Holiday Puzzle #6

So you think you know the rules? This little poser shouldn't bother you for long, but it might make you think twice about how well you know the rules of Chess.

Reportedly played between two Professors of Philosophy ("Justice Good and True" by Heinrich Fraenkel from "Chess Treasury of the Air" edited by Terence Tiller), the question is who won? Or is it a rare case of mutual Checkmate?

White plays 1. Bg2. Is it Checkmate?
Does Black win with 1. ... d5? Or is it mutual Checkmate after 2. cxd6 e.p.?

Professor White played 1. Bg2 and announced Checkmate. Professor Black countered that after 1. ... d5 it is White who is Checkmated, to which Professor White argued that because of 2. cxd6 en passant (with mutual Checkmate!) the pawn was captured on d6 and so never reached d5 protecting its King, 1. ... d5 therefore being an illegal move, played as it was with the King already dead.

You are the arbiter. To whom do you award the game, and why?

Holiday Puzzle #5

Some retrograde analysis. This is a fairly simple starter for this genre of problem, you have to give Black's last move (easy), but for a complete solution, you also have to give the White move that preceeded it.

By Smullyan
What was Black's last move, and the White move that preceeded it?

Holiday Puzzle #4

If the last three were too much, take your thinking cap off for this one.

White to play, mate in 7
Noam Elkies, 2004

Here's a hint: if you can't find the key stop trying, it's easier to solve if you don't!

Holiday Puzzle #3

If you found the mate-in-half problem too easy (or even if you didn't...) try this one. Mate-in-Zero.

From "The Complete Chess Addict"
By Mike Fox and Richard James

Holiday Puzzle #2

Sometimes we all suffer 'Chess Blindness' and miss simple things like mate-in-one. Can you find the mate-in-half here? Yes, the problem is mate in half a move.

From "The Complete Chess Addict"
By Mike Fox and Richard James

Holiday Puzzle #1

A little time out from all that hard analytical work for a little Chess riddle or two.

This one keeps some people amused for hours. There are no tricks; set up your Chessboard in the normal starting position, and in 4 normal, legal Chess moves produce this position (White and Black co-operate 'helpmate' style).

By Mortimer
Reach this position after 4 legal moves

The King In A Rook Box

Or "Do You Know How To Analyse - Part 6", but I was getting bored of that title.

Reinfeld position #986
Black to move

Static analysis: Black has ditched two pawns for active pieces and a King-side assault. White's Queen is unprotected.

Candidate moves:

A. 1. ... Qxh2+ a King hunt.
B. 1. ... Rh6 more pressure on the King.
C. 1. ... Ne2 threatening the Rook and the back rank via the f-file.
D. 1. ... Qe2 threatening pawns and the back rank.

I looked at ... Qxh2+ first, as it should be the easiest to prove or dismiss. I was expecting the latter, but as I started to analyse, I found it has surprisingly long legs...

A. 1. ... Qxh2+ 2. Kxh2 Rh6+ 3. Kg3 Ne2+ 4. Kg4 Rf4+ 5. Kg5

"So far so forced" as they say, the King is boxed in by the Rooks, but where's the coup de grace? At 5 moves out, the position is becoming a little hazy for me - the skill of visualisation which is greatly improved for my tactics practice, but would I play this sac in a real game and hope to find the killer when we get to here? In blitz I'd do it in a blink, but not in a teamleague game!

Reinfeld posisition #986
After 5. Kg5

This is a crux for "knowing how to analyse"; from the first diagram you have to see the second and be sure whether or not there's a (probably quiet) move to continue with. I went on to the next most promising candidate move.

B. 1. ... Rh6 the main idea is
B1. 2. h3 Qxh3+ 3. gxh3 Rxh3#
B2. 2. Nf3 Nd3 3. Qd6 Nxf2# is the smothered mate idea that I missed trying 2. ... Ne2 but
B3. 2. Nf1 Ne2 "etc..." black picks up an exchange, however White remains ahead (+0.7 - Crafty)

C. 1. ... Ne2 another way of trying the ... Qxh2+, ... Rh6# idea, I looked at
C1. 2. Nf1 Rxf2 3. Nd3 with nothing concrete. Crafty says Black is better here but gives
C2. 2. Nf3 Nxg1 3. Kxg1 Rg6 4. Nxe5 Rg5 5. N3c4 Qh3 6. Ne3 Qh5 as 0.00.

D. 1. ... Qe2 I couldn't find a solid continuation, White has a few options and Crafty goes for 2. Qc4 Qxf2 with +2 for White.

The solution is what I suspected I hadn't found for stopping the search too soon. Fred plays (from diagram 2) the elegant

5. ... Rh2 threatening 6. ... h6# 6. Qxf8+ Kxf8 7. Nf3 h6+ 8. Kg6 Kg8 threatening 9. ... Rf6# 9. Nxh2 Rf5 threatening 10. ... Rg5# 10. exf5 Nf4#

While Crafty is more direct

5. ... Rff6 threatening 6. ... Rfg6# 6. Qxf8+ Kxf8 7. Kg4 Rfg6+ 8. Kf3 Nxg1#.

Do You Know How To Analyse? Part 5

Another quick one I did at lunchtime. I selected it by scanning the solutions for a long variation in one of the last couple of chapters, so I only had a vague recognition of the position. The last few chapters aren't categorised by motif, just things like 'Surprise Moves' - having learnt the motifs in the earlier chapters, part of the excercise is to identify the motif for yourself.

Reinfeld position #811
Black to move

Static analysis: Black has sacrificed a piece for the attack, opening the h-file.

Candidate moves:

A. ... Rh1+
B. ... gxf2+
C. ... Bxf2+
D. ... Nxe4
E. ... Ng4
F. ... Nd4
G. ... Qe7
H. ... Qd7
I. ... d5

F, G, and H with the idea of bringing more pieces to the attack (i.e. in conjunction with 0-0-0) look too slow under the circumstances and ...d5 needs another big idea fast. ... Rh1+ is looking for a Suicide Squad idea but the f2 pawn and time it will take the Queen to get to the h-file put paid to that.

Trying B and C directly lead to positions where Black has exchanged two minors for a Rook and not much promise (though Crafty gives ... gxf2 about -0.6) so my first try was 1. ... Nxe4.

D1. 1. ... Nxe4 2. Bxd8 the basic test of the idea 2. ... Bxf2+ 3. Rxf2 gxf2+ 4. Kf1 Rh1+ 5. Ke2 Rxd1 6. Kxd1 f1/Q+

First I'd tried 2. ... gxf2+ until I realised the pawn promotion idea was better and played the captures the other way around. Black is material ahead after 7. ... Kxd8 but simply

D2. 1. ... Nxe4 2. dxe4 and Black, already two pieces down, has nothing.

Candidate move E has the same idea without exposing the Knight to capture.

E. 1. ... Ng4 2. Be3 (2.Bxd8 is just a better version of D1) 2. ... Nxe3 3. fxe3 (or else Black simply wins the exchange) 3. ... Bxe3+ and we're effectively back in D1 with more material.

Not exactly an exhaustive analysis (in about 20 minutes) but the position was basically cracked that way instead of 'searching for a combo'. Fred's solution:

1. ... Ng4 2. Bxd8 Bxf2+ 3. Rxf2 gxf2+ 4. Kf1 Rh1+ 5. Ke2 Rxd1 6. Nfd2 Nd4+ 7. Kxd1 Ne3+ 8. Kc1 Ne2#.

