilworthian

Chess Playing New Jersey Devil

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:41:00 +0000

A chessplaying New Jersey Devil from Paranominal's Cryptozoology. Why is it that the devil is always up for a game?

Mangion - Carrelli, KCC Championship 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 20:58:00 +0000

Mangion - Carrelli
White to play.

I have annotated the game Mangion - Carrelli, KCC Championship 2010, where Club President Don Carrelli took down Dr. Ian Mangion in a wild line of the Sveshnikov Sicilian that is supposed to be practically winning for White (see diagram above) but which Carrelli managed to survive and emerge from victorious. If he wins in the final round of play Thursday, Carrelli would be the first club president to also be club champion.

GM Joel Benjamin on the Philidor

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 13:10:00 +0000

New Jersey GM Joel Benjamin bids farewell to his Ask GM Joel column at USCF Online with "GM Joel on the Question He Always Wanted," in which he answers the question that I would have most liked to ask him myself this past year: what is his improvement on Stopa - Benjamin, World Open 2009? A very satisfying answer for fans of the Antoshin Philidor.

Magnus Carlsen Wins Corus 2010 at Wijk aan Zee

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 04:22:00 +0000

World number one Magnus Carlsen won the Corus 2010 chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee (pronounced "wake ahn zey" say ChessBase and ChessVibes), followed by Vladimir Kramnik and Alexey Shirov in second. All three top finishers had held the first place spot at one point in the event, with Shirov starting the tournament extremely hot with five wins in a row, Kramnik catching up, then Carlsen grabbing the lead at the finish (despite losing to Kramnik). World Champion Vishy Anand (with the tournament's only undefeated record) and U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura finished tied for fourth. The B-group was won by 15-year-old Dutch GM Anish Giri (profiled at ChessBase) who led for most of the way (see B-player profiles at ChessBase). The C-group was won by Li Chao (see C-group profiles at ChessBase). US youngster Ray Robson led the C-group by the middle of the tournament but fell back to fourth by the end following his loss to Li Chao in the Dragon. You can play over the games from the A-section at Chessgames.com. There was excellent coverage of the event by ChessBase, TWIC, Chessdom, Mig's Daily Dirt (where there is always good discussion), ChessVibes, ChessOK and others.

Round 13 - Sunday, January 31st

Magnus Carlsen Wins Wijk aan Zee 2010 from ChessBase
Carlsen wins 72nd Corus Chess Tournament by Arne Moll at ChessVibes
ChessVibes featured a number of video reports throughout the tournament, all accessible from this page.
more

Round 12 - Saturday, January 30th

Anand beats Kramnik, Carlsen leads by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Anand defeats Kramnik to hand Carlsen the lead by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Anand - Kramnik annotated by Dennis Monokroussos
Anand - Kramnik annotated by Jorge Luis Fernandez

Round 11 - Friday, January 29th
Carlsen wins again, catches Kramnik at ChessBase
Carlsen catches Kramnik with two rounds to go by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Carlsen - Dominguez Perez annotated by Hector Leyva

Round 10 - Wednesday, January 27th
Anand and Carlsen win, Kramnik leads at ChessBase
Kramnik leads after Shirov loses by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Round 10 Games annotated by Dennis Monokroussos
Kramnik - Ivanchuk annotated by Antonio Torrecillas
Anand hands Kramnik the lead by Malcolm Pein
The Hare and the Tortoise by Ian Rogers at USCF

Round 9 - Tuesday, January 26th
Kramnik beats Carlsen, leads with Shirov by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Kramnik defeats Carlsen to join Shirov in the lead by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Kramnik beats Carlsen in great game by Malcolm Pein
Carlsen - Kramnik annotated by Antonio Torrecillas
Round 9 Games annotated by Dennis Monokroussos

Round 8 - Sunday, January 24th
Kramnik beats Nakamura by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Kramnik - Nakamura annotated by Hector Leyva
Kramnik - Nakamura commented at Chessdom by Jason Juett
Kramnik moves second after beating Nakamura by Mark Crowther at TWIC

Round 7 - Saturday, January 23rd
Nakamura beats Shirov, Carlsen beats Ivanchuk by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Nakamura defeats Shirov to close the gap to half a point by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Kramnik holds on against Short by Malcolm Pein
Carlsen - Ivanchuk annotated by Hector Leyva
Round 7 Games annotated by Dennis Monokroussos

Round 6 - Friday, January 22nd
Kramnik, Dominguez, Leko win, Short stops Shirov by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Shirov finally held, Kramnik moves joint second by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Dominguez Perez - Tiviakov annotated by Hector Leyva

Round 5 - Thursday, January 21st
Shirov beats van Wely, leads with 5.0/5 by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Shirov moves to 5 from 5 and extends lead by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Nakamura - Carlsen annotated by Dennis Monokroussos
Smeets - Kramnik annotated by Antonio Torrecillas
Another win for Shirov by Malcolm Pein

Round 4 - Tuesday, January 19th
Ivanchuk beats van Wely, Shirov wins yet again by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Shirov wins again, as does Ivanchuk by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Shirov rampage continues by Malcolm Pein
Shirov - Smeets annotated by Wilfredo Sariego Figeuredo
Shirov - Smeets annotated in the Telegraph
Round 4 Games annotated by Dennis Monokroussos

