British Chess Magazine - 11-2015

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British Chess
a
Magazine
www.britishchessmagazine.co.uk
4.20 November 2015 No. 11 Vol. 135
Comeback Kid is a Knockout: Sergey

Karyakin wins World Cup
Karyakin Wins FIDE WC

Lilienthal and Fischer
What is the Zilahi Theme?
A Successor to Frank J. Marshall
562 The British Chess Magazine
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The British Chess Magazine 563
Chess Coach
IM Julian Meszaros has been a professional chess coach since 1992, and currently
works with both juniors and adults in London and the surrounding area.
Widely regarded as the most successful Hungarian trainer of the past two decades, he
was head coach at the Peter Leko Chess School in Hungary before moving to England
last year. Many of Julians ex-students are now IMs and GMs, and he has been the main
coach of many medallists in international competitions, including two age-group
World Junior Champions. For nearly 20 years Julian was also the Hungarian Chess
Federations Junior Supervisor, leading its junior team in dozens of world tournaments
and developing the regional and central chess school system in Hungary.
Julian speaks, translates and publishes in several languages, and has written a highly-
regarded book on opposite-coloured bishop endings.
email: julianmchesslondon@gmail.com
In this months issue
Endgame Studies 564 Hacktive Chess 589

Problem World 566 Practical Play 592
Games Department 568 A Reality Show, You Know! 593
Quotes and Queries 572 Book Reviews 596
Forgotten Masters: Fred Reinfeld Chess Questions Answered 599
Part 4 573 Test Your Chess 602
Fischer Knew the Game 574 News from the British Isles 606
The Shock of the New 576 News from Abroad 607
Endgames for Experts 581 An Evans Antidote Thats Not Hell
Training with the Chinese 585 to Learn 608
The Adam Raoof Interview 587 FIDE World Cup 2015 611
Double Exchange Sacrifices: Part 3 589 Openings for Amateurs 613
Endgame Studies
Ian Watson
ian@irwatson.demon.co.uk
Golden Oldies?
XIIIIIIIIY XIIIIIIIIY
9-+-+-+K+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9z-+-+-+-0 9+-+-+-+-0
9PZ-+-+-+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9m-+r+-+-0 9+-zR+-+-0
9p+-+-+-+0 9-+p+-t-+0
9+P+-+-+-0 9+-Zp+k+-0
9-+P+-+-+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9+-+-+-+R0 9+LM-+-+-0
xiiiiiiiiy xiiiiiiiiy
P Benk Chess Life 2015 P Benk EG 2015
Win Win
9-+-+-+-+0 9-+-+-+-M0
9+-+-+-vP0 9+-+-+-ZP0
9-+-+-+-+0 9-+-+-+-Z0
9+-+-z-+l0 9+-+-+-+-0
9-+-+-Tp+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9+-+K+-+-0 9z-+-+-+-0
9-+-+-+-+0 9lm-+-+-+0
9+-+-m-+-0 9v-+-+-+-0
AJ Roycroft New Statesman 1958 AJ Roycroft Themes-64 1958
Draw Draw: (a) Diagram (b) Remove pawn h6
2015 is a good year for anni- course had an earlier career as one of the
versaries in many fields. In strongest otb grandmasters.
studies, we celebrate the Pal enjoys correcting unsound studies
Golden Anniversary of the from the past, and the first is a version of
founding of EG, the specialist a Maksalov study from 1975. 1 Rh5 Rh5
magazine devoted to endgame studies. Its 2 ba7 Rg5+ 3 Kf7 Rf5+ 4 Ke7 Re5+ 5
creator was A. John Roycroft, who is now 86 Kd7 Rd5+ 6 Kc7 Rc5+ 7 Kb7 Rb5+ 8
years old, but continues to write extensively Kc6 Rb6+ 9 Kc5 ab3 10 a8Q bc2 11
about studies. Qh1 Rb1 12 Qc1 Rc1 13 a7 Ka4 14 Kc4
Johns first book, published in 1972, origi- wins. Of course, if 9Ra6 10 b4 mate. In
nally with the title Test Tube Chess, remains the main line, 10b2 11 Qh1 b1Q 12
one of the few comprehensive books about Qb1 Rb1 13 a7 wins.
the realm of the study. His latest, with the The second Benk is a version of a Pach-
extraordinary title Stinking Bishops, was man study from 1942. White unexpectedly
published last year and was reviewed in sacrifices the bishop to get to a winning rook
BCM. I have chosen two studies by John ending: 1 Ba2 Rh4 2 Bc4 Rc4 3 Kd2
for you to solve, but first here are two 2015 Ke4 4 Rh5 wins. 3Rg4 4 Rc5 or 3Ra4
studies by another octogenarian. He is the 4 Kd3. If 1Kg4 2 Bc4 Rc4 3 Kd2 Rf4 4
leading study expert Pal Benk, who of Rc5 Rf3 5 Rc8 Rh3 6 Rf8 Kg5 7 c4 and wins.
This study has a thematic try 1 Rc5? Rh4 2 agram position first, then remove the white
Bd3 Rh1+ 3 Kd2 Rh2+ draws. pawn on h6 in the diagram and solve again.
The second of the two Roycroft studies is Solutions to both Roycroft studies are given
two studies in one; you need to solve the di- on p. 615.
Problem World
Christopher Jones
cjajones1@yahoo.co.uk
Three from the Album
9-+r+-+-+0 9-+-+-T-+0
9+-+-V-+L0 9+-+-+-+-0
9-+-+p+-+0 9L+-+p+-+0
9T-zlm-+n0 9+-+-z-+-0
9-+-+p+-+0 9-+n+K+p+0
9+PT-+-+N0 9+-W-+-Z-0
9-+-SP+-+0 9N+-zk+-+0
9+-M-+Q+-0 9+-+N+-+R0
Mikhail Marandyuk Ukraine Andrey Selivanov Russia
Mate in 3 Selfmate in 3
1st Prize, 64, 2008 1st2nd Prize =, Moscow Tourney, 2008
Diary
Hastings International Congress open to all 28th December5th January.
Sponsored by Tradewise Insurance and the Hastings Borough Council. Queries?
Phone Pam Thomas 01424 445348. Masters: nine-round Accelerated Swiss free
to GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs plus Christmas Morning, Christmas Afternoon, New
Year and 1st3rd January 2016: Weekend Congress (3 sections). Alan Hustwayte, 54
Oxford Road, St Leonards-on-Sea, TN38 9EY. www.hastingschess.com.
9-+-+-+-T0 9-+-V-tNv0
9W-SPsk+-0 9+-+-+p+-0
9-M-z-Sp+0 9-zp+-z-+0
9+-+P+nz-0 9mL+-+-+-0
9-+-+p+P+0 9P+-+-+-+0
9+-+-Z-+P0 9+-+-+-+-0
9-+-+-+-z0 9-+-+-+q+0
9+-+-+R+-0 9+-M-+-+l0
Aleksandr Semenenko Ukraine Christer Jonsson Sweden
Series helpstalemate in 7 moves 3 solutions Helpmate in 2 moves 2 solutions
1st Prize, Die Schwalbe Theme Tourney Original
200708
Every three years there is pub- oughly enjoy this one without watching
lished a FIDE Album: an an- your As and Bs, though. 1 Qd1! threatens
thology of what are judged to 2 Nc4A + Bc4 3 Qd6#. If 1c4 2 Nf3 B
be the best problems and + ef3 3 Re3#. If 1Rd8 2 R5c5 (threat 3
studies appearing in that pe- Nc4A #) Kd4a 3 Nf3 B #. If 1Rc6 2 Re3
riod. Recently, the 2007/09 Album ap- (threat 3 Nf3 B #) 2Kd4a 3 Nc4 A #. If
peared, and as ever there is a feast of excel- 1Kd4 a 2 Ne4+ Ke5 3 Bd6#.
lent compositions to enjoy. Ive selected My second selection is a selfmate: White
three, starting with one by a top Ukrainian compels an unwilling Black to give mate.
composing GM pre-eminent in longer di- Again our example is by a pre-eminent
rect-mate problems. You may like to spend practitioner of the genre. The key is strik-
a few minutes trying to solve it; amongst its ing. It creates no threat and it allows Black
merits is a well-concealed, surprising, key to promote. It turns out that all four promo-
move. tions play into Whites hands. So we play
Despite looking to be optimally placed at 1 Nb2!. Now if 1d1Q we have 2 Nc1+
f1, the wQ makes the key, hiding behind a Qc1 3 Qe3+ Qe3#. Do less powerful
thicket of pieces, eyeing an unlikely-seem- promotees make it more difficult? No, we
ing mate at d6. This is a problem that scores have three different other move sequences:
well on all counts as I go through the solu- 1d1R 2 Re1+ Re1 3 Qd2+ Kd2#; 1
tion it is pleasing to work out the strategic d1B 2 Na4 (threat 3 Qc2+ Bc2#) Bc2+ 3
effect of all the moves (how do the defences Qd3+ Bd3#; and 1d1N 2 Qd2+ Kd2
defend?), but for buffs there is also delight in 3 Rf2+ Nf2#.
the pattern created by the recurring use of My third selection is a series-mover. Here,
the moves marked A and B . You can thor- in each of the three solutions, Black makes
7 consecutive moves to reach a position Re8 N(f )e8=; and 1 h1N 2 Nhg3 3 Nh5 4
in which White can in one move stalemate Nf6 5 Ne8 6 Nc7 7 Ne8 de8N=.
him. As matters stand, both black knights Finally, another helpmate, original to
are mobile they must get themselves BCM, by Christer Jonsson, which takes part
pinned. We also have to permit White to in our composing tourney. (The judge, Hans
exclude Kg7. And of course we have to Gruber, will determine the order of merit
eliminate the h2P though not until it has at the end of this year. We intend to start a
achieved all the desired results after 3 di- new composing tourney in January, 2016.
verse yet beautifully matching lines of play Entries extremely welcome.) In Christers
(following diverse promotions, albeit only 3 typically elegant 2-mover, Black must dis-
of the possible 4 this time!). Note the cyclic able his own control of the long diagonals,
effect of the captures (clearing pin lines) and in doing so must capture the white
made in the three solutions, and the way in piece that in the other solution delivers the
which each of the possible white pieces in mate the Zilahi Theme. (Black moves first.)
turn captures at e8: 1 h1Q 2 Qh2 3 Qe5 4 1 Rg8 Bf6 2 Rg7 Bc3# 1 Rd8 Ne7 2
Qf6 5 Qe6 6 Qd7 7 Qe8 N(c)e8=; 1 Rd5 Nc6#. The cunning positioning of the
h1R 2 Rh2 3 Rc2 4 Rc7 5 Rd7 6 Rd8 7 wK prevents 1 Bg7 and 2 Bh6.
Games Department
IM Andrew Martin
a.martin2007@yahoo.co.uk
Here is part of a recent inter- classical chess school. The problem also lies
view with GM Adrian Michal- with working on openings with a computer.
After 10 minutes of work, the head shuts off,
chishin which caught my eye: and then the moves are made only by hand,
Work with a computer is im- and the eyes are focused on the position
portant, but one should know evaluation, which is usually not good when
how to use it. This problem is mostly felt it comes to strategic positions. In contrast to
by the younger generation, and the prob- this deficiency in chess computer programs,
lem lies in the fact that the chess publica- the tactical positions are assessed flawlessly
tions arent covering work with computers on the computer. So I recommend study-
in a proper way. In the opinion of respected ing chess classics as much as possible with
trainers Dvoretsky, Dorfman, and even me, experienced and high-quality trainers and
the level of chess play of todays young top wooden chess sets, because when you look
players is much lower than the level of play at the position on the screen, and then at the
from the years 1980 to 1995, when Karpov same position on a wooden chess set, it is an
and Kasparov played in full form. Look at entirely different position.
the last tournaments played by the World
Champion Carlsen and you will notice that Id like to agree with him, but isnt it a
Karpov and Kasparov never played at such a fact that the older generation almost al-
low level, which is a result of holes in the ways struggles to understand how a game
knowledge and a lack of familiarity with the evolves and to fully keep up with modern
XIIIIIIIIY
developments? Todays chess at the high-
est level is difficult, because it is a constant 9-+kt-+-t0
struggle to avoid computer preparation. Its 9zpz-zp+p0
gruelling, full of variety, exciting and there-
fore hardly mistake-free. Players have to 9-+nw-+pZ0
wonder what surprise is going to come in 9+-+n+-+-0
the opening next! I would say the coming
game is very representative of the modern 9-+-+-+l+0
style of play. 9+-Z-+NZ-0
GG Ding Liren 9PZ-+PZL+0
OO Wei Yi
FIDE World Cup, 2015
9T-VQM-+R0[
English A16 [Martin] xiiiiiiiiy
The bishop pair has no real significance at the
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 4 cd5 Nd5 moment, thanks to Blacks lead in develop-
5 h4!? ment and centralised knights. In fact, Wei Yi
was still following a game he had played only
XIIIIIIIIY one month before.
9rslwkv-t0{ 11 Ng5
An improvement over 11 Qa4? White doesnt
9zpz-zp+p0 have much either way:
11 Qa4 Qe6 12 00 f6 13 Qc4 Bh3! Once
9-+-+-+p+0 White is deprived of the bishop pair, I start to
like Black. 14 Bh3 Qh3 15 a4 g5 16 a5 Rhg8
9+-+n+-+-0 (Maybe 16a6! was better, slowing White down)
9-+-+-+-Z0 17 a6 Nb6 18 Qe4 Rd5?! (18Rg6) 19 Qh7
Rgd8 20 Re1 ba6 21 b3 Rf5 22 Nd4?! (Why
9+-S-+N+-0 not 22 Ra6 maintaining the advantage?) 22
Nd4 (In turn, rejecting 22Rf2 23 Kf2
9PZ-ZPZP+0 Qh2+ 24 Kf1 (24 Kf3 Ne5+ 25 Ke3 c5 26 Qf5+
Kb8 27 Qe5+ fe5 28 Nc6+ Kc7 29 Nd8
9T-VQML+R0 Kd8 30 Ra6 Qh6 with an unclear position)
24Qh1+=) 23 cd4 Rd4 24 Be3 Rdd5 25
xiiiiiiiiy Bb6 ab6 26 Rac1 Rf2 27 Kf2 Qh2+ 28
Not at all outrageous. As White hasnt yet
Kf1 Qh1+ 29 Kf2 Qh2+ 30 Kf1 Qh3+ 31 Kf2
played d2d4 a flank operation can be justified
Qh2+ ; Wang YueWei Yi, Zaozhuang,
because Black hasnt got his usual Grnfeld
2015.
counterplay in the centre.
11Ne5
5Bg7 6 h5 Nc6 7 g3 Bg4 8 h6!
There is no other good way of defending f7.
The originality continues. As both 8Bf8 and
8Bf6 9 Ne4 are unattractive, Wei Yi surren- 12 Qa4 Nb6 13 Qd4
ders his dark-squared bishop. 13 Qa7 Qd1# is not advisable.
8Bc3 9 dc3 Qd6 10 Bg2 000 13f6
13Qd4 14 cd4 Rd4 15 b3 Rdd8 16 f4
gives the dark-squared bishop plenty of scope,
and thus White has adequate compensation 33Bd5 34 Rh7 Bc6.

for the pawn.
32 Re6 g4 33 Rd6 Nb4?
14 Bf4! Qd4 15 cd4 Nc6!? 33Kb8 34 Rd8+ Ka7 35 Rdh8 f5 36 Rg7
Some interesting decisions being made here. Rd6 37 h7 (37 Kc1 Nc3 38 h7 Ne2+ 39 Kb2
Black gives an exchange. Rd2+ 40 Kb1 Be4+ leads to a mating attack
16 Nf7 Nd4 17 Rc1 e5 18 Rh4 ef4 by Black) 37Nf6+ 38 Kc3 Nh7 39 Rhh7
looks drawn.
18Be2 19 Nh8 Rh8 20 Be3 Bf3 21
Bh3+ Nf5 22 Bb6 ab6 23 Rc3 Bc6 24 Rd3 34 Rh8+ Kc7 35 Rd4 Nd5?
looks better for White to me, but of course, 35a5 36 h7 Rh6 37 Rg4 Kb6 38 Rg7 Be4
Black is in the game. 39 Re7 Bh7 40 Rhh7 Rh7 41 Rh7 Kc6
19 Nd8? has to be a better try.
Even top GMs can become confused in a posi- 36 h7 Rh6 37 Rg4 Ne7 38 Rg7
tion such as this. Thus 19 Rg4! was the way The difference: White hits the knight and finds
to go and then 19f3 20 Bf1! Rhe8 (20 time to move his rook on h8.
Ne2 21 Be2 f5 22 Rf4! fe2 23 Nh8 Rh8
24 Rd4+; 20Rhg8 21 Nd8 Rd8 22 e3) 21 38Kd7 39 Rf8 10
Nd8 Ne2 22 Be2 Re2+ 23 Kf1 Kd8 24
Rf4 Rb2 25 Rf6+. R
19f3! 20 ef3 Nf3+ 21 Bf3 Re8+ 22
Kd2 Bf3 23 Nf7 Bc6?! Here comes another one of those new
Both players are a bit nervy. 23Re2+! is very opening surprises, with Mamedyarov play-
strong: 24 Kd3 (24 Kc3 Rf2 25 Rd4 Nd5+ 26 ing the Trompowsky his way.
Kb3 Kd7+) 24Re7 25 Nd6+ (25 Nh8 g5 is
better for Black) 25Kd8 26 Rf4 Be2+ 27 Kd4 GG S Mamedyarov
cd6+. OO FL Caruana
24 b4 a6 25 a4! FIDE World Cup, 2015
Ruths/Trompowsky E60 [Martin]
White has to play this or his knight on f7 is sim-
ply dropping off. 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Bg5!?
25Na4 26 Re1 Nb6 27 Rg4
Threatening a sacrifice on g6 in some cases. XIIIIIIIIY
27Rg8 28 Re7! Nd5 29 Nd6+! cd6 30 9rslwkv-t0{
Rh7 g5
Whites down a lot of material, but his h-pawn
9zpzpzp+p0
is very dangerous. 9-+-+-sp+0
31 Re4 Rg6 9+-+-+-V-0
31Nc7 32 Ree7 Ne8 sets up a position
where White cannot get his h-pawn moving 9-+PZ-+-+0
easily. For instance 33 Rhf7 (33 g4 Kb8 (33
Bf3 34 Ke3 Bd5! 35 Kd4 Bc6 36 Rhf7 Rh8 37 9+-+-+-+-0
h7 Kd8 38 Rg7 what else to make progress?
38Ng7 39 Rg7 Be8 40 Kd5 b6 41 Kd6 a5
9PZ-+PZPZ0
42 ba5 ba5 43 Ke6! a4 44 Kf6+) 34 Ke3
Kc8 35 Kd4 Kb8 36 Rhf7 Rh8 37 h7 Ka7 38
9TN+QMLSR0
Re6 Kb6 39 Re3 Kb5 with a murky position) xiiiiiiiiy
This cant be bad; it just hasnt been played that 9 e4?!

often. Mamedyarov has some history with the Ambitious and perhaps wrong, as Black be-
line, so we can assume Caruana looked at it comes very active. Having said that, 9 e3, the
carefully. computers first suggestion, doesnt look that
3Ne4 4 Bf4 c5 inspiring either: 9Bg7 10 Ne2 00 11 Nc3
Ramirez mentions 4e5!? 5 de5 Bc5 6 e3 Na6 12 a3 Bd7 13 Be2=. Of course, with all
Bb4+ 7 Ke2 with the assessment that Black the pieces on the board it is going to be a fight
hasnt got enough for the pawn. I am not sure precisely what White seems to be after.
that I would like to be White after the fur- 9Na6 10 Ne2 fe4 11 fe4 Bg7 12
ther 7Nc6 8 Nf3 Be7, but then I assume Nc3 00 13 Be2 Nh5
Mamedyarov has this all checked out.
Attacking f4. 13Nb4 14 Qc1 Ng4 is a seri-
5 Qc2 ous alternative, against which I am not sure I
Previously Mamedyarov went 5 f3 Qa5+ 6 see a way to equalise. Attacking the knights
Nd2 Nd2 7 Bd2 Qb6 8 Bc3 Bg7 Black may just seems to make the White position worse:
already be a bit better 9 e3 Nc6 10 Ne2 cd4 15 h3 (15 00 Bd4+ 16 Kh1 Nf2+) 15Rf4
11 Nd4 00. 16 hg4 Rf8.
XIIIIIIIIY 14 Bg5 Qd8?!

