Monday, June 27, 2016

And now some actual chess!

Tonight a study from Herbstmann, as relayed in Eugene Znosko-Borovsky's classic work, The Middle Game in Chess.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Tournament Players PROTIP: The Gold Standard

Tournament Players PROTIPs have existed far longer than tournaments in the chess world. In fact, the earliest surviving book about the game, Luis Ramírez de Lucena's  (c. 1465 – c. 1530) Repetición de Amores y Arte de Ajedrez con 101 Juegos de Partido ("Repetition of Love and the Art of Playing Chess") from 1497*, contains advice on the practical matter of how to conduct a game of chess. And that advice set a standard yet to be surpassed.
If you play at night with a single candle, place it at your left-hand side, so that it does not disturb your eyes; if you play by day, place your opponent facing the light, which gives you a great advantage. Also, try to play your adversary when he has just eaten and drunk freely. For to play a long time it is best to have eaten lightly. To avoid getting dizzy during the game, you should drink water, but by no means wine. and play only short sessions, and for a stake small enough to avoid the possibility of the loss weighing on your mind.
Gold, baby, GOLD!

* From the Wiki entry linked above: "Commentators have suggested that much of the material was plagiarised from Francesc Vicent's now lost 1495 work Libre dels jochs partits dels schacs en nombre de 100." To my surprise, Edward Winter doesn't seem to have much on Lucena.

PS The full version of the quote (translated, obviously) was hard to track down, though I've seen the quote (both in part and complete) several times. Eventually, and strangely, I found the text above on a page from the South Australian Chess Association's old website, on a list of South Australian Chess Champions.

Friday, June 24, 2016

Tournament Players PROTIP #6: Appendix A

In response to the prior post, a reader adds a particularly devious twist:
Great advice. One thing to add: if you know that your opponent will go into anaphylactic shock, get a touch of the allergen on the pieces, watch them start choking, and use your convient Epi-pen, thus saving the day.
That's the most twisted thing I've read today, and I've been reading a lot of political coverage, so that's saying something!

Tournament Players PROTIP #6

More Dark Arts of The Dark Side

If you know an opponent has a mild allergy*, you can exploit this weakness by exposing them to said substance immediately before or during the game. A particularly useful (though highly improbable) allergy for an opponent to have would be an aloe allergy. In that case you could simply apply hand lotion with aloe before the handshake at the start of the game - and watch the uncontrollable sneezing begin! He might sneeze at a crucial moment and mix up the move order of his response to your Anti-Berlin variation, and instead of your emerging from the opening with an =, you get all the way to a +/= eval instead! Maybe apply some of the allergen to the opponent's pieces before hand if you have Black or can otherwise reliably sabotage the pieces or board. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination!

(No, I have no known allergies. Why do you ask?)

* Remember, people, that we are talking about mild allergies here. If the opponent has a severe allergy, to say, peanut butter, and you put them into Anaphylactic Shock , you could well be brought up on murder charges latter - or worse, be expelled from the tournament. Sure, if it's only your fifth or sixth potential felony conviction you can probably plead it down to a littering fine, but do you really want to waste perfectly good money on a murder when that money could buy your seventh or eighth tournament worthy chess set instead? (Obviously I'm not including legal fees, as I'm assuming you're probably reliant on the auspices of a public defender, or that you keep an attorney on retainer for such occasions.)

Remember, kids, Force Choke Responsibly!

Added: Don't miss the appendix! 

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

I don't ever want to hear about how slow chess is again.

Yesterday.
Image from Attractions Magazine

300 minutes! That's five hours standing in line, most of it directly in the summer sun of Florida, on hard, hot surfaces!

I haven't played a five hour long game of chess since perhaps the 1980s, and at least then I got to play a game of chess, not just stand around baking for a three minute ride!

Yeah, don't want to hear about chess being slow OR boring again....

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Something from nothing

The Your Next Move Grand Chess Tour Rapid/Blitz event is currently running in Leuven, Belgium. In the 18th round, played today, Nakamura had White against his personal bête noire, Magnus Carlsen. On his 23rd move, White removed Black's queen and an endgame was reached with balanced pawns and each side having a rook and a knight. If anything, it looks like White has an ever so slight edge, but nothing to be concerned about.

But Carlsen isn't the most feared grinder in the chess world for nothing. They kept at it, and Carlsen starts accumulating a small little advantage here, a tiny little plus there, and so on. Nothing that Nakamura couldn't handle, but his position slowly became unpleasant. Finally, with his 55th move, Naka cracked and played a losing move. He was close to losing, perhaps, if he had found 55 Ke1, but 55 Kd3 was immediately losing. Fortunately for him, Carlsen missed the winning move 58...Kf4 and the game was drawn.