All very pretty but hardly forced, and I wonder if it's a good thing that I was on the same track as Fred... here's what Crafty says:

1. ... Ng4 2. d4 gxf2+ 3. Rxf2 f6 4. Bh4 Nxd4 5. b4 Nxf3+ 6. Qxf3 Rxh4 7. bxc5 Nxf2 8. Qxf2 9. Bb5+ c6 10. Nc3 Rf4 (-2.5).

All a bit computer-like, but 2. d4 should probably have been the first defense a human should consider too!

Do You Know How To Analyse? Part 4

This is the first 'simpler' position I picked to analyse. I chose it because when I attempted it as a tactical excercise (overloading) I found some interesting ideas but not Fred's solution, and on subsequent passes, I still didn't remember Fred's solution mainly because it doesn't seem to be a forced variation.

Reinfeld position #422
White to move

Here's what I came up with in about half an hour.

Static analysis - White is down two pawns for far superior development and an attack.

Before listing candidate moves, I wanted to check Black's counter-play so by null-moving White we can see that 1. ... Qa1+ 2. Kh2 leaves the Black Queen attacked and compelled to move - handy if for example Re8 is attacked at the same time.

Candidate moves.

A. 1. Qh5 - mating attack
B. 1. Ng4 - double attack on the Rook and Queen
C. 1. Nd5 - triple attack, Nxc7xc8 also threatened
D. 1. Rh6 - to break up the castle, mating attack
E. 1. Nf5 (or N-other) - discovered mate threat
F. 1. Rxh7 - mating attack

My analysis, starting with the variations that look simplest:

A. 1. Qh5 Qg6 2. N?? Rxe2 3. Qxe2 Qe6 Black looks ok - Crafty gives White a small (+1.5) advantage.

D. 1. Rh6 gxh6 White has nothing more, Black is winning. Actually crafty gives Black a winning Queen ending at depth 14 - 2. Nd5 Qa1+ 3. Kh2 Rxe2 4. Qxe2 Nd7 5. Qe8+ Kg7 6. Nxc7 Rb8 7. Nd5 Qd4 8. Bxb8 Nxb8 9. Qxc8 Qxd5 10. Qxb8 Qxa2

F. 1. Rxh7 Kxh7 2. Ng4 Qa1+ 3. Kh2 - the Queen is not attacked in this line, Black is winning. Crafty gives 2. Nd5 but agrees with the basic idea for Black.

E. 1. Nf5 (or other, ie. 1. Nc2 would have the idea of preventing Qa1+, which we've already demonstratred is unnecessary) 1. ... Rxe2 2. Nh6+ gxh6 3. Rxh6 Qa1+ etc, Black is winning.

So to the crucial variation - I didn't analyse 1. Ng4 due to time constraints and because at sight it's a 'lesser version' of 1. Nd5, that is, if Nd5 doesn't work 1.Ng4 probably won't either and White will be playing the best move so far 1.Qh5.

Black has two replies to 1.Nd5, 1. ... Qc6 and 1. ... Qd8.

C1. 1. Nd5 Qc6 2. Nxc7 the Knight should escape after Nxa8 netting a whole Rook and if something like 2. ... Na6 3. Qxc6 wins lots of material. Crafty is at about +4 after 2. ... Rxe2 3. Qxe2 g5 4. Be5 Nd7 5. Nxa8 Qe6 6. f4 Nxe5 7. fxe5 Qg4 8. Qd3 Qf5 9. Qd8+ Kg7 10. Kh2 Be6.

C2. 1. Nd5 Qd8 2. Bxc7 Qd7 3. Qf5 White is trying to deflect the Black Queen from defending the Rook 3. ... h6 4. Rxe8+ Qxe8 5. Ne7+ Qxe7 6. Qxc8+ Kh7 7. Qxb7 and White is better - although there's still some work to be done for the full point.

Fred's single variation solution is:

1. Nd5 Qd8 2. Bxc7 Qd7 3. Qg4 Re6 this is the plausible but unforced move which leads to a pretty finale illustrating some tactical motifs. Crafty plays 3. ... f5 with +5.5 4. Rxe6 Qxe6 5. Nf6+ Kf8 (Qxf6, Qxc8 mates) 6. Bd6+ Qxd6 7. Qxc8+ ke7 8. Ng8#.


In the end, it was nice to find that Crafty agrees with my C2 variation with 3. Qf5 h6 instead of 3. Qg4, but the reason is that the iron monster forces a mate I didn't see.

Crafty: 4. Rxh6 gxh6 5. Nf6+ Kf8 6. Bd6+ Kg7 7. Nh5+ Kg8 8. Qf6 Qg4 9. Rxe8+ Kh7 10. Rh8#

Reinfeld position #422
Crafty's final word (after 6. Bd6+)

The Affluence Of Incohol

Blackburne, Pillsbury, Alekhine, Tal. They were all famous for it. Wild attacking Chess, that is.

I occassionally have a quick game on InstantChess.com when I have free games there, because it's "cup of coffee compatible". Erm, 'coffee', right. For some strange reason I play without inhibitions there.



The 5. ... b5 variation of the Two Knights Defense is always fun against someone who doesn't know the refutation 6. Bf1 and by 14. ... Rg8 I'd already dreamt the finale. 15. ... f5 (clearance) was the hard move to find and although Crafty prefers White at that point (it's evaluation drops from +2.6 to +1.6 with some analysis) after 16. exf5?? it's suddenly -11.5 and the little iron monster finds my move at depth 10.

The unfair thing about Chess is that 18. ... Qxf3 mating wasn't pretty enough for me - when you're playing a sac-sac-mate game, taking your opponent's pieces just isn't good enough! 18. ... Rxh2+ should lead to a draw by perpetual check, but here's the really silly thing...

Even when you're "Alekhined out of your mind" you'd think any normal person would notice they can execute the threat that's been looming since move 8, right? It was pretty much the whole point of the double Rook sacrifice, wasn't it? Apparently not so for me, I had to think "ooh look, he's giving me a free Knight!" and play 20. ... Bxe5+ then wait for White to finally lose on time.

Anyone got an aspirin?

Do You Know How To Analyse? Part 3

Trying to do this in the odd fifteen minutes here and there during breaks at work is probably not the best idea. I have half a page of 'analysis', most of which is scribbled out and the remainder of which isn't up to much.

Of necessity doing it this way requires backtracking over previous work, when the discipline we're trying to establish is to move in a straight line from static analysis to candidate moves to analysis of variations to the move to be played.

I'll need to pick some simpler positions (1 or 2 candidates with fairly straight variations) and set aside an hour or two at a time on the weekend when I can concentrate on the task, then practice on more complex positions when I have the basic technique (discipline and calculation). Meantime rehearsing tactics seems to be a more useful thing to do in odd little moments here and there.

Do You Know How To Analyse? Part 2

Kotov recommends we analyse the following position where Black's moves are largely forced before proceeding to read about the analysis of unforced variations, and so I began this task during my lunch break today.

Boleslavsky vs. Ravinsky, 1949 (variation)
Kotov position #9
Black to move

The question is "... what variations would arise after 20. ... Ke8 21. Nd6+ Kf8 22. Qf3+ Nf6 23. Re1?"

As my copy of 'Think Like A Grandmaster' is conveniently printed in two column format, I folded the page in half so as to hide the solution and spent twenty minutes or so looking at the diagram. This should be around the time required to complete the whole excercise - I got as far as 'clearly ennumerating the candidate moves'. Not too great a concern, I'll be happy to get the method and technique correct before working on speed... "It is better to do something once slowly and correctly than ten times quickly and wrong".

