The Chess Mind

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Anand-Kamsky, Las Palmas 1995

With world champion Viswanathan Anand set to defend his title against Vladimir Kramnik, and Gata Kamsky to do battle with Veselin Topalov for the right to play for the title next year, it's conceivable that 2009 will see an Anand-Kamsky championship match. If so, it will be their third tilt, with their two previous contests taking place in candidates matches in the mid-1990s.

In the first, an eight-game match in Sanghi Nagar, Anand led by two games with three to go. All would seem to be well, but he lost games 6 and 7, and after a draw in round 8, continued his collapse in the rapid tiebreak, losing both games (the last in just 17 moves). That was the semi-final match in the FIDE cycle. Kamsky ultimately made it to the world championship match against Karpov in 1996, where he was defeated; he retired shortly thereafter.

Meanwhile, they met again in a 12-game match, the final of the PCA Candidates, and here too they were tied after eight games. While Anand had generally enjoyed the better positions in their games, Kamsky had shown himself the better pressure player - up to this point. But now, in game 9, Anand rose to the occasion and played a beautiful game, winning convincingly and destroying Kamsky's main black opening for the match. Game 10 was drawn, and Kamsky's backup opening was beaten soundly in the finale. This gave Anand the right to face Kasparov the next year, and like Kamsky against Karpov, Anand too was ultimately unsuccessful in his first shot at the title.

Still, the match was a big success for Anand, as he overcame a difficult opponent and proved that he could handle a big pressure situation - and with style. In our show this week, we'll look at his majestic win in game 9 of the 1995 match. The game demonstrated practically everything: a nice, new opening idea, a sustained attack that involved play on all three parts of the board in beautiful harmony, nice variations, the interplay of strategic goals and tactical play, a few ingenious maneuvers - this game had it all, aside from an endgame.

Now that I've whetted your appetite, all you need to do is tune in to the playchess.com server tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET. Log on to the server, go into the broadcast room, and double-click on my nickname there (Initiative) and you're good to go. (Further directions here, especially for those who would like to watch archived shows.) Hope to see you there!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday July 23, 2008 at 3:45am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: The Benko Gambit, starring Pal Benko

With the Hungarian/American grandmaster Pal Benko turning 80 earlier this week, it seems like a good time to celebrate his chess with a look at his best-known contribution to the chess world, the eponymous Benko Gambit. Benko, a two-time world championship Candidate, did not invent the gambit (known as the "Volga Gambit" in some parts of the world), but he was the first strong grandmaster to use it on a regular basis. It's because of his efforts, starting in the late 60s, that the opening became a popular weapon among professionals and amateurs alike.

The Gambit is a remarkable weapon. Black gives up a pawn on move 3, and in return gains neither time, attacking chances against White's king or even any initiative to speak of. Stranger still, Black is often delighted to exchange piece after piece - just the opposite of what we'd expect from a gambit. What he does enjoy is very long term pressure against White's queenside along the a- and b-files (at least in classic lines where White accepts the gambit), the kind of pressure that can pay off 15, 20, even 30 or more moves down the road. It's an excellent fighting weapon, especially against those players who use 1.d4 in hopes of reaching a safe, quiet position where only two results (a White win or a draw) are possible, as there is no way for White to dry the game up, even if he's well-prepared.

Now that I've whetted your appetite, I hope you'll join me tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET, as we see how the master and founding father of this system handled it in his own games. We'll see some of his ideas about the opening per se, but more importantly, we'll see how the Benko Gambit plays itself out in the middlegame and ending. This will give us a template, enabling us to see some of the thematic ideas we can use to win our own games. Pure practicality!

(If your only reservation is cost, then fear not: it's free. Not sure how to watch? Again, it's no problem: click here to read full directions. See you then!)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 3:40am. 1 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Accessing my ChessBase Shows

Every Wednesday night, I present a live show on ChessBase's playchess.com server, and once the show is over it is uploaded into the server's archives. In this entry I'll explain how to access both live and archived shows.

(show)

First Steps: Meeting your software needs

ChessBase Software Unfortunately, it' s not as simple as opening your web browser and entering a URL, but it isn't too difficult. The first step is to get the right software, and there are two main options to choose from.