Very committal. Most would have just played
9r+l+-tk+0 14Nf4! 15 00 Ne2+ 16 Ne2 Bg4, after
9zp+pzpvp0 which Black is just a bit better.
9-wn+-+p+0 15 Bh5 gh5 16 Nf3 h6 17 Be3 Bg4 18

00 e6 19 Qd2 Kh7 20 Rad1!
9+-+-+-+-0 A very good move. Black does not want to
9-+PS-+-+0 block the position, but if he does not, then the
responsibility of defending both his weak king
9+-V-ZP+-0 and the pawn on d6 would just become too
9PZ-+-+PZ0 great.
9T-+QML+R0[ 20e5 21 Rf2 Nc7 22 Rdf1 Rb8 23 h3

Bd7 24 Ne2 h4 25 Kh2 b6
xiiiiiiiiy 25b5 was probably Blacks intention, but
Not very inspiring for White. 12 Qd2 Rd8 13
Rd1 a5 14 Be2 d5 15 Nc6 bc6 16 Bg7 it is refuted by 26 b4! The position is opened
Kg7 17 Qc3+ f6 18 00 Ba6 19 b3 dc4 20 and Blacks situation becomes critical: 26
Bc4 Bc4 21 bc4 Qb4 22 Qc2 Qc5 23 Qc3 cb4 (26bc4 27 bc5 dc5 28 Bc5 Rf6 29
Rd5 24 Rd3 Rd3 25 Qd3 Rb8 26 Rd1 Rb2 Ba7; 26Na6 27 bc5 Nc5 28 Bc5 dc5
27 Rd2 Rd2 28 Qd2 Qc4 29 Qa5 Qc1+ 29 cb5 Bb5 30 Rc1 Qe7 31 Nc3) 27 c5 dc5
30 Kf2 Qc2+ 31 Kg3 c5 32 a4 c4 33 Qc7 Kf7 28 Bc5 Rf6 29 Bb4 Ne8 30 Nc1! Nd6 31
34 a5 Qa4 ; S MamedyarovLG Aronian, Bd6 Rd6 32 Nd3 Qe7 33 Qb4.
Dubai, 2014. Clearly White has to do better, 26 g3! hg3+ 27 Ng3 Rg8 28 Nh5
hence the improvement (or just different) 5 Blacks kingside is laid waste.
Qc2.
28Ne8 29 Ng7 Ng7 30 Bh6 Nh5
5Qa5+ 6 Nd2 f5 7 f3 Nf6 8 d5 d6
31 Ng5+ Kg6 32 Rg1 Qe7 33 Nf7+ Kh7
A new move. I can only find one previous
34 Bg5 Qe8 35 Qe2 Ng7 36 Rf6
game, where 8Bg7 featured: A BarsovF
Vareille, Val Thorens, 1995; (35). Every piece joins the attack.
36Rf8 37 Rh6+ Kg8 38 Bf6 Rf7 39 back and decide that it was he who created his
Qh5 own downfall.
One of those games where the loser will look 10
Quotes and Queries

Alan Smith
caissals@hotmail.co.uk
6052 Samuel Reshevsky played his first GG JA Seitz

tournament at the age of 10 and achieved OO SH Reshevsky
a creditable result, defeating Janowski in a Syracuse, 1934
65-move battle. Two years later at Detroit, QP Irregular D02 [Smith]
1924, he was fifth, half a point behind three 1 d4 d5 2 Nf3 e6 3 e3 Nd7 4 Nbd2?
players, but well adrift of the runaway win-
4 c4 c6 5 Nc3 is correct, when Black has the
ner, Carlos Torre. Next time out he was third option of a Meran Variation with 5Ngf6 or a
equal at Kalamazoo, 1927, still a fine result Stonewall Dutch with 5f5.
for a 15-year-old, but no real indication of 4f5 5 c4 c6 6 Qb3?! Bd6 7 Bd3 Nh6 8
the career to come. Nb1 00 9 Bd2 Qe7 10 Nc3 Kh8 11 Rc1
Finally, in 1931, he recorded a tourna- dc4 12 Bc4 e5 13 Ne5 Ne5 14 de5
ment victory at Tulsa and followed that
Be5 15 Qc2
with 2nd at Minneapolis, then 3rd equal
15 00? allows a standard Greek Gift with 15
at Pasadena, 1932, behind Alekhine and Bh2+! 16 Kh2 Qh4+ 17 Kg1 Ng4 18 Rfe1
Kashdan. Next year he was second behind Qf2+ 19 Kh1 Rf6 20 e4 f4 and White is lost.
Fine at Detroit, with a point less, but he did 15 Ne2! is his best try.
win their individual game. After completing 15f4 16 e4 f3 17 g3 Nf5 18 Qd3 Nd6
his studies in accountancy he tied first with 19 Nd1 Bh3 20 Bb4 Rad8 21 Qc2 Rfe8
Fine at Chicago, 1934, scoring +1 =1 versus 22 Bd3 Qe6! 23 Ne3
Kashdan in the process. Soon after he trav- White does not have time for 23 b3 because of
elled to Syracuse to participate in the tour- 23Nf5 24 ef5? Bc3#
nament to celebrate the 50th anniversary
23Qa2 24 b3 Qc2 25 Rc2 Bf6 26
of the New York State CSA. Here his rivals
Ba5 Rd7 27 g4 Ne4 28 Be4 Re4 29
included six players who had represented
Rg1 Bg2 30 Bd2 Be5! 31 Kd1 Re3! 0-1
the USA in Olympiads.
32 fe3 f2 33 Rg2 f1=Q#
Reshevsky cruised through the early
rounds and won his first six games. This Observer 7th October, 1934.
authoritative display comes from Round 4.
Despite this flying start Reshevsky was still
If his opponent looks outclassed, he had
tied with Kupchik after round 10. Both had
scored a win versus Bogoljubov just the
8 points, a point ahead of Kashdan. Kupchik
previous year.
still had his bye to come, but Reshevsky had
stronger opponents to meet. In fact Kup- 15Bg5 16 Qh5+ g6 17 Bg6+.

chik lost to Horowitz while Reshevsky won 16 Rf6! Bf6 17 Qh5+ g6 18 Bg6+
this incisive miniature in Round 11. hg6
GG SH Reshevsky 18Kf8 is no better: 19 Nh7+ Kg8 20 Bf7+
OO AS Denker Kg7 21 Bh6+ Kh7 22 Bf8#
Syracuse, 1934 19 Qg6+ Ke7 20 Bc5#
Budapest A52 [Smith]
Brooklyn Daily Eagle 20th September, 1934
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e5 3 de5 Ng4 4 e4
This is Whites sharpest line against the Kupchiks challenge duly evaporated when
Budapest Counter-Gambit. he had the bye in Round 12, when Reshevs-
ky defeated Dake. Another win, versus the
4d6
out-of-form Tholfsen, established a two
A gambit which Resh wisely declines.
point lead. Draws with Fine and Kashdan
5 Be2 Ne5 6 f4 Ng4? gave him first prize by a margin of a point
The knight becomes an easy target after this. and a half: Reshevsky +10 =4 0, Kashdan
6Nec6 7 Nf3 Be7 8 00 00 is more solid. +7 =7 0, Dake +8=4 2, Fine +8 =4 2 and
7 Nf3 Kupchik +6 =7 1. The next year Reshevsky
7 Bg4? Qh4+ costs the bishop pair. was invited to play at Margate, where he
7Nc6 8 00 Bd7 9 Nc3 Be7 10 h3 Nf6 defeated Capablanca and won first prize.
11 e5 de5 He was also first in the BCF Major Open at
11Nh5 is met by 12 Kh2! Great Yarmouth. In 1936 Reshevsky won
the championship tournament organised
12 de5 Ng8 13 Be3 f6 14 Bd3 fe5 15 to find a successor to Frank Marshall.
Ng5! Nf6
Forgotten Masters: Fred

Reinfeld Part 4
Dan Scoones
The following game from a New York club 1 c4 Nf6 2 Nf3 c6 3 d4 d5 4 e3 e6 5 Bd3
tournament must have been one of Rein- Nbd7 6 Nbd2 Bd6 7 00 00 8 e4 de4 9
felds personal favourites because he pub- Ne4 Ne4 10 Be4
lished detailed annotations in the April White has scored well from this position, start-
1937 issue of Chess Review. ing with an 1889 World Championship Match
game between Wilhelm Steinitz and Mikhail
GG F Reinfeld Chigorin. (see Wilhelm Steinitz: 1st World
OO R Smirka Chess Champion by Isaak and Vladimir Linder
Marshall CC Championship 1937 (Russell 2014), p. 94.)
QGD, Semi-Slav D46 10h6 11 Bc2
In Chess Review Reinfeld wrote that 11 Re1 Blacks counterplay against c4 is largely irrel-
e5! would equalise for Black, but after 12 Bc2 evant. Now White unleashes a winning attack.
ed4 13 Qd4 Nf6 White gets the edge with 20 Bf6 Bf6 21 Qh7+ Kf8 22 d6 g6 23
14 Bh6!
Ne5
11Nf6 12 Bd2 Qe7 13 Re1 Rd8 14 a3 23 Bg6!? fg6 24 Re6 was strong also; for
c5 15 d5! example, 24Rd6 25 Rf6+ Rf6 26 Rd7
Stronger than 15 dc5 Bc5 16 b4 Bd6 with Qe6 27 Qh8+ Qg8 28 Qf6+ Ke8 29 Qe7#
counterplay Reinfeld. 23Bg7
15Qc7 16 Bc3! Be7 17 Qd3! b5 18 b3 Or 23Be5 24 Re5 Rd6 25 Qh8+ Ke7 26
Qb6 19 Rad1 Ba6 Qa8 with an extra rook for good measure.
XIIIIIIIIY 24 Nf7! Kf7 25 Qg6+
Here too there were other ways: 25 Re6 Ke6
9r+-t-+k+0 26 Qg6+ Kd7 27 Qf5+ Kc6 28 Be4#
9z-+-vpz-0 25Kf8 26 Re3
More exact was the immediate 26 Re6, but
9lw-+ps-z0 the text does not spoil anything Reinfeld.
9+pzP+-+-0 26Bb7 27 Re6 Qc6 28 Rd5 10
9-+P+-+-+0 To be continued
9ZPVQ+N+-0
9-+L+-ZPZ0 Diary
Draughts Competition, 9th10th
9+-+RT-M-0[ January, 2016 at the Holiday Inn,
xiiiiiiiiy Winchester. www.castlechess.co.uk.
Fischer Knew the Game

An extract from Blitz Em: Beating the nickname cendrier (French word for ashtray),
Grandmasters and International Masters hid the glorious Russian Grandmaster, Andor
Arnoldovich Lilienthal (19112010), a man ca-
at Internet Speed Chess Mario A. Ma- pable of beating Lasker, Capablanca, Alekhine,
nasse (Edizioni del Faro 2015) with permis- Euwe, Botvinnik and Smyslov. His most fa-
sion and thanks. mous game includes a queen sacrifice against
the great Cuban and its a sheer chess gem!
Game 31 When Fischer noticed Lilienthal in the audi-
ence during his 1992 return match against
GG cendrier GM 1927
Boris Spassky, Bobby greeted him with the
OO DaveElectric 1927 remark: Pawn e5 takes f6! Im sure you know
ICC Blitz 3.0, 2008 this game, but in case you dont, here it is:
English A20 [Manasse]
Some web sources say that under the
GG A Lilienthal No! It was a little more difficult to see it, but the
OO JR Capablanca beautiful mate is given by 18Bg4! 19 Re1
Hastings, 1934/5 Qh2+ 20 Kf1 Bf3! 21 Nf4 Qg2+!! 22 Ng2
E24 Nimzo-Indian, Smisch Variation Rh1#
Accelerated 19 Kg2+ Qh3+
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 a3 Bc3+ 5 bc3 Stronger was 19Qh2+ 20 Kf3 Rf8+ 21 Nf4
b6 6 f3 d5 7 Bg5 h6 8 Bh4 Ba6 9 e4 Bc4 10 gf4 22 d4 fg3+ 23 Ke2 Rf2+ 24 Kd3+
Bc4 dc4 11 Qa4+ Qd7 12 Qc4 Qc6 13 20 Kf3 Rf8+ 21 Bf4
Qd3 Nbd7 14 Ne2 Rd8 15 00 a5 16 Qc2 Qc4
17 f4 Rc8 18 f5 e5 19 de5 Qe4 20 ef6 Qc2 If 21 Nf4 gf4 22 Ke2 (22 Bf4?? de5 23 Ke2
21 fg7 Rg8 22 Nd4 Qe4 23 Rae1 Nc5 24 ef4 24 gf4 Rd8+) 22Qh5+ 23 Kd2 fg3
Re4+ Ne4 25 Re1 Rg7 26 Re4+ Kd7 10. 24 fg3 Qd1+ 25 Rd1+
Well, I dont know if cendrier was really Lilienthal 21g4+?

(you should ask ICC), but he was surely a 21gf4 22 Nf4 de5+
Grandmaster, because ICC requires an official 22 Ke4 d5+ 23 cd5 cd5+??
certificate of your title.
Now, back to the clash, a game full of happy And now its White who is winning! 23Qg2+
and sad surprises, nice moves and mistakes, 24 f3 cd5+ 25 Kd5 gf3+
a game that I could have won in only twenty 24 Kd5+ Rc8
moves with checkmate. After many mating op-
24Qg2+ didnt work anymore. 25 Kc4 Rc6+
portunities missed along the way, I finally do
26 Kb3 Bf2+
checkmate my opponent, but only after a fatal
last blunder in a winning position. 25 Rg1??
1 c4 e5 2 Nf3 f5? 25 Bh6 and its all over 25Qh6 26 Rc1
Rd8+ 27 Kc4 Qe6+ 28 Kc3+
Premove. [Note: A term from online blitz where
you can make your move before seeing the op- 25Qh5+
ponents reply Ed.] Now Black is winning again.
3 Ne5 Nf6 4 g3 Bc5 5 Bg2 d6 6 Nd3 26 Bh6
Bb6 7 00 00 8 Nc3 Nc6 9 Nf4 Qe8 10 If 26 Qb3 Qg6 27 b5 Rc5+ 28 Kd4+ Kh8 29
d3 Ne5 11 Ncd5 c6 12 Nf6+ Rf6 13 e3 Qc4 (29 Bh6?? and Black mates in three: 29
g5 14 Ne2 Qh5 15 b4? Rc6+ 30 Kd5 Qf7+ 31 Ke4 Qf3#) 29Rc4+
15 Nc3 Rh6 16 Qh5 Rh5 17 Rd1 30 Kc4 Qe6+ 31 Kb4+ Rh2. Fritz evaluates
the position 3.33. Now, Black mates in 4. How?
15Rh6+ 16 h3 f4 17 ef4?
26Qh6??
The only chance to play on was 17 Nf4 gf4
18 Qh5 Rh5 19 ef4 Nd3 20 g4+. Now, Gluttonous! The answer is 26Qf7+ 27 e6
Black can mate in 4. Qf5+ 28 Kd6 Rc6+ 29 Ke7 Qe6#
17Bh3 27 Nf4??
Decisive, but the mating sequence starts with With 27 Rc1! White could still win! 27Rd8+
17Nf3+ 18 Bf3 (18 Kh1 Bh3) 18Qh3 28 Kc4 Qe6+ 29 Kc3 Bf2 30 Rf1+
19 Bh5 Rh5 20 fg5 Qh2# 27Qc6#
18 fe5 Ouch.
Black can now mate in five starting with 01
18Bg2
The Shock of the New

Theo Slade
theoslade@live.co.uk
Another Russian Final?!

