The Chess Mind

The show generally focuses on older games, in the hopes of bringing the great games of the past to new generations of chess players, but that doesn't mean I have anything against recent games! This week, in fact, we'll take a look at a very recent game: Teimour Radjabov's win over Bu Xiangzhi from this month's MTel Masters event in Sofia, Bulgaria.

The game has a bit of everything: former prodigies who are now elite GMs facing off in a popular (but positionally grounded) line, a transition to a remarkable tactical moment too deep for many computers to handle, followed by an amusing and instructive endgame. It's a very smooth performance by Radjabov, demonstrating both his skill in positional play and his considerable tactical ingenuity. (It also serves to remind us that tactics are generally needed to subserve strategic goals.) And finally, it's a nice way to kick off a series of weeks on the game's new stars.

I hope therefore to see all of you this Wednesday (tomorrow, as of this writing) at 9 p.m. ET. The show is free for playchess.com members, and you can find more information about watching in this post.

Or more accurately, I won't be doing my ChessBase show this week. Those of you who have been following my tournament exploits will have realized this already, but for any readers who are just checking in to see what the show topic will be, you'll have to wait until next week.

Most of us probably don't think of Anatoly Karpov, the 12th World Champion, as a great attacking player. A positional player and endgame specialist, absolutely, but not really a master of attack. And this view is understandable. For one thing, with Garry Kasparov as his successor, almost anyone's chess will look a bit tame by comparison. And second, his strengths in positional and endgame play were so pronounced that it's understandable that he's best known for them.

Yet Karpov was (and is) capable of beautiful attacking play - have a look at his games against the Dragon Sicilian if you want confirmation of that thesis. In fact, examples can be multiplied without any difficulty, and we'll present one of his most famous attacking efforts this Wednesday on our ChessBase show. The game is his victory over Hungarian GM Gyula Sax from Linares 1983, and it has all the classic elements of the traditional attacking game. First, a sharp opening: Karpov plays the Keres Attack against Sax's Scheveningen Sicilian. Second, sacrifices: Karpov gave up a pawn and then the exchange for speculative prospects and to keep Black's king stuck in the center - and there are further sacrifices of commission and omission later. Finally, after some subtle play, the game concludes with a sacrifice and a king hunt - the ideal finish.

It's a game with both entertainment and instructional value, which makes spending some time taking a closer look a wonderful way to spend a Wednesday evening. The show starts at 9 p.m. ET and is free, and you can find directions for watching here. Hope to see you there!

The city of Baku, Azerbaijan, seems almost a factory for great chess players. Garry Kasparov, Teimour Radjabov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Vugar Gashimov, Vladimir Akopian, and the star of today's show, Emil Sutovsky. While he's a bit lower-profile than most of the other Baku natives these days, the Israeli transplant has had a career almost everyone - including almost every GM - would be proud of: grandmaster, former world junior champion, former European champion, winner of nearly 40 international tournaments and a career peak rating of 2697.

Further, it's not only his results that have been exceptional; he is renowned for playing beautiful attacking games. Perhaps his greatest game so far came against Ilya Smirin, from the 2002 Israel Championship. Smirin, himself a great player (a few months before this game he was over 2700), played a novelty in an anti-anti-Sveshnikov variation, but Sutovsky was either better prepared or experienced some over the board inspiration. Whatever the story, this week's hero devised a real two piece sacrifice that gave him enduring attacking chances, but nothing that could be calculated to a finish in advance. Sutovsky's idea proved absolutely correct, and after a number of accurate building moves, he finished the job with a beautiful final blow. All in all, a masterpiece in miniature.

It's a game worth seeing, and watching the show this Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET is a great way to pass the time between the just-finished FIDE Grand Prix (in Baku!) and the pending MTel Masters. The show is free and directions can be found here. Hope to see you then!