First, you can go to playchess.com and download the free client software. That will give you one month's free access to ChessBase's online server, which is where the show takes place.

A second option is to go shopping on the ChessBase website and purchase one of their playing programs (Fritz, Junior, Shredder, Hiarcs, Chess Tiger, etc.) for approximately 50 USD. The programs are all of appproximate world championship-level strength and have lots of neat bells & whistles, but the relevant matter at hand is that you receive two free ("free" given the initial purchase of the software, of course) 1-year memberships to the playchess.com server.

Windows Media Player 9 (or later) You'll also need Windows Media 9 or later (Microsoft is up to version 10 now). It probably came with your machine if it's a recent one, but if not, you can download it here.

Part Two: I have the software; now what?

If you have the standalone client (option 1, above), then life is simple: execute the program and log on. If you have Fritz or one of its counterparts, execute the program, choose the Playchess.com option and log on. From this point, the two options will work the same way.

The next step is to navigate inside the server. Once inside, your interface will probably consist of four windows. One of them, probably on the bottom right, will have a header that says "Rooms." In that window you'll see a directory structure listing the server's rooms, obviously enough; the one you'll want to watch the lives shows is "Broadcasts." Click once and you'll be in.

The next thing to do is to go to the window on the upper left. It should have four tabs on the top (Info, Players, Games and World) - select the players tab. That will list all the players in the room, including yourself. My account name is "Initiative", and the easiest way to watch me give the show is to double-click on my handle while the show is going on. (More generally, since there are other people who occasionally broadcast shows, click on the "Status" bar and then double-click on the account name of anyone listed as a "Chairman".) And that's all there is to it! A new window will automatically open displaying the analysis board and providing the show's audio.

Great, but what about all those wonderful shows I've missed? Part 1: Buying Ducats Almost every past show is in the archives, but first you'll have to buy what ChessBase calls "ducats" (that's what they call their online currency). While you're logged on with a registered account, go to the Edit menu, select Payments and from there Fill Up Your Account. Follow the directions on purchasing ducats and you'll be good to go within 24 hours or so, possibly sooner.

CB charges about $13 US for 100 ducats, so given their charge of 2 ducats (about 26 cents) to watch an archived show (sometimes 1 ducat, sometimes 4 ducats, if the show was broken into two parts), it's unlikely that anyone with an internet account and the ability to purchase chess software is going to feel much of a pinch here.

Part 2: Accessing the Old Shows Now that you're the proud owner of a bucket of ducats, here's what you do. Log on to the playchess server, look in the Rooms window and click on Chess Media System, then from within there continue to telescope in as follows: Radio ChessBase-->English-->Great Games with Dennis Monokroussos.

Once you've done that, click on the Games tab in the upper left (sub-) window and you'll see the list of available shows. When you find one you like, double-click and start watching! After a few seconds, you'll be asked if you'd like to watch the rest of the broadcast for the prescribed fee. If you accept, then that's it - all that's left is to watch and enjoy!

(hide)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday July 16, 2008 at 2:31am. 0 Comments 1 Trackbacks

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Killing the King's Indian with Korchnoi

Few players have been as implacably opposed to a major opening as Viktor Korchnoi has been to the King's Indian Defense, but at least he can be said to have earned the right to his principled antipathy. For at least five decades, he has been in the vanguard of those combating the KID, developing countless new ideas (not just new moves) in the struggle to prove an advantage for the white pieces.

Along these lines, one game that deservedly received a lot of buzz at the time was his victory over Croatian grandmaster Krunoslav Hulak, from the 1987 Interzonal in Zagreb. The position after 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 d6 6.d4 e5 7.O-O Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.Ne1 Nd7 10.Be3 f5 11.f3 f4 12.Bf2 g5

remains a crucial tabiya to this day, and it is here that Korchnoi sprang a brilliant new idea on his opponent. Standard operating procedure involves finding a way to favorably execute the c5 advance while slowing Black's attempts to execute White's king. Moves like 13.b4 and 13.Rc1 were commonplace, while White would often make moves like Kh1, so as to meet ...g3 with Bg1, and to then answer ...gxh2 with Bf2. White generally can't dream of a move like h3, on account of various ...Bxh3 possibilities. Korchnoi's ingenious idea aided the prosecution of his queenside play while safeguarding his king, but in a new way.