This month I wanted to write but maybe he should have taken a differ-
about who I considered to be ent approach in this tournament. If hed have
played 3Bd7 and played more solidly then
the player of the 2015 World he might have had more chance of progress-
Cup. The obvious candidate ing to the next round than he did with this ap-
was Pavel Eljanov, but since he proach. Hindsights a beautiful thing, so maybe
tragically didnt make it through to the final we shouldnt be so harsh on Veselin.
due to an incredibly unfortunate threefold 4 00 Ngf6 5 Re1 a6 6 Bf1
repetition claim against Sergey Karyakin, I Both players play the standard moves, but now
thought it best to write about the other final- Black makes a curious choice.
ist, Peter Svidler, who at the time of writing 6b6
had just taken a 20 over his Russian counter- This looks very strange, but I suppose theres
part. (Since Svidler didnt won the World Cup, logic: Black wants to attack the pawn on e4
Ill be writing about Karyakin in my next arti- whilst developing his pieces.
cle!) Some chess fans dont particularly think 7 d4 cd4 8 Nd4 Bb7 9 c4 e6
of Svidler as being a truly world class player, 9e5 is the computers suggestion, but I
but hes a seven-time Russian champion, hes cant think for one minute that Ive just refut-
won the World Cup and hes played in the last ed Svidlers opening in about 5 seconds with
three Candidates Tournaments! Considering Stockfish 6. There must be more to this. Indeed,
that Nakamura and Caruana missed out last after the semi-forcing sequence 10 Nf5 Ne4
11 f3 g6 12 fe4 gf5 13 ef5 the position
time round, this is certainly no mean feat. is very unclear, but Id rather be White here.
Heres his best game from this event, beating Black has weak light squares, his kings in the
none other than the top seed. middle and hes under pressure on the central
files. This is slightly ironic, however, since all of
GG PV Svidler Whites pieces are on the 1st rank!; Taking the
OO VA Topalov pawn with 9Ne4 isnt advisable: 10 f3 e5 11
FIDE World Cup, 2015 fe4 ed4 12 Qd4, when its clear that White
Sicilian, Moscow B51 [Slade] is better here, if only due to the isolated pawn
on d6.
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 Bb5+ 10 Nc3 Be7 11 f3 Rc8 12 Be3 00 13
Unfortunately for the chess public, Svidler opts Qd2 Qc7 14 Rac1 Qb8 15 Kh1 Rfe8
for this fashionable sideline thats rapidly gain-
ing popularity but is not nearly as exciting as Both players have been playing very typical
the Open Sicilian. Thus the game will take a Maroczy moves so far, but now they begin to en-
much more positional nature. ter uncharted territory and the game starts to get
interesting. Its weird that even in the Maroczy
3Nd7 structure, which can be played with many dif-
Topalov plays for the win, as he always does, ferent piece and pawn placements, this exact
position has been reached numerous times! like a stab in the dark.
16 a3 Bd8 20Qa8
20h4 is suggested by the engine and this
XIIIIIIIIY seems very logical. Even if this was a bad move,
9-wrvr+k+0 its consistent to continue pushing the pawn
if only to provide a distraction for White on the
9+l+n+pzp0 kingside. In the Maroczy Bind, the conventional
wisdom is that White sets up a big centre and
9pz-zps-+0 tries to defend it, which is usually possible, but if
Black can break through with either b5 or d5
9+-+-+-+-0 then hell achieve a comfortable game. However,
Topalov seems to have an interesting take on this
9-+PSP+-+0 view he wants to distract White by pushing his
9Z-S-VP+-0 h-pawn and only then think about counterat-
tacking in the centre! Whatever his thought pro-
9-Z-W-+PZ0 cesses, this pawn advance seems the most logi-
cal move at this juncture.
9+-T-TL+K0[ 21 Bd3 Be7
xiiiiiiiiy 21h4 was again best.
Finally a new move, but not really a new idea.
The bishop is going to c7, when Black will hope 22 h3!
to open the position with d5 at the right Svidler thinks prophylactically, which is a very
moment. For now, both players continue their important skill at the top level. He wants to stop
manoeuvring. his opponent from advancing his h-pawn too
far (now it can only go as far as h4) and bringing
17 Bg1 h5!? his knight to g4. This may seem far-fetched, but
This move is very difficult to fathom. I doubt Peter may be thinking about bringing his bishop
that it was preparation, as both players had to h2. For example, if Black breaks with e5 then
been using a normal amount of time for the last it may be useful to apply some pressure to this
few moves. However, if we assume that it isnt pawn. Id say that this kind of strong multipur-
preparation, why would you push this pawn pose move is often overlooked by casual spec-
so quickly? Topalov played this move in under tators and thats why its important to highlight
a minute, but it seems very risky, opening up them when theyre played.
your king which could prove to be costly later
on in the game. Maybe he thinks that this is al- 22Rc7?!
ways a good move in the Maroczy, so he may A normal move, but Topalov overlooks a stand-
as well play it quickly, but this too would be ard break by White which is particularly strong
a strange thought from such a strong player. in this position. 22e5 was more to the point,
Thus, all I can think of is that Svidler must have preventing White from playing e5 himself, but
transposed into some of Topalovs preparation, White should be at least slightly better after 23
Topalov recalled it and played it without any Nf3, when Whites dark-squared bishop really
more thought and then both players resumed comes to life. It can stay on g1 pressurising b6
playing a normal game. In any case, I think that or hop to h2 and attack e5.
this was an interesting moment of the game. 23 Re2?!
18 b3 Ne5 19 f4 Ned7 20 b4 I cant understand why Svidler refrained from
White is slowly creeping forward, whilst Black 23.e5! its such a natural move and all of his
doesnt seem to be making much progress. At pieces are perfectly positioned for the open-
the moment his h-pawn advance seems a bit ing of the position. Even his worst minor piece,
the light-squared bishop, is pulling its weight play can only favour Black; after all hes a pawn
as it defends c4 and covers e4, whilst the Black down and he has the bishop pair. 29 ed5
pieces look OK, but theyre not really pointed at ed5 30 Ne5 Nh5 31 Qf3 Nf6 The queens
anything. Wheres the focal point of their attack? been shifted to a less favourable square, but
What break does Black have in mind? White, on now its Whites move. 32 cd5 Bd5 33 Qe3.
the other hand, does indeed have a break in Despite the seemingly random movements of
mind and now he takes control of the game after the white queen, I think that White is slightly
23de5 24 fe5 Nh7 25 Qe2. It isnt so much better, mainly because hes a pawn up.
that any one aspect is particularly favourable for
White, but rather the cumulative effect of them.
29 Qg4 Nf6 30 Qg3 Nh5 31 Qg4 Nf6
For example, the knight on h7 and the rook on e8 Svidler has repeated moves to gain time on the
are both misplaced. Nothing tragic, but a minor clock and get closer to move 40, but now he
annoyance. OK, no big deal! I hear you thinking. plays on of course.
What about the loose pawn on h5? White cant 32 Qh4 g6 33 Ng5 Qd8
take it yet, but its still not ideal for Black. The most
important feature of this position in my opinion I think that 33Nh5 should have been played,
is the throttling effect of the monstrous pawn with a view to blocking up the h-file to stop
on e5. Black can hardly move due to this pawn, White from attacking there. I bet Topalov was
blocking up the e-file, controlling d6 and f6 and regretting losing his h-pawn now!
providing a square on e4 for the white pieces. If 34 Rd1?!
a piece lands on e4 right away, the e5 pawn will 34 Rd2 was the correct rook to move to the d-
drop off, but if White deploys his bishop on h2, file, vacating the e2 square for the bishop. This
then everything will click into gear nicely. He can is the ancient problem in chess: which rook to
nibble at the h-pawn, use e4 as a springboard move? I remember some advice that I was giv-
and slowly manoeuvre for an opening. In a prac- en by a chess coach long ago: work out all the
tical game, this is exactly the type of position that permutations, try to foresee as far as you can
White is aiming for when he plays the Maroczy before making your decision and, just before
Bind. you move, move the other rook! Indeed after
23h4 34Nh5 the e2 square comes in handy: 35
Now Black plays this, but it seems too late to Be2 Kg7 36 Rcd1.
me. Svidler simply rounds up this pawn and 34Nh5 35 Qg4
Topalovs compensation is negligible. It may White is still better, but his advantage isnt as
look attractive to try to exploit the weak dark large as it could have been.
squares around Whites king by pushing the
h-pawn and trying Nf6h5g3(+), but this 35e5 36 Nd5 Bd5 37 ed5 Bg5 38
is somewhat unrealistic. I dont know why fg5 Nf4 39 Rc2
Topalov played this maybe he was having a Its funny that Svidler hasnt played in the most
bad day at the office. accurate way and yet he still has an advantage
24 Bf2 Nh5 25 Nf3 Ng3+ 26 Bg3 hg3 Im not sure what that shows, but I think its
27 Qe1 interesting!
White is going to win a pawn. 39b5?!
27Nf6 28 Qg3 Nh5 Searching for counterplay in typical Topalovian
style, but in this position it is unnecessar-
Now that White has been distracted by the ily risky. He made a rash pawn break like this
pawn on the kingside, its time to break in the against Giri in Norway Chess, 2015. Although
centre with 28d5! Now the play gets very its easy for me to criticize Topalov for this,
sharp, but firstly this is Blacks best attempt its also true that this attitude helped him to
and secondly the fact that theres dynamic Topal the World Champion twice with Black.
Maybe its best to be somewhere in the middle, Re4 50 Qc8+ Kh7 51 Qd8 Rb4 52 Rd1
but for the chess fan its interesting to see so Rbe4 53 Qd6 Qa4
many different attitudes towards risk.
39Nd3! makes a lot of sense. As Kasparov Over the last few moves Topalov has been
said, The worst bishops better than the best trying very hard to avoid losing, but so far he
knight!. Whilst this advice isnt necessarily true, hasnt really achieved anything and my en-
I reckon Topalov should have taken it on board gine gives an unsympathetic +5.89. However,
here, as otherwise Whites bishop will become Topalovs luck changes
too powerful. Besides, the more Black exchanges, 54 Rde1?
the closer hell come to making a draw. 40 Rd3 White is still much better after this, but hes
e4! If Topalov had played in this way, I think that certainly not winning. 54 Rc1! was more or less
he would have saved a draw, as its a major piece the only winning move, when White wins eas-
ending which is always difficult to win, and ily. However, in the game Svidler blew it and
Topalov could have made use of his dangerous allowed Topalov a golden chance to get back
passed pawn. Nevertheless, White would main- into the game and match.
tain a small edge after 41 Rd4 e3 42 Re2.
54Qc4 55 h5
40 c5!+
The best winning attempt, but this re-
XIIIIIIIIY ally shouldnt work, not against a player of
Topalovs class, surely
9-+-wr+k+0{ 55gh5 56 Qh6+ Kg8 57 g6
9+-t-+p+-0 XIIIIIIIIY
9p+-z-+p+0 9-+-+-+k+0{
9+pZPz-Z-0 9+-+-tp+-0
9-Z-+-sQ+0 9-+P+-+PW0
9Z-+L+-+P0 9+p+P+-+p0
9-+R+-+P+0 9-+q+r+-+0
9+-+R+-+K0 9+-+-z-Z-0
xiiiiiiiiy 9-+-+R+K+0
An emphatic move to make, especially on
move 40. After this powerful advance, Svidler 9+-+-T-+-0
calmly heads for the win.
40Nd3 41 Rd3 e4 42 Rd4 e3 43 c6! xiiiiiiiiy
Now Svidler has burnt his bridges and Stockfish
Another strong move, ignoring the e-pawn for proudly announces 0.00. Well, this should be a
the time being. Svidler wants to improve his handshake, shouldnt it?
pawn structure as much as he can before em-
barking on dynamic pursuits, and this seems to 57fg6??
be a sound way of approaching this technical Nope! The worst part is that Topalov spent just
task. He can slowly but surely round up the e- 6 seconds on this losing move, effectively al-
pawn later. lowing himself to be knocked out of the World
43Re5 44 h4 Rce7 45 Re2 Qb6 46 g3 Cup that short space of time. If he had found
the saving resource then he would have prob-
a5 47 Kg2 ab4 48 ab4 Qa7 49 Rd3
ably drawn the game, leaving him with White
against Svidler in the next game before the tie

breaks if necessary. Given that the players in
the World Cup receive a 30 second increment
from move 1, this means that, at a minimum,
Topalov could have spent nearly a full min-
ute on this move, but instead he decided to
make it in a 10th of the time. I wouldnt mind
betting that a lot of players have exited the
World Cup in this fashion (Ding LirenWei Yi,
for example?).
Topalov should have played 57f5!, and now,
amazingly, theres absolutely no way for White to
get even a sniff of an edge. Its completely equal:
58 g7 Rg7 59 Re3 Re3 60 Re3 Qd5+ 61
Kh2 Qd2+ 62 Kh1 Qd5+ 63 Kh2=.
58 Qg6+ Rg7 59 Qh5+
Oh dear. Topalov finds himself a pawn down,
with no king safety and staring down the bar-
rel of the connected passed pawns on the
queenside. I dont know what he was thinking;
this was hardly a difficult variation to calculate.
Peter Svidler
59Qd4 60 Ra2 Rf4 61 Ra8+ Rf8 62
Rf8+ Kf8 63 Qh8+ Kf7 64 Rf1+ Ke7 I must say, I find the World Cup an exhila-
Topalov sportingly allows checkmate.
rating tournament and Id love to play in it
in the future. Most top-level tournaments
65 Qf8# are round robins where the winner may
XIIIIIIIIY only be on +3 like in the Candidates 2013
or, in the Tal Memorial 2011, only +2. Whilst
9-+-+-W-+0{ this is the most pure chess, I cant help but
9+-+-m-t-0 feel more excited when there are so many
games in such a short space of time. MVL
9-+P+-+-+0 Giri, Wei YiDing Liren, CaruanaMamed-
9+p+P+-+-0 yarov: these are the kind of match-ups that
the chess public really want to see! What
9-+-w-+-+0 do you think? Should the chess world have
9+-+-z-Z-0 more knockout tournaments? Email me
and tell me what you think Id love to hear
9-+-+-+K+0 from you!
9+-+-+R+-0
N
xiiiiiiiiy
A pretty mate, worthy of a diagram.
BCM knows ssehc wardsback!
10
N
Q
Endgames for Experts

GM Nick Pert
nickpert@hotmail.com
This month I am going to look Pressuring the b-pawn and looking to control
at some endgames from the the d6 square.
World Cup. Anish Giri has a 37Nf6
good style to make it a long Black is more or less obliged to eliminate the d-
way in a knockout competi- pawn, but this comes at the cost of the b-pawn.
tion as he is hard to beat. He is also capable 37Ra3 38 d6+ is problematic for Black as the
king is forced to a passive square.
of grinding down his opponents, and in this
round he managed to grind down Maxime 38 Bf3
Vachier Lagrave in an endgame. 38 d6+ Kd7 39 Rb6 Ne4+ 40 Ke3 Nd6 41
Ra6 is another tempting option, as the bishop
GG A Giri copes well with pawns on both sides of the
OO M Vachier Lagrave board.
FIDE World Cup, 2015 [Pert] 38Rd7 39 Rb6 Nd5 40 Bd5 Rd5
XIIIIIIIIY 41 Kg3!
An accurate move, as White is looking to infil-
9-+-+-+-+0{ trate with his king.
9t-+n+p+p0 41h5 42 Kh4 Rf5
9-z-+-m-+0 XIIIIIIIIY
9+-+P+-+-0 9-+-+-+-+0
9-+-+-Z-+0 9+-+-mp+-0
9+P+-+-+-0 9-T-+-+-+0
9-+R+LM-Z0 9+-+-+r+p0
9+-+-+-+-0 9-+-+-Z-M0
xiiiiiiiiy 9+P+-+-+-0
36Ke7! 9-+-+-+-Z0
It is important that the black king controls the
white passed pawn on the d-file. If the king 9+-+-+-+-0[
tries to advance up the board Black is likely to
get into trouble. Here is an example line. 36
xiiiiiiiiy
Now that the white king is well placed, apply-
Kf5 37 Rc4 Ra3 38 Bd3+ Kg4 39 h3+ Kh4
ing pressure to the h5 pawn, White decides to
40 Bh7 Rb3 41 Rc8 Rb2+ 42 Kf3 Rb3+
improve his rook and attempt to advance his
43 Kg2 Rb2+ 44 Bc2 Nf6 45 d6. With mate
passed pawn. The ideal place for the rook is be-
threats and a strong d-pawn White is winning.
hind his passed pawn. In general I prefer the
37 Rc6! rook at the side of the pawn compared to hav-
ing the rook in front of the passed pawn.
43 Rb4 Rd5 44 Rc4 Black is not in time to take the h-pawn. 59