Round 3 - Monday, January 18th
A black day in Wijk, with blood on the floor by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Black day for the underdog by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Tiviakov - Shirov annotated by Hector Leyva
Third win for Shirov by Malcolm Pein

Round 2 - Sunday, January 17th
Shirov, Nakamura and Carlsen win, Shirov leads by Steve Giddins at ChessBase
Shirov makes a 2/2 start by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Carlsen's First Win by Malcolm Pein
Nakamura - Van Wely annotated by Guillermo Soppe
Nakamura - Van Wely annotated by Jack Peters
Carlsen and Shirov wins annotated by Dennis Monokroussos

Round 1 - Saturday, January 16th
Shirov, Van Wely draw first blood at ChessBase
Caution from the favorites on Day 1 by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Van Wely - Short annotated by Guillermo Soppe
Cautious start in first round by Malcolm Pein

Preliminary Reports
Wijk aan Zee -- let the games begin at ChessBase
Another Great Line-up for 2010 by Mark Crowther at TWIC
Corus Wijk aan Zee gets underway by Malcolm Pein

Chess Movie Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:27:00 +0000

Rescued Media has posted a "teaser" for their documentary about Brooklyn's I.S. 318 chess team, coached by Elizabeth Vicary and led by Justus Williams. It looks like it is going to be excellent, right up there with Mad Hot Ballroom. Hat tip: Jim West.

CHESS MOVIE (working title) from Rescued Media on Vimeo.

Kramnik on Victory over Nakamura at Corus

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:22:00 +0000

I just watched Vladimir Kramnik's brilliant (open, transparent, objective, super-clear, etc.) presentation on his victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the Leningrad Dutch at Corus. You can view the game online at Chessgames.com, along with all of the games from the A-section of the tournament, where Kramnik has now moved into a tie for second with Magnus Carlsen (whom he ~~plays today~~ just beat moments ago) behind Alexey Shirov (whom he plays Friday). The other tournaments are also very interesting, with the B led by Anish Giri and C led by American Ray Robson.

Kramnik's lecture on his game with Nakamura is really worth watching in full. Afterward he has some very nice things to say about Nakamura and the rest of the rising stars featured in the tournament and he predicts that Naka will be in the top ten and have a shot at the title by next year. I will be posting a tournament summary and webliography at the conclusion of the event and may include the other sections as well. I am predicting that Kramnik may just come from behind to win this thing.

Jonah Lehrer on Chess and Expertise

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 23:48:00 +0000

Jonah Lehrer, who often writes on choice and decision making (from How We Decide to "Don't," mentioned here previously), has a great recent blog post on Carlsen and "Chess Intuition," in which he has some interesting things to say about what we mean by expertise:

Although we tend to think of experts as being weighted down by information, their intelligence dependent on a vast set of facts, experts are actually profoundly intuitive. When experts evaluate a situation, they don't systematically compare all the available options or consciously analyze the relevant information. Carlsen, for instance, doesn't compute the probabilities of winning if he moves his rook to the left rather than the right. Instead, experts naturally depend on the emotions generated by their experience. Their prediction errors - all those mistakes they made in the past - have been translated into useful knowledge, which allows them to tap into a set of accurate feelings they can't begin to explain. Neils Bohr said it best: an expert is "a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field." From the perspective of the brain, Bohr was absolutely right.

And this is why we shouldn't be surprised that a chess prodigy raised on chess computer programs would be even more intuitive than traditional grandmasters. The software allows him to play more chess, which allows him to make more mistakes, which allows him to accumulate experience at a prodigious pace.

Who was it who said that you have to lose thousands of chess games before you become an expert? Hat tip: Chess Vibes

Kasparov Reviews "Chess Metaphors"

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:56:00 +0000

Garry Kasparov's "The Chess Master and the Computer" (The New York Review of Books, February 11, 2010) offers not only an excellent review of Diego Rasskin-Gutman's Chess Metaphors: Artificial Intelligence and the Human Mind but extensive reflections by the world's greatest chess player on the effects that computers have had on the game. I especially liked the way he sums up some of those effects:

There have been many unintended consequences, both positive and negative, of the rapid proliferation of powerful chess software. Kids love computers and take to them naturally, so it's no surprise that the same is true of the combination of chess and computers. With the introduction of super-powerful software it became possible for a youngster to have a top- level opponent at home instead of needing a professional trainer from an early age. Countries with little by way of chess tradition and few available coaches can now produce prodigies. I am in fact coaching one of them this year, nineteen-year-old Magnus Carlsen, from Norway, where relatively little chess is played.

The heavy use of computer analysis has pushed the game itself in new directions. The machine doesn't care about style or patterns or hundreds of years of established theory. It counts up the values of the chess pieces, analyzes a few billion moves, and counts them up again. (A computer translates each piece and each positional factor into a value in order to reduce the game to numbers it can crunch.) It is entirely free of prejudice and doctrine and this has contributed to the development of players who are almost as free of dogma as the machines with which they train. Increasingly, a move isn't good or bad because it looks that way or because it hasn't been done that way before. It's simply good if it works and bad if it doesn't. Although we still require a strong measure of intuition and logic to play well, humans today are starting to play more like computers.

