The Chess Mind

Last week, we started presenting the fantastic 1994 battle between Vladimir Kramnik and Alexei Shirov, and there was so much to see that we couldn't finish! In this game, played when the two stars were quite young (18 and 21, respectively - and nonetheless already over 2700), Kramnik had achieved a big pawn clamp on the queenside, and to avoid suffocation Shirov speculatively sacrificed a bishop.

The sac may not have been sound, but it transformed the position. Against normal play, Kramnik would enjoy a nice, stable advantage, and either win or draw with practically no danger of losing. Shirov's sac certainly increased his (Shirov's) losing chances, but it ratcheted up Kramnik's too. The position quickly spun out of control, and just as the time pressure began.

When we left, the game was just about to reach its high point, when the variations really become insane. So as fun as the game has been so far, what we'll see today or tomorrow, depending on where you are, is really amazing. So you're heartily invited to join us Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET/Thursday morning at 3 a.m. CET for the second part of our presentation. It's free for Playchess members - just log on, enter the Broadcasts room and look for Kramnik-Shirov under the Games tab. Hope to see you there!

For those of you who are fans of Alexei Shirov's chess - and who isn't? - this is the quintessential "Fire on Board" game. In it, he defeats his long-time rival Vladimir Kramnik, and does so by bamboozling him with a remarkable series of blows starting from a lost position. The most famous of these shocking moves, which I won't mention now, so as to avoid spoiling the surprise, was selected by Shirov for the frontispiece to the first volume of Fire on Board, and deservedly so.

Shirov and Kramnik have been among the world's absolute elite since the early 90s, and although they were friends for a while and had very similar repertoires, they are stylistic antipodes. Kramnik tends to win his games by keeping control and accumulating small advantages, while Shirov (like his early mentor and erstwhile countryman Mikhail Tal) wins many games by outplaying his opponents in tactical complications. Our game from this week is just that kind of battle. Kramnik obtained an advantage, and when Shirov made a more serious error the advantage grew.

It was at just this moment that Shirov reached into his bag of tricks. If he did nothing he'd lose, and lose by getting squashed. So it was important to randomize the position. It might lead to a quicker loss, but the important thing was to create a situation where even Kramnik could go wrong. Shirov succeeded on both counts, as you'll see tomorrow night, to your surprise and delight. (Sorry!)

If you're a Playchess.com member (and why wouldn't you be?), you can watch the show live, for free, at 9 p.m. ET Wednesday (= 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning). Here's what you do: Log on, enter the Broadcasts room, look for "Kramnik-Shirov" under the Games tab, double-click on it, watch and enjoy. Hope to see you then!

In the last month we've picked on poor Efim Geller (1925-1998) twice, showing his losses to Max Euwe and Paul Keres. As he is one of the legends of the game (as evidenced by his being one of the few non-world champions singled out for a mini-chapter in Kasparov's My Great Predecessors series), we'll use this week's show to present him in a better light.



By 1979, his career as an elite GM was drawing to a close. The Ukranian had played in six candidates events from 1953 to 1971 and narrowly missed making a seventh in 1974, but didn't succeed in making the 1977 or qualifying for the 1980 knockout matches. He had won the USSR championship in 1955, but now, as a 54 year old, his best days seemed behind him. And yet, in the 1979 Soviet Championship in Minsk, the good old days returned. After a series of seven draws, he won in rounds 8, 10, 11, 12, 14 and 15 and won the tournament with an undefeated 11.5-5.5 score, a point ahead of Artur Yusupov and a further half point ahead of Yuri Balashov and (a very young) Garry Kasparov.

The game we'll look at this week - tonight, actually - is his last win in the tournament, against Alexander Beliavsky. The game, a Queen's Gambit Declined in which Geller had Black, demonstrated his excellence both as a chess player and as an analyst. As great a player as Geller was, he was at least as good as a theoretician. According to Botvinnik, the King's Indian wasn't really understood until Geller, and he made big contributions to all the major openings: the Sicilian, the Ruy Lopez, the Slav, the Queen's Gambit and so on. In the game with Beliavsky, Geller shows a very deep understanding of what seemed an innocuous position, and from there he outplays his opponent using ideas we ourselves can apply in positions with an isolated queen's pawn.

Rather than continuing to heap praise about Geller and his play, I invite you to come and see for yourself. The show is free for registered Playchess.com members, and begins tonight, Wednesday night, at 9 p.m. Eastern Time (3 a.m. CET). It's easy to tune in: just log on to the Playchess server, go to the Broadcast Room, select the Games tab and double-click on Beliavsky-Geller. That's all you need to do, and then you're ready to go.

Estonian legend Paul Keres was born 93 years ago today, and although he passed away in 1975, his games are likely to be remembered as long as there are chess fans. Though he never became world champion, very few players came as close to the throne as he did, and fewer still managed to maintain such a high level for so long. From 1938 to 1965, he was probably a top five player, and he remained an elite grandmaster until he passed away ten years later. Four times he came in second in Candidates' tournaments, and in the 1965 Candidates' matches he gave the toughest fight to eventual winner Boris Spassky. In 1938 he won the AVRO tournament, which was supposed to be a Candidates' event for the winner to play a world championship match against Alexander Alekhine, but that match never occurred, and in 1948 he finished third in the world championship match-tournament won by Botvinnik. He won three Soviet championships, had a tremendous score in the many Olympiads he played in, and won the gold medal for his board in four consecutive Olympics. He won countless other competitions, was a great theoretician (especially in the Ruy Lopez), and was liked and respected by all.

After all that, one might think I was going to sell some Keres memorabilia, but not quite. I would instead like to invite you to join me later tonight (Wednesday night at 9 p.m. ET) as we take a look at one of his many beautiful games. The one I have in mind was the final game of his 1962 match with Efim Geller, and an important game it was at that. They had tied for second in the 1962 Candidates (a mere half-point behind Petrosian, who went on to win the title), and needed a playoff match to see who would be automatically seeded into the 1965 Candidates event. After seven of the eight games, the score was knotted at 3.5-3.5, with Keres slated for White in the finale. How did he do?

No points for guessing the right answer, but what counts is how he did it. Keres' win was a beautiful display of attacking chess, worthy not only of appreciation but emulation as well. I'm confident that you'll enjoy our birthday tribute to Keres, and accordingly hope to see you tonight.

(A reminder for those who might be confused by the last two weeks' shows: with the holidays behind us, we're back to our normal Wednesday (or Thursday morning, for those across the pond) schedule for the foreseeable future.)