From the Yngwie Malmsteen School of Chess (and everything else)

Tractor Chess.

(And no, I don't really expect anyone to get the title reference without me explaining it. Probably not even then.)

Plans for upcoming local tournaments

As Paul has pointed out on the Facebook page, one day tournaments are being held in both Daytona and at UCF this weekend.

The UCF tourney is an Orlando Chess & Games affair – G29 / d5, 5 rounds, quick rated only. This one will cost $45 at the door, but I’ve heard a rumor that Alex Zelner will be bringing his books for sale to this one, if that's your bag. (That’s a rumor, I haven’t confirmed it. You can contact Steve or Alex to find out for certain.)

http://www.orlandochess.com/ocg-events/   (You’ll need to scroll down to see event details.)

The Daytona tourney is also five rounds, but it’s a G45 / d5 and counts for both quick and regular ratings. It’s only $30, but it’s all the way in Daytona. (From here in Pine Hills they aren’t too different in terms of time driving time. I have no idea what it’s like for points west.)

http://daytonabchcc.org/daytonabchcc/TmtSchedule.htm

I’m wondering if anyone has any plans on going to either of these tournaments. I’m really hoping to play in one of them this weekend but haven’t made my mind up as to which, since they’ve both got some pluses and minuses. Knowing something about turnout might help.

…

Going forward, there’s a two day tournament in Ocala on August 13-14, the 2016 Ocala Summer Classic. The entry fee onsite is only $65, and less if you register beforehand. That one is a five round, G90 / d5, and I’m thinking that driving up Saturday morning and taking a round 1 bye makes that a very reasonable tournament. (There are several hotels nearby.) I’m also wondering who might be interested in that one.

Additionally, the CFCC has a one day 4SS, G75 / d5 tournament on August 20 at UCF.

…

This gets us to the big ones. Over Labor Day weekend we have the Florida State Championships over in Tampa. That’s six rounds over Saturday, Sunday & Monday. I’m wondering who is interested. I’m thinking that I’ll probably pass on that, as it looks to be out of my price range, but I am trying to gauge interest.

And later that month we’ll have the Southern ClassChampionships here in Orlando at the Wyndham. I am hoping to play that one, as not needing to rent a hotel room makes it much cheaper.

...

So, does anyone have any plans at this point, definite or provisional?

Another ongoing discussion, this time concerning central pawn expansion in the QGD

Recently Paul Leggett and I have been discussing a plan created by Botvinnik in the QGD, in which as White he forgoes the minority attack of yore (even back then!) and instead plays for central expansion. The key line runs 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 cxd5 exd5 5 Bg5 Be7 6 e3 0-0 7 Bd3 Nbd7 8 Qc2 Re8 and now 9 Nge2 with the plan of castling, tucking away the king, and then an eventual f2-f3 and e3-e4, gaining much space in the center and kingside. This plan was first seen, I believe, in Botvinnik-Keres, USSR Ch (Moscow) 1952. (The move order given above is a transposition.)

Prior to that, 9 Nge2 had occurred in this position nine times. According to Kasparov's MGP series, Botvinnik had the following to say after the additional two-ply of 9...Nf8 10 0-0:

This continuation was unusual for that time. After Ng1-f3 White normally used to castle on the kingside, whereas when he played Ng1-e2 he would castle queenside. But in the present game a 'hybrid' variation has been employed, with the aim of making it difficult for the opponent to choose a plan. After White's kindside castling it is harder for Black to obtain active play, in which Keres always felt confident. - M. Botvinnik

(That idea of Nge2, castling queenside and then attacking the kingside with pawns still had some poison in it at the top levels into the early 1980s, by the by.)

Botvinnik-Keres, USSR Ch (Moscow) 1952

after 9 Nge2

Paul brought this up within the context of a recent game of his, which he posted on Facebook*. Later in the discussion, Paul made the following comment:

I am almost finished reading "Rubinstein Move by Move" by GM Zenon Franco (an excellent book), and what do I find towards the end of the book? Botvinnik-Keres 1952 and Kasparov-Andersson 1988, annotated in the context of Rubinstein's contribution to the QGD. These games will live forever.

To which I replied that I had just noticed the game Rubinstein-Bogoljubov, London 1922, which seemed to be heading in the direction of the Botvinnik game above, but after playing Nge2, Rubinstein then played e3-e4 followed by f2-f4. It seemed that Rubinstein was going for a direct kingside attack. (I have no idea if this game is mentioned Franco's book. I'm sure Paul can give an answer to that one.)