How did he do it? Tune in tomorrow, Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET, and find out! The game doesn't just feature a significant theoretical idea, but is a very well-played effort from start to finish. Finally, and most importantly for the King's Indian aficionados in the audience, we'll see the cure for his idea. You won't want to miss it!

(Note for first-timers: the shows are free to watch, and you can find directions explaining how to tune in, here.)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday July 8, 2008 at 10:40pm. 6 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Topalov-Ivanchuk and Kasparov's chair

The tournament was Linares 1999, one of the great successes of Garry Kasparov's greatest year. After 12 of 14 rounds, Kasparov led by 2.5 points, while Vassily Ivanchuk, the hero of this week's show, was languishing near the bottom with a minus score. It was too late for Ivanchuk to salvage a good result in the tournament, but it's never too late to play well. To make this happen, drastic measures were required. In "preparation" for his 13th round game, against Veselin Topalov, Ivanchuk almost took his life in his hands.

The players in Linares typically ate each day at the Restaurant Himilce, and Kasparov - as Kasparov - had an essentially permanent table for his entourage and a chair that was only his. So what did Ivanchuk do? Shortly before the Kasparov crew came in, he went to Kasparov's table and sat in his chair! As he explained to the imploring restaurant staff and then to Kasparov's mother (who then gave him her blessing), he wanted to sit there for five minutes "to absorb Kasparov's spirit."

It would be a great story no matter what happened, but what makes it perfect is that he went on to blast Topalov off the board with the black pieces in just 25 moves. It's a beautiful game, replete with sacrifices, and instructive too. (Ivanchuk himself said that "[s]tudents of the middle game should study it [the key piece sacrifice that kept White's king in the center] attentively." That's just what we'll do tomorrow, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. ET on ChessBase's Playchess.com server. The show is free, the stories are entertaining, and the game is fantastic. Why would anyone miss it?? (If you need instructions for watching my ChessBase shows, whether live ones or those in the archives, this post will tell you what you need to know.)

Hope to see you there.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday July 1, 2008 at 8:03pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Kan-Capablanca, or How to win a little at a time

The great Cuban world chess champion, Jose Raoul Capablanca, was renowned for his endgame technique, and rightly so. Like every other player, he committed the occasional lapse in the final phase of the game, but overall he gained many, many more half points in the ending than he lost. Indeed, his endgame technique was so good that it helped lead to the sobriquet "The Chess Machine". As developing players, all of us can learn a lot from a careful examination of Capablanca's endgame play, and this week's ChessBase show is offered as a step in that direction.

Our game is from Moscow 1936, a major double round-robin event won by Capablanca ahead of (then-) future world champion Mikhail Botvinnik and a number of other stars including Salo Flohr, former world champion Emanuel Lasker and the still-living Andor Lilienthal. Another participant was the strong Soviet master Ilya Kan, best known today as the founding father of the eponymous variation of the Sicilian Defense (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6). While not in Capablanca's class, Kan was a respectable player in his own right, and managed to defeat the third-placed Flohr 1.5-.5 in the event and split a pair of games with Lasker. He also drew his first game with Capablanca - with Black, no less - and so with White the second time around it would seem he had reasonable chances to split their match.

Nothing about the opening suggested he'd have any difficulties in this regard. The players traded pieces as if they had prearranged a draw and wanted to make it look good for the audience. Yet despite reaching a double rook ending by move 23, the game was not yet drawn. While best play would surely result in a drawn outcome, Capablanca possessed a number of very small advantages. The difficulty for Kan was twofold: first, he was probably psychologically unprepared to fight for a draw, and may have just hoped it would fall into his lap with "normal", "good" moves. Second, there wasn't any way for him to force a draw. Capablanca could do this and that, improving his position on one side of the board, then the other side, and Kan needed to react - sometimes prophylactically, but sometimes with activity of his own. In short, Capablanca's position still had play, and Kan still had enough rope to hang himself.