The availability of millions of games at one's fingertips in a database is also making the game's best players younger and younger. Absorbing the thousands of essential patterns and opening moves used to take many years, a process indicative of Malcolm Gladwell's "10,000 hours to become an expert" theory as expounded in his recent book Outliers. (Gladwell's earlier book, Blink, rehashed, if more creatively, much of the cognitive psychology material that is re-rehashed in Chess Metaphors.) Today's teens, and increasingly pre-teens, can accelerate this process by plugging into a digitized archive of chess information and making full use of the superiority of the young mind to retain it all. In the pre-computer era, teenage grandmasters were rarities and almost always destined to play for the world championship. Bobby Fischer's 1958 record of attaining the grandmaster title at fifteen was broken only in 1991. It has been broken twenty times since then, with the current record holder, Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin, having claimed the highest title at the nearly absurd age of twelve in 2002. Now twenty, Karjakin is among the world's best, but like most of his modern wunderkind peers he's no Fischer, who stood out head and shoulders above his peers—and soon enough above the rest of the chess world as well.

Hat tip The Chess Mind.

Barriers, Bridges, and Shelters in Rook Endings

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 03:27:00 +0000

ChessBase has posted a wonderful Karsten Mueller article on building "Barriers" in Rook and pawn endings in order to avoid Rook checks. It's definitely worth a look, if only to admire the clarity of the examples and the useful java interface for learning. Mueller has written in his Endgame Corner at ChessCafe about the importance of creating shelters in Rook endings to avoid checks. Sometimes a pawn might even be surrendered to create the shelter (see Endgame Corner #24), the classic example of which is Capablanca - Tartakower, New York 1924 (well represented online with detailed notes and video commentary.) A classic example of using the Rook as a "bridge" to escape checks is seen in the Lucena Position. Here are some useful pieces on the Lucena:

The Sacred Key to All Rook Endings: The Lucena Position by Jeremy Silman at his site.
The Lucena Position by David Surratt at Chessville
Chess Endgame Lesson: Lucena Position
Chess Lesson #10: Rook and Pawn Endings, Lucena
DNAunion: Chess: Endgame: Rook&Pawn:Lucena

72nd Corus at Wijk aan Zee Opens

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 18:27:00 +0000

The schedule is set for the three groups (see A, B, and C) participating in the 72nd Corus Chess 2010 tournament at Wijk aan Zee. Players include Carlsen, Anand, and Kramnik in an all-star field, with U.S. players Hikaru Nakamura (A), Varuzhan Akobian (B), and young Ray Robson (C) taking part, fresh off their silver medal in the World Team Championship in Bursa, Turkey. The tournament should receive daily coverage at ChessBase (see "Wijk aan Zee Super-GM Starts Saturday"), TWIC (see preview), The Chess Mind, Chessdom, ICC, ChessVibes, Chessgames, the official site, and numerous other places around the net.

Kenilworth CC Championship Begins Tonight

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:30:00 +0000

The 20th Kenilworth Chess Club Championship begins tonight at 8:20 (get there by 8:00 sharp if you want to play). See Don Carrelli's post at the KCC Minutes blog or The Chess Coroner for complete details.

Imagination in Chess

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:11:00 +0000

Krasenkow - Swiercz, Warsaw 2010

White to play and win.

Dennis Monokroussos draws our attention to the problem-like finish of the game Krasenkow - Swiercz, Polish Championship, Warsaw 2010 (java replay or PGN). Having been challenging myself of late with Paata Gaprindashvili's Imagination in Chess (a superb collection of 756 puzzles designed to improve your chess thinking), I naturally thought the critical position from the game (see diagram above) would be a great way to test your ability to discover hidden resources or "auxiliary ideas." Try it with 15 minutes on the clock.

Gelfand - Nakamura, Bursa 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 02:48:00 +0000

Gelfand and Nakamura Post Mortem

The internet response to the game Gelfand - Nakamura, 7th World Team Championship, Bursa Turkey 2010, has been almost electric. It is a game with all of the bells and whistles typical of a brilliancy, made all the more special because of the players themselves: the U.S. Champion sacrificed a piece and then left his queen hanging for six moves against the recent winner of the World Cup. Incredible.

Gelfand - Nakamura
Black to play.

Commentators point out the similarities to Beliavsky - Nakamura 2009 and Roozmon - Charbonneau 2008. Here are some notes from around the web:

Nakamura Annotates Gelfand Scorcher by GM Hikaru Nakamura at the USCF website
Bursa WTC: Nakamura beats Gelfand in round five at ChessBase
Ben's Blog: Hikaru leads U.S. to victory over Israel, Robson draw clutch by Ben Finegold
Round 5 Games from Bursa by Dennis Monokroussos
World Teams '10: Messing with Zohan by Mig Greengard
Nakamura Brilliancy Beats Gelfand by Malcolm Pein at TWIC
Russia and USA Lead at World Team Championship at ChessVibes
Beliavsky and Gelfand Hopelessly Confused by Nakamura’s King’s Indian by Mark Ginsburg

Thomson - Stoyko, Kenilworth 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 14:52:00 +0000

Thomson - Stoyko, Kenilworth 2010

White to play and draw.