Even though this was a blitz game, which accounts for the double errors on moves 55 and 58, I think Carlsen's technique from move 23 onward merits a closer look, especially for endgame connoisseurs. The link below will take you to Chess24.com's archived version of the game.

Nakamura - Carlsen, YourNextMove Grand Chess Tour, Leuven, Belgium, round 18

Last night.

Last night, playing poker with friends, I uttered words perhaps never before uttered by a man, almost certainly not on a Saturday night.

"I should have gone to Palatka."

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Tournament Players PROTIP: Platinum Edition

The same reader that provided Tournament Players PROTIP 5(a) has also provided some other useful PROTIPs! He modestly calls them Bronze Rules, but here at Tournament Players PROTIP HQ, we feel they merit a better quality of metal.
  1. Do not drink 8 cups of water per game. That is too much fluid.
  2. If you feel severe nausea, notice the location of the closest restroom. This is critical if you ate food from Panda Express before the round. [ALWAYS make note of the TWO nearest restrooms! - ed.]
  3. Bring a bottle on NSAIDs. This goes double if there are bright lights in the hall. Triple if it is the last round. Depending on how acute pain is, see the next note.
  4. Bring Pepto-Bismol.
  5. If you are sick, coffee. If that does not work, cough drops and coffee. Repeat until the end of the tournament. [Espresso is probably
  6. Sleep is good. Three hours is NOT enough. Try melatonin if you need help at night, and coffee if you are not diurnal. 
  7. Bring extra batteries for your clock, even if it is of the longlasting variety. [And bring the instruction manual for your clock, especially if it is a Chronos! - ed.]
  8. Bring a coat. This sounds stupid in Florida, but we have our share of Ice Hotels here.
  9. Don't take liquid antihistamine meds during the round. The same active ingredient is used in Zzzquil. [Methamphetamines would work in these situations, and are both Erdős and Lemmy approved, but not strictly legal. And by "not strictly legal" we mean you will go to jail, or worse, get fulminate of mercuried by an angry HS chemistry teacher. - ed.]
  10. Don't let a teammate of your opponent pick up the clock and reset it if the opponent came late and had time run off.
  11. Don't tell your opponent that the time control has not yet been reached. [Or that the time control HAS been reached! - ed.]
  12. Most important, be honest to yourself. BCD behavior (Blame others, Complain about cirumstances, and Defend yourself) is the best way to keep yourself from ever improving.
I must be honest that I'm not sure about that last one, but to each their own!

Tournament Players PROTIP #5(a)

A reader makes the following suggestion:
Replace piece weights with fishing weights so they rattle. Do so only to opponent's pieces.

People have done the fish weight to me before.
Bloody brilliant!

Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Tournament Players PROTIP #5

The Dark Arts of The Dark Side: These are not the ProTips you are looking for....

Here's one from the Dark Side, pure gamesmanship to mess with an opponent's head.

Buy two identical sets of very heavily weighted pieces. Then remove the weights from one set. Use the weighted pieces for yourself, and give the opponent the light pieces. When he starts capturing your pieces he'll (subconsciously) realize just how solidly you've dug into your position, and his position will feel insubstantial by comparison.* It will plant the seeds of doubt in his head. And doubt leads to anger, and anger leads to hate, and hate leads to hanging pieces. (It goes something like that, I'm sure of it.)

Or you can give him a set of pieces some of which are weighted, and some aren't. Vary the weights of similar pieces, so that one knight is very heavy and the other feels like a feather. That won't even be too different from some of the sets I've seen in use since returning to tournament action.

Hmm, I'm starting to suspect some opponents of trying to mess with my head. Ha, joke's on them! I lost my mind years ago, so even if they get inside it, it's got nothing to do with me!

* Note: Some players prefer lighter pieces, so you'll need to reverse the weights in those cases. I'll not mention names ***cough*** Jim McTigue ***cough***

Monday, June 13, 2016

There's a reason they're called Grand Masters

I dropped in on the Orlando Sunshine Open on Saturday for the third round. After all my friends from the club were done, I decided to check the game of the lone grandmaster playing in the tournament, Sandro Pozo Vera. He was involved in a game with John Ludwig.

When I arrived the following position was on the board.

John Ludwig - Sandro Pozo Vera
Orlando Sunshine Open, 2016

White had the move, and a substantial time advantage - about 23 minutes to 5 minutes and change. I decided to watch the rest of the game, as the time scramble looked to be entertaining. White has a small material advantage, Black's knights are kind of locked to the protection of the c- and d-pawns which are shaky at best, Black's kingside pawns have advanced far enough to be weak, leaving the King vulnerable. To balance this, Black has the most mobile piece on the board, and every exchange will accentuate the queen's mobility - and White's king has back rank issues.

I haven't let my computer run too long on this position, but it seems to think White has a decent, but small advantage. Looking at this position I'd much rather play White, though, as Black's position just looks difficult to play for a human.