Static Assessment: Black is a Rook for a pawn ahead in material, in compensation for which White attacks Black's insecure King. There's an absolute pin on the Knight at f6 which is also attacked by a pawn. White has a discovered check by moving his Knight at d6. Difficult for Black to close lines to his King or hide it in the corner, while White potentially has a weak back rank.

Candidate Moves: In listing the candidate moves, I also decided to make a brief note about the underlying idea befind each.

A. 23. ... Bc5 - defending the discovered check.
B. 23. ... Qg4 - to exchange material, Black threatens to win by attrition.
C. 23. ... Bxe5 - to relieve pressure on the pinned Knight, clearance of the d-file aiming the major pieces at White's weak back rank.
D. 23. ... Kg8 - unpinning the Knight.

Here's the position from which the analysis really starts, although it should be done from the position given above.

After 23. Re1

Carpe Diem

Another typical Simian loss... "A lack of desire really to go into concrete variations thoroughly, a vague wandering about...".



At move 24 what more could you possibly want from a French Defence? Only the coup de grace requires a little calculation which I failed to do. It's so winning, why bother taking the Bishop and letting the pawn run rampant? I have so many mating ideas brewing!

This is what Chess is all about, seizing the opportunity when it presents itself. That is achieved by coolly analysing variations.

25. e6 is an excellent practical move - it gives the opponent the maximum opportunity to go wrong, which is exactly what I chose to do. With plenty of time left, I needed only to calculate a few lines from each of the candidate moves to clarify the situation.

I'd best get off and practice doing that now, then.

Do You Know How To Analyse? Part 1

This is how Alexander Kotov described his play in the period 1935-36, before he gained the title of Grandmaster:

"My worst fault was an inability to analyse variations.".

"... most of the time mixing up variations and general reflections.".

"A lack of desire really to go into concrete variations thoroughly, a vague wandering about...".

I resemble those remarks! And this is how he set about remedying the problem:

"I selected from tournament books those games in which the greatest complications had arisen. ... I ... covered the page with a sheet of paper and set myself the task of thinking long and hard so as to analyse all the possible variations. ... Having spent between half an hour and an hour on this task ... I would compare them with those of the annotator.".

And here is how Kotov proceeds through the work of calculating variations:

"... I became even more convinced that the ability to analyse clearly a sufficient number of variations so as to clarify the position was the basic condition for succcess.".

1. "Candidate moves must be established straight away and they must be clearly ennumerated.".
2. The candidate moves form the 'trunk' of a 'tree of analysis', it's branches and sub-branches being the variations arising from each possibility.
3. "In analysing complicated variations one must examine each branch of the tree once and once only.".
4. It is important to analyse the optimum number of variations, so as not to spend too long or miss important lines. This, Kotov tells us, comes from intuition, and intuiton develops from practicing this method.

When practicing, this is of course all done either from a diagram or by setting up the position on a board and then analysing without moving the pieces.

Boleslavsky vs. Flohr, 1950
Position after 16. Rxe6+
Kotov position #6

The task in this position is to calculate the consequences of 16. ... Kf7 17. Rxf6+ gxf6 18. Qh5+. I'm looking for a suitable way to represent Kotov's tree of analysis diagrams in the blog-medium, but it goes something like this:

The candidate moves are 18. ... Ke7, 18. ... Ke6, 18. ... Kg7, and 18. ... Kg8.

A. 18. ... Ke7 19. Re1+
--A1. 19. ... Kd6 20. Bf4+ Kd7 21. Qf7+ followed by Re8+
--A2. 19. ... Kd8 20. Qe8+ Kc7 21. Bf4+ Bd6 22. Re7#
--A3. 19. ... Kd7 20. Qf7+ Kd6 21. Bf4+ Kc5 22. Be3+

B. 18. ... Ke6 19. Re1+ transposing into A1 or A2

C. 18. ... Kg7
--C1. 19. Qg4+ Kf7 20. Qh5+ is perpetual, but there is better...
--C2. 19. Bh6+ Kg8 20. Qg4+ Kf7 21. Rd7+ Be7 22. Qg7+

D. 18. ... Kg8 19. Qg4+
--D1. 19. ... Bg7
----D1a. 20. Bh6 Qc7 21. Rd7?? Qxd7 22. Qxd7 Bxh6+ loses, so
----D1b. 20. Qe6+ Kf8 21. Bf4 Rd8 22. Rxd8+ Qxd8 23. Bd6+ Qxd6 24. Qxd6+ or
---- D1c. 20. Qc4+ Kf8 21. Bb4+ both win.
--D2. 19. ... Kf7 20. Qc4+
----D2a. 20. ... Ke8 21. Re1+
------D2a1. 21. ... Be7 22. Bb4 Qc7 23. Qc5
------ D2a2. 21. ... Kd8 22. Qd3+ Kc7 23. Bf4+ Kc8 24. Re8+
---- D2b. 20. ... Kg7 21. Be3
------ D2b1. 21. ... Qc7 22. Qg4+ Kf7 23. Rd7+
------D2b2. 21. ... Qb4 22. Rd7+ Kg6 23. Qf7+ Kf5 24. g4+ Ke4 25. Qxf6
---- D2c. 20. ... Kg6 21. Qe4+ Kf7 22. Ba5 threatening Rd7+
------ D2c1. 22. ... Qc5 23. Rd7+ Be7 24. Bb4 Qg5+ 25. f4
------ D2c2. 22. ... Bh6+ 23. Kb1
-------- D2c2a. 23. ... Rad8 24. Qc4+ Kg7 25. Qg4+ and 26. Bxb6
-------- D2c2b. 23. ... Rhd8 24. Qxh7+ Bg7 25. Qh5+ and 26. Bxb6

The simpler looking lines are calculated first, and the more complex ones later.

It's a lot to look at and it appears daunting right now (and of course it's Kotov's analysis, not mine!)... but that's the point of the excercise.

Patterns In Practice

I don't often play Queen's Pawn games, I know even less about them than I do about the other openings I know very little about. Here's one I tried recently in a 5' 12" blitz game.



11. Ne4 probably isn't the best idea but I recognised a pattern from one of Fred's positions, and in blitz it has the advantage that Black probably thinks he can win a piece with 11. ... Bxf3 12. Bxe7 Bxe2. Here's the problem that gave me the idea:

Reinfeld position #110
White to move

The obvious answer is to win a piece by 1. Bxe7 Qxe7 2. Nd6+, but on closer inspection it's an example of 'like pieces pinning'; White can play 1. Nd6+ directly because the Black Bishop is pinned to the Queen by the White Bishop.

As to the game, the idea isn't winning much (Black still holds the gambit pawn), but the King is kept more in the centre and the Rook will be out of play for a while. Crafty just wants to play 12. ... Qxd6 getting 3 pieces for the Queen and better pawns, but the little iron monster would do that, wouldn't it! I'm sure there are plenty of other faults with the play on both sides too, however I did at least manage to notice and exploit a weak back rank at the end.

Another 100 Days

Contrary to what my results may indicate, the first 100 Days to Chess Improvement have substantially improved my tactical vision and overall 'sight of board'. Naturally, both are still in need of considerable continual work, but the improvement is adequate to progress to the next stage of Chess development.

The recurring theme from my Teamleague 37 games has been my inability to analyse and calculate variations in critical positions. Fortunately for me, Grandmaster Alexander Kotov once found himself in a similar position and wrote a book about how he overcame the problem. What a thoughtful chap!