I have annotated the game Thomson - Stoyko, Garden State Chess League 2010, played Thursday night at the Kenilworth Chess Club in the match between Summit and Kenilworth. Steve Stoyko chose an interesting approach as Black against Simon Thomson's Tarrasch French, closing up the center and setting up a classic struggle on opposite sides of the board. Though the pawn structure gave White great potential for a kingside attack, Stoyko struck first with a queenside attack, eventually sacrificing a piece in order to create dangerous passed pawns in that region. Thomson battled back with a dangerous kingside attack (despite the exchange of Queens) and should have been able to force a draw by perpetual check (see diagram above) with the surprising 33.Bxh6! But time pressure mistakes gave Black the point. Steve said after the game that practically every move was "a study in choices." Sort of a "Stoyko Exercise" at every turn!

Jeff Sarwer Interview: Poker and Chess

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 01:54:00 +0000

Jennifer Shahade's "Lost and Found: An Interview with Jeff Sarwer" at the USCF website is worth a read, especially if you are among those numerous chess players with an interest in poker. I have made mention of Sarwer before on this blog ("Jeff Sarwer, Chess Prodigy Turned Poker Star" and "Jeff Sarwer - Josh Waitzkin, National Primary Championship 1986") and his story is worthy of full Hollywood treatment, especially now that he has reached what seems the sort of happy place where the film might end (though his life seems just getting interesting again). I am still waiting for the full story, but I liked his reflections on the difference between poker and chess:

Shahade: How do you compare the wrenching feeling of blundering in chess to the wrenching feeling of getting knocked out of a poker tournament?

Sarwer: Can't compare, blundering in chess feels much worse for me. In poker getting knocked out usually doesn't hurt as much because you lose a coin-flip that was out of your control or someone sucks out on you, things like that. Those type of things tend to effect me very little these days, simply because they have nothing to do with myself, it's just life playing variance with me. Occasionally in poker you feel bad when you do make a mistake, like a bad read, but since it is a game of incomplete information usually it doesn't feel that bad. It's more like a "hmmm got it wrong this time". Not a "how could I miss this? I just missed this stupid knight fork?"

GM Ken Rogoff on Artificial Intelligence

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 18:52:00 +0000

In "Grandmasters and Global Growth," Ken Rogoff (chess grandmaster and one of the world's leading economists) uses chess as an example of how artificial intelligence might represent the next growth sector for the ailing economy and one that might just be the engine to lift us out of the global slowdown. After discussing many of the ways that computers have impacted chess, he writes:

So has all this put chess players out of work? Encouragingly, the answer is “not yet.” In fact, in some ways, chess is as popular and successful today as at any point in the last few decades. Chess lends itself very well to Internet play, and fans can follow top-level tournaments in real time, often with commentary. Technology has helped thoroughly globalize chess, with the Indian Vishy Anand now the first Asian world champion, and the handsome young Norwegian Magnus Carlsen having reached rock-star status. Man and machine have learned to co-exist, for now.

See "Grandmasters and Global Growth" in ChessBase for some interesting links. And see his earlier piece in Project Syndicate on "Artificial Intelligence and Globalization" for more on the topic.

Five Easy Pieces: White Open Sicilian Repertoire

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 05:45:00 +0000

Many amateur chess players are put off from playing the Open Sicilian (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 followed by 3.d4) as White because of the wide range of choices at Black's disposal and the apparently large amount of theory you need to know to support this choice. The Open Sicilian looks like a lot of study. But 2.Nf3 followed by 3.d4 is looking better than anything else against the Sicilian these days, and the anti-Sicilian side-lines (especially the Grand Prix, Smith-Morra, and Alapin) have accumulated enough theory of their own to make the effort to learn them nearly comparable to some main line repertoire choices. A number of repertoire books, including John Nunn's three editions of Beating the Sicilian (my first influence), Nigel Davies's interesting Taming the Sicilian, Jesus de la Villa's ~~mixed bag~~ serious English system in Dismantling the Sicilian, and (the best of the lot ~~and most current~~) Quality Chess's multiple-authored Experts vs. the Sicilian make it almost seem possible to get your arms around main line Open Sicilian theory with just a little guidance [and without having to read several volumes of Khalifman's].

But is it possible to construct a low-theory, not-so-mainline Open Sicilian repertoire that is completely supported by free web sources? That's the challenge I took on in compiling the following "Five Easy Pieces" main line Sicilian webliography. If anyone is looking for a "starter" Open Sicilian repertoire on the web, here it is. I may revise it down the road if my interest (or that of readers) merits, especially to add to the supplemental resources at the end. As always, reader suggestions are most welcome.

The lines I have chosen emphasize White's claim on the center, typically with an early f4 advance. These are very dangerous lines, especially at the amateur level where you are likely to score many quick kills by just over-running your opponent in the center (typically with an early e5) or on the kingside (often with an f5 advance).

1) Sicilian Dragon, Levenfish Variation (B71)

The Levenfish Variation has always intrigued me. White sets a huge trap for naive Dragoneers (or hasty blitz players) who continue with the natural 6...Bg7, when 7.e5! leads to some very sharp and dangerous play (that anyone who is booked enough to survive would have avoided by playing the safer 6...Nc6 in the first place!) And some Black alternatives turn out not to be completely free of danger, as the following resources suggest.