After 1. Bd3, Pozo Vera spent most of his remaining time coming up with 1... c4, leaving him with 1:22 to Ludwig's 22 minutes. Yowtch! It looked to be a bloodbath and a GM scalp for Ludwig. But at this point, Pozo Vera showed his stuff and lived up to his lofty title.

I have posted the remaining moves as I remember them. I remember most of it accurately, and have indicated where I am a little fuzzy. I haven't bothered to annotate the game, as anyone can plug it into a program of there choice to see the action. I have added notes giving a general impression of the action, and highlighting how the time was spent. It was a grand show, the players were under great stress, and the draw was all in all probably a just result. The two of them went on to share first place.

I'll also provide a fen for loading the game more quickly.

FEN "q6k/5p2/1n6/1Bpp2p1/4n2p/8/PP2NPPP/2R1R1K1 w - - 0 1"

Saturday, June 11, 2016

The Petrosian Formula: Exchange Sac+Pawn Roller = Victory

Todd asked me to post this a while back, and I have simply been too slow about it!

Recently I have been studying the games of former World Champion Tigran Petrosian, and even though I was already familiar with his style, I am still amazed at his method.

There are many amazing parts to his style, but what stands out to me is his completely holistic approach to the evaluation of positions, and in particular his highly conditional and contextual valuation of individual pieces.

When asked "Which World Champion sacrificed the most?", many players would reply "Tal, of course", but they would be incorrect.  Petrosian is the "all-time sac leader", fueled mainly by his predilection for sacrificing a rook for a minor piece.

As I play through his games, his method shows a pattern, which I have come to regard as his "formula" for winning games. 

The formula is based on the premise of a closed position, where there are many pawns on the board, and the pawns still possess mobile potential. This mobile potential could be in the form of existing pawn breaks, or it could be latent, in that a sacrifice or other dynamic change of the position is needed to release the mobile potential of the pawns.  

In such positions, minor pieces are often more mobile and valuable than rooks.  Petrosian's approach was to trade his "relatively less valuable" rooks for "relatively more valuable" minor pieces (often changing the pawn structure as well, in his favor), and then use his remaining pieces to support his central pawn roller to conquer the center and win the game.

I have two games that serve as great examples.

In the first game, we see a young Petrosian sacrifice a rook passively (offering it to be captured as a choice for the other player), in a position that he considered already won:

Dunaev-Petrosian USSR Under 18 Championship 1946

In the second game, played some 24 years later, we see a much more mature, post-World Champion Petrosian demonstrate the same formula against the world class GM Vastimil Hort:

Hort-Petrosian World Team Championship 1970



These are just two examples of Petrosian's technique, and I highly recommend the study of his games for more gems such as these!

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Overdone Chess Prose

Today I saw a tweet by keene-watchers concerning Kingpin Magazine's assertion that Ray Keene was the world's worst chess journalist. That reminded me of some analysis of Nimzowitsch* that I wanted to post. First, the tweet:

Second, the analysis from Nimzowitsch*, which comes from his book Chess Praxis, of which I own the Hays Publishing "21st Century Edition", edited by Ken Artz. On page 216 the following diagram, move, and analysis appear:

Eigel Hansen - A. Nimzowitsch
Copenhagen, 1928 

23 ...   Rc8 
Triumph of the firm formation! The resourceful first player has regained all that could be regained, namely, the whole of the lost material. But here he is with a butterfly at f4, the greyhound at a7, and the two mangy sheep at a3 and h2, while the King sits at a befitting distance on his throne. There ensues a conclusion full of terror. - A. Nimzowitsch
I've always enjoyed Nimzowitsch's prose, or rather the translations thereof, so I'm digging the groovy styling - but it is rather rich! Keene wrote a book about Nimzowitsch (that I seem to recall was fairly well regarded), and I'm wondering if some of Nimzovitsch's overwrought style rubbed off on Keene.

The rest of the game, along with Nimzowitsch's notes, can be found below. Reader's can decide for themselves if the conclusion was full of terror or not.

* Thanks to ChessBase the English speaking world is now stuck with Germanicized spellings of the names of chessplayers. So goodbye Nimzovitch and Korchnoi, hello Nimzowitsch and Kortschnoj. In some sense I guess it really was over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor.

Monday, June 6, 2016

Problem Time: Anwuli-Nakamura Solution

From yesterday:

I was watching some blitz games on Chess.com and happened to catch the following.

Anwuli-Nakamura, 3 minute game
Black to move

Can Black save the game?

Answer:

Sunday, June 5, 2016

Problem Time: Anwuli-Nakamura

I was watching some blitz games on Chess.com and happened to catch the following.

Anwuli-Nakamura, 3 minute game
Black to move

Can Black save the game?

Answer tomorrow.

Friday, June 3, 2016

The Value of Motivation