Chapter 1 of 'Think Like a Grandmaster' is subtitled 'Do You Know How To Analyse?'. No Grandmaster Kotov, I don't!

It is on this first chapter that the next period of study will focus. We are presented with a method for selecting candidate moves and analysing variations systematically without flitting back-and-forth from move to move. Who isn't familiar with the thought process of saying "I like this move... oh but then he does that... let's try this move... no, that won't work... how about... no... let's try the first move again..." bad, bad, bad!

We'll be looking at complex middlegame positions and trying to produce 'trees of analysis'. I want to do a general strategy book as well, I'm still trying to decide between Nimzovitch's 'Chess Praxis' and Euwe and Kramer's 'The Middlegame'. I always found Nimzovitch's disscusions more inspiring, but Euwe and Kramer's book is more comprehensive if somewhat drier to read.

The tactics practice will continue, this is now an easier (if not simpler) task due to my heightened pattern recognition, and I want to expand on the definitions and discussions already begun in earlier posts.

Teamleague 37 - Round 7 Review

Following my early fiasco, we had two good wins with Mejdanblues winning material in another fairly wild game and then holding on to capitalise in a Bishop ending, and blackk playing an attractive if speculative sacrifice and winding things up with a mating attack.

In the last game Mapleleaf went down to his +300 rated opponent on board 1, but with the match drawn we got to play spoiler - schoolofhippopotami needed the win to make the play-offs ahead of MonkeyClub2000.

Current_Affairs mid-table finish was a creditable performance considering one of our team members (who shall remain nameless...) failed to make an impact on the scoreboard, and we were significantly out-rated on most boards in the majority of our matches.

What can I learn from my +0-5=0 result this season? Against DarthDaver and ValenceJordan the basic error was being over-hasty trying to simplify to nullify an attack. Against squib I avoided a key line because I was unable to calculate it confidently and failed to consider a couple of candidate moves. The dzomba game was the only one I made a really gross blunder (leaving a piece en prise) which was disguised by the complications, and I failed to sufficiently evaluate an important move due to mis-calculating tactics. The final game against mrundersun was again a mis-calculation of tactics, failing to notice the simple tactical motif of an unprotected and immobilised piece (after Nxg7 in the analysis).

I guess that makes the work ahead pretty clear...

Small Mercies

It turns out my instinct was right. I had used about 8 minutes on 6. ... Bg7, deciding that 7. Bxf7+ shouldn't 'work'. It shouldn't. It's not losing, but it shouldn't be winning, either.

Analysis by mrundersun:
8. ... Ke8 9. Ne6 Qb8 "Qb8 is better than Qa5 since white would then have Bd2" 10. Nxg7+ Kf7 11. Nh5 gxh5 12. Qh5+ Kg7 "I never realised that the Knight was trapped".

mrundersun(2012) vs SimianChatter(1768)
Position after 12. ... Kg7 (analysis by mrundersun)

And the moral of this story is...

(Predictably...) having an instinct for where the danger is or isn't is a good thing, but it's useless if it's not backed up with concrete analysis!

Teamleague 37 - Round 7

I wonder if I've hit rock-bottom yet?

They say you have to reach the depths of despair and find yourself sleeping in the gutter before you're truely motivated to turn your life around. An investor friend of mine was rubbing his hands with glee a month ago "All these blue-chip shares are undervalued! The market has bottomed out! Buy! Buy! Buy!". The market has dropped another 10% since then and still no sign of a recovery. Where is the bottom?

I can only pray that this game is close to it. If nothing else it sums up my performance in both seasons of Teamleague I've played in.



7. Bxf7+ wasn't a surprise, I thought I'd be playing 10. dxe5+ Nxe5 11. fxe5+ Qxe5+ but even 10. fxe5 Nxe5 11. O-O+ (or Rf1+) Bf5 is pretty bad for Black.

Back to the old drawing board. Cue intro music. Roll the projector. Raise the curtain for the sequel... "Another 100 Days to Chess Improvement".

Teamleague 37 - Round 6

Oh the bitter-sweet joy of being the losing player in a winning team.

Plebusan won in the true manner befitting a totalitarian dictator, without deigning to move a single piece. blackk triumphed through simple means, picking up some pawns and converting them, while Mejdanblues had a wild game that cost him a piece, then won him two, and finally ended peacefully after both players promoted.

I had originally intended to try the Budapest Gambit (1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5) against my opponent's preferred Queen's pawn opening but changed my mind during the preparation. I only found two games in which Black won, the seminal Rubinstien - Vidmar, Berlin 1918 in which the annotators remark that neither side played particularly well (although there is a pretty combination), and a game won by Shirov when Bacrot attempted to blow him off the board in a pawn-storm. In the other games, even the drawn ones, Black's position just looked ugly and unpromising from the get-go.




As a youngster I had tremendous success playing the Cambridge Springs variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined, indeed the only game I ever lost in that opening I missed a resource and resigned in a drawn position. But White can get a good game if they know what they're doing, and most Queen's Gambit players these days seem to know the wrinkles better than I remember them.

I ruled out the Indian defences (though thinking about it now I might give the Old Indian another run) and Benoni systems on the basis that I need to study the likes of Chess Praxis and Pawn Power In Chess again before returning to those. Finally I settled on the trusty old Orthodox Defense, and pulled out a marvelous little book from my collection called 'Chess from Morphy to Botwinnik (A Century of Chess Evolution)' by Imre Konig.

This book takes the Ruy Lopez, Queen's Gambit (Accepted, Declined, and Exchange!), the English Opening, and the King's Gambit and examines their development from the 1850's to the 1950's. Watching ideas progress in the light of evolving Chess theory is a wonderful way to learn an opening system. I'd originally prepared the Orthodox Defense for Teamleague 36, but had no opportunity to play it, so this was a good chance to brush-up.

Queen's Gambit Declined, Orthodox Defence
Position after 12. Rxc3

Much of the theory for a safe game against the then much feared Queen's Gambit (the Pillsbury Attack!) was worked out by Showalter in the late 19th century, however it was not until the 1920's and 30's that the system was fully worked out and became widely known. Innocuous seeming transpositions or mixing systems is generally fatal for Black - from 'orthodox' don't read 'boring'! White dictates whether Black plays the freeing pawn lever ...e5 or ...c5, the rule being that if the Rook is in front on the c-file then it's ...e5, and if the Queen is in front (i.e. White has played Qc2 and Qxc3), then Black must work towards ...c5.

After 12. ... e5 13. e4 preventing Black's cramping e4 is the theory move, so I'm out of book, but I do have a plan. On 15. ... Bg4 with the intention as in the game, White might simply have played 16. Re1 whereupon the Bishop will probably spend much of the game supporting e4 from g6 - but I figured this was better than having it interrupt my Rooks' communication on c8.

16. Rc5 is clearly premature as 16. ... Nd7 shows, and buys me a tempo to put the Bishop on d3 (I was actually expecting 18. Rc1), but it also put me in a bit of a quandry. I should probably be content to return the Knight to f6 at some point, but now it can also come eventually to d5 via b6 keeping White's pieces off c4. Either way the 21. ... a5 idea is probably dubious, if only because after I played it I saw 22. Bc2 Bxc2 23. Qxc2 f5 24. Qb3+ Nd5 25. Qxb7, and it was not until after the game I noticed that 25. ... Rfb8 traps the Queen. We'll be dealing with analysis and calculation skills in 'Another 100 Days'!!!