Alas, my abilities to visualize the action were sadly lacking. On vacation a few days ago I managed to finally get to the game, which goes as follows: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 e3 Nf6 4 Nc3 Bf5 5 cxd5 Nxd5 (a key difference in pawn structures!) 6 Bc4 e6 7 Nge2 (our star move) Nd7 8 0-0 Qh4, and now Rubinstein committed a tactical oversight and played 9 e4, which simply lost a pawn. 

But in the tournament book, Alekhine made the following comment about this position:

Rubinstein-Bogoljubov, London 1922

after 8 ... Qh4

An inoffensive reply to which White should simply play 9 f3, and if 9...Bd6 10 g3 and Black is forced to withdraw his queen to e7, for if 10...Qh3 11 e4 Nxc3 12 bxc3 Bg6 13 e5 followed by 14 Nf4 and wins. - A. Alekhine

Clearly Alekhine was looking to central expansion here, and I imagine that he believed that was Rubinstein's original intent. But that knight on d5 induced a tactical error!

It's hard to believe that Botvinnik wasn't aware of both the game and Alekhine's commentary on the game, and perhaps it inspired him. Probably not in 1952, but rather in 1938, against another one of the giants of the game. For the famous Botvinnik-Capablanca game at the renowned AVRO tournament featured Botvinnik playing 9 Nge2 with an eventual 0-0, f2-f3 and e3-e4 against Black's pawns on the a-d files and an absent Black e-pawn.

I rather imagine, sans any evidence, that this was all a chain of inspiration over time, one thing leading naturally to another. It makes for a nice story, but I have no idea how much if any validity it merits. I do know that in his book One Hundred Selected Games Botvinnik mentions as early as Black's sixth move in the Capablanca game that White's basic plan is to play f2-f3 and e3-e4, breaking through in the center. He goes on to mention after 9 Nge2 that the game recalls Lilienthal-Ragozin, Moscow 1935, but with a couple of minor differences. Clearly Botvinnik had given this strategical idea some thought! 

Those with better paper archives might find more on the genesis of the Nge2, 0-0, f2-f3, e3-e4 idea in these structures, and of Botvinnik's inspiration. (I only have three books by Botvinnik, the one mentioned which only covers games up until 1946, Championship Chess on the Absolute Soviet Championship of 1941, and a book that he sorta kinda maybe co-authored on the Grunfeld Defense in the 1970s, so I have nothing by him on his games against Keres or Larsen save what Kasparov quotes.) And those with better db skills may well turn up some stones plowing fields of data.

So for now, I leave it at that.

...

But I do have two additional comments of a tangential nature. First, the Rubinstein-Bogoljubov game, and Alekhine's notes to it, have more interesting features, which I hope to return to soon. Second, can you imagine one of the top players now writing a tournament book? Imagine Carlsen or Giri writing notes to the recent BilBao tournament, for example, which was also a six player double round robin. Come on, guys, it's only 30 games, and I'm sure your seconds will kick in a good deal of the work. Let's make tournament books great again! 

* I hope that's the correct link. Facebook is a real pain in the posterior to deal with on such matters.

Done!

I played chess against people on all six inhabited continents this evening, plus games against people in Tuvalu & Indonesia. That beats my old personal best of five continents in one day back in the 1990s. (I think I was missing Australia that time.)

Yeah, it's a little thing, but it's a cool thing, too.

ADDED: So now for the butcher's bill. It took about four and a half hours, 31 lost Elo on Chess.com, and 31 games. (The dual 31s are mere coincidence.) My overall record was 16+ 12- 3=. Results that are complete enough below the fold. (Yes, this post is entirely for my own amusement, and so I can find the record some day in the future should I so desire.)

A thought about @NakaFacts

It occurred to me that @NakaFacts could well be Magnus Carlsen. I'm so amused by the idea that I'm simply going to believe that it's true. Hey, there's no evidence that it isn't!

(Of course, it's more likely that it's Anish Giri. But Magnus would be much more fun.) 

Birth of an Opening

It's not often one can see the birth of a completely new opening in chess. But Simon Williams, the Ginger GM hisownself, managed to invent a new one this week. The new opening gets birthed beginning around the 7:04 mark in the video.

I added a video to a @YouTube playlist https://t.co/3YMZlfoNp6 GM Speed Chess! #99 The 'Bongcloud Transvestite' variation.

— Simon Williams (@ginger_gm) July 16, 2016

Hikaru finally wins!

He finally beat Magnus! And with the black pieces! Quite a day.

Here is a link to Chess24's coverage, including video analysis.

And here is a link to Chess.com's coverage, along with some more analysis.

Jaideep Unudurti made the following excellent point on Twitter.

