Following on from Yesterday

Yesterday, I wrote about a Korchnoi game I looked at. I asked a few questions about some positions.

1.

This position was from Honfi-Korchnoi, EU ch 1961. Korchnoi, as black won the game after 38..Qd3, but he had a much fancier win. 38..Bxf4+!! 39.Bxf4

39..Rxe2!! A great follow up offering the queen. 40.Bxd6

Now black wins using a "Windmill" tactic. 40..Rxg2+ 41.Kh1 Rxa2+ [Necessary so that white can't block a check with the queen on d5] 42.Kg1 Rg2+ 43.Kh1 Rg5+ 44.Kh2 Re2+ 45.Rf2 Rxf2#

2.

This is a simple black to play and win from the game Kipping-Pindar Manchester 1861. Black sacrificed the exchange to win bigger fish. 31..Rcxc6! 32.Nxc6 [32.bxc6 was an alternative, though the c-pawn is never going to be a threat. 32..Qe4 33.Rg1 Qb1+ 34.Qe1 Qxa2 35.c7 Re8 saves the day]

Now black has 32..Qe4 simultaneously hitting h1 and b1. White resigned

3. 

This was one of the maddest games I saw yesterday, and I'll post the whole game after. White played 16.Bb5 here but was swiftly blown away by 16..Nxf3+! 17.gxf3 Qxf3

What a transformation over the last diagram. White's king has no cover, nowhere to run, and little help in stopping black's forces. This is a textbook attack on the king in the centre by Kazimdzhanov as black. 18.Rf1 Bh4+ [Attack with as many pieces as possible] 19.Bf2 Qe4+ 20.Be2

All white can do is block the checks, but now e2 is very weak. The game finished 20..Bg4 21.Qc4 Rd4 22.Qxd4 Qxe2# A shame for white who had stared very well against a very strong opponent, but it just goes to show how even one slip can count against a strong player, and how we must be vigilant about opportunities to attack an unguarded king, or ways of opening a king's defence, even if it means a sacrifice.

4. The last position from yesterday was from a game Corden-J Littlewood Hastings 1969. The Littlewood family produced a number of good players, and they had a reputation for attacking flair.

So what did black play here? John Littlewood played the crazy looking 32..Rh3! [The rook can't be taken 33.gxh3?? Qe4+ 34.Kg1 Bd4+ 35.Rf2 Qxb1+ etc winning a mass of material] 33.Rbe1

And now came the king hunt! 33..Rxh2!! 34.Kxh2 Be5+ 35.Kg1 Bd4+ 36.Kh2 Qh5+ 37.Kg3 Qh4+ 38.Kf3 Qf4+ 39.Ke2 Qe3+ 40.Kd1 Qd3+

Another transformation in position. Black has successfully dragged white's king out into the open and has 2 attackers while the king has no defenders. Black managed to successfully chase the king around until this final position was reached.

White did have a chance earlier to give back material to go into a worse endgame that would have offered some chance of resistance, however this was the final tactic. Black finished off with 51..Qc3+ 52.Ka4 b5+, a discovered attack which wins white's queen, and forced him to resign.

All of these great tactical games were seen by me because I looked at an old game and followed up by looking at some games that happened in a similar opening. I therefore have learned a bit about an opening, and have also added some tactical motifs into my knowledge base. There were a load of fairly boring games that I also looked at, and few others of interest that I'll look at tomorrow, or the next time I post.

From a Game...

In the State Library on Monday, I looked at a lot of material and came away with some stuff to look at later. I copied some pages from Korchnoi's 400 Best Games of Chess and today had a look at the first game, a win for Korchnoi from the 1946 Leningrad Junior Championship. (By the way, this game isn't in Big Database 2013, though it might be in the more up to date versions.)

The game Korchnoi-Razov isn't perfect, isn't in a topical opening for today, or even for when it was played, but it does show some things that players should be thinking about. In this respect, it is a good teaching tool.

1. Don't worry about openings so much. At sub master level, no one knows much theory anyway, and thanks to our current World Champion, openings are being relegated in importance in favour of stamina, tactical solidity and endgame mastery.

2. You don't have to play the best move to win games. But when you analyse, you should be trying to discover what was best, and why you made mistaken choices.

3. Any ideas that strike you as interesting, or that you haven't seen before, you should take note of. In this game, I particularly like Korchnoi's bishop retreat on move 13, dominating the knight. I've seen the idea before in a number of openings but it must have been very tempting for a young player to drop the bishop back to b3 to stay on the a2-g8 diagonal.