The Openings Explained: The Sicilian Dragon, Levenfish Attack [B71] by NM Abby Marshall at ChessCafe
The Verdict by Andrew Martin at JeremySilman.com
Blitz #165 vs daviv52 (1904) by Kingscrusher at Letsplaychess.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE3k0BrcNJw
A smashing game with an interesting idea in the Levenfish for White, meeting Flohr's 6...Nbd7 with 7.Qe2!? trying to force through the e5 push.
Sicilian, Dragon, Levenfish Variation (B71) at Chessgames.com

Transpo Tips: Black can sidestep the Levenfish and "enter the Dragon" via an Accelerated (2...Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 g6) or Hyper-Accelerated (2...g6) move order. You can meet the Accelerated with an early f4 push in the Maroczy Bind (which is essentially a Four Pawns Attack against the KID) as described in "How to Beat a GM, Part One Torture" and "How to Beat a GM, Part Five" by IM Tim Taylor. And you can meet the Hyper-Accelerated with 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4! Nf6 5.e5! as discussed by Gary Lane in Opening Lanes #115 -- meeting 3.d4 Bg7!? with 4.dxc5! Qa5+ 5.c3! as discussed by Jonathan Hilton in "How Wojo Won: The Accelerated Dragon" (which covers Nakamura - Wojtkiewicz, New York 2005, where Wojo lost; also see their game from 2004).

2) Najdorf (B93), Scheveningen (B82), and Classical (B56) with f4

Viktor Kupreichik and others have played a very straight-forward f4 system against lines where Black gets a small center (with d6 and e6). This is most clear in the Najdorf line 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.f4 followed generally by a4, Bd3, Nf3, O-O, and possibly Qe1-g3 or -h4. This is a very straightforward line and much easier for White to play than for Black.

Shankland Teaches the Najdorf 6.f4 at Chess.com
A preview of a Chess.com video, available to subscribers, which begins laying out the basic ideas for White and Black in the Najdorf and the ideas behind 6.f4, recommending 6...e5 7.Nf3 Nbd7 8.a4 as the natural continuation.
Sicilian Najdorf, 6.f4 (B93) at Chessgames.com
Sokolov Playing Sicilian Najdorf 6.f4 (B93)
A great selection of Andrei Sokolov's games which offer a very good repertoire.
Victor Kupreichik playing Sicilian B56 at Chessgames
B82: Sicilian, Scheveningen, 6.f4 at 365Chess.com

3) Sveshnikov Variation, Markovic Attack (B33)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Nd5 Nxd5 8.exd5

This might be called the "simplified Svesh," as White avoids the long and well-trodden paths of 7.Bg5 for the exchange line 7.Nd5 Nxd5 8.exd5, fixing the pawn center and giving the game a more strategic character. White can play this line in a few ways, but my links below focus on two: (1) the tricky and tactical 8...Nb8 9.Qf3!? meeting 9...a6 by 10.Qa3 pinning the a-pawn so that the Knight can remain on b5 and preparing a direct piece assault on the backward d-pawn by Bd2-b4, and (2) the solid 8...Nb8 9.c4 planning an eventual f4! to hault Black's kingside ambitions before getting on with the business of a queenside attack with c5. The latter will hold up best long-term, but the former makes for some fun games and perhaps an interesting side-line.

The Comeback of the e5 Sicilians by Stefan Bücker
This article not only covers our preferred variation but also throws in great coverage of the Lowenthal (5...a6) and Haberditz (5...Nf6 6.N1c3 h6!?) The focus is, however, on the tricky 8...Nb8 9.Qf3!? of Paragua - Poliakov, Goa India 2002 and Solleveld-Alekseev, Santo Domingo 2003. The line was discussed in SOS #1 by Jeroen Bosch. Bücker offers an important improvement on earlier analysis that might just make this line viable for human players despite what some "Centaur analysis" might suggest. In any case, it is good also to know the more positional variations discussed below.
Opening Lanes #33 by Gary Lane
Covers the tricky 9.Qf3!? line.
Chess Knowledge Base Forum
Analysis of the tricky 8...Nb8 9.Qf3!?
Eduard Gufeld, 1936-2002, by Jack Peters
In his obituary, Peters analyzes the game Gufeld - Ivanovich, Soci 1979.
Kuperozov - Schipkov, Hungarian Ch 1990 by Boris Schipkov
Eismont - Schipkov, Team Match 1982 by Boris Schipkov
Vink - Harikrishna, Corus 2001 by Boris Schipkov
Dvoirys - Heedt, Biel 2005
A useful GM-amateur game that shows the ideal situation for White in this line -- though it involves the idea of a4-a5 instead of the c4 that I advocate.

Transpo Tips: Black can try to reach the Sveshnikov while side-stepping the 7.Nd5 line via different early-e6 move orders, but the f4 system I recommend will generally keep play in our ballpark. White also needs to be prepared for the other ...e5 lines, especially the Haberditz and Lowenthal discussed by Bücker above. Strong play against the Lowenthal was demonstrated in the game Robson - Vigorito, which I have annotated.

4) Paulsen and Kan (B48)

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 followed generally by Be3, Bd3, O-O and eventual f4 advance. This is much more straight-forward than the g3 "Guseinov Gambit" lines I've written about here previously.