The rook comes to the side of the pawn. Rb2 60 f6 (60 Rf4+) 60Rh2 61 f7 and the
pawn queens.
44Kf6 45 b4 Kg6
60 Ra2
45Kf5? 46 Rc5 wins for White.
Securing the h-pawn. Black is now powerless
46 Rc6+ f6 47 Rc2 to stop the f-pawn.
And now the rook goes behind the pawn! 60Rb4 61 f6 Rg4+ 62 Kf5 Rf4+ 63
47Rb5 48 Rb2 Kf5 49 Kg3! Ke6 Re4+ 64 Kd6 Rd4+ 65 Ke7 Re4+
49 Kh5? would be a mistake as White is un- 66 Kf8 Rb4 67 f7 Rf4 68 Rb2 Ra4 69
able to force through his h-pawn. 49Kf4+ Rb6 10
50 Kg6 f5 51 h4 Kg4 52 h5 Rb6+ 53 Kf7
Kh5=.
B
49Ke4 50 Rb1!
XIIIIIIIIY Defending R + B v R is one of the tough-
est endgames in chess. When your op-
9-+-+-+-+0{ ponent is a former World Champion, it
9+-+-+-+-0 becomes even more difficult! This end-
game is quite instructive to play through,
9-+-+-z-+0 as Bruzon Batista appears to be doing a
9+r+-+-+p0 pretty good job of defending using the
2nd rank defence, whereby the king and
9-Z-+kZ-+0 the rook remain largely on the second
9+-+-+-M-0 rank and form a defensive barrier. In order
to defend these types of positions, it is al-
9-+-+-+-Z0 ways important to keep the rook at the
9+R+-+-+-0 side of the king. When your rook is placed
on the opposite side of the board, it is of-
xiiiiiiiiy ten lost. What happens in this endgame
White may need to check the black king in
some lines, so moving the rook back to the 1st is that Blacks king is forced to switch
rank creates some distance between the rook sides of the board, and then his rook is
and the king. misplaced. If Black can remain on the b-
50Kd3 51 Kf3 Kc2 file with both rook and king then he is
Black is winning the b-pawn, but now his king happy. In the game his king is forced onto
is badly misplaced. the back rank, and from this position, he
52 Ra1 Rb4 53 Ra5 Rb3+ 54 Ke4! should be defending with his rook on the
54 Kg2? Kd3 55 Rh5 Ke4 would make life
7th rank, but it is unable to get there.
very easy for Black, as he can easily activate his GG VB Kramnik
king. OO L Bruzon Batista
54h4 55 Kf5 Kd3 56 Kf6 Ke4 57 f5 FIDE World Cup, 2015 [Pert]
Threatening Ra4+.
57h3 58 Ra4+ Kf3 59 Kg5 Rb5
XIIIIIIIIY
9-+-+-+-+0{ This endgame caught my attention because
it reminded me of some of my own experi-
9+k+-+-+-0 ences of playing endgames against 2700+
players, and how seemingly drawn posi-
9-+-M-+-+0 tions can become difficult! I managed to
9+r+-+-+-0 beat Jakovenko back in 2000 in our junior
days, but now he has gone on to become a
9-+-V-+-+0 very strong player!
9+-+-+-+-0 GG D Jakovenko
9-+-+-+-+0 OO B Amin
FIDE World Cup, 2015 [Pert]
9+-T-+-+-0 XIIIIIIIIY
xiiiiiiiiy 9-+-+-+-+0{
112Ka6 113 Bc5 Kb7??
This allows Kramnik to force the king out of po- 9+p+-+-+-0
sition. 113Rb3 is the simplest dfence, clear-
ing the b5 square for the king. 114 Kc6 (114 9p+-VL+-+0
Ra1+ Kb5 115 Kd5 Rd3+ 116 Bd4 Rb3 117 Ra8 9+l+-+p+p0
Rb4 118 Bc3 Rb3 119 Rc8 Ka4 is an eample
of how to defend when the king is ready to step 9-+-+p+k+0
back to b5 shortly) 114Rb6+ is the standard
tactical idea in order to counter Whites mating 9Z-+-Z-Zn0
threats.
114 Ra1 Rb3 115 Ra7+ Kb8
9-Z-+-Z-+0
Now that the king is on the back rank the rook 9+-+-M-+-0
needs to be on the side. It cant get to the 7th
rank in time though. xiiiiiiiiy
116 Kc6 48Kf3
Placing the king on the ideal square, creating Exchanging off the f-pawn is maybe not nec-
mating threats. Black cannot move the king essary here. 48Ng5 49 Bc8 Nf3+ 50 Kd1
easily. Ba4+ 51 Kc1 Bc6 seems fine for Black, when
White may be best to offer a repetition with the
116Rh3 117 Ra1 move Kd1.
Now Bd6 is coming and Black is unable to 49 Bf5 Nf2 50 Bg6
check the white king away from the very pow-
erful c6 square. For example, if the rook was on Both players start going after the loose pawns!
h7 he could defend with Rc7+. An agonising 50Nd3+ 51 Kd2 Nb2 52 Bh5+
defeat, as Bruzon Batista was just a handful of I expect that both players were relatively low
moves away from claiming the draw by the 50 on time, but even with plenty of time it would
move rule! be hard to work out that Kg2 is in fact the best
10 move!
52Kf2
B 52Kg2 53 Kc3 Nc4 54 Bc5 b6 55 Bd4
XIIIIIIIIY
Na3 Should be enough to hold.
53 Kc3 Nc4
9-+-+-+-+0{
XIIIIIIIIY 9+p+-+-+-0
9-+-+-+-+0 9p+l+-+-+0
9+p+-+-+-0 9+-VnM-+-0
9p+-V-+-+0 9-+-+L+-+0
9+l+-+-+L0 9Z-+-Z-m-0
9-+n+p+-+0 9-+-+-+-+0
9Z-M-Z-Z-0 9+-+-+-+-0
9-+-+-m-+0 xiiiiiiiiy
So Black has successfully managed to elimi-
nate the g-pawn, but his poorly placed king
9+-+-+-+-0[ is still a problem, as the queenside pawns are
xiiiiiiiiy now vulnerable.
White misses a very deep move here. 64Nc3 65 Bc6 bc6 66 Kd6 Kf3 67
54 Bc5 Kc6 a5?
54 Bf8! b6 (54Ne3 55 Bc5 Threatening Kd2 67Ke4 is the best chance, with good chanc-
55Be2 56 g4 Kf3 57 g5+ Ng4 58 Bb6 would es to hold due to the fact that White has the
leave White better as the g-pawn is getting dan- wrong coloured bishop for his a-pawn. If Black
gerous; 54Ke3?? 55 Bc5#!) 55.a4 wins the can get his king to a8 and sacrifice his knight
knight, although Black can still fight on in a for the e-pawn then it is a draw! 68 Kb7 (68
worse position. Bb6 Nd5 69 a4 Ne3 70 Kb7 Nc4 71 Ka6
Nb2 72 a5 Nc4=) 68a5 69 Ka6 a4 70 Ka5
54Ne5? Kd5 71 Bd4 Ne4 72 Ka4 Nd6! 73 Kb4 Nc4
54b6 5 5 Bd4 Na3 56 g4 Be2 57 Bb6 74 a4 Ne3 75 Be3 Kc6=.
Nb5+ would keep the white king out of d4 and
so Black should be OK. 68 Bd4 Nb1 69 a4 Nd2 70 Kb5 Nb3 71
Kc4 Nd2+ 72 Kd3 Ne4
55 Kd4!
Notice how the black king is a long way from
Activating the king in the endgame is very reaching the key a8 square!
important!
73 Bb6 Nf2+ 74 Kd4 Nd1 75 e4 Nc3 76
55Nd7 56 Bd6 Nf6 57 Bg6 Kc3 Ke4 77 Kc4!
Now the e-pawn is vulnerable, and when White
77 Ba5?? Kd5 would allow Black to reach the
wins this pawn his king will be close to Blacks
corner and draw.
queenside pawns.
77Ke5 78 Kc5 Ke6 79 Kc6
57Bc6 58 Ke5 Ng4+ 59 Kf4 Nf6
Now White can take the a-pawn and safely pro-
59Ne3?? 60 Bc5 wins the knight.
mote his own pawn, as the black king cannot
60 Ke5 Ng4+ 61 Kf4 Nf6 62 Bc5 Nd5+ reach the corner.
63 Ke5 Kg3 64 Be4 10
Training with the Chinese

IM Yang-Fan Zhou
yfz20@cam.ac.uk
China has recently established itself as a force to be reckoned with, winning the Olympiad
with an exceptionally young team. With many more promising young players on the way,
the Chinese system certainly has its advantages. In July I spent a month training at Chaoy-
ue chess club run by GMs Li Chao and Wang Yue, in Chengdu China. Chaoyue translates as
to transcend a clever play on words taking the names of both coaches
The top class of the club had players rated 21002600, aged 1323. Training hours were
9 a.m.7 p.m. with a lunch break, MonSat. It was intense, but I enjoyed it. Pretty much all
of the players had completely devoted themselves to chess, and attended the club full
time without having to go to school or university. The class had around 15 players, but
a number of players wouldnt be present at times when they competed in tournaments.
The two coaches really contrasted with each other on various levels, similar to our own
Mickey Adams and Nigel Short. Li Chao was a very attacking and tactical player who has
won a number of strong opens such as Reykjavik and Cappelle-la-Grande, whereas Wang
Yue is world renowned for his solid positional style and holding his own against the worlds
best he made 8 draws from 9 games in the Olympiad on Board 1. In terms of coaching, Li
Chao was very humorous and energetic and often discussed psychology, whilst Wang Yue
was extremely strict and focussed more on pure chess aspects.
The club used a point system, where points were rewarded for doing well in training
tournaments, and could be used to buy perks. For example, the winner of Group A (the
top 4 players of the club) received 200 points, and last place of Group D received 20 points.
Points were also deducted for bad behaviour being late, using your phone and chatting/
Chinese Chess League, Shanghai, July 2015. Meeting with the players I got to know at the World
Junior Championships 2012, Greece. Left to right: Ding Liren, Wei Yi, Zhou Yangfan, Gao Rui, Yu
Yangyi
making jokes during training all cost 10 points. Personally, I did lose some points for tardi-
ness.
A table of the perks available for purchase:
Opening analysis level 6 (the highest detail) 240
Opening analysis level 5 200
Opening analysis level 1 (an overview) 40
Going through a game 4
Two training matches against Li Chao 250
Opening analysis in the form of a Chessbase file from Wang Yue was very popular these
were available for a limited number of openings, but requests for particular openings
would often be granted if multiple players were interested. Most players saved up points
to cash in on the higher level opening files. During my time at the club, GM Gao Rui used
his points for two training matches against Li Chao. Scoring 1.5/2 would give another 2
matches (quite a big ask against a 2750 player!), but unfortunately he only managed 0.5/2.
Training at the club consisted of lectures by the coaches on various topics, training
matches and self-study. Generally there would be a lecture for either the morning or after-
noon session, and the other session would be used to play
training matches or for self-study (mainly using books or
analysing openings with the computer).
When I first arrived the class was split into a Group A all-
play-all for the top four players and an open tournament for
the rest. I tried to talk my way into Group A based on rating
(I was the third highest rated after GMs Gao Rui and Bai Jin-
shi), but Li Chao placed me in the open tournament where I
had to prove my mettle against a number of talented young
players. Matches were played in the morning and Li Chao
would analyse games in the afternoon. With a score of 6.5/8
I finished first equal. The next set of training matches were
played after a weeks break, and consisted of the top four
players in the Open playing against the top four players of
Group A, in which I only managed 1.5/4 (3 draws). Without a
doubt China is the country with the most underrated players
that I have played in I struggled to show myself as a better
player over the 2250+ players at the club.
When going through the games, the Touristing on a Sunday. Leshan, Chengdu
coaches were never hesitant to criticise and at the top of the worlds biggest Buddha.
scold us. This was perhaps the biggest difference I experienced with other coaches I have
worked with English coaches are generally very nice about things, and not too hard on
the student. At Chaoyue club on the other hand, on playing a simple-minded move the
coach would call you a peasant, while playing a blunder would result in the coach asking
if you had a mental disability. At times it almost seemed some players were more con-
cerned about the coaches telling off than the result!
I found that sharing ideas and working together with other students during self-study
time was very useful. Analysing openings as an individual using the computer engine can
become quite tiresome, but at the club the preferred method was to work in pairs, where
one student would use the engine and the other would use his brains and apply human
principles rather than following the engine blindly this helped develop a deeper under-
standing of the position. Players were also very happy to share key points in their open-
ing analysis, which was very nice. For example, I could not find any advantage in a line of
the Caro Kann. When I asked a Caro Kann player why he didnt play that line as Black he
showed me a very strong option for White earlier on in the line. Other than opening analy-
sis, working through books with others whilst discussing ideas and sharing knowledge
was insightful. Most of the players were not proficient in English and were delighted to
have me translate some key passages.
All in all, I very much enjoyed my experience in the Chinese chess culture and hope it
will help take my chess to the next level. I would have recommended keen readers to find
time to train at Chaoyue, except all of the coaching is done in Chinese! I myself had some
difficulties at first understanding the chess jargon. Id like to send my special thanks again
to Cambridge alumni Ian Reynolds and Terry Chapman for their support and making my
training at the club possible.
The Adam Raoof Interview

www.goldersgreenchess.blogspot.com
Adam Raoof is very well known to thousands of players. He is a FIDE International Organ-
iser and Arbiter, a Sponsor of The Friends of Chess, Secretary of Hendon CC and President
of Middlesex CCA. Hes forty-nine and lives in Watford Way in Hendon. He is a nice chap.
Your Editor was pleased to fire some questions at his old friend.
Adam, when last I interviewed you, in 2008, I began by asking where your interest in
the game started. You answered:
It all began with a chess set that my Father brought from Saudi Arabia. It was made of mar-
ble, and made a lovely sound when you moved the pieces. He taught me the rules, and it
was only later that I realised that hed shown me the older Indian form of the game!
Neat response.
What, in 2015, is the single most important

contribution that you have made to chess in
the UK?
Err if I have made a contribution at all (smiles)
it has only been because I never gave up organ-
ising, giving opportunities to play chess. I have
run tournaments in England, Wales, Scotland,
Malta, Italy. All sorts of formats: Swiss, A.P.A.,
Teams England versus China with Bob Wade,
Scheveningen, RowsonMcShane, UKFrench
Adam Raoof
Champions, London Candidates. I was Englands
Olympiad Captain
In the UK, the role of organiser and arbiter are conflated. I am more of an organiser who
has found himself controlling his own tournaments. This is something that is not found on
the continent.
What would you advise readers of BCM to do to improve their chess?
Play and read more. I think players compete but dont study or train. A lot of young players
in my club have improved as a result of being taught the game by experienced coaches
who come from a chess culture in Eastern Europe.
And the reading part?
Dont be afraid of reading classics: old books that have been algebraicised.
For example?
Anything by Irving Chernev, early books by Raymond Keene, Fred Reinfeld
What about books by Barden?
Play Better Chess that is fantastic! Wade, we cant leave out Bob Wade
Soviet Chess?
One of the early game collections that I read.
What about for the more advanced and experienced chesser?
There are so many good books out there. Unfortunately, it is difficult to make recommen-
dations. Simple Chess by Michael Stean, Capablancas Best Endgames by Chernev, Chess
Primer by Capablanca. Of the contemporary stuff, The Steps Programme: beginner to 2200
series of lessons (Dutch Chess Federation). All the people I know who have used it teach
with great success. You will soon find yourself stretched, but also finding your own level.
Thanks for your time, Adam. Will quiz you again soon.
K
Double Exchange
Sacrifices: Part 3
A Chistiakov
BCM 03/66
We continue our discussions from last because of 4Rd3.

months issue, p. 541. Black to move. 4Rd4
XIIIIIIIIY 4Bd4 5 Bd4 Rd4 was also good for
Orlov. The second exchange-sacrifice fulfils the
9-+kt-+-t0{ objective of the first; Blacks two bishops exert
relentless pressure.
9zpz-wpzp0 5 Bd4 Bd4 6 000 Nd7 7 d3 Nc5 8
9-+-+psl+0 Qc2 Qc7 9 Be4 Bh5 10 Rdf1 Qb6 11
Bf3 Be3+ 12 Kd1 Bg6 13 Be2 Qb4
9+-v-+-+-0 13Qd8!
9-+P+-Z-+0 14 Rf3 Bd4 15 g4 f5 16 h3 Na4 17 Rh2
9+Q+N+-ZL0 Nc3+ 18 Ke1 c5
Preparing to occupy the a4c8 diagonal with
9PV-ZP+-Z0 the queens bishop.
9T-+-M-+R0 19 Kf1 Qa3 20 Bd1 Be8 21 Qd2 Bc6 22 Rg3
22 Rhf2 was better.
xiiiiiiiiy 22Ne4 23 Qe1 Ng3+ 24 Qg3 Qc1
1Rd3! 2 ed3 Rd8
25 Ke2 Bc3 26 Bb3 a5 27 gf5 ef5 28
Now Black, having completed his develop-
ment, threatens to win Whites d-pawn, while
Qe3 Qe1#
Whites rooks are passively placed. OrlovChistiakov, Moscow, 1964. And you
thought rooks were better than bishops?
3 Bg2 c6 4 d4
In view of the pressure on d3, 4 000 is bad To be continued
Hacktive Chess
Noam Manella
nmanella@gmail.com
More Insidious Ideas that Redesign Thinking

