The Chess Mind

The Schliemann Defense to the Ruy Lopez (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5!?) is one of the friskier ways to meet the Spanish torture. It's a club favorite, but even super-grandmasters like Korchnoi, Topalov, Aronian and - as recently as yesterday - Radjabov have trotted it out against elite competition. According to mainstream theory, Black should expect nothing worse than a slight disadvantage if White knows everything, while Black gets lively play and a puncher's chance if White slips up.

On paper, that sounds pretty good. But is that really how things stand? We'll take a closer look tomorrow night, and see if that's really true. I have a fair amount of experience with this opening, and I'll do my best to show you where the dead bodies are. Maybe I can't guarantee an outright refutation, but if your Schliemann-wielding opponents don't watch this video, you can start licking your chops. If they do, they'd better come up with something good! (And if they do, please let me know!)

Hope that whets your appetite. If so, I'll see you tonight - Wednesday night - at 9 p.m. ET. Remember, the shows can be watched live for free, and in the archives for a minimal cost (20-25 cents). Complete directions for watching (either way) can be found here.

Aaron Nimzowitsch (1886-1935) was never world champion, but as a writer and teacher his influence on chess history is almost without peer. In his masterwork My System, and to a lesser extent Chess Praxis and The Blockade, he set the precepts of positional chess for generations to come. In addition to discussing classical topics like the importance of the center and development, the power of rooks on open files and the 7th and 8th ranks, passed pawns and so on, he introduced his readers to hypermodern ideas like overprotection and the blockade. Or, to put it in Reuben Fine’s great slogan, restrict, blockade, destroy.

This tripartite Nimzowitsch strategy is one he demonstrated repeatedly in his games, turning it into an art form. One such demonstration was his 1922 win against the Swedish player Arthur Hakansson (1889-1947), a beautiful game not in Mega2007 – you’ll have something to add to your databases! It started with Nimzo’s pet line against the French (3.e5 c5 4.Qg4!? cxd4 5.Nf3), and as was his wont he steadfastly refused to recapture the d-pawn, creating and then overprotecting his strong point on e5. Black very quickly found himself in a position without active possibilities (restrict!), and White locked up the board (blockade!) everywhere his opponent could conceivably pursue counterplay. Finally, it was time to put poor Hakansson out of his misery (destroy!), and Nimzo did it with a flair.

It was a one-sided affair, but replaying and studying such games can be extremely valuable. The point is that we get to see the winner’s strategic idea in its purest form, often in an unforgettable setting. I think you’ll find the game an attractive and memorable one, and French Defense-haters should tune in as well, to add another weapon to their arsenal. Remember, the shows are now on Wednesday nights, but still begin at 9 p.m. ET. Hope to see you tomorrow!

Directions for watching the shows, live and free, can be found here.

You know him as the driving force behind the Prague Agreement, which eventually led to the reunification of the world championship title(s), and before that, he was a leading member of the very important GMA. He has written some excellent chess books, founded and wrote for the sadly missed Inside Chess, and serves as a regular commentator for ChessBase during big events like Wijk aan Zee. But did you know that he has actually WON the tournament? Yasser Seirawan has been an elite grandmaster for almost 30 years, and in the 80s, in his heyday, he was one of the very few players who was thought to have a chance to challenge the Karpov/Kasparov dynasty.

As mentioned above, one of Seirawan’s great successes was his win in the prestigious Wijk aan Zee tournament. In 1980, while still just 19 years old, he tied for first with Walter Browne. Scoring an outstanding 10/13, he finished ahead of superstars like Korchnoi and Timman, and thereby showed the world that a new star had appeared in the firmament. To get an idea of his play, we’ll take a look at one of his wins from that event, against then-Yugoslav GM Vlatko Kovacevic (who once defeated Bobby Fischer in 30 moves). Seirawan used the Pirc, as he often did, and Kovacevic played the “Spike”, a very aggressive line with a quick g4. Such an attacking scheme can scare many players, and with good reason. GM Donner had lost to a then-unknown Chinese player in just 20 moves a couple of years prior to our game (Liu Wenzhe, now best known as the author of The Chinese School of Chess), and Kovacevic probably hoped for an equally brutal finish.

They say be careful what you wish for, as you might get it. And Kovacevic got it, alright, as Seirawan found a brilliant and unexpected way of taking over the initiative. At one point, around move 10, White had a lead in development, space, and apparently the attacking prospects as well. Five moves later, the momentum had shifted, and Seirawan kept increasing his control until White’s position was simply pitiful. It’s a beautiful, instructive, and most unusual game, and I invite you to join me later today – Wednesday! – as we examine it.

Note again: the show will be at the usual time, 9 p.m. ET, but not the usual day. We’re moving to Wednesdays, so re-set your weekly chess calendars for our great games series. Hope to see you tonight!

Directions for watching the show can be found here.

Some people find the typical household chore of taking out the garbage annoying, but in chess it’s a real pleasure facing and taking out the opponent’s garbage openings. There’s a saying that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and it’s true in chess as well. Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov were virtuosi with the King’s Indian Defense (treasure), but Tigran Petrosian often joked that he fed his family with the proceeds from the King’s Indian. (Petrosian also said that if your opponent threatens to play the Dutch Defense, let him.) We’re not going to cast any aspersions on the King’s Indian or even the Dutch, however. No, we’re headed straight for the bottom of the barrel: our target for this week’s show is possibly the worst opening in chess, the Latvian Gambit.

Some might protest that it’s not really that bad, and especially that it’s a “practical” choice. (This is code for “if my opponent has never spent five to ten minutes studying it or fallen for its two or three basic traps before, I might have a chance.) The statistics do NOT bear this out. Even though many Latvian players are specialists, while their White opponents see it at most every five to ten years, PowerBook 2007 shows White with a gargantuan 67.8% score after 2…f5? – and that figure goes up to 71.9% when White plays 3.Nxe5. (In the Correspondence 2006 database it’s a bit more balanced, but once it’s filtered to include only games where both players are over 2000 – a pretty modest requirement – White’s score goes to 69%. If both players are over 2200, it soars to 74%.)

Why, then, do people trot this opening out from time to time? More importantly, what should you do when you see such an opening? And how should you respond to writers advocating offbeat variations like these? We’ll discuss all these questions and more during our show, and along the way we’ll look at David Bronstein’s brilliant dispatching of Vladas Mikenas from the Semi-Finals of the 1941 USSR Championship. Mikenas was a strong master at the time, while Bronstein, a few years away from becoming one of the world’s best players, was just 17 years old at the time. Even so, and despite facing this unusual opening, he introduced a very interesting novelty on move 6, was winning by move 8, and won in 24 moves (with mate in one pending). In short, it was a complete success for Bronstein, and as we reflect on the game, we’ll know how to succeed as well, when it’s time to take out the trash.

Curious? If so, join me at 9 p.m. ET today (Thursday) – Latvian fans are welcome! (Note: for those who haven't watched my ChessBase shows before - they're free - you can find directions for doing so here.)

We had some annoying technical problems with the show, so it probably won't be feasible to upload it for viewing in the archives. For those who'd like to see what they missed, even if not they're not getting the full experience, I've linked to the games, here. Note that you can actually see video footage of two of the games online: the Karpov-Kasparov game is here (could have done without the strange looping and the sound track, though) and Anand-Kasparov (a real classic!) is here.