4. The opening is a Hungarian type opening which is pretty solid, but not very ambitious. At club level it can be a good choice for players who don't mind playing a bit cramped for a while.

Anyway, here's the game, with notes from the book and a couple added from me:

If you haven't seen this opening before, and aren't particularly impressed with black's play, then the key game is probably Rodzinski-Alekhne Paris 1913. This is a game that you should study if you haven't done so before. It is only 15 moves long, but a lot happens in it. White pounds away at f7, and Alekhine ends up giving his rook up on a8. But then all his pieces come to attack a deserted white king, with a beautiful final tactic and mate.

In fact, looking at these games inspired me to look at some other games in similar lines by some quality players. Here's a position from a game where Korchnoi was playing the black side:

White over estimated his position and advanced. The position is balanced, so the bishop on g5 should probably retreat. 1.Bh6?! Qe8 2.f4? Weakening the king side 2..Qc6 threatening mate on g2 3.Qc2

2..Bd4+ simple chess, advancing slowly, this time using a pin as justification 3.Kh2 Be3 blocking the e-file, and putting white's bishop on h6 out of the game 4.Re2 Qd6 5.Rf1 Rde8 6.Qb3

In this position, Korchnoi, as black, played 6..Qd3 and went on to win. However, he missed an excellent tactical shot here.

Black to play and crush!!

Here's a position from the 1800's. Those from the Birmingham area of England will be familiar with the club Walsall Kipping. You might not know, however, that Kipping was a player, and a pretty good one for his time, though I think he was more celebrated as a problem composer. Anyway, this position is from the game Kipping-Pindar Manchester 1861. White has just played Ne5, centralising the knight. Unfortunately, white resigned a few moves later!

Black to play and win

This is a fairly crazy but balanced position from the game van Oosterom-Kazimdhzanov Dutch League 2008. White played 16.Bb5. Why was this a mistake?

Finally, take a look at this position.

What do you think black played?

I'll post the answers tomorrow with some extra stuff

The Week Korchnoi Died

It must be a sign that I'm getting old, but I seem to be noticing the deaths of a number of my childhood heroes recently. David Bowie's death earlier this year was terrible. And from a chess perspective, I was hit with almost the same gut wrenching feeling when I heard Viktor Korchnoi had died earlier this week.

I started playing chess in the post Fischer time when it was all about the golden boy of Russian chess, Karpov, versus the rebellious Korchnoi. I have to say that I was enthralled by the play of both players. Karpov's handling of simple positions, and endgames, is still a mystery to me, while Korchnoi's willingness to defend ugly positions was amazing. I was just beginning to get interested in the world of chess, and chess theory and ideas, between their first and second matches. And while I've read about how close the 1974 ans 1978 matches were, unfortunately it was the 1981 match, convincingly won by Karpov which first really attracted my attention. Still, it didn't stop me following the play of both players, and looking at many of their games since then.

Korchnoi was truly an inspiration, his career spanning over 50 years, of which 30 were with him near the top of the game. And he just didn't stop playing! I can kind of understand that a player doesn't want to linger after his best, and might move on to other things. I understand it, but I don't personally subscribe to that sort of way of thinking. Like Korchnoi, I'll be playing chess as long as I'm healthy to do so, and if I can't play, then I'll read about, or study, the game.

There have been loads of tributes to Viktor Korchnoi this written this week, and I'm sure there'll be many more. My personal favourite of those I've read was the very personal tribute by Frederic Friedel on Chessbase.

Meanwhile, the MCC Monday night tournament, the City of Melbourne Open, continues without me, and it looks as if I won't be playing any more games in this tournament. The tournament is currently headed by FM Domagoj Dragicevic who beat Vishal Bhat in round 7. Dragicevic is now on 6.5/8, a point clear of the field. FM Greg Canfell, Mehmedalija Dizdarevic, Ray Yang and Tristan Krstevski are all on 5.5, with Vishal the only player on 5. There is then a big group on 4.5 but with only 2 rounds to go, it's really looking like Domagoj will be tough to stop.

And finally, I saw a post on Chesschat, the chess bulletin board, by Brian Jones asking for players to join the Correspondence Chess League of Australia (CCLA). So I decide to give it it a go, and will report on how things are going here. It's been about 30 years since I last tried to play correspondence chess but I didn't have the patience, and gave it up after not much time. Now I feel better prepared for it, and I also get the chance to represent Australia rather than England, where my FIDE rating is set.

