The Chess Mind

Roman Dzindzichashvili is best known nowadays for his opening books and videos and for his online play, but the American GM (by way of Georgia and Israel) was once among the world’s strongest players. (I think he was #12 at one time.) His victims include such players as Botvinnik and Bronstein from his days in the USSR, Larsen and Timman after he left, and Shabalov and Nakamura in his tenure here in the US.

He hasn’t played much the last few years, but it’s worth taking the time to get acquainted with he achieved when he was in his prime. This week we’ll take a look at a tactical gem from 1973, played in a semi-final of the Soviet Championship against Vitaly Tseshkovsky. The game started quietly enough, as a sort of Reti/English hybrid, but the play sharpened considerably as “Dzindzi” built up a kingside attack. His advantage grew consistently through move 26, when the natural move would have given him a decisive advantage. He blundered in time trouble, but this was a clear case of a felix culpa. Several moves later, Dzindzichashvili unleashed a fantastic combination that was sound, brilliant, and just about impossible to handle in time pressure. With very accurate play, Tseshkovsky could have saved the game, but it was too much to expect under the circumstances, and went down to defeat.

I think you’ll find the game entertaining, and opening connoisseurs will enjoy seeing an opening that doesn’t get much coverage in our shows. Hope to see you all tonight – Thursday at 9 pm ET! (Directions for watching the show are here.)

In a recent poll of Russian experts trying to choose the best game of 2006, two candidates received almost the exact same number of votes. The winner, by a single point, was Topalov-Aronian from Corus. That’s a great game – no question – but one most (if not all) of you have already seen. (If you haven’t, you can find the game here.) You probably haven’t seen the other game, though – a pity, but we’re going to do something about that.

The game is Zvaginsev-Zhang Pengxiang, from the China-Russia Summit match played in August of 2006. Vadim Zvjaginsev is one of the most original players on the chess scene, a man who introduced the improbable 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 into grandmaster praxis, and whose other experiments include 1.e4 e6 2.f4 – as played in our featured game. Zhang Pengxiang is a fine player in his own right; not as well-known as his opponent, but now that his rating is approaching the upper 2600s, that’s bound to change. (His official rating is 2657, and the FIDE site says his current expected gain is +14. Impressive!)

Back to the game. Zvaginsev, as mentioned, chose the peculiar 2.f4 against the French, but although the game didn’t follow standard theoretical channels, the basic French Defense themes remained firmly in place. There are occasions in more mainstream version of the opening where White gets a nice dark square bind with, e.g., a bishop on d6, and that’s what happened here. That happened here, too, but what was so unusual here is that the dark square bind (a) cost White the exchange and a pawn, (b) happened in a position where he was almost completely undeveloped, and (c) took place in an almost entirely blocked up, closed position! As the old movie reminds us, though, there can be a big difference between being x and being mostly x, and Zvjaginsev did a beautiful job of utilizing all the open and potentially open lines on both sides of the board. It’s an attractive, picturesque, thematic and instructive game, and chess fans and (anti-) French aficionados should all check it out.

So please join us at our usual place and time: the playchess server, Thursday night at 9 pm (ET). See you there! (Directions for watching the show can be found here.)

Aside from a certain well-known figure in Russian politics, the two best players in the world over for the past 10 years are Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik (not necessarily in that order). These two are probably co-favorites going into the Mexico City world championships later this year, and so it’s interesting by way of preview to have a look at their recent battles – especially when the games are like the one we’ll take a look at in this week’s show.

The main event this week features their most recent game, the rapid game from March’s Amber tournament in Monaco. The game was drawn, but what a draw it was! Anand sacrificed a rook and then a piece for a massive kingside attack, and it was all Kramnik could do to defend, his extra swag notwithstanding. Kramnik returned the material a bit at a time, and when Anand missed his one and only shot at a win, Kramnik was able to escape and even seize some winning chances of his own. The lack of time inherent in rapid chess may have cost Anand the opportunity to find the win, and near the end it might have prevented Kramnik from making the most of his opportunities, and the game concluded peacefully. All in all, the inaccuracies notwithstanding, it was a well-played and occasionally brilliant effort by the two players, thoroughly deserving a closer look from chess fans everywhere.

I hope you’ll accept the invitation to join our Thursday night chess family; remember, the show starts at 9 pm ET. See you then!

(Directions for watching the show [remember, it's free!] can be found here.)

Armenia has been a chess power for many years, and if anything their future looks even brighter than its illustrious past. Tigran V. Petrosian has been dead for more than 20 years, sadly, but Levon Aronian is a major threat to the title (as evidenced by his big rating and his 4-2 victory in rapid chess over Vladimir Kramnik this past week). Another very promising young star is Gabriel Sargissian, and he’ll be the subject of this week’s show.

Sargissian is 24 and 2651 – very impressive by almost any standard, but not quite world-class. He seems, however, to be on the rise, perhaps in part thanks to his close working relationship with Aronian. This work culminated in a dominating performance earlier this year in the Ruy Lopez memorial event in Zafra, Spain. He won the tournament, an 8-player round robin, by an absurd 2½ point margin, scoring 6.5/7 and achieving a 3021 performance rating. While it’s practically impossible for him to maintain such a standard, that he’s even capable of such a performance bodes well for his future. Will he give Aronian a run for his money, as the strongest Armenian player? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, we’ll have a look at a game from this Ruy Lopez memorial event, appropriately enough, a Ruy Lopez. Sargissian was Black against Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran, and played the now almost obligatory Marshall Gambit threat. Sasikiran chose 8.h3, and the game went down more classical channels. As anyone knows who has studied the classical Ruy, one of the key issues concerns the d5 advance – for both White and Black! As we’ll see, the question ‘d5, or not d5?’ proved crucial in this game. White first rejected the d4-d5 option, probably mistakenly, and then Black faced the …d6-d5 option himself on more than one occasion. We’ll delve more deeply into this thematic question this Thursday night (9 pm ET, as usual), and in the process enjoy seeing Sargissian quickly and convincingly outplay his 2700 opponent, and with the black pieces.

It’s must-see chess for fans of the Ruy Lopez – see you there!

(Directions for watching the show are here.)

Tigran Petrosian, the ninth world champion, was renowned for his skill in snuffing out his opponent’s attacking possibilities before they even entered the other player’s mind. But sometimes – especially against a player like the eighth world champion, Mikhail Tal – preemptive measures don’t work, and then one must defend. Or rather, find a way to trump the opponent’s attack. That can mean evacuating the king, trading off the attackers, putting enough defenders between the king and the attackers, or – as in this week’s game – trying to mate the opponent’s king first!

That’s what we have in this week’s game. Petrosian, with Black, began peacefully enough, playing the Caro-Kann. Tal played the sort of crazed attacking chess that has made him a huge fan favorite for fifty years, castling long, and the race was underway. It’s a wonderfully entertaining game (and just wait until you see some of the lines in the analysis!), showing Petrosian in the atypical role of attacker – a role he played magnificently in this game.

You really don’t want to miss this one, so remember to mark this Thursday night at 9 pm (ET) on your calendars. See you then.

(Directions for watching the show are here.)