Computer programmers are required to as- ample, they have to give exact answers to
sign definite values to the various elements such questions as: How much is an open
which may arise on the chessboard. For ex- file worth? What is the value of the sev-
enth (second) rank, or how much is a white White has prevented Black from castling and
knight on d6 worth? Usually, when White put a thorn in the flesh on d6, but, as we know,
everything in life has a price: Black has got the
manages to establish a knight on d6 (or
a-file.
Black on d3), it is referred to as a thorn in
the flesh and many players even consider it 16 Ne5
a winning advantage. Is it? A natural (but also necessary) consequence of
the previous move. The knight must be main-
GG L Bruzon Batista tained on d6. At first sight this looks extremely
OO V Ivanchuk dangerous for Black.
Havana, 2011 16Rf8
XIIIIIIIIY Calmly defending. Now it becomes more diffi-
cult for White to maintain his knight.
9r+-wk+-t0 17 Nec4?
9+p+n+pz-0 The expected mistake. White had to enter the
crazy complications after 17 Qg3! Ra2 18
9-+p+ps-z0 Nb7 Ne5!? 19 Nd8 Ra1+ 20 Kd2 Ne4+
21 Ke3 Ng3 22 Ra1 Nh1 23 de5 Rd8
9z-+-+-+P0 24 Rh1, with equality.
9-v-ZN+-+0 17Qc7!
9+-+Q+N+-0 Black threatens 18b5 as well as 18Ra2.
Whites idea has been completely refuted, and
9PZPV-ZP+0 the Cuban lost in a few moves.
9+-MR+-+R0[ R
xiiiiiiiiy
13Bb4!?^ GG A Simon
OO S Emanuel
Provocation! Of course, White could ignore it
and allow massive exchanges, but who can re- Berlin, 1897
sist the aura of a knight on d6?
XIIIIIIIIY
14 Bb4 ab4 15 Nd6+ Ke7
XIIIIIIIIY 9r+-+-tk+0{
9r+-w-+-t0 9+-wp+nv-0
9+p+nmpz-0 9-+-Sp+-z0
9-+pSps-z0 9+-z-Zpz-0
9+-+-+-+P0 9p+-+-+-+0
9-z-Z-+-+0 9+-V-+P+P0
9+-+Q+N+-0 9PZP+RZ-+0
9PZP+-ZP+0 9+-WR+-M-0
9+-MR+-+R0[ xiiiiiiiiy
xiiiiiiiiy
White has planted a strong knight on d6. One The black knight is at the peak of his career.
would expect Black to exchange it at once. It had the honour to be the star in the fi-
22Nh8!? nal ceremony. The d6 knight can only look
Black considers his knight the more valuable, with envy on his ambitious colleague. That
since it is aiming at the strategically important knight reminds us of a brand with a strong
f4 square. image, but a mediocre product.
23 f4
White cannot allow Ng6f4. R
23gf4 24 Qf4 Ng6 25 Qg3 Kh7 26
GG A Bisguier
f4 Rg8 27 Rg2 Bf8
OO B Gulko
XIIIIIIIIY Los Angeles, 1991
9r+-+-vr+0 XIIIIIIIIY
9+-wp+-+k0 9r+l+-tk+0{
9-+-Sp+nz0 9z-wpv-zp0
9+-z-Zp+-0 9-+p+p+n+0
9p+-+-Z-+0 9+-z-S-+-0
9+-V-+-WP0 9-+-+-+-+0
9PZP+-+R+0 9+P+P+-+-0
9+-+R+-M-0[ 9PVPS-ZPZ0
xiiiiiiiiy 9T-+QT-M-0
One can already sense that, by attacking f4, the
black knight has more influence on the game xiiiiiiiiy
than the white knight, which is not attacking This is a theoretical position from the Rossolimo
any important point. Sicilian. Which knight is stronger, e5 or g6? This
may be a rhetorical question, but
28 Be1? Qc6 29 Qe3 Be7! 30 Rdd2 Bh4
12Nh8!?^
Black does very well to exchange bishops, leav-
ing the knights as the only minor pieces on the The computer dislikes this idea at first, but
board, thus emphasising the superiority of the after a few seconds it begins to understand
black knight over its white counterpart. its depth. 12Ne5 13 Be5 d6 14 Bg3 e5
would have been normal, but not inspirational.
31 Kf1? Be1 32 Ke1 Nh4!
13 g3?!
The black knight prospers, creating a lot of fork
possibilities, while the white guy is still Waiting Immediate tactics fail: 13 Qg4 d6 14 Nc6?
for Godot at d6. Bf6, and the proud knight is trapped.
33 Rg8 Rg8 34 Ke2 c4!? 35 Rd4 Rg2+ 13d6 14 Ng4?!
36 Kd1 Nf3! White was obviously confused at this stage.
And, since 37 Rc4 Qd5+, White resigned. 14e5 15 Ne4?! Qd7 16 f3 Qf5 17 Kg2
01 Ng6
XIIIIIIIIY
After a brief period away from the limelight the
knight returns to centre stage. 9r+-+-tk+0{
18 Qe2 Bd7 19 Bc1 Qh5 20 h3? Qf5 21 9z-+lv-z-0
Rh1? d5 22 Nef2 h5 23 Nh2
9-+p+-s-+0
9+-zpzq+p0
Diary 9-+-+-+-+0
London Junior Championships,
28th30th December. 9.45am start 9+P+P+PZP0
each day. Six age-groups and varying 9P+P+QSKS0
timetables at Westminster University
(yes, near Harrow Golf Club!). Prior 9T-V-+-+R0
qualification needed for U8/U10/U12 xiiiiiiiiy
Finals only. Enter by 8th December Who remembers the arrogant knight on e5?
and avoid a late fee. www.ljcc.co.uk. Currently both white knights have no squares.
Thus the strategic idea of 12Nh8 is vindicat-
ed. Boris Gulko won convincingly.
Practical Play
Alan Dommett
a.j.dommett@btinternet.com
The Third 4NCL FIDE-Rated h6

Congress took place at Holi- 5Nfd7 was played in C HorvathMS Lupu,
day Inn, Birmingham Airport Val Thorens, 1998, with a draw agreed after 20
and the Open was won by Ta- moves and every piece still on the board. No
such sparring in this game, as it heads full tilt
mas Fodor, very much to the towards kingside carnage.
fore within these pages and also here, com-
piling an impressive 4/5 score. However, it 6 Bh4 Nh5 7 Bc4 Bg7?!
was the following final round game that Chris Fegan probably thought better of 7
de5 8 Qf3 Rh7 9 de5 due to the misplace-
caught my eye a fine display of attacking ment of his two developed minor pieces, yet
play from Don Mason both players bat- after 9Qd4 10 Qd3 Qd3 (10Qh4? 11
tling for a share of third place, with caution Nd5 Kd8 12 Nf6++) 11 Bd3 the sidelining
quickly thrown away. looks odd, but is manageable.
GG DJ Mason 8 Qf3!? 00 9 g4 g5 10 gh5 gh4?

OO C Fegan Once again countering in the centre with 10
4NCL Congress, 2015 de5 is better, whereupon 11 000 ed4 12
Pirc, Byrne B07 [Dommett] Bg3 Nc6 offers protection for the black king
and some hope of counterplay.
1 d4 g6 2 e4 d6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 Bg5 a6 5 e5 11 Nge2 de5 12 Rg1! Kh8
12ed4?? 13 Qg2 was the fatal accident Blacks defence to ribbons.

waiting to happen. 14Kg7 15 Nd4 Qe8 16 Rg1+ Kh7
13 000 ed4 17 Qe4+ Kh8
XIIIIIIIIY 17f5 18 Qg2 Rf7 19 Qg6+ Kh8 20 Bf7
Qf8 21 Bg8 and game over.
9rslw-t-m0 18 Qf4 Kh7 19 Nf5 Qc6 20 Rg6! Qg6
9+pz-zpv-0 21 hg6+ Kg6 22 Ne7+
Missing 22 Qg4+ Kf6 23 Nd5+ Ke6 24 Qe4+
9p+-+-+-z0 Kd7 25 Qe7+ Kc6 26 Qc7#, but the black
king is so exposed that he cannot survive.
9+-+-+-+P0
22Kg7 23 Nc8 Nc6 24 Nd5 Rac8 25
9-+Lz-+-z0 Qf6+ Kg8 26 Qh6 10
9+-S-+Q+-0
P
9PZP+NZ-Z0
9+-MR+-T-0[ Support Your Mag! Book a Three Year Sub-
scription!
xiiiiiiiiy
14 Rg7! P
A perfectly timed exchange sacrifice that cuts
A Reality Show, You Know!

Mark A. Jordan
A Few Green Shoots
A departure from my usual I assume he had a bedroom, but legend had
format this month. First, remi- it he mostly slept on the chaise longue in
niscences of the 70s and then the library, where he was kept company by
some reflections on where we floor to ceiling shelves of chess books. Ap-
are today, taking in a couple of parently Victor Korchnoi and many other
tournaments in which I competed recently. chess luminaries visited him there and this
The first tournament I ever entered was was his base when he compiled his dossier
a little junior affair organised by Bob Wade. of Spasskys games for Bobby Fischer, in
It took place at Charlton Secondary School, preparation for the famous match of 1972.
where Bob taught at the invitation of Alan Bob, to my pre-teen perception, ap-
Phillips, the Headmaster, who, like Bob, had peared the embodiment of traditional chess
been joint British Champion back in the masterdom: fly-away grey hair, carelessly,
early 50s. I learned later that Bob was lodg- but formally dressed in a dusty suit and tie,
ing in Alans enormous house in Blackheath. skew-whiff spectacles and a nervous and
slightly shrill and querulous demeanour. I time), and that the entry list for the whole
was somewhat in awe and was both envi- event always seemingly subscribed to capac-
ous and disapproving of my friend Stuarts ity. The Open was held in the slightly creaky,
habit of addressing him as Bob. Having but spacious, calm of the Long Gallery and
recently graduated to secondary school the Major in a large banqueting hall, made a
I thought Sir more appropriate. I didnt little cramped by the numbers of players. The
win the tournament. Oddly, since this must Minor, which I entered, took place in the maze
have been the first chess prize Id ever won, of smaller rooms which seemed to be located
I cant remember what it was. Later prizes randomly throughout the house. Boards in
were always cash or cheque, which I imme- the room for the least successful competitors
diately spent on chess books. were crammed together so tightly there was
Very shortly afterwards I decided it was hardly elbow room even for little juniors like
time to go for an adult tournament, and I myself. Winning or losing in the Minor often
entered the Charlton consigned you to a
Congress, which was new room, which
I
very conveniently or- inevitably resulted
ganised by the club definitely caught the in considerable con-
I went to Charlton. fusion, with play-
Dad, who gave me competitive chess ers rushing up and
a lift to the tourney downstairs at the be-
on Friday night, was bug despite ending up ginning of each round

