Chess in 2017

Well I sure hope 2017 is a better year for me than 2016. Last year really was a horrible one for me in chess terms. I was playing good about a year ago, and then around Easter time I caught an infection and it went post viral knocking me out for the best part of 3 months. I had to withdraw from the MCC City of Melbourne Open because I was getting headaches during the games, and I didn't enter any other Monday night events at the MCC. I had a lucky run in the Best in the West finishing equal first though my play really didn't warrant it.Out of the 4 games I played, I was dead lost in 1 and worse in 2 others. It was about this time that I developed a frozen shoulder that plagued me for the rest of the year and which is still proving a nuisance. I played the MCC Christmas Swiss, but I could really only focus for half a game, and faded badly toward the third hour of play. I even tried my hand at Correspondence, but felt so sick I missed deadlines and lost games by forfeit. All in all, 2016 will not go down as one of my favourite years!

So what about 2017? I am sitting here feeling positive, though I could say the same about this time last year when I was doing ok in the Australian Championship. This year I just want to get back on track with some regular play. It would be nice to feel well enough to play a full game of chess! I have decided that what I really want is to get the maximum enjoyment out of the game by playing and studying as I want. As I've reached the senior level of over 50's, I have little else to prove or achieve, other than to keep playing and enjoying the game.

The Melbourne Chess Club is my first hope, and I want to continue playing Monday night tournaments. I also hope to play a few weekend events this year, but I find these increasingly tiring so it will depend on my health. I don't like studying openings, so after 50 years of bluffing through I hardly seeing the point of starting with any great depth now.I'll keep looking at endgames and whole games, and finding interesting manouvres to broaden my chess knowledge, and help with my coaching.

To start the year here's a little miniature from 1925. One of the openings that has gone completely over my head and I have no feeling for is the Grunfeld, so I try to avoid it. I therefore like this game as the inventor of the Grunfeld gets smashed up quickly!

Grunfeld-Torre Baden Baden 1925

1.d4 f5 2.Nf3 [I guess the Staunton Gambit wasn't exactly Grunfeld's style] 2..e6 3.g3 [All I really know about the Dutch is that white's king side fianchetto is the best way to deal with black's king side attack] 3..Nf6 4.Bg2 d5 5.0-0 Bd6 6.c4 c6

[Black is playing a Stonewall system. To be honest, I've seen this sort of system used a lot as white, so I'm surprised more players don't try it with black as well] 7.Qc2 0-0 8.b3 Ne4 9.Bb2 Nd7 10.Ne5 Qf6

[Black is massing his forces on the queen side, while white gets ready to expand on the queen side. The knight on e5 needs to do something so exchanging on d7, or dropping it back to d3 both make sense. Instead, white decides to up the stakes] 11.f3 Ne5

[Black has both knights hanging, but which to take, if either? Fritz likes the move 12.c5 hitting third piece!] 12.dxe5

[Who could resist this move which maintains an attack on black's remaining knight while forking a queen and bishop? Certainly Grunfeld couldn't. But he was in for a nasty shock] 12..Bc5+ 13.Kh1

[Now Carlos Torre finishes the game with an excellent stroke] 13..Nxg3+ [This opens the h-file with deadly effect. Grunfeld resigned. After 14.hxg3 Qh6+ 15.Bh3 Qxh3 is mate!

Hopefully I'll catch up with some chess friends a bit more this year in Melbourne and see some games that rival this effort!

Teams Chess and Magazines

I've been away for a few days and when I arrived home I found a New in Chess magazine waiting for me. I haven't bought these magazine's for a long time, and had forgotten how much content they contain. I was browsing a bit, and reading quite a bit which is something that NiC magazine has over Informator style publications. I like the tournament reports, the interviews and editorial style pieces. In fact, I enjoy the written word much more than the symbols that all chess players eventually get used to, and even start using as language (after that it's "plus-minus"). It's good to read what top players were thinking during the games they analyse and their reasons for choosing moves and plans.

New in Chess magazine with excellent quality material

The current issue of New in Chess Magazine has tournament  reports from the Zug Grand Prix, the Alekhine Memorial, the Norway Chess Spectacular and the US Championships. All of these were great events, and all of them had great online live coverage which makes magazine reports seem somehow obsolete. However, the NiC reports bring an extra dimension with great game analysis and GM reports bringing inside information about the events. Besides these reports, the current magazine has interviews with GM's Topalov and Hammer, an historical article on Carlos Torre and interesting commentary articles by GM's Short and Ree. I guess that the New in Chess editorial team realise that live chess with Houdini style immediate analysis is giving many players all they need of chess analysis. So instead the magazine is filled with expert commentary, ideas, photo's and the emphasis is on quality of material.

Carlos Torre Repetto

The article by Nigel Short I found very interesting, and somewhat frustrating. Short's double page article contains no actual chess moves, but it tells his story of recent adventures in club chess. Nigel does a great job of describing the tension that team chess can generate, the bonds that can develop by playing regularly for a team, and some issues that only team chess can bring up, such as board orders and not knowing which players the opposing team will have playing on a given date. These were issues that I grew up with in the UK, and I've experienced the joys of winning games for my team and the misery of losing games that cost us matches (the worst being when you turn a winning position into a losing one, which feels a million times worse when the rest of your team are looking over your shoulder!).

So why did I find Nigel's article frustrating? Nothing to do with the article, which helped bring back some memories of team matches I've played. Rather it is because here in Melbourne, team chess seems to have died away again. When I first arrived here, there was a dwindling teams competition which finally died out for a couple of years. I then helped to rejuvenate it, and for the past couple of years there has been a teams event. However, we have heard nothing so far this year from Chess Victoria about a teams event. I'm beginning to think that the State body aren't the best organisation for running such an event, and a separate league organisation would be better. This was my original idea when I first hatched the plan over 2 years ago, but CV President, Leonid Sandler said it would be better under CV auspices. However, Chess Victoria is a voluntary run organisation that has its hands full with the events they currently organise, let alone taking on the burden of other tournaments. There's just too few people with too little time. A sad fact.

GM Nigel Short (second left) with Iranian Bronze medal winning team from the  2006 Asian games (from chessbase)

What I think we need is a dedicated league which perhaps can be incorporated into Chess Victoria, but which is a separate entity and responsible for the organisation of team chess across the city and even the state. It would be good if the chess clubs around Victoria became involved in the league administration, but a small and dedicated committee is needed, at least to start with. If the league grows, then so can the organisation. The feedback I received from the team's events was mostly all positive, so there are plenty of people who want this form of chess. It just takes a bit of work to organise. So should I try to organise a league, perhaps for 2014? Would anyone be prepared to help?