Paulsen System with Bd3 by IM Zoran Ilic
From the Archives, features White playing an early Be3 and Bd3 against Black's e6 system.
Friedel - Zivanic, USCL San Francisco - Dallas 2009 analyzed by John Donaldson -- compare also his notes at the team's blog.
Friedel - De Jong, Hoogeveen 2009 analyzed by Ljubomir Kavalek
Friedel - De Jong, Hoogeveen 2009 annotated by Jack Peters

5) Pin Variation, Koch's Refutation (B40)
The ultra-sharp Pin Variation (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4) has become popular among amateurs, but Koch's 6.e5 looks practically like a refutation.

Old but Unknown Is As Good as New by Ignacio Marin
From the Internet Archives. You must see the game Tisdall-Lee, London 1981 to appreciate White's attacking power here. You can see some updated information in a ChessVibes Review of Dismantling the Sicilian.
Pin by Michael Rohde
Annotates Waitzkin-Tate, Boston 1996 with notes on the main line with 6.e5.
Sicilian Defence: Pin Variation by Grakowsky at Chess.com
Good overview of Koch's killer 6.e5!

Supplemental Material
Black has a number of sidelines that you need to know as White. I may add more material here and welcome reader recommendations.

Kovacevic vs Pazos-Gambarrotti at Chessgames
A solid response to 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 d5!? is 5. Bb5, which practically forces a favorable ending for White -- as analyzed in depth by Gary Lane in Opening Lanes #124 at ChessCafe.
Tofte - Wohl, Arctic Challenge 2009 at Chessgames
This looks like a good approach to the Grivas (early Qb6), which represents essentially a transposition to the f4 lines considered above. The main line Grivas for White typically involves an ultra-aggressive g4 and O-O-O here, but I think White does better with the more circumspect O-O treatment that Tofte demonstrates.
Against the Nimzovich Variation with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nf6, you can play 3.e5 but it is complicated and not necessarily better for White (see, for example, Andrew Martin Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 -- also here and here -- and a recent Gary Lane piece that ignores Martin's recommendations for Black). Easiest may be to head back to main lines with 3.Nc3, though you need to be prepared for 3...d5!? when White's simplest option may be represented by Movsesian - Markos 2001.

Magnus Carlsen Featured in TIME

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 23:05:00 +0000

"A Bold Opening for Chess Player Magnus Calsen" by Eben Harrell offers up a complete article to frame the interview mentioned here last week. Expect more high-profile articles on the 19-year-old world number one in the next couple weeks leading up to the annual Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee.

Friedel's Fritz-Ulvestad Wins Again

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:14:00 +0000

MacKinnon - Friedel, Edmonton 2009

Black to Play and Win

I have annotated the game MacKinnon - Friedel, Edmonton International Tournament 2009, where GM Josh Friedel continued his winning ways with the Two Knights Defense, Fritz-Ulvestad Variation (5....b5), to which he has returned since his loss to Nakamura with the more traditional 5...Na5 line. The line gave him an important point on his way to a tie for first in the Edmonton International Tournament earlier this month. His opponent was 16-year-old Canadian expert Keith MacKinnon of Saskatchewan, who commented on the game at his blog: "I didn't want to get slowly outplayed by a stronger opponent in my game against GM Josh Friedel, and so I tried to follow the game that Nakamura won against him at the US Championship this year. He played a slightly different line which I had looked at (but not nearly enough to play it against a GM in such a sharp position.) I lost quickly since my intuitive thirteenth move was actually a pretty big mistake." Actually, theory suggests that it was his 12th move that was the problem, and there followed a series of small errors that made Black's win look easy.

Related Links

Magnus Carlsen Interviewed in Time Magazine

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 01:33:00 +0000

Eben Harrell's Time interview, "Magnus Carlsen: The 19-year-old King of Chess," is the latest evidence that Carlsen has the ability to generate media interest in the game. It is a very positive interview where the world number one says, "I'm not afraid the computer will find all the ideas and leave no room for imagination." Of course, the article also suggests that chess is still judged with suspicion in the media, as though it were responsible for Fischer's dementia (instead of being the reason Fischer remained somewhat sane as long as he did): Carlsen is also asked, "Do you fear that trying to master a game of near-infinite variation can make you insane?" The Time article even links to the 1972 article "Why They Play: The Psychology of Chess," which recalls the Freudian view of the game frequently cited back then. I think the Freudians would have a field day with Tiger Woods and golf, so it's rather a shame their mode of interpretation doesn't get wider play or parody today. For more thoughts on the Time piece, check out Mig Greengard's "Time for Magnus Carlsen."

Hybrid Zukertort Database

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:59:00 +0000

David Rudel alerted me to an excellent database (created by one of his readers) on the Hybrid Zukertort Variation (1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nbd7 6.O-O Bd6), which I wrote about here as the Hybrid Zukertort Retort (java replay and PGN). The database reproduces my notes to Cvitan - Gofshtein, Zagreb 1993, and includes some classic games I had overlooked, including Salwe - Jaffe, Karlsbad 1911 and Pleci - Tartakower, Buenos Aires 1931. One of many useful resources at Rudel's "Zuke Dukes" website.