Korchnoi-Larsen 1968 (from chess network company)

Finally, as a tribute to Viktor Korchnoi, I've been showing kids one of his games this week, a quick win against Larsen from Brussels 1987. Enjoy!

Pawn Breaks

I've introduced this concept to some of my students recently. The good old pawn thrust into the breach has a number of functions. Firstly, and most importantly, it engages the enemy, and so brings the position into critical mode. Pawns breaks, especially unexpected ones in the centre, can be a great psychological blow as well, and it takes a very steady nerve to answer one that comes as a surprise. Secondly, it can open lines for pieces to come into play and attacks some space in the sector of the board where it occurs. Finally, the pawn break may undermine an enemy pawn structure or even initiate an attack.

Going back to my look at Informator 26, I've seen a number of interesting pawn advances in games. Here's my favourites from Informator 26:

Ok, for starters white has a promising position in the game Marjanovic-Forintos Kirovakan 1978 with 2 tempting pawn advances in the middle of the board. 18.e5! This pawn break comes with a big tactical threat: 19.Nxh7 with g6 a big weakness. The point of the move was both to engage the enemy and open lines for an attack on the b1-h7 diagonal. Black's position is critical and he felt he had to give an exchange by 18..Rf5 to stop the oncoming attack, but white just took it, regrouped, exchanged and won in technical fashion.

Here we have the great Victor Korchnoi playing black at the 1978 Olympiad against J. Diez del Corral from Spain. Always a fighter, Korchnoi advanced in the centre with 16..d5! Black feels that any opening of the centre will be good for him as that's where white's king is. He also had to calculate the line 17.exd5 Qxd5 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.0-0 exd4 20.cxd4 Rfd8 when white is struggling to defend his d-pawn and other weaknesses around the board. So as well as threatening the opening of the centre, black equalises in the centre and protects his knight.

Here white was the famous attacking Grand Master, Velimirovic against GM Janosevic. It was black who first got a pawn break in. 16..d5. This is a typical move, trying to break the Maroczy style fortress that white has set up in the middle of the board. I'm not sure black was ready for the pawn break back again that came. 17.f5!. This move engages black's king side initiating attacking prospects, it challenges the pawn chain f7-e6-d5, attacks a knight, opens the c1-h6 diagonal and threatens to open the f-file. Black took 17..exf5 [17..d4 18.fxg6 dxe3 19.gxf7 gives white a massive attack] 18.Nxd5 fxe4 19.Nxe7+ Nxe7 20.Bf4 when white's pieces are incredibly active in compensation for his pawn deficit. Black managed to salvage his king side only to be overrun by white pawn's majority on the queen side.

And finally, the best till last. This was the deciding game in the 1978 World Championship match, with Karpov white against Korchnoi. It is a Modern/Pirc type position and Karpov won in fine style after the pawn break 25.e5! Like before, this engages black's structure, it challenges the pawn chain e7-d6-c5, attacks the knight on f6, opens the b1-h7 diagonal which is important in the line 25..Nfxd5 26.Nf5+!! gxf5 27.Qg5+ Kh8 28.Qxf5 when mate will happen on h7. The game continued 25..dxe5 26.Qxe5 Nxd5 27.Bxb5 Ra7

Karpov here played 28.Nh4! a fantastic move, which draws black's pieces to the king side as it appears as if a direct threat by white is not far away, starting with a knight sacrifice on f5. In fact while black's pieces were drawn to the king side, white won black's c-pawn and eventually advanced his connected passed pawns on the queen side to win, not unlike the strategic play in the previous example.

The moral of the story is keep on the lookout for pawn advances around the middle of the board. Funnily enough, even if they're not fully sound, they are unnerving moves which tend to take the initiative, which may be worth the investment of a pawn anyway (like in Velimirovic-Janosevic).

Sunday Chess Thoughts

Now I love chess, but there are some pretty cranky things that happen around the chess world, and some odd personalities! One person who has no problem speaking his mind is ex World Championship challenger Viktor Korchnoi. Korchnoi led a sometimes hard, but sometimes colourful life. He had been one of the very best in the World from the early 1960's when he first won the Soviet Championship and competed in Candidates tournaments, through till the late 1980's, and even now at 80 years of age, can play to a standard that most of us would only dream of playing to. Pretty much my first recollections of the big wide world of chess were reports about the 1981 World Championship match and the grief between Karpov and Korchnoi. Korchnoi, with his battling style has always held a fascination for me, as he no doubt has for many players. Now in an interview on the Russian chess site chesspro, Korchnoi talks about Magnus Carlsen's use of hypnosis to achieve his results. There is also a report in English on whychess (an excellent site for live coverage of games, by the way) if you don't like Google translate!