The game is a model in several respects. "Capa" illustrates how to utilize a small advantage from both the practical and the psychological point of view. Conversely, we can learn from Kan's errors how to better prepare ourselves for a long defense. And concretely, there are various techniques Capablanca uses that we can adopt: play on both wings, using the minority attack in the endgame, the proper timing of pawn breaks, combining horizontal and vertical attacking ideas with rooks, and more. It's a beautiful game by one of chess's all-time greats, and you can watch it, live and for free, on ChessBase's Playchess.com server tomorrow (Wednesday) night at 9 p.m. ET. Directions for watching the show are here.

Hope to see you then!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday June 24, 2008 at 5:47pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Svidler-Karjakin

While he has been somewhat overshadowed by another youngster (some player from Norway, I believe), Sergey Karjakin's career and developing talent would be the envy of almost any other chessplayer on the planet. He still has the record for being the youngest GM ever, achieving the title at the age of 12 and a half. He was a world championship second at 11 and a World Cup semi-finalist last year at the age of 17. Even now, still only 18 years old, his rating is well into the 2700s. Frightening!

We'll look at one of his comparatively recent performances on this week's show, a 2007 victory over Peter Svidler on the black side of a 6.Be3 Najdorf. Karjakin's play was quite smooth, combining positional and tactical motifs in what proved a decisive attack against Svidler's king. When we look at the game, it will all appear very smooth, but that's a byproduct of Karjakin's skill, not the simplicity of the position. Many of us are likely to have our mindset with an either/or "switch": either positional play or attacking mode. But part of the beauty of this game is the way Karjakin combines the two modes into a harmonious and attractive whole.

Ok, if that's too flowery, then just tune in to see two super-GMs fighting it out in a sharp, popular opening and to see one of them win with brilliant attacking play! The show is free and begins Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET, and you can find directions for viewing this or any of the archived shows here.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday June 17, 2008 at 1:36pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Aronian - Anand, Morelia/Linares 2007

We continue our series on the up-and-comers of today with a look at a player who, though still young, isn't a child prodigy. Nevertheless, the rise of Levon Aronian to the upper echelons of world chess has been dramatic the last 2-3 years, and he probably has as good a shot as anyone to become a world champion sometime the next few years.

In support of this claim, we'll look at his win over the current world champion, Viswanathan Anand, from the 2007 Morelia/Linares tournament. This game has been ranked highly in various 2007 game of the year contests, and with very good reason. Aronian developed what had been thought an innocuous opening approach into a strategically dangerous idea, outplayed Anand in the early endgame, and then devised an incredibly deep sacrificial idea where his rook and split passers were more valuable than Black's rook and two minor pieces! Start to finish, it's a great effort by Aronian, and the theoretical significance along with the brilliant combination referred to above make this a game very much worth seeing.

Since watching is free, there's all the more reason to join me this Wednesday night (today, for many of you) at 9 p.m. ET on the playchess.com server. (Further directions are here.) Hope to see you there!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday June 11, 2008 at 12:56am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Brynell-Carlsen

We continue our series on today's up-and-comers with a look at Norwegian prodigy Magnus Carlsen. One of the youngest-ever GMs, and currently #5 in the world with a ridiculous 2765 rating, this 17-year-old is widely seen as a future world champion, and with good reason. Not only is he immensely strong, his strength displays itself in a very well-rounded fashion. Not only can he win in the classic ways of youth, with strong opening preparation, tactical prowess and energetic attacking play; but he also shines in, e.g., endings and technical positions.

In this week's show, then, we'll have a look at a somewhat atypical game for a youth, his win with the black pieces against Swedish grandmaster Stellan Brynell from Gausdal 2005. The game starts off with the ever-lively Semi-Slav, but once the opening concludes, the players quickly reach an ending (or rather a "nuckie", for fans of GM Glenn Flear's terminology), one that looks like a trivial draw. Indeed, if the players had agreed to a draw around move 25, few if any would have given it a second thought. The game continued on, however, and Carlsen easily and completely outplayed his experienced opponent. So powerful was Carlsen's technique, it was as if the (then-) 15-year-old had left the board and been replaced by a Karpov or a Petrosian. Carlsen's forces squeezed the life out of Brynell's position like a boa constrictor suffocating its prey, and without Brynell making a single obvious error.