With a passing note that 23. ... Rfe8?? would allow 24. Qh5, and that I never quite did get my Queen or Knight to b4, the game was level until my mistake at move 30 (before that Crafty gives White no more than an insignificant +0.3 - +0.4). 30. ... Qg6 was always costing that a5 pawn to an endgame I hoped I might survive (Bishop vs Knight with pawns on both wings). I rejected 30. ... Qd6 on the basis of 31. Nc4 (it's playable), and 30. ... Qd7 on the basis of not wanting to grovel to hold onto the d5 pawn. After looking at about eight thousand million positions Crafty's preferred 30. ... Qd7 involves a couple of exchanges (nice) and then ends with Black playing Kg8-f8-g8 while White plays useful moves. [insert disparaging remark about machines]

I got my one final swindle attempt at the end (I wouldn't have to try swindles if I just won a game or two!) 50. ... Kxe5 hoping for 51. a8/Q Bxa8 52. Nxa8?? Kxd6 draw. Naturally my opponent wasn't falling for it and could even have played 51. a8/Q Bxa8 52. d7 1-0.

Here it is then. My rating after this game (1768) is back to where it was at the end of Teamleague 36. This time I've faced on average stronger opponents and had 1 White to 3 Blacks - I had more Whites in TL36. The tactics training has meant I understand better what is going on, and while I've been outplayed this season, I haven't been routed. My play is better now, but not yet good enough! One of the values of blogging is that you can monitor your own thought patterns over time. One clear pattern here has been the need to work on calculation and analysis, so it's time for 'Another 100 Days to Chess Improvement - from Tactics to Analysis'.

Discussion: Pinning Part I

There are 3 elements to a pin: the pinning piece (green squares), the pinned piece (yellow squares), and the screened squares (blue arrows). This is an important point in identifying pins; there may or may not be an opposing piece standing on one of the screened squares, there may be a different threat such as delivering mate on one of them.

White Bishop Pins Black Knight, Black Rook Pins White Rook

Technically x-rays until the screened squares attain higher target value

There may be no threat associated with any of the screened squares. If the value of a target on any of the screened squares is less than the value of the pinned piece, those squares are technically speaking x-rayed. The value of the pin depends on the value of the screened squares, and the mobility of the pinned and any screened pieces.

Reinfeld position #2
White to move

Here the Black Knight is pinned by the Bishop to the value screened square d8, and by the Queen to the value square g7. This is an absolute pin, as the Knight may not legally move. The pin is exploited by a decoy sacrifice that allows white to infiltrate the Black squares surrounding the King. 1. Re8 Qxe8 2. Qxf6+ Kg8 3. Bh6 followed by mate at g7 or f8.

Reinfeld position #431
White to move

We commonly associate pinning as being between different types of pieces; Bishops pin Knights for example. This diagram illustrates pinning between pieces operating along the same line and therefore mutually attacking. 1. Bf6 gxf6 2. exf6 Rg8 3. Rd8 the function of this pin is to neutralise the g8 Rook's protection of the mating square g7 so after 3. ... Rcxd8 4. Rxd8

The pin by mutually attacking like pieces
Reduces the pinned piece's mobility (g7)

5. Qg7 will be mate whether the Black Rook moves or not.

Knight pinned to screened mate threat
White to move

There is no piece on the screened squares, the value-target is a mate-threat. After 1. e6 the Knight is lost, for if it moves, 2. Rg7+ Kh8 3. Rh7+ Kg8 4. Rcg7#.

Teamleague 37 - Round 4

I'd already more or less decided to take time off from playing the French Defense, and the clincher was seeing my opponent for this round involved in the black side of my favourite MacCutcheon variation.

The Steinitz Defense Deferred in the Ruy Lopez has served me well in the past, with the idea of playing the Siesta Gambit (5. c3 f5) should the opportunity arise. I stopped playing this a few years ago for reasons that are more-or-less borne out in this game; the weakened a2-g8 diagonal can make castling difficult, I have some bad memories of my King getting hammered on an open e-file (I managed to avoid that at least this time), and White can generate a strong attack with Queen, King's Bishop, and Knight around the f7 and e6 squares. That said, when it does work, it's White who can find himself getting steam-rolled.



Between moves 10-13, I spent rather too much time finding ways to not play ...h6 which would be catastrophically weakening for Black, the idea behind 12. ... Rb8 is to force the Bishop off it's dominating diagonal with ... Na5 and ... b3.

So by move 18, while I was happy to have exchanged off the attacking pieces and White's position looks slightly under-developed, my King was still standing in the centre holding a big neon sign that reads 'kick me'. 18. ... Qe6 is obviously an error, ... Qf7 should be played directly, and by move 20 I was already down to practically playing on my increments.

At move 22 I tried to start running the King to the relative haven of the Queen's side, but of course 22. Kd8 would have been a better way to try that idea - playing fast I saw the Knight check too late.

In the blitz phase that was the second half of the game, I did manage to keep abreast of the tactical nuances while making cheap threats in an ever deteriorating position. Then the White Queen finally moved in for the kill at move 35. With more time on the clock I'd have done the respectable thing and fallen on my sword earlier, instead I played the closest thing I could find to a swindle with 35. ... Nxf3+ before capitulating.

Board 1 next week eh? I'd better pack my oxygen mask...

Teamleague 37 - Round 5

There's a definite pattern emerging here...

I was rested for round 5 - I played my adjourned round 4 game which you can see above (if I've written the post by the time you're reading this...) - and with bash's game on board 1 adjourned, the team has already won the match 2.5 - 0.5 with Plebusan and blackk winning their games and a draw from Mapleleaf to secure the match points.

My value to the team is clear, what we needed all along was a really good 2nd assistant orange-cutter. None the less, our Beloved Leader in his infinite wisdom has decided to rest bash and Mapleleaf in round 6 and play me on board 1.

I can't do any worse than I have been...

Changing Tracks

The solution to the position given in the previous post (ECM position #441) was to annihilate White's key defending piece. 1. ... Qxc1 2. Rxc1 R8a2+ 3. Kc3 Rxc1+ 4. Kd3 Bb5# (or 4. Rc2 and Black remains a piece ahead).

Reinfeld position #454
White to move

This position represents the inflexibility I often seem to exhibit in interrupting my train of thought and finding one last idea having already discovered 95% of the solution. Clearly White has mating ideas involving Re8+ Bf8, Bd4#, if only the Queen could be deflected from defending e8. And should the Queen block Bd4+, Rxf8 will be mate.

I became fixated on the idea that 1. Qxd6 must be the solution, forcing 1. ... Qa4, but then what? Queen and Rook barrage on e8 by 2. Qe7? Even if nothing better, 2. ... h5 defends that threat. 2. Re7 looks threatening, but what is the actual threat? My problem was that 1. Qxd6 looked so good, I was reluctant to abandon it and look for a different solution.

In fact, it's not the solution per se that's different. The idea was quite correct, just completely useless without the ability for the idea to 'jump tracks' and find the right key move. After 1. Qxa7 it all works; 1. ... Rc7 2. Qxc7 Qxc7 3. Re8+ and we're in 3. ... Bf8 4. Bd4+ Qg7 5. Rxf8#

Chess isn't about just finding the right idea, without finding the most accurate way to exploit it you still don't get to win.

What Are You Thinking?

We were able to schedule a playing time for today despite a busy weekend for my opponent (happy birthday, DarthDaver!), unfortunately however it appears the FICS server is down so it again looks like a postponement until next weeks' adjournment session.

