The Chess Mind

For the third time this week, I present to you "this" week's ChessVideos show. As I mentioned with the first one, they had fallen behind on account of server troubles, but they've moved to a new one and with this video they're all caught up again.

This presentation is in some ways the exact opposite of the previous one. That one dealt with openings (practically every Sicilian variation), this one with endings. That one covered a wide range of material on a superficial level, while this one looks at a single ending in considerable depth. The last video was very much abstracted from real games and events, but this one focuses very tightly on not only a specific game, but a controversy surrounding it.

The game I'm referring to is the game Keres-Botvinnik, from the third cycle of the 1948 World Championship match-tournament. There's good reason to think that Keres was pressured not to out-do Botvinnik in the event (see this essay for a good survey of the documentary evidence), and some (not me) think it went to the point that Keres actually threw his first four games against Botvinnik, only winning the last one when it no longer mattered. (In fact, some go on to say that Botvinnik threw the last one, to make sure Reshevsky wouldn't finish ahead of Keres!)

As part of the case for the "Keres threw the games" conclusion, they point to particular positions where Keres' play seemed especially suspect, and the game in question offers a favorite example. Rather than make the whole case here, however, I refer you to my new video. You'll find all the elaboration you could want there, along with some amusing stories, plenty of analysis - and plenty of analytical errors, including some embarrassing ones by those who think the fix is in.

So have a look - it's free, available on-demand for the next month, and requires no special software - and decide for yourself. My judgment: while I think it's likely that Keres felt some general pressure, I doubt that it came anywhere near the point where he was told or felt compelled to throw the games. I say that the fix is out.

Some of my ChessVideos presentations are dedicated to answering viewers' questions, and more than once, when someone asked something that I took to be an overly broad, I made a point of explaining that. "There's only so much that can be presented in the context of a show like this, especially when I'm trying to answer other inquiries too, so please try to keep the questions more narrowly focused."

Naturally, a couple of wise guys decided to ask - as jokes - even broader questions. One example was to discuss the entire Najdorf. My joking reply was that I'd do it in the course of a 15-minute show covering the entire Sicilian. As it turns out, that's just what I've tried to do in this week's presentation. I hoped to get through the entire Sicilian (moving rather rapidly, as you can imagine) in 15 minutes. As it turns out, it look a little longer than that, and ironically the only Sicilian main line I didn't cover was...the Najdorf. (That's why it's "Part 1"; I'll cover the Najdorf in similar depth in a subsequent show.)

Of course the presentation is intended humorously, but while the coverage isn't going to put ECO out of business it might prove useful to many of you who don't know the lay of the land in the Sicilian. Most of the major systems are covered, and a lot of minor ones are presented as well, so you'll get a taxonomy of the opening together with a few little tidbits about each of them. For many of you, there will be nothing new, but I think many club players could benefit. We'll see - I'm very curious as to how the comments will go on this one.

The show is here, it's free (so you shouldn't complain too much!), and available on-demand for the next month or so. (Note to those of you who haven't watched one of these and associate them with the ChessBase shows: they're completely different. For the ChessBase shows, you need to have special software and to be there at a certain time [or to pay a small charge to watch it later on in the archives]. For this, you only need your web browser.)

It has been a while now, but in this post and then this one, we took a look at this position:



The primary task was to analyze the position after 11.Rf3 Bxc3 12.Bxh7+ Kxh7 13.Rh3+ Kg8 14.Qh5



and to see what you could come up with. Some of you undoubtedly worked everything out, but for the rest of you, you might want to have a look at my ChessVideos show this week (link here). I cover this position in some detail, but only after first giving an overview on the typical themes and preconditions for the "Greek gift" sacrifice. Have a look - it's free, requires no special software, and is available on-demand for the next five weeks or so.

* (Actually, it's last week's show, but ChessVideos.tv needed to switch servers. Everything's back and running at full blast, it seems.)

Building off last week's show, which featured the Open Ruy, it seemed apposite to present a second game with that opening. Like last week's game, it's theoretically significant: not in the cutting-edge sense, but in its showing some important themes and tactics its practitioners should know.

There's much more that I could say about this week's program, but I don't want to undermine its workout value. What I will say is this: it's a great game, with many attractive tactical moments. It also offers a case study for a crucial problem that faces all of us at some point or another: how should we respond when our opponent makes a new move in a very well-known theoretical position? I offer some advice I hope will be helpful - but you'll have to watch the show to get it.

Here's the link; it will be available for free and on-demand for the next month or so.

It wasn't one of my games nor one from a professional, but the contest I present in this week's show (available here) is pretty instructive nonetheless. When learning an opening, there are some moves to memorize and master, but it's just as important - more important, at first - to learn the key strategic ideas and to see them in action. For this purpose, the game I've chosen for this week's show is quite good.

To elaborate a little, one of White's standard trumps in the Open Ruy is his kingside majority, led by the vanguard pawn on e5. If White can get a mini-roller going with f4-f5, his attacking prospects will be very good. Black doesn't want to allow this, and will often try to prevent this by various means (playing ...f6 to eliminate the e5-pawn, or blockading the f5 square, for example). Meanwhile, his plan is to use his corresponding queenside majority, in particular with the move ...c5. White, likewise, often aims to prevent this by various means (e.g. with some combination of b4, Nb3 and Be3).

In our game of the week, we see both the active and prophylactic plans in action, and this will be useful to almost anyone who plays or is learning this variation. Further, even aside from the strategic elements, the game is interesting in its own right. So have a look; the show is free, requires no special software, and is available on-demand for the next four or five weeks. Enjoy!