The Sicilian Defense - Part 1

Contrary to popular stereotyping, the Sicilian Defense does not involve putting a severed horse's head in your opponent's bed the night before the game. It's not that I'm averse to using any possible tactic in order to win a Chess game, but publicly acknowledging you're aware of the horse's-head theme, and then using it, might be injurous to future defense proceedings in a court of law. Dammit. Please ignore that I just said that.

I've tried playing the Sicilian before, and came to the conclusion that even when I can make it work, it just looks plain ugly. I suppose there's a reason for that; unlike the delicious subtlety of the French where you build a "tortoise-shell" like pawn structure then explode with energy on the counter-attack, the idea in the Sicilian is to take the game to White from the get-go and launch an attack from the outset. Both players attack simultaneously and 'thrice blessed is he who gets his blow in first'.

I've determined to learn the Scheveningen system of the Sicilian, and not least because I happen to have a book on the subject by some guy called G. Kasparov. The Najdorf is too critical for my talents just yet, the Shveshnikov / Kalishnikov / Pelikan too wild, and Dragon players have always struck me as being 'one-trick ponies' - fianchetto the King's Bishop then play Rc8xNc3 and pretend to understand the resultant complications.

Sicilian Scheveningen
Black's ideal setup

This is Black's ideal, and in practice probably unattainable, setup. The Nc6 plans to travel via a5 to c4 next. As (formerly) a 1. e4 player, I always enjoyed locking horns with the open Sicilian directly, employing such ideas as the Keres Attack (early g4), the Wing Gambit (again Keres idea with d4 and Bd3 before formalising the gambit with a3), the surprisingly fierce 6. Be2, and h3 in response to ... a6 in the Najdorf. As a youth I stumbled upon the basic idea against the Shveshnikov over the board; Ndb5-a3-c2-e3 and lock onto the weakened d5 square for all you're worth. Mostly I want to play the Sicilian to learn what I'm missing.

In reality as compared to the ideal position, Black will probably face some weakening of the King-side by being forced to play ... g7xf6 and the Queen's Bishop might well end up on d7 rather than b7; White has stock combinations based on B/Nxe6. For a long time the "Maroczy Bind" was considered a refutation to the Sicilian, and it was one of those setups that you so often hear talked about without ever getting a discussion of the underlying idea. It turns out that by building a brick wall with a pawn on c4, White's strategy is to hold up Black's attack down the c-file. In return, Black has many dark-square weaknesses to exploit in the White camp.

My FICS experience is that many amateurs prefer to avoid mainline open Sicilians, opting for the Grand Prix Attack (early f4), or the Alapin / Morra-Smith lines with 2. c3, so time spent examining those ideas may be more profitable in a practical sense than drudging through theoretical lines in the Scheveningen. And then of course there's the King's Indian Attack to consider, which my team-mate Mejdanblues has more or less made his own to the point that in some circles it is now referred to as the KIA-Blues Attack.

The Slav Defense - Part 1

Investigating the Slav Defense is starting to remind me of why I stopped bothering to read philosophy. It's not that it isn't interesting, indeed it's a fascinating subject; but sooner or later you come to realise something. Try this for an excercise. Invent a philosophy. Go ahead, make it as far-fetched and whacked-out as you like.

"The smell of green apples is the essential nature of beingness". Discuss.

Now research the literature. Guaranteed, someone, somewhere, at some time has made their academic career postulating the idea you just randomly invented. And so it is in the Slav defense. Everything, it seems, has been tried for both sides, and the evaluation of any given idea has continually oscillated between "good for White" and "winning for Black".

White will be trying to play e4 at a moment when it cramps Black's game. Black will try to develop the "problem child" of the QP game - the Queen's Bishop - in a manner that doesn't fatally weaken the Queen's side. Or not. Sometimes Black feigns with 2. ... c6 then voluntarily follows with ... e6.

Black can try and hold the strong-point formation c6-d5-e6, or temporarily surrender the centre with ... d5xc4 planning the normal QP freeing manoeuvers ... e5 or ... c5. ... Bb4 is often a good idea pinning Nc3 to retard e4. That's if the Bishop doesn't go to d6 supporting ... e5, or simply sit on e7 awaiting events.