somewhat concerned trying to locate their
at the mention of cash on 1/6 board before they lost
prizes and advised me too much time on the
not to throw away my clock. I found it all tre-
amateur status too mendously exciting,
early. I explained, with some satisfaction, that and breathed chess, which smelled of tourna-
there was no such thing as amateur status ment sets, wood-panelling, sweat and, at that
in chess. A professional already I thought. time, tobacco smoke. I definitely caught the
Both club and congress took place in Charl- competitive chess bug despite ending up on
ton House, a rather grand, late 18th century, 1/6. The following year, a 13-year-old-veteran,
wood-panelled country house which was and I managed 4/6, after which I graduated to
is maintained, very badly, by the local author- the Major and much more elbow room.
ity. The house and its grounds, now a public Charlton Congress was, of course, one of
park, made a rather lovely setting for play- several tournaments that took place in Lon-
ing chess. Charlton House was a real mecca, don: Islington, Ilford, Enfield and even one
and it was not unknown for famous GMs to in Eltham one year and one could head
just drop in on a club night. The tournament out to the shires, if keen enough, and ensure
itself benefited from all this chess activity, some serious play at least every month and,
both in that the Open attracted some pretty if ultra-keen, most weekends. Every tourna-
strong players, including a few IMs and GMs ment I entered was very well attended. All
(who were far less thick on the ground at the of this was going on in the wake of Fischer
Spassky and, with Jim Slater offering a gen- lost. Perhaps, just perhaps, there are a few
erous prize for Britains first GM, chess was green shoots though.
trendy for a change. The best British players I recently played at the Golders Green
such as Miles, Speelman and Nunn were, by Rapidplay and the Hampstead Internation-
the end of the 70s, scoring well and even al. Both, though on a much smaller scale
winning strong international tournaments than the congresses of the 70s, were fully
and they were regularly taking the scalps of subscribed, with the former celebrating a
the super-GMs of the time. There was even a new record of entries. Many of these were
television show, The Master Game, drawing a very keen juniors, some of whom have ben-
respectable audience and making minor ce- efited from Chess in Schools. And, wonder
lebrities of some of the more prominent play- of wonders, I hear tell that players who had
ers. Sponsorship saw generous prizes and ap- exclusively been playing on the Internet are
pearance fees and making a reasonable living beginning to turn up at over the board tour-
as a professional was becoming distinctly vi- naments. The London Chess Classic is host-
able. Clubs saw memberships grow, with an ing the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour
influx of younger players, sometimes to the which, given the results of the first two legs,
irritation of the older generations (especially will provide an exciting finale to the series,
as the young upstarts were cocky, noisy and and all the subsidiary events will certainly
very good players). There was something of a attract a large gathering of enthusiasts. Lets
boom in inter-club matches and county chess hope it also attracts lots of media interest.
was thriving. It could never last. New sources of funding are finally being at-
News quickly becomes ancient history, tracted to the game, with Tradewise Insur-
sponsors are fickle, things move on. Fischer ance sponsoring not just the Grand Prix but
stopped playing and disappeared, the 80s the participation of some promising young
crop of new, young players were not quite players at Hastings and the Gibraltar Inter-
as impressive as that of the 70s Short and national. The Kings Place Rapidplay has also
Hodgson being the exceptions and chess attracted a sponsor for next year, the finan-
left the headlines and returned to the chess cial services company DeMortford Bell, and,
columns and church halls. The Kasparov given that it managed to attract 12 GMs this
Short match provided a mini-renaissance year without a sponsor, should become a
in the early 90s, but it that didnt last either. seriously grand affair. Theres a new televi-
Moving up to modern times we find sion show, Checkmate, just now in produc-
clubs struggling to survive, with many tion, with game footage based on the Mas-
going under, tournaments often under- ter Game model and lots of off the board
subscribed and rarely attracting sponsor- drama (its a reality show, you know!), and a
ship, and GMs giving up the professional 50/50 mix of male and female masters. Last
ghost and getting jobs in the City or rely- and, perhaps not least, theres a Hollywood
ing on what they can get from coaching. film, Pawn Sacrifice, based on the Fischer
The Candidates Tournament in London in Spassky Match and starring Tobey Maguire
2013, despite being the most important as the brilliant but tragic Fischer. So, are we
event in decades, received scant media heading for a new renaissance? Well have
attention and seems like an opportunity to wait and see.
Book Reviews
The Lazy Mans Sicilian: Attacking White with the BasmanSale Variation Valeri
Bronznik & Steve Giddins (New in Chess 2015). 222 pages.
I am always on the lookout to save time studying openings, so a shortcut in the Sicilian
is welcome news. The Ukrainian Bronznik wrote a book in German that was published in
2004 which looked at the variation 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cd4 4 Nd4 and now 4Bc5.
At the time of writing the author was only aware of a couple of strong players who had
played the line in recent decades. The first was Michael Basman and the other Srdjan Sale,
hence the sub-title, but frankly it could have been named after a variety of players such as
James Plaskett, who gave it a whirl for a while, or even Louis Paulsen. The big problem is
that players like to keep up to date with the latest opening theory, so a book that has old
main games is a worry, especially with the most recent one being played in 2004. The easy
answer would be to ask the author to write a brand new version, but instead the publisher
New in Chess asked the translator to update the opening. I have to admit that Englishman
Steve Giddins has done a good job at solving some of these problems, but when you have
a sub-variation on page 65 with the number B3141 it indicates a complete approach, and a
lazy Sicilian should not need so many variations.
Of course, no opening is quite as easy to learn as the publicity might suggest, because
there are transpositions and critical lines just like any other line. However, if you stick with
4Bc5 then the long-term experience will certainly help you to handle the positions bet-
ter than White, who might only rarely come across the variation. Nowadays, anybody with
computer software is a critic, so there has been a suggestion on chess forums that the line
5 Be3 Qb6 is refuted by 6 b4. The short answer is no and the long answer is that after 6
Bb4+ 7 c3 Be7 the chances are roughly equal. A book full of inspirational ideas for play-
ers who wish to play something a bit different.
Valeri Bronznik is an International Master and Steve Giddins is a FIDE Master.
www.newinchess.com
Gary Lane
Joseph Henry Blackburne: A Chess Biography Tim Harding (McFarland & Company
2015). HB. 582 pages. 18 chapters. Library binding, algebraic notation, rare photos and line
drawings. General index, openings index, chapter notes, large bibliography, chronology of
Blindfold Simuls.
During a career spanning more than fifty years, J.H. Blackburne (18411924) won the
British Championship and several international tournaments. At his peak The Black Death
became one of the worlds top masters. A professional player who derived his livelihood
from annual tours of clubs in England and other countries, entertaining and teaching ama-
teur players, he astonished his contemporaries by the ease with which he played the game
without sight of the board. At 21, he set a world record for such exhibitions, competing
against 12 club players simultaneously, and he continued to perform blindfold into his
sixties. He became the G.O.M. of English chess, a legend with whom nobody could be
compared today.
This first comprehensive biography of one of Britains greatest players of the 19th and
early 20th centuries, with whom only Staunton and Burn can be compared, presents more
than 1,000 of Blackburnes games chronologically, including all his surviving encounters
from serious competition, consultation games and so on, annotated in varying detail.
Many are masterpieces. Blackburnes unusual family and social background are fully ex-
plored. Indeed, no gravestone is left unturned or chessic rust not dusted off. Possibly for
many, such as Your Editor, the history book of 2015. Invest now and dont wait for this to go
into paperback, as it inevitably will.
The author is a Senior Correspondence IM and the UKs leading chess historian.
(McFarland titles are available from all major ebook and library providers.)
www.mcfarlandpub.com.
Steinitz: move by move Craig Pritchett (Everyman Chess 2015). This does look like a
difficult book to read, enjoy and recommend. No blame attaches to the author. No blame
attaches to the publishers. But Steinitz lived in an era so very different from our own and
often played moves and openings indeed, entire games where provocation went hand-
in-hand with bloody mindedness and knotty convulsions were very much the order of the
day. I would much prefer handing out copies of the recent biography of Steinitz by the
Linders, or, for comprehensive coverage, reaching for The Games of Wilhelm Steinitz pub-
lished by Pickard or, for a little Victorian flavour, Steinitz Selected Chess Games by Charles
Devid. Here we are offered dissection, explanation and instruction, but little colour and
the risk of incomprehension. That was one of Steinitzs strong suits, but it cannot help us,
over one hundred years later. Those already well acquainted with Steinitz, who seek out
Victorian curios, may enjoy this more than Your Editor. But as a vehicle for instruction, es-
pecially for players under, say, Elo 1800, there are, Im afraid, more straightforward and
educational books, especially in this move by move series. The introductory biography of
Craig Pritchett is repeated quite unnecessarily.
The author is a Scottish IM.
www.everymanchess.com
The Art of Taking Calculated Risks Vladimir Tukmakov (New in Chess 2015), softback,
224 pages, 9 chapters, 106 games, figurine algebraic notation, index of games.
Introduction. Chapter Headings: Tal and the Start of a New Era, Bluff in the Opening, Mad-
ness of the Brave, Logic of the Irrational, By Right of the Strong, Masculine Desperation,
Grip of Passion, When a Win is the Only Acceptable Result, The Last Chance!
You cannot win in chess without taking risks. Winning requires courage and psychology.
No matter how deep you calculate, there always comes a point where you have to deal
with uncertainties and take a decision. When your main aim is to derail your opponents
calculation by weaving a web of deception, you engage in the highest form of risk: bluff.
Vladimir Tukmakov has played against, and worked with, quite a few of the greats. Many of
them told him frankly about their thoughts and feelings during crucial games. In this book
he presents games in which masters and grandmasters have used bluff to push beyond
the limits of calculation and take a deliberate risk in order to win.
In a book littered with anecdotes and observations, Tukmakov shows how the worlds
leading players have used calculated and not-so-calculated risks in order to force their op-
ponents into uncertain territory. What is carefully calculated risk and what is bluff? Why
were famous players like Lasker and Tal so successful with both? They realised that the
Royal Game is not a science. Emotions also play a role behind the board. If you can guess
what your opponent is feeling and thinking, you are ahead. After studying this book you
will think twice before wasting an opportunity to do what even the greatest players have
done: bluff your way to victory!
The author is a grandmaster, trainer and author par excellence. Is this his best book?
www.newinchess.com
(Also see BCM 09/15, p. 477)
Jos Ral Capablanca: A Chess Biography Miguel A. Sanchez (McFarland & Compa-
ny, Inc. 2015). 568 pages, 195 annotated games, 55 photos. Library binding (2.6 pounds
weight). Foreword by Andy Soltis.
This is the most complete and thorough biography of Jos Ral Capablanca, one of the
greatest players in the history of chess. Beginning with his family background, birth, child-
hood and introduction to the game in Cuba, it examines his life and play as a young man;
follows his evolution as a player and rise to prominence, first as challenger and then world
champion; and traces his loss of the title to Alekhine and his efforts to recapture the cham-
pionship in the last years of his too-short life. What emerges is a portrait of a complex
man with far-ranging interests and concerns, in stark contrast to his robotic reputation
as the chess machine. Meticulously researched, utilising many sources available only in
Capablancas home country, it puts truth to legend regarding a man who stood astride the
chess world in one of its most dynamic and dramatic eras.
www.mcfarlandpub.com.
The Veresov: move by move Jimmy Liew (Everyman Chess 2015). Softback, 256 pages.
Useful chapter summaries and a short bibliography. 55 illustrative games including this
seems excessive ten by the author.
This is a relatively new field to explore. Here, carefully selected questions and answers
are designed to keep you actively involved and allow you to monitor your progress. The
Veresov Opening is characterised by the moves 1 d4 Nf6 2 Nc3 d5 and 3 Bg5 or 1 d4 d5
2 Nc3 Nf6 and, again, 3 Bg5, transposing. Its a weapon for those who wish to steer the
game into new territory (the New Veresov is also offered with 3 Bf4.) The Veresov is a flex-
ible opening and White may choose lines that are either positional or tactical in nature.
Liew has played it successfully for many years, and in this book he invites you to join him in
a study of his favourite opening. He explains the main positional and tactical ideas for both
sides, provides answers to all the key questions and tells you everything you need to know
about playing the Veresov. The Series Foreword, by John Emms, is the same as we have
read before in other titles and therefore deserves an update, perhaps based on readers
responses which would not have been available a year or two back. No matter!
From great experience, Your Editor finds 3e6 is very popular and after 4 e4 most op-
ponents will opt for 4de4, a Burn French. Do transpositions suit you? (There are several
to watch out and Liew guides on these as well.) Usually, Blacks moves, even for the un-
tutored, are natural and fairly easily found. Thus this system, though sound, may not fire
every imagination. I suggest it could be used as a second-string opening, maybe along
with the Colle or London System, rather than as by a sledgehammer for the Trompowsky
buccaneer on his or her day off! I recommend watching The Wicked Veresov, a new DVD,
by Andrew Martin as an adjunct. This right-handed Lopez is still quite a rare beastie and
this book will definitely help its popularity.
The author is an International Master and was twice Malaysian Champion.
www.everymanchess.com
Chess Questions
Answered
IM Gary Lane
garylanebcm@y7mail.com
Chasing Shadows
The problem of how to crush by the well-known grandmaster Sergey
the Scandinavian is the topic Tivyakov who is one of the strongest play-
that Ian Cross Glasgow is con- ers to employ the Scandinavian in recent
cerned about. After sending a years. As White I was curious to know what
recent game I can suggest an line he played, especially after noting that
improvement, which will hopefully tip the he won in a mere 11 moves in an open tour-
opening to his advantage. It was inspired nament. This prompted me to explore his
attempt to sharpen the game from as early 9 Ng4 bc5 10 dc5 Qa5+ 11 Nc3 10; S
as move six, which he consistently uses TiviakovJ Shamieh, Beirut, 2014.
with success. (b) I think probably best is 7Bc8, but it
looks so embarrassing that it is often over-
Here is a model example. looked. For instance: 8 Bg5 c6 9 Bc4 with the
GG B Molnar better chances due to Blacks passive position.
OO S Savoia 8 Qb7 Nb4?!
Arco Open, 2010 An aggressive choice but the test of time is not
Scandinavian B01 [Gary Lane] kind. The more mundane 8Nd7 is essential
when White stays on top upon 9 gf3 e6 (in-
1 e4 d5 2 ed5 Nf6 3 d4 Nd5 4 c4 Nb6 stead a sample line runs 9N5f6 10 Nc3 Rb8
5 Nf3 Bg4 6 c5!? 11 Qc6 e6 12 Bf4 Rc8 13 Ba6 and Black can re-
sign) 10 Nc3 Rb8 (or 10Nc3 11 bc3 Be7
XIIIIIIIIY 12 Qc6 00 13 Rg1 is good for White) 11 Qa7
(I think this is more accurate than the usual try
9rs-wkv-t0{ of 11 Qc6) 11Nc3 12 bc3 Be7 13 Bg2
followed by kingside castling with the much
9zpz-zpzp0 superior game.
9-s-+-+-+0 9 gf3
9+-Z-+-+-0 White is happy to allow some superficial coun-
terplay. It is worth pointing out that the text
9-+-Z-+l+0 is far superior to 9 Qb4, which a number of
players have tested although White is only a
9+-+-+N+-0 pawn up.
9PZ-+-ZPZ0 9Nc2+ 10 Kd1 Nd4
Or 10Na1 11 Bb5+ Nd7 12 Bd7+ Kd7
9TNVQML+R0 13 Qd5+ Ke8 14 Qc6+ Qd7 15 Qa8+ win-
ning easily.
xiiiiiiiiy
I like this approach, which puts Black under 11 Qa8 e5 12 Bg5 f6 13 Bd2 Bc5 14
pressure straight from the opening by prepar- Bc4
ing Bc4 to target the f7 pawn. Instead 6 Be2 is
White cancels out the prospect of Black cas-
the steady and solid reply.
tling quickly which means that he can carry on
6Nd5?! attacking.
An obvious reply, because positional books 14c6 15 Rg1 Nf3 16 Qb7 Nd7 17
are always going on about occupying such a Rg7 Be7
square, which the piece cannot be prodded
away by an enemy pawn. However, it is prone
to a few tactical traps that have caught Black
on numerous occasions. Diary
7 Qb3! Bf3 Preston Weekender 27th29th
Also possible: November 1,870 in prizes 20
(a) 7b6? 8 Ne5 (Timmans opponent re- minute walk from Preston railway
signed in this position at Nice 1974, but more station. 4 sections. Malcolm Peacock
explanation is required) 8c6 (or 8Be6 9 017727-40882.
Bb5+ Nd7 10 Bd7+ Bd7 11 Qd5 wins)
XIIIIIIIIY
so easy when there is no hint of counterplay
9-+-wk+-t0 allowing White to use the space advantage to
pursue the initiative. Other continuations:
9zQ+nv-Tp0 (a) 8b6 9 Nc3! bc5 10 d5!? (or 10 dc5
Bc5 11 Bc5 Nc5 12 Qd8+ Kd8 13 Ne5
9-+p+-z-+0 Bh5 14 g4 Bg6 15 000+ Ke7 16 Rhe1 leads
9+-+-z-+-0 to a terrific ending) 10Bd6 11 de6 fe6
(11Be6 12 Be6 fe6 13 Ng5 Qe7 14 Qb3
9-+L+-+-+0 with a great position) 12 h3 Bf5 13 g4 Bg6 14
Be6 with an advantage; L ChristiansenK
9+-+-+n+-0 Commons, Pasadena, 1978.
(b) 8Nc6 9 h3 Bh5 10 Nc3 Be7 11 Bb5 (11
9PZ-V-Z-Z0 00 00 12 g4 Bg6 13 Re1 is also promising and
can equally arise from positions starting with 8
9TN+K+-+-0[ Be7) 11Ncb8?! 12 g4 Bg6 13 h4 h6? (13c6
xiiiiiiiiy is necessary to avoid a disaster) 14 Ne5 Bh7 15
Qf3 00 16 Qb7 ensured a big advantage; J
18 Kc1 HallA Ali, Elista, 1998.
A more spectacular finish is possible. For in- (c) 8Be7 9 h3 Bh5 10 Nc3 00 11 00 Nc6
stance: 18 Bf7+! Kf8 19 Bh6 Nc5+ 20 Nd2 12 g4 Bg6 13 Re1 with an edge.
Nb7 21 Rh7# 9 Qf3 c6 10 Nc3 Nf6 11 00 h6 12 b4!
18Nd2 19 Nd2 f5 20 Kc2 e4 21
Rag1 Ne5 22 f4 e3 23 fe5 Qd2+ 24 XIIIIIIIIY
Kb1 10 9rs-wkv-t0{
R
9zp+-+pz-0
9-+p+ps-z0
In the next game Black improves with 6 9+-Z-+-+-0
Nbd7, but there is still scope for Black to go
seriously wrong. 9-ZLZ-+-+0
GG S Vesselovsky 9+-S-VQ+-0
OO J Pascenko
Policka, 2015
9P+-+-ZPZ0
Scandinavian B01 [Gary Lane] 9T-+-+RM-0
1 e4 d5 2 ed5 Nf6 3 d4 Nd5 4 c4 Nb6 xiiiiiiiiy
5 Nf3 Bg4 6 c5 N6d7 Vesselovsky has one aim: to break through on
the queenside while Black is still trying to catch
This is the right way to respond by Black, but up on development.
he still needs to be careful to avoid a calamity
in the opening. 12Nbd7 13 b5 Qc8 14 a4 Be7 15 a5
7 Bc4 e6 8 Be3 Bf3?! Nb8?
I think that volunteering to exchange on f3 is A drastic manoeuvre to try to stem the pawn
too much, because you can at least wait for avalanche on the queenside, but it fails to
White to use a move to play h2h3. Black is impress.
hoping to set up a solid barrier, but it is not It might not be pretty, but 15cxb5 at least
extends the game as a contest, although 16
Bb5 a6 17 Bd7+ Qd7 18 Rab1 is heavily concluded:

in Whites favour. 19Nc7 20 Bf4 Nd7 21 Ne4 e5 22
16 Rfb1 00 17 a6 ba6 18 bc6 Ne8 Be5 Ne5 23 de5 Rb8 24 Nd6 Rb1+
If only Black had time for Bd8 he might be in 25 Rb1 Qd7 26 Rb7 Bd8 27 g3 Qa4 28
line for creating some sort of record by retreat- Kg2 Ne6 29 Rf7 Rf7 30 Be6 10
ing all his pieces to the back rank. However, the
position is so dire that White can step up the
tactics to ensure an easy victory. R
19 c7
This is good, but 19 d5! is crushing. The game
I think 6 c5 is worth trying at any tourna-
ment.
Test Your Chess

IM Shaun Taulbut
shauntaulbut@aol.com
Tomashevskys Shoes
This month were in Chita. Im- Begin!
agine yourself sitting next to a 4Bb4
strong player. You have the 3 points; this bishop development leads to a
Black pieces alongside Grand- reversed Sicilian Bb5 and is an active choice.
master Evgeny Tomashevsky. 2 points for 4g6 followed by a kingside
Enter Grandmaster Denis Khismatullin, your fianchetto.
opponent, at this years Russian Super Final. 5 Bg2
Start trying to predict the Black moves 500
starting with move four. You know the drill:
2 points; a most straightforward move, waiting
cover the moves, reveal them one at a time. to see how Denis Khismatullin might develop.
Try to predict, jump on the train of thought.
Extra credit for predicting moves 10, 13, 29, 6 00
37 and 39. Before starting, would it help to 6 Nd5 is worth considering, whereupon after
6e4 7 Nh4 d6 8 Nf6+ (8 Nb4 Nb4 9 a3
jot these numbers down? Try to watch for Nc6 10 d3 Re8 11 00 Qe7) 8Qf6 9 Be4
coming plans, attacks, ideas, themes. No- Re8, Black has play for the sacrificed pawn.
body said it would be easy.
6e4
GG D Khismatullin 2 points; a disruptive thrust in the centre. 1
OO EY Tomashevsky point for 6d6.
LXVIII Russian Championships, 2015 7 Ng5
English, Four Knights A29 [Taulbut]
7Bc3
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e5 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 g3 2 points; capturing to remove one of the White
defenders. would be good for Black and

8 bc3 (b) 9 d3.
White can also play 8 dc3 Re8 with a slight 9ef3
edge. 1 point; Black cannot maintain the pawn on e4.
8Re8 The pawn sacrifice 9e3 10 de3 Qe7 11 f4
is not good and does not score.
XIIIIIIIIY 10 Nf3
9r+lwr+k+0 10Qe7!
9zpzp+pzp0 3 points; a good positional move putting pres-
sure on the White centre. 2 points for 10d6.
9-+n+-s-+0 11 e3
9+-+-+-S-0 11Ne5
9-+P+p+-+0 2 points; Black decides to exchange the knights
by attacking c4. 1 point for 11Qc5 12 Qa4
9+-Z-+-Z-0 d6 13 Rb1 with an edge for White; or 11d6
12 Rb1.
9P+-ZPZLZ0 12 Nd4 This move is a positional trap; White
9T-VQ+RM-0[ could continue with 12 Ne5 Qe5 13 Rb1
Rb8 14 Rb5 Qe7 15 d3 d6 with an edge for
xiiiiiiiiy White because of the two bishops and healthy
pawn centre.
2 points; Black overprotects the pawn and pre-
pares to drive the knight away with h6, if 12d6
White does not react immediately.
This is not a popular system, though the text, 3 points; a good defensive move. If 12Nc4
back in the day, was blessed by Smyslov: 8 13 Nf5 Qe5 14 e4! is very strong since af-
Re8 9 f3! ef3 10 Nf3 d5 11 cd5 Nd5 12 ter 14Ne4 (14d6 15 d4 Qe6 16 d5 Qd7
e4!! (TN) 12Nb6 13 d4 Bg4 14 h3 Bh5 15 17 Bg5 Ne4 18 Qd4) 15 Be4 Qe4 16
e5 Nd5 16 Bd2 Qd7 17 g4! Bg6 18 Ng5! d3 White wins. So, no points for this knight
Na5 19 h4 h6 20 h5 (..and White came crash- capture.
ing through. Povah) 20hg5 21 hg6 fg6 13 d3
22 Qf3 c6 23 Bg5 Nc4 24 Qh3 Qe6? (24
Rf8) 25 Rf2 Rf8 26 Bf3! Nc3 27 Raf1! Rf3 XIIIIIIIIY
28 Qf3 Nb5 29 Kg2! Nd4 30 Qf8+!! 10;
W UhlmannVV Smyslov, Hastings, 1972/3. 9r+l+r+k+0{
Possibly Vasilys only loss to Uhlmann, at his
worst Hastings ever (the Soviet finished ninth).
9zpz-wpzp0
9 f3 9-+-z-s-+0
White decides to liquidate the centre be-
fore advancing pawns. There are two similar
9+-+-s-+-0
alternatives: 9-+PS-+-+0
(a) 9 Qc2 d5 10 cd5 Qd5 11 d3 Bf5 12
Ne4 Ne4 13 Be3 Qe5 14 de4 Be4 15 9+-ZPZ-Z-0
Be4 Qe4 16 Qe4 Re4 17 Rfd1 Rd8 18
Rd8+ Nd8, when 19 Ba7 b6 20 Bb8 Re7 9P+-+-+LZ0
21 Rb1 Nc6 22 Bc7 Rc7 23 Rb6 Kf8
9T-VQ+RM-0
xiiiiiiiiy
White defends the pawn on c4; relying on the White decides to sacrifice to expand in the cen-
bishop pair to give him an edge. tre. Again 18 Bd2 Ne4 19 Be4 Qe4 20 Qf3
Rad8 21 Qe4 Re4 22 Rb1 b6 23 Rb5 Rd6
13c5 24 a4 is good, with a positional struggle. White
3 points; Black must play actively before the has the edge.
bishops come into their own.
18Qf6
14 Nf5 1 point; the only move to score.
14Bf5 19 Qe2
1 point; Black must exchange that dangerous
knight. 19Nc1
2 points; a difficult choice giving up the knight.
15 Rf5 Also 2 points for 19Rad8.
XIIIIIIIIY 20 Rc1
9r+-+r+k+0{ 20Qg5
9zp+-wpzp0 2 points; pinning the e-pawn against the rook
and, obviously, attacking e3.
9-+-z-s-+0 21 Re1
9+-z-sR+-0 21Rad8
9-+P+-+-+0 2 points; Black lines up his rook against the
White centre.
9+-ZPZ-Z-0 22 e4
9P+-+-+LZ0 22Rd5
9T-VQ+-M-0 2 points. Exploiting the pin on the e-pawn.
xiiiiiiiiy 23 e5
15d5!? After 23 Qc4 b5 24 Qb3 Rd7 25 e5 Qd2 26
Rf1 Qe3+ 27 Kh1 Red8 Black is slightly better.
2 points for this interesting sacrifice. 1 point
for 15Qe6 when 16 e4 leaves White with the 23Rd7
edge due to his two bishops. 1 point for this steady retreat. 2 points for 23
16 cd5 Rb5 24 a4 Rb3 25 Qc4 Rb2 with an active
rook.
16c4 24 Qc4
2 points; the key to the Black play: breaking up
the White centre.
17 d4
Also consider: 17 dc4 Nc4 with good play
for Black against the white pawn centre. Diary
Dyfed Congress, 26th28th February,
17Nd3
2016. Open and U1600. Near to
2 points; a knight on the sixth is the reward for
Pembrokeshire National Park. tony@
Black.
brithdirmawr.co.uk.
18 Rf6
XIIIIIIIIY
30Rc4
9-+-+r+k+0{ 2 points.
9zp+r+pzp0 31 Re4
9-+-+-+-+0 31Qb6
9+-+-Z-w-0 2 points; this forces Whites hand.
9-+QZ-+-+0 32 Bd7
32 a3 is met by 32f5.
9+-Z-+-Z-0 32Re7
9P+-+-+LZ0 2 points; attacking the white bishop wins back
a pawn.
9+-+-T-M-0 33 Ba4
xiiiiiiiiy 33Qb4
White has good compensation for the ex-
change in terms of a pawn and active pieces. 2 points; the best capture.
24g6 34 Qb4
2 points; a useful waiting move giving the
Black king an escape square. 34Rb4
1 point; now the queens have been exchanged
25 Qe2 Black is much better.
25Qd8 35 Bb3
2 points; regrouping to attack the White pawns.
35a5
26 Bh3 2 points. A key move planning to attack the
26Rde7 bishop.
2 points; steady play. 26Rc7 27 Qb2 f6 is 36 Kf2
worth 2 points also.
36a4
27 Qf2 2 points; forcing back the bishop to an awk-
27b5! ward square.
2 points; the key to breaking down the White 37 Bd5
position.
37Rc7
28 Bg4 4 points; another good move, aiming to invade
28Rc7 down the c-file.
2 points; taking the initiative by attacking c3. 38 Ke3
29 Qd2 If 38 e6 fe6 39 Be6+ Kf8 40 Ke3 Rc3+.
38Rb5
29b4!!
3 points; a neat move attacking the bishop.
4 points; sacrificing a pawn to break into
Whites pawns. 39 e6
30 cb4 39Kf8!
3 points; stopping the white pawn ter; 3544 County Player; 2534 Club Player;
40 Ba8 1524 Novice; 014 Never mind. Theres al-
ways next year!
40Ra5
2 points. Trapping the bishop, so White N
resigned.
01 Book a Sub Today!!
Now, total your points:
67+ Grandmaster standard; 5567 Interna- N
tional Master; 4554 National or FIDE Mas-
News from the British Isles