Naka's win over Carlsen can be seen in the context that Adams, Shirov and Gelfand never beat Kasparov in their entire careers #BilbaoChess

— Jaideep Unudurti (@Unudurti) July 13, 2016

I knew about Kasparov's record against Shirov & Adams, but somehow had missed that he had such a record against Gelfand, too. 

And don't forget that he had a monster score against Judit Polgar, though I believe she finally won a game shortly before he retired. Record Check: Nope, she beat him, but only in one rapid game! Really, Garry's record against Judit practically constituted a hate crime. So make that four top players he blanked in their primes at "Classical Chess".

And finally, a bit of fun from the spoof account NakaFacts: This tweet went out before today's round, but it's still funny.

.@MagnusCarlsen is playing @GMHikaru in the first round of @BilbaoChess! Here is a quick comparison. #BilbaoChess pic.twitter.com/YeAhNLzgiM

— NakaFacts (@NakaFacts) July 13, 2016

ADDED: First, IM Daniel Rensch of Chess.com has a nice ten minute long analysis of the game. It's quite good, and I recommend it, as he gives you the ideas of the position in a clear manner.

Second, I can't resist adding one more tweet, this one from Follow Chess:

How the chess world probably reacted to Nakamura's "shocking" 1st win against Magnus Carlsen with Black #BilbaoChess pic.twitter.com/iILKwsVjxX

— Follow Chess (@FollowChessApp) July 14, 2016

Bonus points if you recognize everyone.

Game of the Day: 2016 July 12 edition [UPDATED]

I give you Kramnik-Buhmann, from the third round of Dortmund. Just follow the link, you'll be glad you did, if your head doesn't hurt too much.

NOTE: The score for the last couple of moves is incorrect. Another DGT board issue. 

UPDATE: Peter Doggers writes up some notes for the game in his report for Chess.com.

Tactics Time: Capablanca-Alekhine

Below is a position from the 29th game of the 1927 World Championship match between Capablanca and Alekhine. Capablanca had just played 21 Qb3!

Capablanca-Alekhine

World Championship Match (29)

Clearly, Alekhine would be happy to liquidate his b- & c-pawns for White's b- & d-pawns. However, he did not play 21...c5. Can you see why? (Answer in white-font below the fold.)

Dumpster Diving: 2016 July 11

I had a fun game at 3' 2" on Chess.com this evening.After some ups and downs I got to the following endgame:

THDurham-josephmelendez589

After 45 Kg4

Here I think I'm very close to winning, though The Fish doesn't agree, thinking I merely have a slight plus. But my position is much easier to play. I'm going to get in h4, and after ...gxh4 (forced), Kxh4 my king will dance around looking to pick off some pawns. 

Sound advice from the immortals

Spassky takes Bronstein's cunning advice.
Spassky's 100 Best Games (1972), pp.182-3. pic.twitter.com/NYcG6UD91p

— Jonathan Manley (@KingpinEd) July 10, 2016

I feel good about this, because it's similar to something I had noticed on my own. "[A]n opponent already wasting time is likely to keep doing so." - see note to White's eleventh move.

Ivanchuk does everything better

He even suffers at the board better than we do.

Ivanchuk expressing the stress of chess! 👏🏼😆 pic.twitter.com/s6ztYBcJZ9

— Johan Salomon (@JohanSalomon) July 8, 2016

Justified!

Okay, you'll be wondering how I think this is appropriate to the club blog, but I have justifications and rationalizations, emanations and penumbras on my side! This happened in Russia, therefore it must be relevant to chess players!

This starts slow but finishes strong. Trust me, you'll want to see this through.

Well that was unexpected. pic.twitter.com/1KT1QXa1KJ

— Only In Russia (@CrazyinRussia) July 8, 2016

A peculiar result

Back in February, club stalwart Garry Day had an unusual result at the USATS: he played five games, at the end of which his rating was completely unchanged.

Over the last weekend, club semi-regular Theo Slade had an even more peculiar result: over eight games at the World Open, his rating was also unchanged. Perhaps this is more common because of the new rating formula they instituted a few years back?

Theo is having a busy summer, BTW. He played in the Summer Solstice Open and the Orlando Sunshine Open in back-to-back weekends at the start of June, and he's playing the World Open and the Philadelphia International Open back to back this week. If you've got the FollowChess app on your phone or tablet, you can follow his games live.

Move of the Day: 2016 July 8 edition

Courtesy of Mr. Staunton:

One of those extraordinary moves which one views with a shudder of horrified admiration. https://t.co/vRUri86CIv pic.twitter.com/ByXCn5M2i8

— Howard Staunton (@HowardStaunton) July 8, 2016

Unfortunately, Mr Troff's inventiveness does not seem to have helped him. Here's a link to the game at Chess24.com, which is still going as I type.