How did this happen, and what can we learn from the game - aside from a restatement of the obvious, that Carlsen is an amazing player? Tune in tomorrow - Wednesday - at 9 p.m. ET in the Broadcasts Room of ChessBase's Playchess.com server and find out! The show is free, and further directions for watching can be found here.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday June 3, 2008 at 3:02pm. 3 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Radjabov-Bu Xiangzhi

The show generally focuses on older games, in the hopes of bringing the great games of the past to new generations of chess players, but that doesn't mean I have anything against recent games! This week, in fact, we'll take a look at a very recent game: Teimour Radjabov's win over Bu Xiangzhi from this month's MTel Masters event in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The game has a bit of everything: former prodigies who are now elite GMs facing off in a popular (but positionally grounded) line, a transition to a remarkable tactical moment too deep for many computers to handle, followed by an amusing and instructive endgame. It's a very smooth performance by Radjabov, demonstrating both his skill in positional play and his considerable tactical ingenuity. (It also serves to remind us that tactics are generally needed to subserve strategic goals.) And finally, it's a nice way to kick off a series of weeks on the game's new stars.

I hope therefore to see all of you this Wednesday (tomorrow, as of this writing) at 9 p.m. ET. The show is free for playchess.com members, and you can find more information about watching in this post.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday May 27, 2008 at 6:39pm. 1 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Reminder: No ChessBase show this week

Or more accurately, I won't be doing my ChessBase show this week. Those of you who have been following my tournament exploits will have realized this already, but for any readers who are just checking in to see what the show topic will be, you'll have to wait until next week.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday May 21, 2008 at 12:48am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Karpov-Sax, Linares 1983

Most of us probably don't think of Anatoly Karpov, the 12th World Champion, as a great attacking player. A positional player and endgame specialist, absolutely, but not really a master of attack. And this view is understandable. For one thing, with Garry Kasparov as his successor, almost anyone's chess will look a bit tame by comparison. And second, his strengths in positional and endgame play were so pronounced that it's understandable that he's best known for them.

Yet Karpov was (and is) capable of beautiful attacking play - have a look at his games against the Dragon Sicilian if you want confirmation of that thesis. In fact, examples can be multiplied without any difficulty, and we'll present one of his most famous attacking efforts this Wednesday on our ChessBase show. The game is his victory over Hungarian GM Gyula Sax from Linares 1983, and it has all the classic elements of the traditional attacking game. First, a sharp opening: Karpov plays the Keres Attack against Sax's Scheveningen Sicilian. Second, sacrifices: Karpov gave up a pawn and then the exchange for speculative prospects and to keep Black's king stuck in the center - and there are further sacrifices of commission and omission later. Finally, after some subtle play, the game concludes with a sacrifice and a king hunt - the ideal finish.

It's a game with both entertainment and instructional value, which makes spending some time taking a closer look a wonderful way to spend a Wednesday evening. The show starts at 9 p.m. ET and is free, and you can find directions for watching here. Hope to see you there!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday May 13, 2008 at 11:13pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Sutovky-Smirin, Israel 2002

The city of Baku, Azerbaijan, seems almost a factory for great chess players. Garry Kasparov, Teimour Radjabov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vugar Gashimov, Vladimir Akopian, and the star of today's show, Emil Sutovsky. While he's a bit lower-profile than most of the other Baku natives these days, the Israeli transplant has had a career almost everyone - including almost every GM - would be proud of: grandmaster, former world junior champion, former European champion, winner of nearly 40 international tournaments and a career peak rating of 2697.

Further, it's not only his results that have been exceptional; he is renowned for playing beautiful attacking games. Perhaps his greatest game so far came against Ilya Smirin, from the 2002 Israel Championship. Smirin, himself a great player (a few months before this game he was over 2700), played a novelty in an anti-anti-Sveshnikov variation, but Sutovsky was either better prepared or experienced some over the board inspiration. Whatever the story, this week's hero devised a real two piece sacrifice that gave him enduring attacking chances, but nothing that could be calculated to a finish in advance. Sutovsky's idea proved absolutely correct, and after a number of accurate building moves, he finished the job with a beautiful final blow. All in all, a masterpiece in miniature.