I had logged in a couple of hours ago to watch our esteemed dictator's game (when the server went down Plebusan was in a good position against bobhill), and do my warm-up excercises with 1001 and ECM. So right now I'm all wound up for battle, but nowhere to fight.

I've been coaching myself to concentrate on my internal dialogue during this game and be mindful that I think about a few things at every move.

Which pieces are unprotected?
Which pieces are immobilised?
What are the targets?
Can something be pinned?
Which tactical motifs might be possible?
Barrage, Fork, Decoy, Interfere, Overload, Annihilate!

Simple, obvious stuff, the elementary Chess thought process that should be so second nature that I shouldn't need to remind myself. So I'll have to keep doing it until I don't have to keep doing it!

Make a list of 'pool' moves from general positional considerations, then at my move find the candidate moves before starting to analyse variations. Missing candidate moves from rushing headlong into analysis of the first move that pops into my head has been a big problem in my long time-control games. Probably one of those bad habits that forms from playing too much blitz.

I dive into 'The Encylcopaedia of Chess Middlegames' at random to find unfamiliar positions to practice searching for tactics, I'll probably start using it more systematically soon. Here's a position from it for no better reason than just for fun.

ECM position #441
Black to move

Teamleague 37 - Round 4 Preview

Our round 4 opponents TeamFuego are the current U2000b section leaders, having won all 3 of their previous matches. Our line-up this round will be 1. bash 2. SimianChatter 3. Plebusan 4. Mejdanblues.

It's looking like my game will be postponed a week to the adjournment session, so this weekend should be an ideal opportunity for me to play some 45 45 practice games with no pressure on.

Although, as you have seen, my results have yet to show signs of improving, I can feel some benefit of my '100 Days to Chess Improvement' excercise. When I see problems posted on various blogs, I can usually solve them now, instead of just staring blankly and wondering what the pretty move will be when I look at the answer. I see the side variations in Fred's book as well as the main solution. I feel more 'solid' in my appreciation of what is happening on the board.

I've gone down fighting against +200 rated opponents in this Teamleague, seeing tactical possibilities that someone would only have pointed out to me after the game in the previous tournament. This leads me to wonder if I should consider an opening repertoire of gambits at this stage, and come out fighting instead of just losing that way! It is true that most games below master level (ie. even 2000-2300 rated 'expert' players) are won and lost through fairly simple tactics. I think I need to 'mix it up' from the start rather than wait to get squeezed by these higher rated opponents.

Kings Are Always X-Rayed And Can Never Be Pinned

This is inferred from our definitions of X-Ray Attack and Pinning but while I'm preparing a more comprehensive discussion of pinning for a future post I thought I'd make this simple and obvious point here. Where x-ray attacks generally force the directly attacked piece to move (tempo-winning), a pin is usually exploited by compounding an additional motif.

Reinfeld position #489
White to move

If the Black King in the diagram were a different piece, say a Bishop, it would merely be the 'blocker' in a pin after 1. Ra7. Black would have a move in hand to use keeping his pieces defended. As it is, after 1. Ra7+, the King is compelled to move removing a defender of the Rook. Annihilating it's other defender by 2. Rxh7, White wins a piece.

I realise that what I'm saying in this post is almost so trivial as to be not worth mentioning, but that's a part of the point too. If all the mechanics of Chess were so automatically apparent to us, we wouldn't still be patzers.

Teamleague 37 - Round 3 (part 2)

1 game point, 0 match points from this round. 'Nuff sed.

As to the World Championship Match currently being played... anyone else notice that Anand is bucking the conventional wisdom by trying (and succeeding!) to win with Black and draw with White?

Go Vishy!

Teamleague 37 - Round 3 (part 1)

With 3 of our games played so far in this round blackk has put in a workman-like win, while Mejdanblues was not so lucky this week. Mapleleaf plays FM Maras later today, and would have been needing only a draw to win the match for us if I had not made such a botch of my game against dzomba. As it is, Mapleleaf will now need to come out swinging to level up the match score.

So what went wrong? In short, I got the better of the complicated tactics only to make a mess of the simple things. But first to the pre-game preparation.

Our "team intelligence" indicated that dzomba plays the Moller / Arkangel defence to the Ruy Lopez (eco C78), and I spent some time researching that. My conclusion was that it's a very attractive variation for Black, with ... a6, ... b5, and ... Bc5 initiating early counter-attacking possibilities. I might even take it up myself. It's been played quite a bit at the top level over the last 15 years or so and I found games involving the likes of Shirov, Topalov, Short, Adams, even Kramnik. Anand has played it on both sides of the board, and had some good results with the White pieces, so I concentrated on those games.

Immediately before the game, I went through "1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations" for about an hour ('rehearsal'), and then about another hour looking at "The Encyclopaedia of Chess Middle Games". The objective of this was to practice finding tactics in unfamiliar positions, so having warmed up the 'pattern recognition circuits' with 1001, I used ECM to crank up the 'search and calculate algorithm'. This worked quite well, and I'll continue to do it for future games.



I got through the opening reasonably well thanks to Vishy, although I rather suspect I mixed up the myriad of sub-variations. Sometimes White plays h3 preventing ... Bg4 with d4, sometimes h3 is omitted in favour of the more conservative d3. At move 15. ... cxb6 is something of a concession by Black who would naturally rather play Rxb6 but then the discovered attack d5 will be strong. So White has invested a pawn for the two Bishops on an open board and a very active position.

My pawn on c3 is interesting, it looks like a straggler but has a blessed life. It can't be taken with unprotected knights at c3 and c7, and at move 18 Crafty momentarily considers snipping it off before more soberly looking at ... Qc7 and ... Qf6 with about -0.5 to -0.6 advantage to Black.

By move 23 the Black castle is all but unprotected by pieces, and I've forced the first weakening of it's wall. Then, oh dear! blinded by my own tactical geniusity I played 24. Qxe5??. The justification of this move is the game continuation, but I finally noticed I'd left Bb3 en prise about 10 seconds after playing it and nearly thumped at the 'resign' button there and then. Fortunately, it looks like Bxh6 might be a mating attack after ... Nxb3 (actually it isn't even close for so many reasons) and my opponent went for the 'safe' exchange win with ... Nd3 whereupon I breathed a huge sigh of relief and uncorked my combination. Crafty has Black still winning comfortably after 25. ... Kxf7 26. Qf5+ Qf6 (Rh4 is unprotected... oops!) but I got lucky again when he recaptured with the Rook. All-in-all I benefitted from playing some 'weak aggressive' style poker. 24. Bc2 maintains a small plus for White.

Finally, I had seen 37. Bd2 defending the mate-in-1 threat but didn't have the courage to play it. My reasoning was that the pin by say ... Qb2 would be ugly although obviously I can defend the Bishop as often as it's attacked with Queen and Rook. As it happens, Bd2 is wrong because of ... Qa7+ with ... b4 and ... Ba6+ and is actually no better than the move I played in the forlorn hope of making threats with my King-side pawns while rounding up the b-pawn. As you can see, dzomba had the necessary technique to force the pawn home.

It's not the most terrible game I've played, I made a fight of it. I at least found some tactical possibilities, even if they did mostly turn out to be furphys. It's still accuracy of analysis I need the most work on at the moment.

Good luck with the game tonight, Mapleleaf.

Teamleague 37 - Round 2

Go team!

~or~

"Your absence brings us great joy!"

While I was away on my intensive GM training weekend, Current_Affairs defeated Team_Tsubasa 2.5 - 1.5, with wins to Mapleleaf and blackk, and a draw by Plebusan in the last game to secure the match points.