White might try to exploit Black's weakened Q-side (even at the cost of a pawn), taking the c-file at some judicious moment with c4xd5; or he might try a King-side attack with Ne5 followed by g4, or even g4 without direct support. Alternatively he may simply try rolling through the centre with his pawns. Anything goes, or so it seems.

Please don't infer from my tone that I find the Slav distasteful; quite to the contrary in fact. It is just this idea of endless possibilities that makes it so interesting, and no doubt contribute to it's continual popularity at all levels of play. There aren't so much variations to learn as ideas to master, which is the way we like things. Like philosophy, there's infinite opportunity for creative invention, and who's to say any given idea is wrong?*

I've played a few of those evil unrated blitz games using the Slav now; not knowing much more than is laid out here it's already proved reasonably successful. There being so many possibilities, it just leads to an interesting game of Chess. I like that.

* - Oh right, this is Chess, not academia... there's the small matter of an opponent who wants to tear you to pieces as much as you do him...

Reti's Opening - Part 2

After 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4, Black has three basic ideas to follow in the Reti proper - that is if the game is not to transpose into and English, Catalan, or Indian system.

Seizing territory by 2. ... d4 we will deal with later; White can enter a reverse-Benoni type position or play for a "super-fianchetto" of the Queen-side with 3. b4.

Black can strong-point the Queen's pawn, either by 2. ... c6 allowing the Queen's Bishop to develop outside the pawn chain when the Reti takes on it's true character, or by 2. ... e6 when the QGD and Catalan ideas come more into play.

Lastly, the pawn can simply be captured. 2. c4 is a psuedo-gambit the same as after 1. d4 d5 2. c4, and the Reti borrows the same ideas from the QGA to ensure the gambited pawn can be recaptured, in three different ways.

The simple fork 3. Qa4+ looks Catalan-like, while the more exotic 3. Na3 aims to post the Knight strongly at c4. Both of these methods retain the possibility of developing the King's Bishop either along the f1-a6 diagonal or at g2.

The third method of regaining the pawn compounds the motifs of pinning the a7 pawn to the Rook at a8 with a Zwischenzug: 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e3 b5 4. a4 c6 5. axb5 cxb5 6. b3

Black takes the gambit pawn
White regains it by 3. e3

Now after 6. ... cxb3 7. Bxb5+ followed by 8. Qxb3.

Reti's Opening - Part 1

Teamleague 39 is scheduled to begin in early June which gives me about 6 weeks to gain complete mastery of four new opening systems...

This post, which introduces Reti's Opening, is largely a "paraphrasing" (no, really, not plagiarism!) of the chapter "My System of Opening" from Reti's "Masters of the Chessboard".

The hypermodern school's approach to the opening is sometimes summarised along the lines of holding back the centre pawns and controlling the centre with pieces from the sides. It is a mistake however, to think that hypermodernism objects to occupying the centre with pawns; the real point is to plan for the occupation at a time when those pawns will not become fixed targets for attack.

Reti states that in order for White to maintain an advantage, Black must not be allowed to bring about a closed position by placing interlocked, strong-pointed pawns in the centre, without disadvantage to his control in territory. Reti's system therefore is to first restrain ... e5 by 1. Nf3, and then to target the d5 square using c4 and Bg2.

Reti's Opening - Basic Position
Black has followed Lasker's system of defense

This for our purposes can be considered the 'basic position' in the Reti Opening at the successful completion of the first phase of White's plan, illustrating the function of White's minor pieces. Nf3 and Bb2 restrain ... e5 while c4, Bg2, and Nc3 target the strong-pointed d5 square. The next phase of White's plan is to prepare and push through e4.

As we are interested in ideas rather than variations, I wont give the specific move order to arrive at this position, but along the way, Reti notes the following:

1. After ... c6, b3 is neccessary to protect the QBP - we'll look at the tactical justification of the psuedo-gambit c4 in the next post.
2. The Queen's pawn should go to d4 if Black plays ... e6 confining the Queen's Bishop before playing ... Bf5 (or ... Bg4); at d3 it is reinforcing e4 against the combined force of ... d5, ... Nf6, and ... Bf5.
3. Reti prefers ... Be7 to ... Bd6 for Black; on d6 it blocks the d-file should it become opened.
4. h3 is a preparation for e4, precluding ... Bg4 as a response.