It's a game worth seeing, and watching the show this Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET is a great way to pass the time between the just-finished FIDE Grand Prix (in Baku!) and the pending MTel Masters. The show is free and directions can be found here. Hope to see you then!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday May 6, 2008 at 10:40pm. 4 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Byvshev-Tolush in a weird Dragon

Everyone loves the Dragon Sicilian, right? Maybe they don't enjoy playing or facing it, but if nothing else it's often a lot of fun watching games in that variation. That's what we'll do this week, but be warned: the contest between Vasily Byvshev and his strong grandmaster opponent Alexander Tolush is anything but theoretical. The actual move order was a Najdorf, and after 6.Bg5 Black played the theoretically questionable 6...Nbd7. Only after 7.Bc4 did the game take on a Dragon appearance with 7...g6 8.h4 Bg7 9.Qd2 O-O 10.O-O-O, and even then some unusual things happened from the perspective of modern ideas. Yet the game remained quite interesting, and Tolush's play is instructive even for today's Dragoneer.

We shouldn't be too surprised by this, as Tolush (1910-1969) was a strong GM who played in 10 Soviet championships, finishing in the top 5 three times, and whose work as a trainer was instrumental in Boris Spassky's development into an elite player. Known as a bloodthirsty attacking player who "always" went forward, Tolush shows in this game that he can also defend when necessary. Byvshev started out on the right foot, but once Tolush seized the initiative it was over in a hurry.

The opening of this game should be quickly forgotten, but there are lessons in the remainder that deserve to be remembered. It's impossible to remember what you don't experience, however, so you'll have to tune in! The show, which is free, starts Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET on the playchess.com server and goes for about an hour. (Further directions, if you need them, are here.) See you then!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday April 29, 2008 at 5:03pm. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: Zukertort-Blackburne

They say no one remembers who comes in second; if so, then Johannes Zukertort (1842-1888), loser of the inaugural world championship match in 1886 to Wilhelm Steinitz, is a forgotten man.

That's a pity. He was a great player and, despite dying in his mid-40s, managed to play many beautiful games. His most beautiful game came from his best tournament, the London 1883 event he won with a brilliant score of 22/26, three points ahead of Steinitz, five and a half points ahead of Blackburne, six ahead of Chigorin, etc. That game, against Blackburne, saw a very nice, instructive middlegame plan by Zukertort followed by one of the greatest combinations of the 19th century, and one any contemporary player would be pleased to play.

It's not all spectacle, however. There are strategic and positional ideas we can take from this game and apply to our own efforts, so even if you know the combination, there are still very good reasons to join the crowd tomorrow, Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET. And if you don't know the combination, don't look it up - see if you can figure it out yourself during the show!

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday April 22, 2008 at 9:48pm. 1 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Unfinished Business from Last Week's ChessBase Show

Last week's show covered the famous knight ending from Marco-Maroczy, Kolisch Memorial 1899, and during the show I presented, refuted, and counter-refuted some analysis by Charles Sullivan. (See the comments here.) I think my analysis extends the discussion past what was on his website, but at the end of the day, he's right: Marco could have drawn with 50.Kg1, preventing Black's king from penetrating on the kingside. It will cost White the c-pawn, but that seems to be a loss he can afford. More details here.

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday April 16, 2008 at 2:12am. 3 Comments 0 Trackbacks

This Week's ChessBase Show: Bogoljubow!

After the discussion on the blog this week (see #s 1 and 2), it's no surprise that Efim Bogoljubow will be the star of this Wednesday's ChessBase show. One of the world's best player in the 1920s and 1930s, his name is familiar to us; his chess, less so. So let's take a step towards remedying this state of affairs by looking at some highlights of his career, at some games that demonstrate his terrific feel for combinations and the attack.