With bash taking a break in round 3, Mapleleaf will play board 1, I'll be on board 2, blackk on board 3, and Mejdanblues board 4.

Teamleague 37 - Game 1

My first 'problem' came at move 12. The idea of the previous two moves had been to continue 12. ... Ne4 here but I became worried about the consequences of 13. Bd3 Nxd2 14. Bxh7 Kh8 - an illustration of the weakness in my analytical ability mentioned in the previous post.

The played move was alright (the position even slightly favours Black), but 12. ... Ne4 13. Bd3 Bxg5 14. hxg5 Qxg5 15. O-O-O h6 would have been better, and Crafty gives lines involving 13. Nf3 and 13. Nxe4 as optimal (-0.4 to -0.5 range).

Around this time, I had decided that playing ... h6 would only be useful to a) halt the march of White's h-pawn on h5, or b) to prevent the loss of my h-pawn to a barrage on b1-h7 (maybe with Ng5). At move 13 Mapleleaf suggested ... h6 to kick the Bishop and control g5, and we spent some time analysing 13. ... h6 14. O-O-O hxg5 15. hxg5 - White's h4 has little meaning if the Bishop intended to retreat!

squib (1978) vs SimianChatter (1831)
Position after 13. ... h6 14. O-O-O hxg5 15. hxg5 (analysis)

Black's defensive idea is to play ... g6, ... Kg7, ... Rg8 and take flight with the King, while White builds the attack with Bd3, Rh3, R1h1 constantly threatening an orgy of sacrifices in a mating attack. We concluded that White's pawn on g5 helps Black's defense more than White's attack (blocking access to g5 from his pieces) even though it is captured with tempo, and I think White's attack is certainly easier to play than finding the accurate defensive moves for Black, especially 'at the board'.

Crafty nuts the whole idea by simply playing (from the diagram) 15. ... Bxg5 16. Kb1 Bh6 (eval about -1.3) and giving 13. ... h6 14. Bxe7 Qxe7 etc. Damn machines.

Around move 15 it was probably a good idea to get my Queen off the central files and out of fire of the Rooks before commencing to roll my centre pawns. The position is looking like Black has played a successful French Defense; The d- and e-pawns are preparing to wreak havoc and the 'sleeping' Queen's Bishop is about to spring to life. I like playing the French when that happens.

At 17 simply ... Nxf6 would have saved a lot of headaches, but unfortunately I'd already hit on the idea of provoking b4 with ... Nc5 then open the a-file with ... a6 and not be concerned with pawn structure or their number if my major pieces could storm the bastions.

21. ... Rf4 is the losing move, 22. Ng5 threatening the fork at e6 leaving no time to exploit the weakened castled position while I was dreaming White would play Nd6. After 21. ... Rg6 Black's position is still favourable (around -0.3 to -0.4).

This game reinforces that it's time for me to learn the next basic Chess skill - the analysis of variations.

Teamleague 37 - Round 1

It's great to see 16 teams entered in the U2000 section of Teamleague 37, we've been split into 2 groups for a 7-round round-robin, to be followed by a play-off between the groups.

Team Current_Affairs final starting squad with fixed ratings is:

• bash 2139
• Mapleleaf (Deputy Captain) 1872
• SimianChatter 1802
• Plebusan (Captain) 1775
• blackk 1728
• mejdanblues 1661

The plan is to play about 5 rounds each to rotate players into the line-up.

I've only time for a quick wrap-up of round 1 (so no one thinks I'm shirking!), I'll publish some analysis of my game when I have a little more time.

With Monkey Club fielding 1900+ players on all boards it was a tough first round for everyone and I think the 0-4 result doesn't reflect the quality of the games. Mejdanblues especially played a terrific game, as always punching well above his weight against an opponent rated 250 points higher. He certainly had drawing opportunities in a tricky, highly technical endgame (N vs B, Pawn, then Q), and possibly even winning chances.

I wasn't altogether unhappy with my own game. I ran through '1001 Winning Chess Sacrifices and Combinations' for 45 minutes or so before the game, and I can work through 150-200 positions in that time now. It's interesting to notice 'Chess Vision' starting up within the first 20 or so problems doing this. Rehearsing known positions (as opposed to solving them) seems to warm up the parts of the brain that do pattern recognition during the game.

So I was seeing the board quite well, but my ability to accurately analyse and assess variations is still sadly lacking. Now I feel my tactics are improving, it's time to begin the next phase of this excercise and start on my analysis skills. This is done by taking complcated middlegame positions, writing down all the variations you can see, and then comparing them to GM annotations, as described by Kotov in 'Think Like a Grandmaster'.

My time management, which is usually quite good, was also a bit off in this game - too long spent in the opening and early middle game left me playing on my increments for the last few moves.

Oh No! Not This One Again!

Here's one of those positions that I have some sort of psychological aversion to solving. I don't know why, but every time I come to it I think "Oh no! Not this one again!".

Reinfeld position #871
White to move

Maybe because the solution is an ugly little bush of variations. Maybe because the first time I attempted it my solution was... different from Fred's. Maybe because it's the sort of position that's likely to arise in practice but it looks like White doesn't deserve to be winning it.

Who knows? I have some prejudice about it. I just don't like it.

The solution is really quite straight forward, we just put a gun to the King's head and march him to an out-of-the-way place where we can bludgeon him to death. It involves visualising a few mate threats where Rooks and the Knight combine, probably this is my aversion, it's obviously something I'm not too good at.

1. b4+ Kxb4 (1. ... Kb6 2. Rb7+ Ka6 3. Ra1#) 2. Rb7+ Kc3 (2. ... Kc5 3. Rb5# Crafty prolongs the death-agony by playing 2. ... Rb6 3. Rxb6 Kc5) 3. Ne4+ Kc2 (3. ... Kc4 4. Rd4#) 4. Rbb1 and 5. Rdc1# will follow.

ZwischenZugZwang!

Reinfeld Position #621
Black to move

The solution to this problem is really neither a Zwischenzug (the 'expected' re-capture isn't delayed, it's never made!), nor is it a proper Zugzwang (Black already has a direct mate-in-1 threat), but it is an amusing if unusual sort of an interference. So I decided to call it ZwischenZugZwang, because it's a bit like both and not quite like a normal interference.

It's readily apparent that 1. ... Kg7 and 1. ... Kh8 fail to 2. Qxe5+, while 1. ... Rf7 gives up the mate threat. If the King steps onto the f-file, then 2. Rf4+ defends, so the answer must be 1. ... Qf7. But how? after 2. Bxf7+ Kxf7 3. Rf4+ again.

We have a mate threat, so the Queen is expendible. 1. ... Qf7 2. Bxf7+ Kf8 ZwischenZugZwang! Hiding behind the enemy Bishop, all the checks are prevented and 3. ... Rh1# is unstoppable.

Praxis Practice 3

I really haven't played as many practice games as I should have liked in deference to concentrating on the work of properly learning more basic tactics, so it was good to have the following training game (at 30' + 30") against our team captain yesterday.



The first big decision is at move 6, whether or not to allow the Bg5 pin. It will be more useful for White after Black castles, but after 6. ... h6 White might try to exploit his pin on the King-file by 7. Re1+ Be6 8. Bf5.

10. ... c5 is probably trying to be over-active, offering to allow the isolated Queen's pawn and thoroughly smash the symmetry when Black could just sit tight and plan to chop wood down to a "dead draw". Suprisingly, crafty starts to favour ... c5 at depth 10.