Related Links

Chess and Table Tennis

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 04:56:00 +0000

Table tennis during the holiday party.

Though a fan of both chess and table tennis, I hadn't much connected the two games until we discovered the new "ping pong" table at the Kenilworth Recreation Center during the chess club's Annual Holiday Party. You will often see sports analogized to chess, as though baseball, football, basketball, soccer, and practically every competitive endeavor with even a modicum of strategy was somehow akin to the royal game. But I think that trying to apply a chess analogy to team sports inevitably misses the mark, unless you are talking about the strategy used by coaches in shifting players and creating favorable match-ups. What makes chess so different from team sports, after all, is the importance of the individual in its play.

Table Tennis: High Speed Chess

In sports like chess and table tennis, everything relies upon the individual player. Not surprisingly, therefore, tennis and and table tennis are among those individual sports that have always seemed most attractive to chess players. Many chess players were fans of tennis, including Capablanca, Ed Lasker, and Boris Spassky. Bobby Fischer swam and bowled alone. He also played table tennis.

Bobby Fischer playing table tennis.

Primo Levi has an interesting chapter in Other People's Trades (1989) titled "The Irritable Chess Players," where he suggests that chess players are akin to poets because of the autocratic nature of their work:

Poets, and anyone who ever exercises a creative and individual professions, have in common with chess players total responsibility for their actions. This happens rarely, or does not happen at all in other human activities, whether they be paid and serious or unpaid and playful. Perhaps it is not by chance that tennis players, for example, who play alone or at most in pairs, are more irascible and neurotic than soccer players or cyclists, who work in teams. … Whoever is on his own, without allies or intermediaries between himself and his work, has no excuses in the face of failure, and excuses are a precious analgesic. The actor can unload the blame of a failure on his director, or vice versa; someone who works in an industry feels his responsibility diluted in that of numerous colleagues, superiors and inferiors, and moreover contaminated by “contingency,” competition, and the whims of the market, and the unforeseen. Someone who teaches can blame the program, the dean, and of course the students. …But the person who decides to attack with the bishop, the point he considers weak in his opponent’s deployment, is alone, he has no accomplices, not even putative, and fully and singly answers for his decision, like the poet at his writing table faced by “the tiny verse" (144).

Bruce Schauble made a similar connection recently on his blog, which reminded me of Levi's essay:

What I like about chess: there are no excuses. There is no luck involved. Either you play well or you don't. If you screw up, it's on you. It's a very pure game in that respect.

As anyone who has missed a slam despite a perfect set-up can tell you, ping pong feels the same way. There are many other reasons why table tennis seems the most analogous to chess of all games.

Both chess and table tennis are played within the confines of a physical space that you can grasp completely within your field of vision. There is nothing hidden in either game. Yet, paradoxically, in order to play both successfully you need to grasp the image of the board or the table in your mind so that you actually have a feel for where the corners are. In chess we call this "board vision," and table tennis definitely has its "table vision." How else can a practiced player get the ball deep into the corner of the table with a mere flick of the wrist? The player knows exactly where that corner is in the same way good drivers know where their car bumpers are when they parallel park on a crowded city street. The dimensions are held within your mind and translated automatically to physical action.

Players exhibit some of the same stylistic tendencies in both games. My problems in table tennis are the same that I have in chess: I rely too much on my openings (or my serves) and too often try to attack without first gaining a position of strength on the board. As I played various opponents I started thinking that they had the same idiosyncrasies and stylistic approaches in both games. Mark Kernighan is a blocker and plays table tennis with the same rope-a-dope style that he brings to chess, laying back and passively returning until his opponent over-commits enough that he can "hit him where he ain't." And Yaacov Norowitz just plays both games incredibly fast....

Yaacov Norowitz Playing Ping Pong

There is also a historical connection between the two games, as they both benefitted enormously from 1970s Cold War events (1971's "ping pong diplomacy" and 1972's Fischer - Spassky match) that elevated their profile and status in the media and exposed the same generation of folks to both games. And members of that generation are the ones who inhabit our club.

Perhaps it is this last reason why I think we are going to be playing some more table tennis at the club in the years to come.

Carlsen Wins London Chess Classic 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:38:00 +0000

The London Chess Classic ended today with very well-contested draws by Magnus Carlsen (against Nigel Short, in a game played "to the kings") and Vladimir Kramnik (against Hikaru Nakamura) that kept Carlsen's one-point margin in place. Luke McShane was awarded the brilliancy prize for his innovative Round 5 victory over Nakamura using the King's Indian Defense with Na6. Carlsen's countryman, Norwegian GM Jon Ludvig Hammer, won the concurrent London FIDE Open a full point ahead of the field. And WIM Arianne Caoili won the London FIDE Women's Invitational by a point and a half over the rest of the field. You can find games from all of the events in the Downloads / PGN Games section of the official website, and you can easily find and play over main event games at Chessgames.com. I have found some of the games in the lower tournaments to be of great interest and may return to them in future posts.

