The Chess Mind

Chess fans periodically bemoan draws, especially short, lifeless non-efforts. And when grandmasters want to draw quickly, one of the standard weapons olive branches in their arsenal garden is the Exchange Slav. As a drawing “weapon”, it’s so potent it could almost be used as a soporific – but only almost. One of the beauties of chess is that when two players want to fight, they can overcome just about any opening, and that’s what we’ll see in this week’s game, between American Yasser Seirawan and then-Soviet (from the Ukraine; now Slovenian) Alexander Beliavsky, from the 1988 World Cup event in Brussels.

Still very strong grandmasters today, Seirawan and especially Beliavsky were then among the world elite and, most importantly for our show, real fighters. The Exchange Slav is a covert draw offer for many players, but not for Seirawan. The American employed a very logical novelty on move 12, one that fit in quite nicely with his general approach of first fixing Black’s potentially weak c-pawn and then laying siege to it. A good idea, but not all good ideas can be properly implemented in a given situation. So it was here, but finding the problem with White’s approach required a host of virtues on Beliavsky’s part: imagination, a willingness to depart from the Exchange Slav “script” to seek a dynamic solution, and the self-discipline to do so immediately after facing a novelty, rather than continuing indefinitely on auto-pilot. Lots of lessons for us, and we’ll try to show how they can be applied ahead of time and not just with 20-20 hindsight. And oh yes – the game itself isn’t bad, either!

Hope to see all of you there this Monday night at 9 p.m.! Directions for watching the show live (or watching archived shows, for that matter) can be found here, while a list of games covered in previous shows is available here.

When I was a kid, I remember reading that Tigran Petrosian knew by heart every game that had ever been played. That, I’m sure, was a fantastic exaggeration, but given the relative paucity of tournaments from, say, Morphy’s time through Petrosian’s young adulthood in the early 1950s, it’s at least possible to imagine he had played or read through a great many of the most important games of that interval. That was then; today, it’s a challenge just keeping up with the games of the previous day, to say nothing of the previous week, month or year. That’s one big reason why the very best players have permanent seconds. Even a serious chess fan like myself who tries to keep up with important games on a near-daily basis will miss out on some real gems, if they’re not played by the world’s super-elite or in an opening of immediate interest.

Fortunately, thanks to ChessBase Magazine 113 (spectacularly upgraded from previous issues – it’s now a full DVD instead of an ordinary CD, with more theory sections and videos…but I digress), one great game I would have missed has come to my attention, and now will come to yours. It’s a battle between Ukranian great Oleg Romanishin (USSR Championship runner-up in 1976 and a PCA Candidate in 1994) and young German IM Georg Meier, from the Hockenheim tournament held this past May. Early in the game Romanishin produces an important and impressive novelty, a temporary pawn sac missed by greats like Ulf Andersson, Levon Aronian and even Mikhail Tal! And the sequel is even better, as Romanishin goes on to overwhelm his opponent with an array of tactics and pawn levers sure to expand your understanding of the game. Finally, his technique at the end of the game is instructive, making for a nice, complete game.

This is one of the best games of the past year, and a game most of us are unlikely to see anywhere else. So I hope you’ll join me this Monday night at 9 p.m. ET on the Playchess.com server – you’ll be glad you did! Directions for watching the show live (or for watching older, archived shows) are here, and a list of games covered in previous shows is here.

Last week we took a quick look at Rudolf Charousek’s crushing win over world champion Emanuel Lasker before moving on to our main game, Charousek’s win against Hugo Suechting from Berlin 1897. After a thorough examination of the opening, that old club favorite called the Colle System, we were just starting to take a delve into the meat of the game. As we saw, the middlegame was incredibly sharp, with Suechting holding on by a thread – we’ll see if Charousek could have snapped it. As things transpired, Suechting’s resourceful dividends might have even won the game, but after an inaccuracy the game headed to an unclear ending. From there Charousek outplayed his opponent rather easily, but, as we’ll see, it’s not clear that this reflected the objective merits of the position. We’ll examine this ending thoroughly, as I think there are some useful lessons to be learned.

Come and see for yourself! The show starts, as always, Monday night at 9 p.m. ET – hope to see you there. Directions for watching the show (as well as previous shows, such as last week's part 1) can be found here, while a list of games covered in previous shows is available here.

Paul Morphy is known as the “pride and sorrow” of chess; the pride, because of his then-peerless excellence; the sorrow, both because he was lost to the game at such an early age and because of the tragic turn his life took. But Morphy is not the only great chess player lost to Caissa as a young man, and this week we’ll remember one of the others, the Hungarian talent Rudolf Charousek. Charousek (1873-1900) died of tuberculosis at the age of 26, only four years after starting his international career. (Think of a contemporary 18-19 year old.) Yet in the brief span of his career, he beat the world champion, Emanuel Lasker, in his debut and (as far as I can tell) came in no worse than second place in all his subsequent tournaments.

Sadly, this player is almost completely unknown nowadays, but we’ll take a small step towards rehabilitating his once lofty reputation. First, we’ll take a very quick look at his overpowering victory against Lasker in Nuremberg 1896, and then we’ll more carefully examine his victory over Hugo Suechting in the Berlin 1897 event, which he won. The Suechting game wasn’t perfectly played, but it’s a rich game, allowing us to investigate the Colle System, the Greek Gift sacrifice and opposite-colored bishop endings. Join us this Monday night at 9 p.m. ET: it’s must-see chess for the club player, and stronger players may learn something too, if they’re not careful!

Directions for watching the show live (or watching archived shows, for that matter) can be found here, while a list of games covered in previous shows is available here.