By move 18 I've managed to develop a nice space advantage on the Queen-side, though unfortunately it took me a minute or so to notice White's tactical threats against my castle (based on Bxh6 removal of defender / annihilation of defence ideas). So while 18. ... Nd7 is quite ok, it's a bit of a nervous move. In truth I was dreaming about weak back rank motifs based on ... b3, Bb1 (unprotecting Re1) Bg4 threatening the Queen and Rxe1 mate which anyway will fail to the Bh7+ defence. This "explains" 20. ... b3, yet another move that's playable, but chosen for the wrong reasons!

The same applies to 22. ... Kf8. 22. ... g6 forcing exchanges was fine, but I wanted to play a waiting move first, simply not noticing the self-pin I introduced on my f7 pawn eliminating the possibility of 23. ... g6 due to 24. Bxg6. I had assumed that after 23. Re3 threatening to barrage the e-file I could just start exchanging, but I hadn't even considered The Great Dictator's obvious actual move.

And so came 23. Re5. My first reaction was "Oh my God! I'm dropping the d5 pawn, and the other Queen-side pawns will follow like ripe cliches!". Pleased I am to report then that at least one good thing came from this game. I succeeded in overcoming my natural tendency to panic in such situations for long enough to see that I can still leverage White's weak back rank to defend the pawns tactically.

Finally at move 27... of course I'd like you to believe I had it all worked out to the minutest detail after 28. Rxd5 Re2 29. Ra5 Rxb2 30. Rb5 Rc2, and in fact Black is winning in that line. My reasoning in such end games is that you don't need more pawns, you just need promotable pawns. I was actually acting on the assumption that I'd likely be sacrificing my Rook for the a- or d-pawn to get connected b- and c-pawns on the 6th rank (turns out not to be necessary), although I had seen far enough that 30. Rc5 going after my c-pawn too was overly greedy and losing for White. Crafty wants to play 28. f4 =, but exchanging Rooks as played seems a somewhat simpler draw, neither King will be able to force penetration into the enemy camp.

Bombaclot!

There's been a few things I've wanted to blog recently, but unfortunately working 12 hour shifts has put paid to extra-curricular activities beyond sleep. The up-side is that the job I'm doing - covering for a guy who got burnt by a furnace - only requires 20 minutes per hour actual 'work', and the other 40 'monitoring', so there's a fair amount of time for pondering Chess tactics.

The down-side is that after a couple of 12-hour shifts my poor little pre-evolved monkey brain runs into trouble of the "how does the horsey move again?" kind. The last shift of last week I was back to my normal job. At 2am I wanted to work out if a job would finish by 4am. 50 units to go. Cycle time 2 minutes per unit. Two fifties are one-forty, that's 2 hours twenty minutes.

Dream-logic had crept into my waking mind. It's a perfectly sensible calculation - we do temporal arithmetic in base 60, so 50 + 50 is 1'40". I just had to take a few minutes to work out where the calculation was going wrong, which were the number of units to make, which were the time to make them, when to stop converting between time and units. Bombaclot!

I know a smattering of words from about 20 different languages, although sadly English is the only one I can hold a conversation in. My favourite word from any language I've ever heard is 'bombaclot', it's meaning is so expressive and self-explainatory.

My favourite tactical motifs to play and to solve are decoy and interference. With other motifs, you see the key move and say "Aha! of course!". With decoy and interference, you see the key move and still say "huh?", it's not until the point arrives that you slap your forehead and say "Agghhh! how could I be so stupid?".

A girl I once knew lived next door to a Jamaican gentlemen. Now and again, we'd hear something in his apartment go crash! followed by the inevitable forehead-slap and the cry "Bombaclot!".

100 Days in Review

Teamleague 37 Round 1 will be played in 2 weeks, so it's time to review my '100 Days to Chess Improvement' while there's still time to make some last-minute adjustments.

Did I put in enough effort, do enough work? The answer to that question will always be "No!", no matter what I've done. On the surface, I've added about 100 points to both my standard and blitz ratings. One point a day. If I can keep that work rate up I'll be a Grandmaster in 2 years. You all believe that will happen too, right?

I'm reasonably happy with my progress studying tactics. Ideally I would like to have 'completed' all 1001 positions and now be able to do a rapid review of the entire book, visualising each solution in a couple of seconds. I am at this stage with about 600-700 of the problems.

I had originally hoped to reduce the tactical motifs to the fewest possible basic ideas, but I have come to understand the opposite is more useful. "Did you know that Eskimoes have 70 different words for snow?". Of course they do, they live in it and naturally notice and name subtle differences. The same should be true of a Chess player. So we have a 'pin', and the term 'absolute pin' (a piece is pinned to the King) is also common. But a Bishop pinning a Knight to the Queen is a different sort of a pin to a Rook pinning a Pawn to a Rook. Perhaps the next objective should be to find a name for 'Knight pinned to Queen by Bishop that can capture a Pawn creating a mate threat' and such like. The point is to be able to describe a position by expanding the 'Chess vocabulary' in a way that is more descriptive and meaningful than by saying "everything is a double attack".

I am getting much better at deliberately naming the tactical motifs present in the problems although this has not yet fully extended to practical play, I still have to remind my internal dialogue to do it.

My board geometry and visualisation skills have noticeably improved. I can put the book down, wander off to do something else and conjure up quite an accurate representation of a position in my mind's eye. Before yesterday's game I did review problems for half an hour or so and was seeing the board quite well. Today I had not done that and found it much more difficult to 'read' the board. Un-solid... like words floating round on the page when you don't wear your reading glasses.

I'm more confident with my solutions to problems. To begin with, I checked the answers even on the second or third review. Now even at the first review I can say "here's the solution; Black might try this, but it doesn't work because of...".

There are a couple of Bette Noir problems that I stumble on every time, no matter how often I look at the solution. Some of them are sadly simple, I'll start noting them down to try and find the psychological blockage with solving them.

I had hoped to have time to review some strategy. I'd earmarked one of "Chess Praxis" (Nimzovitch), "Masters of the Chessboard" (Reti), "Pawn Power in Chess" (Kmoch), or "The Middle Game" (Euwe and Kramer) to work through again before Teamleague starts, but there won't be time now. Maybe I can spend next Sunday afternoon whizzing through "Judgement and Planning in Chess" (Euwe) or "Modern Chess Strategy" (Pachman), but I think doing such a quick rehash will be of limited value.

What to do about openings? My only Chess teacher who hasn't been dead for 50 years, a Master strength player who guided me when I was a teenager, told me that no one below 2300 need study openings beyond "sortez les pieces" ("get your pieces out!"). I still believe this is sage advice. Anyone who has had the pleasure of watching FlorinC(FM) play P-R4, P-R5, R-R4 in the opening, or DonConchi play the 'King Attack Opening' 1. e3 2. Ke2 3. Kd3 against strong computers and win will understand the folly of "opening theory".

Teammate Mapleleaf did some excellent work in the last teamleague providing us with a database of our upcoming opponents' opening preferences. I think I'll use that to get a basic idea in the systems they play then aim to duke it out in the middle game.

I'd wanted to apply my new-found tactical vision to playing through master games. I've always loved playing through master games and absorb the strategic ideas quite easily, but I haven't done it much lately. Rather than do it for pure entertainment I need to start applying the same technique as playing a real game, and review the tactical problems before I start.

Is the monkey ready for Teamleague 37? "So place the board that the sun shines in your opponent's eyes." I'll take any help I can get...