I have put together a round-by-round webliography of articles analyzing the games from the main event. Long ago I got in the habit of looking at GM games using multiple sets of notes, finding that every commentator focuses on different questions in the game that are worth considering, and that opinions often diverge even where the same issues are considered. Edward Winter once very nicely explored the case of "Analytical Disaccord" surrounding the game Capablanca - Bogoljubow, Moscow 1925 which was only an extreme example of just how differently various annotators can see things. I hope readers find this collection of notes useful. I will add more as they become available and welcome links from readers.

With his performance in this tournament, Carlsen guarantees that he will keep his world number one ranking on the official FIDE ratings list, making him the youngest official number one player in history. Next up for the champ will be the Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee (January 15 - 31).

Round 7

ChessBase Express Report
Video Interview with Magnus Carlsen by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
Round 7 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
Carlsen Wins; Nakamura Mid-Field by Ian Rogers at USCF
Short - Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
Round 7 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK

Round 6

Kramnik and Ni Hua Win, Carlsen Escapes by John Saunders at ChessBase
Kramnik and Ni Hua Win in Round 6 by Peter Doggers at ChessVibes
Includes video of Short and Ni Hua analyzing their game.
Carlsen - Adams, Raymond Keene at Times Online
Carlsen - Adams, Pete Karagianis at Chessdom
London Classic Final Round by Mig Greengard
In a post looking toward the final round of play, Greengard nicely sums up the penultimate round action.
Round 6 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK

Round 5

Carlsen and McShane Win by John Saunders at ChessBase
Ni Hua - Carlsen, John Saunders
Nakamura - McShane, John Saunders
Round 5 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
Round 5 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
Ni Hua - Carlsen, Jason Juett at Chessdom
London Classic: Kramnik Comeback; Carlsen Human (Maybe) by Mig Greengard
A good summary of the action through round 5.

Round 4

All Games Drawn but Fighting Chess by John Saunders at ChessBase
Round 4 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
Round 4 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
Round 4 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
Carlsen - Nakamura, John Saunders
Short - Ni Hua, John Saunders
Carlsen - Nakamura, Ian Rogers at USCF
Carlsen - Nakamura, Jason Juett at Chessdom
Carlsen - Nakamura, Malcolm Pein in the London Telegraph

Round 3

Kramnik Wins Again, Carlsen Leads by John Saunders at ChessBase
McShane - Kramnik, John Saunders
Howell - Carlsen, John Saunders
Howell - Carlsen, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
McShane - Kramnik, Malcolm Pein (also at TWIC)
Howell - Carlsen, Jason Juett and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
Round 3 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK

Round 2

Kramnik and Carlsen Analyzed by John Saunders at ChessBase
Kramnik - Ni Hua, John Saunders
Carlsen - McShane, John Saunders
Round 2 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
Round 2 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther at TWIC
Round 2 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
Thirty Love, Carlsen Beats McShane photos by Frederic Friedel at ChessBase
London Classic: Carlsen Starts Hot by Mig Greengard
Kramnik - Ni Hua, Malcolm Pein at TWIC
Carlsen - McShane, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom
Adams - Nakamura, Christian Bauer and Peter Karagianis at Chessdom

Round 1

C is for Carlsen by John Saunders at ChessBase
Carlsen explains his win over Kramnik in the first round.
Round 1 Games Annotated, Dennis Monokroussos
Round 1 Games Annotated, Mark Crowther
Round 1 Games Annotated, Vallejo Pons at the official site
Round 1 Games Annotated, Rybka at ChessOK
Carlsen - Kramnik, John Saunders
Carlsen - Kramnik, Lubomir Kavalek, Washington Post
Carlsen - Kramnik, Malcolm Pein
Carlsen - Kramnik, Hector Leyva at InforChess
Carlsen - Kramnik at Chessdom
Nakamura - Ni Hua at Chessdom

Additional Coverage

People and Personalities at the London Chess Classic, photos by Frederic Friedel
London Chess Classic Photographs at The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog

Yaacov Norowitz on Color Complexes

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 23:56:00 +0000

Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz lectured on "color complexes" Thursday night at the club, showing two of his own games, including a blitz win over former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov to illustrate his ideas. The color complex concept seems especially useful in blitz play, where trying to balance control of dark and light squares can yield an instant barometer of how well you stand positionally and can be translated quickly into strategy and action.

One of the more interesting ideas that Norowitz discussed was that you could value the pieces according to how well they control light and dark squares, in which case the Bishop practically becomes the basic unit of value:

Bishop: $1,000 of its color -- the two Bishops and an unopposed Bishop (which he called "the Golden Bishop") would be more valuable.
Knight: $500 of light and $500 of dark, or about $1,000
Rook: $750 of light and $750 of dark, or about $1,500
Queen: $1,500 of light and $1,500 of dark, or about $3,000

It was definitely a fascinating lecture, which introduced a completely different paradigm than most people were used to for looking at chess positions.

Test yourself with the position below, which could have arisen in one of the games Norowitz discussed as the conclusion of White's light square strategy.

The triumph of light-square strategy
White to play and win

Yaacov Norowitz Lecture on "Color Complexes"

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Goeller) — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:53:00 +0000

Kenilworth Chess Club Champion Yaacov Norowitz will lecture tonight on "Color Complexes" (a.k.a. "square strategy") at the club. Admission is $5. This topic was touched upon in his previous lecture (which was very well received) on the Stonewall Attack. I will be attending and recommend it to everyone.