Does Magnus Carlsen wear these glasses at chess tournaments? (kaboodle)

I just heard that the 2020 Olympic Games will be held in Tokyo. From a purely personal, selfish point of view I'm very happy as it means that the events will be shown in my daytime. It's also great that Japan should get to host such an amazing event after the horrific disaster of the Tsunami in 2011. Venue is, of course, an all important issue in allocating events. So I was fairly disturbed when I read that the World Junior Chess Championships, which are to held in Turkey starting next week, were to be played in Hatay which is 20 km from the Syrian border. The Turkish organisers seemed to think that the town was safe enough, even though there have been at least 2 car bombings in the area in the past year killing over 50 people! I'm pretty sure that if I had kids, I would not be sending them to a chess competition on the edge of a war zone! The organisers have relented and moved the event to a safer part of Turkey, albeit too late for many competitors who had decided not to play. There is an excellent report on chessvibes. I'm going back through my mind to think of any dangerous places I've played but I've been very lucky. I think the most dangerous was a weekender in Hartlepool which didn't feel too friendly on a Saturday night but was ok during the day when the locals had to shelter from the sun!

Here's a position from one of my classes this last week. I'm constantly amazed by moves that some of the kids find. Obviously there are lots of blunders and positional mistakes, but every now and then a gem crops up.

It's white to play, there are plenty of good looking moves, but which would you choose? My initial choice was good enough to win, but nowhere near s good as my student's move! The funny thing is that even he didn't realise just how good his move was! I'll tell you what he played tomorrow.

Why Study Chess?

What inspires a player to study? Does one do it to improve, to research, for the fun of it? We are all eternal optimists hoping that we can still improve. I guess the fact that strong players maintained their strength late into their lives gives us all inspiration. However, the fact is that a player like Kortchnoi or Smyslov were absolute greats from a young age, so staying stronger later in life wasn't so much of a problem for them. Most of us aren't going to get much better after we hit 40 so why not just play and forget the study? Well, speaking personally, I find studying the game fascinating, its history, its characters, the games both great and relatively normal and the whole cultural melting pot that makes up this game of kings.

I coach kids and see very different reactions to the lessons I present. Some kids love stories and remember the most bizarre of things. Other kids enjoy puzzles, and even some chess based logical problems. There is an excellent monthly article at the Chess Cafe website by Jeff Coakley with some great testing puzzles. But what about adults? There are loads of products around to help players improve. For instance, there are books, DVD's, databases, computer playing programs, online chess clubs with online coaching. In fact there is so much stuff out there that it is almost impossible to know what will help you improve the most.

In my opinion adults can improve, even those of us above the dreaded 40, but having some knowledge of yourself is a very good place to start. We all learn in different ways, so do you prefer visual, audio or written learning? I love books and a chess board, but I probably learn more from playing through games in a database. I don't really enjoy DVD's, though I find short youtube type reports excellent. I hate playing computer programs, though I don't mind playing games at online chess clubs. What I find particularly useful is watching live games online, especially with Grandmaster commentary. As I said, we are all different so my likes and dislikes will be different to yours, but getting to know what you like can help you devise a program of study that can be enjoyable and rewarding. It may also be a good idea to ask a strong player to help you choose some products if you want to buy books or DVD's. There is so much that it's difficult to know what to get. Employing a coach for a few sessions can also guide you in the right direction.

Saying that, any study is better than none, though study directed at your own level will obviously be more effective. As for me, I enjoy looking at games of great players of the past (instead of beefing up my opening repertoire, or working on my positional understanding). I have some particular favourites who seem to somehow resonate with me. I particularly enjoy playing through the games of Reshevsky and Korchnoi. Both were immigrants, which I can empathise with, and both were great fighters which I fully appreciate. Although both were positional masters, they were both great tactical players and attacking players so when looking through their games you get the full range of types of game. Here's a couple of games that you wouldn't necessarily associate with these 2 heroes of mine, both in that most romantic of openings, the King's Gambit.

Firstly, the young Reshevsky playing a simul in Berlin aged about 8. Sammy was white, though I don't know the name of his opponent.

Secondly a game with Korchnoi as black against a King's Gambit specialist. This was played shortly before he emigrated in probably his last round robin in the Soviet Union before he left.