The Chess Mind

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!

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!

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.

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.)

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.

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.)

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.)

Forget Tal and Fischer, Topalov and Kasparov when you're looking for excitement; what you want to see is a game between Van de Loo and Hesslin! Our game this week has all you could hope for in a tactical game: an insane opening, one sac after another, a steel king and pawn races.

Who are these guys, you wonder? Van de Loo is/was a master from the Netherlands; Hesslin, on the other hand, appears to be a German player whose only appearance in the annals of chess history was this game, played in a weekend tournament in 1983. Yet with a game like this, who needs further credentials? Watch and be amazed. (The show is free and takes place at the customary day and time and in the usual place: Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET on the Playchess.com server. Detailed directions are here.)