The Chess Mind

Again, from the Introduction to GM Nigel Davies' 2005 Play 1.e4 e5! (Everyman Chess):

The way I suggest you study this book is to play through the main games once, relatively quickly, and then start playing the variation in actual games. Playing an opening in real games is of vital importance - without this kind of live practice it is impossible to get a 'feel' for the kind of game it leads to. There is time enough later for involvement with the details; after playing your games it is good to look up the line.

It's good advice, and I've used it myself and with my students for years. Looking at variations, especially sub-sub-sub variations, is unlikely to help until one has that feel Davies mentioned; but once one has it, the details are transmogrified from boring fine print into useful, appreciated information.

I'd perhaps add one more step or, rather,refinement of his approach. For those with databases, I recommend finding "heroes" for particular openings. Once you've picked them, create a mini-database of their games in that opening or variation, and scroll through all of them (or at the very least, a large chunk of them) in a single sitting and at a fairly high speed. (Repeat regularly.) That, in conjunction with (and subsequent to) replaying the games in Davies' or whomever's book, will help create a "proto-feel" going into one's own initial forays. By looking at a slew of games in a given variation rather than just a handful, you can start to see which middlegame factors are relevant and which aren't - and that's not just useful, it's essential to really understanding an opening!

To recap, here's the Davies model, with my modification:

I. Before playing a new opening/variation:

A. Quickly and fairly superficially play through the games in a text devoted to that opening.
B. Form a "heroes" database and rapidly scroll through its games.

II. Playing the new opening/variation (self-explanatory)

III. After playing the new line: now compare your play to the decrees of theory, examining relevant subvariations, etc.

Try it, it works!

That's the advice of GM Nigel Davies, in the introduction to his 2005 book Play 1.e4 e5! (Everyman Chess). Davies notes that for many years he avoided 1...e5, but

[t]he turning point came when the former Soviet Champion Lev Psakhis once explained to me that an extensive grounding in the Ruy Lopez was essential if you want to develop your game. He added that in Russia it was said that the one failing of Lev Polugaevsky was that he never received this education" (page 5).

Well, maybe...I've read that Polugaevsky's failings (we're speaking relatively here - he was a strong GM throughout his career, generally among the elite and possibly a top 3-5 player in the late 70s) were primarily psychological in nature, but it's still an interesting comment - especially coming from a devoted Francophile like Psakhis. The Ruy is a very rich opening, demanding of both sides the ability to maneuver and to attack, and the ability to play all sorts of pawn structures and to handle action in the center and on both flanks. It's a difficult opening to master, but the skill set you can develop makes it worth the time invested. (Assuming, of course, one should invest time in chess!)

I hope my readers will find this food for thought, especially those who are dissatisfied with their current anti-1.e4 repertoires, and also those who are willing to endure a fairly steep learning curve in exchange for long-term improvement.

With the purchase of Fritz 9, one receives not only a very strong chess engine, but some nifty bells and whistles, too. Some are typical of any Fritz-family purchase: a database of about half a million unannotated games, the program's opening book, and whatever new 3D boards they've introduced. (I find the latter feature completely uninteresting, but others enjoy that sort of thing. More power to 'em, I say.)

The new bonus feature on this disk is a multimedia database divided into two sections: one for beginners and one for tournament players. (Note: it doesn't install to your hard drive automatically; you'll have to do that manually, or else run it from the disk.) The beginners' portion is done by IM Andrew Martin and covers not just the rules of the game but explains chess notation, demonstrates some basic mates, etc. All well and good, but those reading this blog are more likely to find interesting are the videos for advanced players.

This section comprises three hours of samplers from other ChessBase disks: the Kasparov DVDs on the Queen's Gambit Declined and the Najdorf, Korchnoi's autobiographical disks, various Aagaard works (on attacking chess and the Nimzo-Indian), Wells on strategy, and some of Martin's disks on openings. For those of you who don't have any of those works, I think you'll enjoy the sampler a great deal.

I have some of the sampled disks, but not all of them, so I was interested to glimpse what I've been missing. My excitement was all the more when I discovered that one of the videos was from IM Martin's video on the Ruy Lopez, covering the Schliemann! This defective variation (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 f5) has been part of my repertory, off and on, for more than 20 years, so I was curious to see just how he'd skin that cat.

Ironically, he recommends 4.d3. The move has a modest theoretical reputation, yet I've defended the move as having a good deal more poison than one might think from a cursory look at the usual sources. I think Martin's attempt to find a variation that's simple, safe, and positionally clear aims at the right level for those without the time (or work ethic) to learn the most testing variations. His narrative style is pleasant as well, so it fares well in concept and presentation.

How about the actual execution? Here my report is mixed. While the variations he offers are in the right ballpark, there are some surprising and significant errors as well. Click here for the gory details.

Again, it's recommended that the reader first examine this post's predecessors, starting here and following the links at the end of the end of that post and its successor. If you've already done so, read on...

Before reading this post, check out part 1, here.

From round 2 of the recent Miami International:

White: GM Julio Becerra
Black: FM Marcel Martinez

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Ne4 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5 Nd7 6.Nxf7



The usual move is 6.Nxd7, but Becerra's sacrifice puts enormous pressure on his young opponent.

6...Qe7!

If 6...Kxf7 7.Qh5+ followed by 8.Qxd5 gives White excellent compensation. After 6...Qe7, everything gets crazy.

7.Nxh8! Nc3+ 8.Kd2 Nxd1 9.Re1 Nxf2



Very nice! The fine point is revealed after the obvious sequence 10.Rxe7+ Bxe7 11.Bxh7 (else 11...Nxd3 or 11...Ne4+, when the Nh8 will be lost) 11...Bg5+ 12.Ke2 Bxc1 13.Kxf2 Bxb2 and Black wins. It looks bad for White now, but Becerra is up to the challenge:

10.Bxh7! Ne4+ 11.Rxe4! dxe4 12.Bg6+ Kd8 13.Nf7+

and Black has no real choice but to allow the perpetual:

13...Ke8 14.Nd6+ Kd8 15.Nf7+ Ke8 16.Nd6+ 1/2-1/2



Impressive, isn't it? Pieces flying all over the place, sacs a-plenty, all culminating in an unusual perpetual check. Definitely a game worth remembering.