We'll start with excerpts from two of his games. The first, against Jacques Mieses, links "Bogo" with the past and present. The present, in that his adept handling of an attack on all sides of the board demonstrates an ability more common in today's chess; the past, in that the winning combination bears a slight resemblance to a famous Morphy combination against Bird. The second excerpt finds Bogoljubow making, and succeeding, with a speculative sacrifice against none other than his future tormentor, Alexander Alekhine. The sac is unsound, but it worked, and against a very strong opponent.

Finally, the main course is a brilliant win over Rudolf Spielmann. The other games had their flaws, but this is a gem - Bogoljubow's "Immortal Game" if anything is. Guaranteed to cheer you up, or your money back (offer good for live audiences only)!

(Directions for watching the show, which starts at 9 p.m. ET, are here.)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday April 16, 2008 at 12:39am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Sunday, April 13, 2008

Bogoljubow and Chess Immortality

Brian Karen brought the following to my attention:

I [E. J. Diemer, writing in the August 1952 issue of Chess - DM] had a conversation with him [Efim Bogoljubow - DM] then of rare seriousness. As if conscious of the nearness of his end, he spoke, on this last occasion, about – Chess Immortality. I discovered at this late hour in his life, and I pass it on as his closing thought, that Bogoljubow wanted his chess to be regarded as an art and himself as an artist. He feared, he said, that not one of his games, even from the great tournament at Moscow in 1925, the zenith of his career, would be deemed worthy of inscription in the scrolls of immortality. So high did he set his ideals. And so sceptically did he look back over his 40 years of masterly endeavour. Luckily the chess world will not share his pessimism. Countless masterpieces of play remain to assure him the immortality he sought.’ (From Edward Winter's Chess Notes, item 5515.)

Sadly, Bogoljubow knew better. Some of his losses are famous (e.g. B-Alekhine, Hastings 1922; Reti-B, New York 1924; and Capablanca-B, Moscow 1925 spring immediately to mind), but I can't think of a single win. Indeed, he's best known for losing two world championship matches to Alekhine - badly - and for a joke and a quip. (The joke, allegedly told by Alekhine, has A. dying and facing St. Peter at the pearly gates, where he's told that chess players don't go to heaven. A. sadly looks around and sees B. and protests, to be told that "Bogoljubow isn't a chess player; he only thinks he is." The quip is B's saying that when he's White, he wins because he's White, and when he's Black, he wins because he's Bogoljubow.)

Rather an unhappy fate for one of the best players of the first half of the 20th century, and one I should rectify on my ChessBase show.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

This Week's ChessBase Show: The Greatest Knight Ending Ever?

If you're facing the French Defense and want a draw, then the Exchange Variation is just the thing, right? And just imagine reaching a position like this:

It would appear impossible for any sentient life form to lose such a position, but that's just what happened to White, the very strong master Georg Marco, against Hungarian great Geza Maroczy, in their game from the 1899 Kolisch Memorial. Furthermore, Marco didn't play especially badly, either. Rather, what happened was that Maroczy, a player with a richly deserved reputation as a great endgame expert, managed to outplay him in what GM Andy Soltis once called a game "still regarded as the most beautiful knight-and-pawns ending every played".

Note: it's not just a technical masterpiece, but a beautiful endgame as well, as you'll see. There's opportunism, amusing maneuvers and tactical ingenuity to be found here, and it makes the game altogether worth your while. So I hope you'll join me tonight (Wednesday night) as we examine this wonderful ending. The show is free as always, and starts at 9 p.m. ET. (Directions for tuning in are here. Note that if you can't make it live, the shows can be watched at a nominal cost - directions for watching shows in the archives is also in the aforelinked post.)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday April 9, 2008 at 1:24am. 2 Comments 0 Trackbacks

A Small Correction to Last Week's ChessBase Show

During last week's show, one of the games I mentioned while discussing Wilkes-Barre/Traxler theory was Estrin-Nun, and I conjectured that Black was Jiri Nun. This was as error; it turns out that Black was Josef Nun, as you can see in this month's Kibitzer column on the Chess Cafe website. (Permalink here.)

Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Wednesday April 9, 2008 at 12:03am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Contact

Categories

Subscribe

Archives

Blogroll