The Chess Mind

Though we’re missing Halloween (also Reformation Day!) by a day, it’s still close enough for us to enjoy our fourth Halloween show – we can now label it a tradition. Normally we celebrate the best in chess, but not now. Turning things upside down, we celebrate – or at least take a perverse pleasure – in the worst of chess, especially when it’s the world’s best who are the victims.

This week, it will be a special world champions edition; believe it or not, there are an awful lot of games to choose from. Think you messed up last week at the club? You’ve got nothing on these guys. We’ll watch Tal, Petrosian, Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand all take their pratfalls, and often in the worst possible situations, too. Are these games instructive? Probably not. But it’s hard to beat this collection for entertainment, and as a reminder that for all their very real greatness at the chess board, they’re human too.

So join me this Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET, and BYOS (Bring Your Own Schadenfreude). (Directions for watching live shows - free - can be found here.)

Although he has long been a Najdorf specialist, Mexico City runner-up (technically third, on tiebreak) Boris Gelfand isn't generally counted among the more dynamic players of our era. There are reasons for this (his use of the Catalan with White and the Petroff with Black, together with his inadequate (from the fan's perspective) antipathy toward short draws), but overall it's a mistake - as we'll see. As for his opponent, Alexei Shirov, there's no doubt among chess fans about his love of crazy positions. And when you put the two together, the result is often mind-boggling, with both players having won brilliancies against each other.

This week's show will see such a game - but with a bit of a Halloween twist. This was the first of two games in their first round mini-match (played in the 1992 Immopar rapid event in Paris; the event was won by Kasparov, who defeated Anand in the final), and although Gelfand opened with the Catalan, the position soon became insanely complex. Gelfand sacrificed a pawn, then a rook, a piece, and another piece - and he probably should have given even more! In return he enjoyed a massive attack and an objectively won position.

But did he win? Aye, there's the rub. This game is another entry into the museum of missed brilliancies, but it's a wonderful game just the same - in fact, Gelfand includes it in his book of memorable games (a terrific book, by the way). It is truly a game worth seeing, and I hope you'll join me this Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET; you'll be glad you did! (Just be prepared to see some really staggering tactics - this game's a roller coaster.)

Remember, the shows are free, and you can find complete directions for watching in this post.

Akiba (or Akiva) Rubinstein was one of the greatest players never to become world champion, and possibly the greatest player never given the opportunity to contest for the title. In the years from around 1909 to 1912, he was probably the strongest player in the world, capable of winning every tournament and defeating all rivals - and he just about did. He was a brilliant openings innovator who won beautiful games of every sort, but he's probably best remembered today for his exquisite endgame technique. Accurate, artistic and patient, his endgames offer a model for aspiring players to learn from even today.

As you may have surmised, we'll look at one such ending in this week's show, from his game with Stefano Rosselli del Turco from the Baden-Baden tournament of 1925. Rosselli, with White, started the game on a threatening note with 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Bc4 Nxe4 4.Qh5, seemingly inviting the so-called Frankenstein-Dracula Variation with 4...Nd6 5.Bb3 Nc6 6.Nb5 g6 7.Qf3 f5 8.Qd5 Qe7 9.Nxc7+ Kd8 10.Nxa8 b6. It's a very exciting line, with Black enjoying a lead in development and central space in return for the exchange and a pawn. Alas, it turned out that Rosselli was bluffing, and instead of 5.Bb3 he played the insipid 5.Qxe5+, perhaps thinking that after 5...Qe7 6.Qxe7+ Bxe7 he'd achieve a quick and painless draw with his great opponent.

If so, he was badly mistaken. Though material was even, the board was queenless and the pawn structure was symmetrical, Rubinstein proved that there was plenty of play left in the position. It took him a long time to win, but as we investigate the game, we'll see that it wasn't a dry effort at all. Better still, we can use Rubinstein's ideas in our own games - especially against draw-eager opponents. Maybe the position after move 6 would be easily drawn in a world championship competition, but for mortals like us - and Rosselli - holding the game against a Rubinstein is not automatic.

I think you'll enjoy the game, learn a lot about the ending, and be entertained by our brief foray into Frankenstein-Dracula theory, too. So tune in this Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET - hope to see you then!

(As always, directions for watching the show - it's free - can be found here.)

Yes, it's time for ChessBase shows again!

We'll start back up this week, our first post-world championship show, with a look back at the first (real) FIDE world champ, Mikhail Botvinnik. The "Patriarch", as he is sometimes called, has cast an immense shadow over 20th century chess, having made an impact as a player (for starters, he was the world champion for 13 of 15 years from 1948 to 1963), as the leader of Soviet chess, as the model of the contemporary professional, as a trainer (among his pupils one can count Karpov and especially Kasparov) and even as a chess programmer.

We could all recite his resume and be impressed, but it's better to look at and learn from his chess. Many of his best games are strategic masterpieces, and that's what we'll see this week, in his 1960 victory over (then West) German grandmaster Lother Schmid. Schmid is obviously a fine player in his own right, and in addition to his over the board chess successes he's also noteworthy in at least four other respects. First, he has one of the largest chess libraries in the world. Second, he had the surreal experience of serving as the arbiter for the 1972 world championship match. Third, he has enjoyed great successes as a correspondence player, coming in second in the 2nd world correspondence championship. And fourth, he has a chess opening named after - the Schmid Benoni - and that's what was played in our game.

Schmid rattled off his first ten moves against Botvinnik, and it was all perfectly thematic, as we will see. It looked like he was in time for his thematic break on b5, and White too late with his on e5. Botvinnik, of course, had other ideas, and it's both fascinating and instructive to see these two very strong players battle for their conceptions. It's an entertaining game, comparatively low on theory and tactics, but very useful for understanding key Benoni concepts.

Since it has been a while, it bears repeating that the show takes place Thursday night at 9 p.m. ET; you can find more details for watching (it's free) here.