Crowborough Rapidplay, Sussex, 12th smile filled the island, all 7/9; 4th= DWL
September: Howell and ND Short (both ENG) both 6;
Open: 1st= MJ Payne and IL Snape both 6th= M Adams 105 players.
5/6 48 players, including the ECF Presi-
London. Golders Green Rapidplay, 25th
dent, who came third equal.
August: 1st A Cherniaev (RUS) drew with
Four junior competitions were contested,
Villiers 5 /6; 2nd A Hill 5; 3rd TA Quilter
the top section being a victory, with 5/6,
4 25 players. A further three sections.
for Calum Salmons.
The Golders Green Congress, 29th31st
ECF Grand Prix, 2014/15: Six section awards; August:
the 180+ leaders were: 1st Alexander Cherni- Open 1st RC Mitra 5/6 31 played
aev 652, 2nd Keith Arkell 646, 3rd Koby Kala- U1900 1st J Rubeck 5/6 32 players
vannan 641, 4th Ali Reza Jaunooby 637, 5th U135 1st JP Sartain 5/6 20 competed.
Jonathan Landau 620, 6th Helge Hjort 619.
London League, Div1: Wood Green, Hack-
Giraffe is a new word in artificial intelli- ney I, Richmond & Twickenham I, Wimble-
gence. Writing in The Times Ray Keene tells don I and Battersea I all 1/1 12 teams, 12
us that Giraffe has become a master in just boards, 6 divisions.
72 hours by means of chess playing against
Merseyside League, Div 1: Hoylake I 6/6
itself. What can he mean? Trial and error?
8 teams, 8 players, 7 divisions.
Brute force? Pray tell us!
Paignton. Devons finest, 13th19th Sep-
Glasgow League, Div 1: Glasgow Polytech-
tember, still in Torquay.
nic A, Hamilton A and Phones A all 1/1
Ron Bruce Premier: 1st KC Arkell 7/7; 2nd=
10 teams, eight players, 4 divisions.
SH Berry and AW Brusey 5 20 stars
Isle of Man PokerStars 3rd11th October: Rowena Bruce U180: 1st JCH Nyman
1st= L Fressinet (FRA), G Sargissian (ARM) 5/7; 2nd= PT Foley, Jamie Morgan and TF
and P Harikrishna (IND), whose delighted Thynne all 5 33 played
Walker Minor U135: 1st TV Greenaway Reg Thynne U135: 1st JA Ariss 5/5; 2nd P
6/7; 2nd CA Fraser 5 39 competed Foster 4 30 played.
Steve Boniface U180: 1st RBE Bryant and
EA Key both 4/5 19 players
News from Abroad

$160,000 in prizes!! Azerbaijan. Baku, 11th match situation, Karyakin had no choice. He
September5th October, was the venue for had to win at all costs just to stay in the match.
the biggest FIDE event of the year in terms of 14 ef5 Bf5 15 Be4 Qd7 16 Nd5 Qe6
ratings, stress, speed and general importance. 17 Bf5 Qf5 18 Bd2 Rae8
A 128-player knockout (two-game mini- 18Bd4 looks crushing, but after 19 Ne7+
matches, followed by increasingly fast pairs Ne7 20 Qd4! White is winning.
of tie-break games) with the last remaining 19 Bc3 e6 20 Nb6 d5 21 Bg7 Kg7 22
players finalists taking their places in next Qc5 Rf6 23 b4 Ne5
years Candidates Tournament. With a gun to his head Black risks all on a do or
The semi-finals brought together the sur- die attack. The logical conclusion is: 23d4 24
prise qualifier, Pavel Eljanov (Ukraine) fac- Qf5 ef5 25 b5 ab5 26 cb5 Na7 27 Nd5
ing golden boy, Sergey Karyakin (Russia), Rd6 28 Rd4 Red8 29 Ra4 and the game will
fizzle out to a draw.
in one half of the draw, whilst in the other
Anish Giri (Netherlands) faced the hugely 24 cd5 Nd3 25 Qe3 Nf2 26 Rf1 Qe4
experienced Peter Svidler (Russia). Karyakin 27 Rbe1 ed5
beat Eljanov 3 2 and Svidler defeated This should lose, but the objectively superior
Giri 1. 27Qe3 draws at best, a useless result for
Karyakin, given the match status.
In the final (four games rather than two),
Svidler won the first two games: then lost 28 Rf2
the last two. Going into the play-off, he
must have had a spinning head. After a tie-
XIIIIIIIIY
split, Karyakins scored was 6 to Svidlers 4. 9-+-+r+-+0{
Youth had triumphed. 9+p+-+-mp0
GG PV Svidler
OO SA Karyakin
9pS-+-tp+0
FIDE World Cup, 2015 9+-+p+-+-0
Sicilian B53 [Keene]
9-Z-+q+-+0
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cd4 4 Qd4 a6 9+-+-W-+P0
5 c4 Nc6 6 Qe3 Nf6 7 h3 g6 8 Nc3 Bg7
9 Be2 Nd7 10 Rb1 Nde5 11 00 00 12 9P+-+-TP+0
Rd1 Nf3+ 13 Bf3 f5 9+-+-T-M-0
Aggressive, but loosening. Dictated by the
xiiiiiiiiy
Tragic. 28 Qc3 would force Black to resign, rapidplay with 11/15 ahead of 157 play-
since 28Qf5 29 Re8 Nh3+ 30 Kh2! Qf1 ers.
31 Nd5 is hopeless.
28Qh4 29 Qd2 USA. Las Vegas was the setting for the Mil-
lionaire Chess Tournament, 8th12th Octo-
This loses. 29 Qe8 Qf2+ 30 Kh2 Qb6 31
Re7+ gave White chances to hold. ber. Out of a preliminary seven-round Swiss,
qualifiers emerged to contest all-play-alls
29Rf2 30 Qc3+ d4 01
and from these pools Hikaru Nakamura
ex The Times with thanks. erupted to face Wesley So in an All-Ameri-
Germany. Berlin, 9th15th October. World can Final. Naka no surprise won 1.
Rapidplay and Blitz. Gata Kamsky (USA) and Evgeny Bareev
Alexander Grischuk scored 15/21 to (CDN) were the losing semi-finalists. 147
take first place, ahead of a field of 157, in played, including Englands Luke McShane
the Blitz, netting himself $40,000. Mag- who, disappointingly, did not make it to the
nus Carlsen, World Champion, won the final stage, losing out in the play-off for the
final.
An Evans Antidote Thats

Not Hell to Learn
Tim Spanton
timspanton@hotmail.co.uk
One of the problems facing players who meet 1 e4 with 1e5 is what to do
about the Evans Gambit. On the one hand the Evans is so rare that you could
easily go several years without meeting it. But then again it is sound enough
and sufficiently aggressive to have attracted World Champions from Steinitz
to Kasparov. At master level there is little alternative but to buckle down and
thoroughly learn one of the defences. But even this is no guarantee of safety, as Anand
found out when he lost against the Evans in 25 moves to Kasparov in 1995. At club level,
investing a lot of time in learning one of the sharp lines may not be very productive. That
is why many amateurs opt for one of the declined lines after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5
4 b4, e.g. 4Bb6 or 4Be7. But these are somewhat insipid and arguably help justify
Whites fourth move. What I am putting forward here as an alternative is a very rare coun-
ter-gambit: 4d5!? This move doesnt get a mention in many books and there are only 49
examples of 4d5!? in ChessBases 2015 Mega database. It will certainly surprise shock
even many of your opponents, but it cannot simply be dismissed as bad. Indeed, Tim
Harding in the 1991 edition of his Chess Digest book on the Evans calls it rare but by no
means ridiculous. It may well be that, with precise play, White can keep his opening advan-
tage into the middlegame. But I guarantee that many probably most of your opponents
will not be able to play that accurately and, instead, you will gain some quick wins. I first
came across the move in Lwenthals book of Morphys games. It was played in a simul by
an opponent who soon went badly wrong, but the move made an impression on me as
something that required little or no memorising of lines while avoiding the many pitfalls of
accepting the gambit. Accordingly, I decided to give it an outing at my first opportunity.
GG A Hart go wrong quickly when confronted with new
OO T Spanton problems early in an opening.
Middlesex League, 1990 8Qd5 9 Re1 Bf3
Evans Gambit C51 [Spanton] 9000 may well have been even stronger.
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 d5 10 Qf3 Qf3 11 Re5+ Ne7 12 gf3
Bd6 13 Re2 000
XIIIIIIIIY White has got his pawn back, but he has no
9r+lwk+nt0 fewer than four isolated pawns and is behind
in development (01, 28 moves).
9zpz-+pzp0 So, has anyone strong played 4d5? Well,
9-+n+-+-+0 Lwenthal played it and so did Pillsbury.
More recently the Irish IM Sam Collins gave
9+-vpz-+-0 it a try. One of the attractions of d5, at
9-ZL+P+-+0 least to me, is that there is very little theory
on it, so both players will be mostly making
9+-+-+N+-0 it up from a very early stage. This should
9P+PZ-ZPZ0 suit Black more than White, as the former
is likely to come to the board better armed.
9TNVQM-+R0[ What follows are some light notes outlining
xiiiiiiiiy what I think are the main lines in approxi-
5 Bd5 mate order of increasing strength
White has other choices, but this is a popular
reply, along with 5 ed5. A
5Nb4 6 00!? 5 Bb5?
Retreating the bishop to b3 or c4 is more solid, was played by a 2320 player in 1998. His op-
but 6 Ne5? runs into 6Qg5!, when after 7 ponent replied:
Bf7+ (both 7 d4 and 7 Nf7 fail to the simple 5de4
7Qg2) 7Ke7 White is losing a piece.
There followed:
6Nd5 7 ed5 Bg4
6 bc5 ef3 7 Qf3 Bd7
Grabbing the pawn with 7Qd5?! is dan-
gerous. After 8 Nc3 White is developing nicely with approximate equality, although Black
while the second player is some way from went on to win. In fact, Black had a much
castling. stronger continuation in 5Bf2+! The point
is that after 6 Kf2 de4 White cannot move
8 c3? his knight, for example by 7 Ne1, as Black picks
But now the d5 pawn can be safely taken. up the rook with 7Qd4+ and 8Qa1.
White had to play something sensible such
as 8 Nc3, but it is not surprising that players
B position.
5 bc5?! 10 Ba4 Bd7 11 00
There is just one game in Mega with this move, Now I suffered a rush of blood to the head and
and that was between two 1700s. Strangely, played the over-ambitious
I have faced it twice, winning both games. F 11000?
ManningT Spanton, Hastings, 1991, went
and lost in 47 moves. Instead, 1100 would
5dc4 6 00 Nf6 7 Nc3 Bg4 have given a reasonable game.
when Black was already slightly better thanks
to his more active bishop. D
5 ed5!
C
5 Bd5 XIIIIIIIIY
As played in the Hart game above. This is a 9r+lwk+nt0{
much more serious try for White, but Black has
his fair share of chances. A YektaT Spanton, 9zpz-+pzp0
Kings Head, 1995, saw:
5Nb4
9-+n+-+-+0
9+-vPz-+-0
C1 9-ZL+-+-+0
6 Bc4 Nf6 7 d3 Qe7 8 c3 Nc6
when Blacks small lead in development and the
9+-+-+N+-0
chance of pressure down the d-file compensated
for Whites extra central pawn (01, 57 moves).
9P+PZ-ZPZ0
9TNVQM-+R0
C2
In S PhadkeT Spanton, Gibraltar, 2012, xiiiiiiiiy
This is definitely Whites best move, according
White played the other bishop retreat: to Harding. Blacks reply is forced:
6 Bb3 5Nb4
which may be better as the bishop is unpro-
tected when on c4. The game continued:
D1
6Qe7 7 h3 J DansonT Spanton, Barking, 1994, saw
A Bundesliga game between two players rated White immediately go wrong with:
over 2300, K ZuseW Riedel, 1996, varied from
the above with 7 00 and continued 7Nf6 8 6 d4?
Bb2 Nc6 9 Nc3 00 10 Nd5 Nd5 11 ed5 White is opening lines, but he is not ahead in
Nd4 with an equal game, which was drawn in development, so the main result is to simply
44 moves. lose a pawn.
7Nf6 8 d3 Be6 9 c3 Nc6 6ed4 7 00 Ne7 8 c3!? Nbd5
9Bb3!? 10 ab3 Ne4! is very interest- 8dc3? 9 Nc3 would be unwise.
ing, for example: 11 de4 Rd8 12 Nbd2 Nd3+ 9 cd4 Bb4 10 a3 Ba5 11 Bg5
13 Ke2 Nf2 with a sizeable advantage. This
is not the only line, but it shows the trouble 11 Qa4+ c6 is fine for Black.
White can get into from a seemingly innocuous 11f6 12 Bd2 Bd2 13 Qd2 00
White has very little to show for his pawn (01, Nb6. After 11 Nc3, which seems best, Black
24 moves). has the surprising 11Nc6!? The point is that
on c6 the knight pressurises d4 as well as at-
D2 tacking the white knight on e5. After Nb6
Harding says White should play: d7, also attacking e5, there is no pressure on
d4, so White can withdraw the e5 knight or
6 00! support it with the move f4. Of course, after the
Morphys choice in the simul game I mentioned. text White can double Blacks pawns with 12
6Nf6 Nc6 bc6. I guess most people would prefer
to play White from here, but Black is not with-
was played by Pillsbury and, in more modern out trumps, including pressure down the d-file
times, has twice been played by Argentine and the slightly awkward placing of Whites
International Master, Juan Facundo Pierrot. light-squared bishop.
Both of the Argentines games continued:
900 10 c3 Be6 11 Bd3 c6
7 Ne5 Nbd5 8 d4 Be7
with an equal game, although Black won in 24
with the more recent, G Della MorteJ Facundo moves.
Pierrot, Buenos Aires, 2004, seeing:
9 Qf3 So, there you have it. With best play against
4d5!?, White seems to keep an edge into
A better plan for White starts with the move 9
Bb3! and that was indeed played in the other the middlegame. But there are many ways
Facundo Pierrot game in Mega, R FelgaerJ for White to go wrong, the advantage he
Facundo Pierrot, Buenos Aires, 2000. The idea is gets with best play is not all that big any-
that after 900 White grabs space in the cen- way, and meanwhile Black has saved a lot
tre with 10 c4. Now 10Nb4!? is a computer-
of study time that could be better spent on,
suggested improvement over the games 10
dare I suggest it, endgames.
FIDE World Cup 2015

