The Chess Mind

Author: Dennis Monokroussos.
This is a blog for chess fans by a chess fan who is more than a chess fan - other topics do creep in from time to time, per my interest.
All material here is copyrighted, and may not be reproduced without my prior permission.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Bonus ChessVideos Show! - The Super-Fast Najdorf, Part 5c
If you're a Najdorf fan, then this is absolutely your week! After recording the 5b video, I had the opportunity in a local blitz game to try out the theory I had spent the past couple of weeks summarizing. My fiendish opponent didn't realize he was supposed to fall, lemming-like, into my preparation, and I was quickly on my own. The game grew wild almost immediately, and while its theoretical significance is minimal its entertainment value was through the roof. (At least for me!) I think you'll find it exciting and enjoyable as well, and since it's free you might as well have a look - right here.

(Not so keen on the Najdorf? Fear not: I have already recorded part 6, and it's the grand finale of the series.)
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Tuesday June 16, 2009 at 12:13am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks

Friday, June 5, 2009

This Week's ChessVideos Show: The Super-Fast Najdorf, Part 5
We're almost there. Almost, but not quite! We have reached the position after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7, and in this week's presentation we look at the following variations:

(1) 8.Qf3 h6 9.Bh4 g5!?

(2) 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.0-0-0 Nbd7 and now:

(2a) 10.Qg3
(2b) 10.Be2
(2c) 10.Bd3

The biggie, 10.g4, will be the subject of next week's show - the grand finale of our series on the Sicilian in general and the Najdorf in particular.

In the meantime, there's plenty of (entertaining) content in this week's show (right here), and it's available free and on demand for at least the next month or so. Enjoy!
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Friday June 5, 2009 at 3:21am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks
Book Notice: 1.b4 by Konikowski & Soszynski
If you're interested in the Sokolsky/Orangutan/Polish (1.b4) and like books with encyclopedia-style coverage, the new Russell Enterprises offering 1.b4: Theory & Practice of the Sokolsky Opening by FM Jerzy Konikowski and Marek Soszynski is the thing for you. I recall many reviews of the Lapshun and Conticello book on the same opening receiving serious criticism for their comparatively thin coverage; this cannot be said of the present volume. In fact, I think there is too much information here.

Sometimes we think the point of an opening book is to acquire information. That's true, but only up to a point. A good database will give us loads of information, but if the games aren't annotated and we don't know how to weight the information that's there, it presents the opposite problem. Now instead of lacking information, we're drowning in it. Thefore, the main reasons to buy an opening book are to get rid of the excess information we get in a database and to learn what ideas, move orders and plans are important. It's not to know or have access to every single idea in every single variation of an opening or line. As this work is much more like a print database than a typical opening book, the reader will have to sift through a colossal amount of material to develop a repertoire, and the strategic advice is comparatively sparse.

Bottom line: Konikowski and Sosynski have put in an incredible amount of effort compiling the material and including their own analysis. This includes a great deal of material from Sokolsky himself, which is quite valuable to English readers lacking access to the founding father's works. That's to K & S's credit. Unfortunately, the product is still in too raw a form for all but devoted fans of 1.b4. If you're a serious 1.b4 player, then it's a must-buy based on its thoroughness. If you're looking for an intro, however, it's a lot less useful.

The book is available here.
Posted by Dennis Monokroussos on Friday June 5, 2009 at 3:20am. 0 Comments 0 Trackbacks