IM Tom Rendle
thomasrendle365@hotmail.com
The World Cup Final will be re- GG S Karyakin

membered for many reasons, OO A Onischuk
in particular Karyakins un- FIDE World Cup, 2015
precedented comeback from Ruy Lopez, Berlin C65 [Rendle]
20 down to force a tiebreak 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5
at 22, but its easy to forget he was almost Nc3 a6 6 Bc6!?
eliminated as early as Round 2. After losing
Perhaps not normally a move deserving of the
in his first game against Alexander Onis- !? symbol, but I use it here as I feel this is an
chuk we see Sergey take an unusual ap- interesting choice from Karyakin in this must-
proach to having to win on demand win game. This leads directly to the ending we
see after 15 moves, so Sergey must have been
confident in his ability to win that position.
6dc6 7 Ne5 Qd4 8 Be3 Qe5 9 d4 23 cb6 cb6 24 c5! bc5 25 Ra5
Qe7 10 dc5 Ne4 11 Qd4 Bf5 12 000
00 13 Ne4 Qe4?!
XIIIIIIIIY
An understandable decision from Onischuk, 9-+r+-+k+0{
but I feel an incorrect one. What could be more
natural than swapping queens into a double 9+-+r+pzp0
rook and opposite-coloured bishop ending if
you only need a draw? But now White is able
9-+p+l+-+0
to tie Black down to the weak pawn on c7 and
slowly take control.
9T-z-+-+-0
Better was 13Be4! 14 f3 Bg6 15 Rhe1
Rfd8 16 Bd2! Qf8! 17 Qc3 Rd5 18 Be3 Rd1+
9-+-+-V-+0
19 Rd1 Qe7 and Black is very close to equal- 9+-+-TP+-0
ising. More importantly, he hasnt been forced
too much onto the defensive. 9PZ-+-+PZ0
14 Qe4 Be4 15 f3 Bf5 16 Bf4 Rac8 17 9+-M-+-+-0
Rhe1 Be6 18 Re3 Rfe8 19 Rd4
xiiiiiiiiy
XIIIIIIIIY Now White has a passed a-pawn and Blacks
bishop on e6 is poorly placed to help defend
9-+r+r+k+0{ against the pawns advance, partly because the
pawn on c6 blocks the a8h1 diagonal.
9+pz-+pzp0 25c4 26 Rea3 Rdd8 27 Ra7 h6 28 Rc7
9p+p+l+-+0 Rc7 29 Bc7 Rd3 30 Ra8+ Kh7 31 Ba5
h5 32 h4 Bf5?!
9+-Z-+-+-0 Its hard to say, but perhaps this is the decisive
9-+-T-V-+0 mistake. Black doesnt really have any coun-
terplay against the white king, and here the
9+-+-TP+-0 bishop cannot help stop the a-pawn.
32Bd5! is trickier; for example after an im-
9PZP+-+PZ0 mediate pawn advance Black may be able to
9+-M-+-+-0 draw the ending with 33 a4 (33 Bc3 is prob-
ably better) 33c5 34 Rc8 c3! 35 Bc3 Bb3 36
xiiiiiiiiy Bd2 Ba4 37 Rc5 g6, and Black has excellent
chances to hold.
Now Onischuk has a problem. White is threat-
ening to play Rb4 and attack b7, but Black is al- 33 a4 Rd6 34 Bc3 c5 35 a5!
ready tied down to defending c7. So Onischuk
is forced to weaken his queenside structure. Now this pawn simply wins Karyakin the game.
19b6 20 Rb4 a5?! 35Rg6 36 a6 Rg2 37 Rf8 Be6 38 a7

Bd5 39 a8Q
20b5 is more solid here, and despite Whites
slight edge at least there is no immediate 39 Rf7! also wins, but the move played is
breakthrough for Karyakin. simpler.
21 Ra4 Re7 22 c4 Rd7?! 39Ba8 40 Ra8 Rf2 41 Rc8
22Ra8 is perhaps a better defence, but White Karyakin will simply win both c-pawns and
can still created a passed pawn with 23 b4! Rd7 then push the b-pawn to victory.
24 cb6 cb6 25 c5 bc5 26 ba5. 10
Openings for Amateurs

Pete Tamburro
ptamburro@aol.com
This past years US Champion- Qe2+ 8 Ke2 Nb4 9 Na3 Nbd5 and Black is
ship in St Louis had more than better) 7Ne5 8 Qd4 Nc4 9 Qc4 h6 10
Nf3 Qc5 11 Qe2+ Be7 12 b3 (12 c4 Nd5)
its fair share of interesting 12Qd5=.
games. It was quite surprising 5 00 Ne4 (5Bc5 6 e5 leads to the still
to see a Two Knights Defence dangerous Max Lange Attack, as Andrew
being played between Nakamura and Onis- Martin pointed out in BCM 08/15, pp. 43637.
chuk, a nice break from the Ruy Lopez or After 5Bc5 there is nothing for Black to wor-
ry about with 6 c3 Ne4 7 cd4 d5 and it is
the Sicilian. It is of theoretical interest little much easier for the second player to navigate.)
consolation to Onischuk who gets caught 5Ne4 6 Re1
by surprise at the end.
6 Nc3 Nc3 (6dc3 7 Bf7+ Kf7 8 Qd5+
GG H Nakamura Ke8 9 Re1 Ne7 10 Re4 c6 11 Qh5+ g6 12 Qe5
OO A Onischuk Rg8 13 Bg5 d5 14 Re2) 7 bc3 d5 8 Bb5 Be7
USA Championships, 2015 9 Nd4 Bd7.
Two Knights C44 [Tamburro] 6d5 7 Bd5
7 Nc3 dc3 (7Be6 8 Bd5 dc3 9 Be4
1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 ed4 4 Bc4 Nf6 Qd1 10 Rd1 cb2 transposes) 8 Bd5 Be6
(If Black has a cardiac condition, the following
XIIIIIIIIY line should probably be avoided: 8f5 9 Ng5
Bd6 10 bc3 Qe7 11 h4 Qe5 12 g3 Ne7 13
9r+lwkv-t0 Ne4 fe4 14 Re4) 9 Be4 Qd1 10 Rd1
9zpzp+pzp0 cb2 11 Bb2 f6.
7 Qd5 8 Nc3 Qa5 9 Ne4 Be6 10 Neg5
9-+n+-s-+0 White can try to cause trouble with 10 Bd2
9+-+-+-+-0 Qf5 11 Bg5 h6 12 Qd3 Qa5 13 Bh4 g5 14
Nf6+ Ke7 15 Ng4 gh4 16 Nd4 Bg7 17
9-+LzP+-+0 Ne6 fe6 18 Qg6 Kf8 19 Qe6 and, despite
the black kings precarious location, the sec-
9+-+-+N+-0 ond player should be able to survive and con-
vert the material advantage.
9PZP+-ZPZ0 10000 11 Ne6 fe6 12 Re6
9TNVQM-+R0[ and now simpler and leading to easy equality
is
xiiiiiiiiy 12 Be7 13 Ne5 Ne5
We could have arrived here by 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d4
ed4. Or 13Bf6?! 14 Nc6 bc6 15 Rc6 Qb5 16
Big digression now! Re6 Qf5 might work against a weaker player if
5 e5 you need to try for a win.
Alternatives are: 14 Re7 Rd7 15 Rd7 Nd7 16 h3 Qe5 17
5 Ng5 d5! (or even 5Ne5 6 Qd4 Qe7 7 00 b4 Rd8 18 Bb2 Nf8 19 Qe1 Qd5
Qc5) 6 ed5 Qe7+ 7 Kf1 (7 Be2 Nd5; 7 Qe2 More aggressive, and less clear, continuations
are: 7Bc5!? 8 Be3 00 9 Nc6 bc6 10

(a) 12Bd6 13 Bg5 Rde8 14 Qe2 Re6 15 Bc5 Nc5 11 Bc6 Rb8 12 00 Rb2 13
Qe6+ Kb8 16 Re1 a6.
(b) 12h6 13 Qe2 Bd6 14 Bd2 Qh5 15
Qd5
XIIIIIIIIY
h3 (K BachlerJ Curdo, US Open, Chicago, 1994
went: 15 Re1 d3! 16 Qe4 Rhf8 17 cd3 Rf3!)
15Rhf8 16 Re1 Qf5. 9-+lw-tk+0{
Meanwhile, back in St Louis:
5d5 6 Bb5 Ne4 7 Nd4
9z-z-+pzp0
XIIIIIIIIY 9-+L+-+-+0
9r+lwkv-t0{ 9+-sQZ-+-0
9zpz-+pzp0 9-+-+-+-+0
9-+n+-+-+0 9+-+-+-+-0
9+L+pZ-+-0 9PtP+-ZPZ0
9-+-Sn+-+0 9TN+-+RM-0
9+-+-+-+-0 xiiiiiiiiy
We had quite a kerfuffle about this position in-
9PZP+-ZPZ0 side and outside the pages of Chess Life. In do-
ing a book review of Chess Openings for White,
9TNVQM-+R0 Explained, I pointed out that Dzindzis analysis,
that White was better, was a bit optimistic. The
xiiiiiiiiy second edition had a revision of the analysis,
At this point, the solid player has routinely but not a change in the positions evaluation.
gone with 7Bd7, which raises the question Alexander Onischuk goes his own way, which
as to why youre playing the Two Knights if is also fine, whilst other equalising lines are:
youre a solid player. Dzindzichasvilli promoted 13Qe7 14 Nc3 Rc2 15 Qd4 Ne6 16 Qd3
this against the bishop move: 7Bd7 8 Bc6 Rb2 17 Nd5 Qc5 18 Rac1 Qd4 19 Qf5 Kh8
bc6 9 00 Bc5 10 f3 Ng5 11 f4 Ne4 12 Be3 20 Rcd1 Qh4= and 13Rc2 14 Na3 Qd5
Qb8 13 Nc3 Qb2 14 Ne4 de4 15 Qd2 15 Bd5 Re2=.
with advantage to White, without bothering to
explain why. Moves like 15Rd8, or 15Qb4,
13Qd5 14 Bd5 Rc2 15 Na3 Re2 16
or even 15Qa3 seem quite serviceable, al- Rac1
though the constant threat of f5 followed up 16 f4 Be6 17 Bf3 Rb2= (17Ra2 18 Ra2
by f5 and f6 or d6 makes for a nervous situation Ba2 19 Ra1 Be6 20 Nb5 Nd3 21 g3 c5 22
for Black. Ra7 Rd8 23 Nd6 Rb8 24 Be4) 18 g3 (18 Rfc1
Nd3 19 Rc7 Nf4 and Black is a little bit better)
18Rd8 19 Rfc1 and after 19Rd3 things are
Diary even.
Hereford Six Rounds Weekender. 16Nd3
12th14th March at the Green 16Ne6=.
Dragon. Marc Shaw 07947 813303.
17 Rc7 Be6 18 Bb3
TCS Bookstall. Part of the Castle Chess If 18 Be6 fe6 19 Nb5 Ra2 20 Nd4 Rf7=.
Grand Prix.
XIIIIIIIIY
after move 18, Black here is more passively
9-+-+-tk+0{ placed, so its more difficult to defend.
9z-T-+pzp0 25 b4 Nd3 26 Nc6 Re2 27 Rd7 Nf2??
A blunder. He doesnt see the danger in the
9-+-+l+-+0 knight coming back to fork the two rooks. Ouch!
Black could have gone with: 27Rb6 28 Rd3
9+-+-Z-+-0 Rc6 29 b5 Rb6 30 Ra3 Re5 31 Ra5. The White
9-+-+-+-+0 pawn is advanced and defended, but now what?
How would the white king be able to help as
9SL+n+-+-0 Black seems to be able to cut him off?
9P+-+rZPZ0 28 Nd4! Nh3+ 29 Kh1

Going the other way is fatal for White: 29 Kf1 Rf2+
9+-+-+RM-0 30 Ke1 Re5+ 31 Kd1 Re8 32 b5 Rh2 33 b6
Nf2+ 34 Kc2 (34 Kc1 Nd3+ 35 Kd1 Re1#) 34
xiiiiiiiiy Ne4+ 35 Kc1 Nc3 36 Nf3 Rh1+ 37 Kc2 Nb1.
18a5!? 29Nf2+ 30 Kg2 Nd1+ 31 Ne2 10
Perhaps trying to win. There were other routes,
but it was clear they were drawish. 18Bb3 19 Its clear that 4 d4 against the Two Knights
ab3 Ne5 20 Ra7 Rb8 21 Rb1 g6 22 Kf1 Ra2 Defence yields an equal game with lots of
23 Nb5 Ra7 24 Na7 Kg7. Although White
has a passed b-pawn, it will gain the complete at-
little bumps in the road for both sides. It
tention of and detention by Black. could explain the willingness for several top
18Ne5 19 Ra7 Nc6 20 Ra4 Bb3 21 level players to try 4 Ng5, Tarraschs duf-
ab3 Rb8 22 Rb1 g6 23 b4 Rb4=. Here, Black fers move. More about that another time!
uses the back rank mate threat to advantage.
19 Ra7 Endgame Studies Solutions
19 f4 a4 20 Ba4 Bd5 21 Rc2 Re4 22 Bc6 (see p. 564)
Bc6 23 Rc6 Nf4 is OK for Black. (Roycroft)
19Bb3 20 ab3 Re5?! 1 Rf5 Bg6 2 h8Q Bh8 3 Ke3 Bg7 4 Rg5
There were two easier possibilities: 20Ne5 Bh6 stalemate. 3Kd1 4 Rg5 Bb1 5 Rg4
21 Ra5 g6= or 20Rb8 21 Nc4 Ne5 22 Kc1 6 Rg8 is drawing. 1 h8Q? Bh8 2 Rf5
Na5 g6=. Be8.
21 Nc4! Rb5 22 Rb1 Nc5
(Roycroft twin study)
Both sides should have been moving their re-
spective g-pawns one square and then started
(a) 1 g8R K any+ 2 Rg7 draws. Not 1
to play a bit more. Blacks Nc5, while super- g8Q? Kc1+ 2 Qg7 Bb2 3 Qb2+ ab2 4
ficially attractive, makes Black work harder to Kg7 b1Q 5 h8Q, when Blacks queen will
achieve equality. staircase up the diagonal with checks, give
23 Na5! Re8 check on f5 and mate on f7.
Now both sides finally take a time-out for the (b) 1 g8Q Kc1+ 2 Qg7 Bb2 3 Qb2+
lufts. ab2 4 Kg7 b1Q 5 h8Q and this time its a
24 g3 g6 draw because the white king has the square
The question now is whether White can escort
h6 available. Not 1 g8R? Kc1+ 2 Rg7 Bb1 3
the pawn forward to b8. In contrast to the note Kg8 Bg7 4 Kg7 Bh7 wins.
Victor Bologan
continues his
repertoire revolution
NEW!
With his bestselling Bologans Black Weapons in the Open Games Victor Bologan shook
up the world of repertoire books. Both the wealth of novelties & new ideas and the
innovations in structure and presentation have received rave reviews. Now Bologan
is back with the much awaited companion volume on the Ruy Lopez, presenting an
eminently playable repertoire with hundreds of theoretical improvements, alternatives
and fresh weapons. At its heart are the Breyer Variation and the Marshall Attack. Back
are, of course, structural innovations such as The Fast Lane and The Very Fast Lane,
the much-applauded Arsenal of Strategic Ideas as well as the visual highlights and the
massive index of games. Bologan presents two dierent options against every line:
a common sense approach and an aggressive weapon. So its actually TWO books in one!
paperback 544 pages 22.99
a A publication available at your local (chess)bookseller or at newinchess.com

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M of r 2

Comeback Kid is a Knockout: Sergey

Karyakin Wins FIDE WC

THE BRITISH CHESS MAGAZINE ECF

In this months issue

Endgame Studies 564 Hacktive Chess 589

Three from the Album

and thus White has adequate compensation 33Bd5 34 Rh7 Bc6.

This cant be bad; it just hasnt been played that 9 e4?!

XIIIIIIIIY 14 Bg5 Qd8?!

9-wn+-+p+0 15 Bh5 gh5 16 Nf3 h6 17 Be3 Bg4 18

9T-+QML+R0[ 20e5 21 Rf2 Nc7 22 Rdf1 Rb8 23 h3

Quotes and Queries

6052 Samuel Reshevsky played his first GG JA Seitz

stronger opponents to meet. In fact Kup- 15Bg5 16 Qh5+ g6 17 Bg6+.

Forgotten Masters: Fred

Fischer Knew the Game

Well, I dont know if cendrier was really Lilienthal 21g4+?

The Shock of the New

Another Russian Final?!

against Svidler in the next game before the tie

Endgames for Experts

43 Rb4 Rd5 44 Rc4 Black is not in time to take the h-pawn. 59

Training with the Chinese

The Adam Raoof Interview

What, in 2015, is the single most important

We continue our discussions from last because of 4Rd3.

More Insidious Ideas that Redesign Thinking

The Third 4NCL FIDE-Rated h6

GG DJ Mason 8 Qf3!? 00 9 g4 g5 10 gh5 gh4?

12ed4?? 13 Qg2 was the fatal accident Blacks defence to ribbons.

A Reality Show, You Know!

Bb5 a6 17 Bd7+ Qd7 18 Rab1 is heavily concluded:

Test Your Chess

defenders. would be good for Black and

News from the British Isles

News from Abroad

An Evans Antidote Thats

FIDE World Cup 2015

The World Cup Final will be re- GG S Karyakin

19b6 20 Rb4 a5?! 35Rg6 36 a6 Rg2 37 Rf8 Be6 38 a7

Openings for Amateurs

are: 7Bc5!? 8 Be3 00 9 Nc6 bc6 10

9P+-+rZPZ0 28 Nd4! Nh3+ 29 Kh1

paperback 544 pages 22.99

a A publication available at your local (chess)bookseller or at newinchess.com

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