Update: After some fairly large swings, game drawn!

Milan Vidmar & two opposing views

Peter Doggers has written a report about the recently concluded 20th Vidmar Memorial tournament, won by Andrei Volokitin. It includes the following information about Milan Vidmar:

The Netherlands had Max Euwe, Germany had Emanuel Lasker and Slovenia had Milan Vidmar (1885–1962). In those days chess was usually not a profession, and Vidmar had his own career as well. He was a doctor in mechanical engineering and worked at the University of Ljubljana. The Electric Power Research Institute there still bears his name.

But of course Vidmar was also an absolute top class player in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. He played for the top prizes among bigger names such as Capablanca, Alekhine and Rubinstein.

Vidmar was one of the players who was awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE in 1950 for being recognized as having been world class when at their peak. In the same year, Vidmar was the chief arbiter at the Olympiad in Dubrovnik; he was also the arbiter at the 1948 world championship tournament in Moscow.

That's more than enough for a memorial tournament, isn't it?

I had to laugh, for I remembered what Jan Timman had to say about an earlier version of this tournament in his book The Art of Chess Analysis (originally Het groot analyseboek in Dutch):

The Vidmar Memorial Tournament is held every two years. For some reason or other, the fifth in the series, in 1979, attracted me immediately. Not that I have ever played through a game of Vidmar's - at least, never a game he won; but probably I have seen a number of his losses printed among the collected games of Alekhine, Capablanca, and Euwe. Frankly, this splendid tournament is a rather exaggerated mark of honour for a not very brilliant chess player. - (pg. 185)

Incidentally, The Art of Chess Analysis is available from Amazon for $8.53 - a steal! I highly recommend this book - unless, of course, you are a big fan of Milan Vidmar! 

Added: I decided to see if I could find a game Vidmar won in any of my printed books. The obvious place to start was 500 Master Games of Chess by Tartakower & du Mont. Sure enough, they've got seven games of Vidmar's in the collection - and he lost the first six of them! But the seventh game (from Berlin, 1918) was a game he won, as Black, against no less worthy an opponent than Rubinstein. Not only that, Tartakower & du Mont claim this game featured the first use of the Budapest Defense in a "Master's Tournament". The link takes one to the site ChessGames.com. In the comments (which are worth a read) they mention that this was Vidmar's most famous won, his second most famous being a win against Max Euwe! But in Timman's defense, few players put games they lost in their games collections, Fischer being the most famous counter-example.

And now a game that just happens to be completely INSANE!

(Fans of Beavis & Butt-head will know the tone of voice I'm going for!)

I'm once again working my way through Lars Bo Hansen's book, Foundations of Chess Strategy. In the notes to the game Korchnoi-Kasparov, Lucerne (OL) 1982, Hansen mentions the rather insane game Hulak-Nunn, Toluca IZ 1982. About this game Hansen writes,

I refrain from trying to attach any signs or evaluations to this hyper-complicated outing....

He's not kidding! I'll post the whole game below (along with a few brief notes), but I want to call attention to one position in particular:

Hulak-Nunn, Toluca IZ 1982

Black has just played 32...R(a7)a8. As I looked at the position I started wondering why the sequence 33 Qh6 Rg8 34 Rf3, with the idea of Rf3-g3-g4-h4 wouldn't work. The best I came up with was 34...Qa1 35 Rg3 Bd4 36 Bxd4 Qxd4 37 Rg4 Ra1 38 Qxh7+ Kxh7 39 Rh4#. 

I'll leave it to the reader to figure out where I went wrong (several places, in fact), or you can check the notes below. The whole game is crazy, I highly recommend it!

Congratulations due....

... to Theo Slade. I just noticed his results from the 8th Summer Solstice Open, held the first weekend in June in Coral Springs, Florida. I imagine he is probably disappointed in his overall result (1.5/5), but his draw against GM Sandro Pozo Vera must have been some salve on any wounds. It's always nice to take points from players rated more than 500 ELO higher than oneself!

"I'm going to build a wall! It's going to be a great wall!"

UPDATE: Hints & solution in white font below the fold.

I broke discipline yesterday and looked at Facebook for a while, lured there by Emil Sutovsky's statement about the Israeli Olympiad team on Twitter. Looking at Sutovsky's feed, I saw that he presented the following study by Hasek, with the comment:

Cute one from the Czechoslovak composer Hasek. White to play. The idea is clear - but how to make it work? Not obvious, and very aesthetically pleasing solution. Don't publish a solution, just leave a smile if you are sure you got it right.

Hasek, date unknown

White to play & draw

I saw the initial idea quickly, and then saw how it failed. I didn't figure it out on my own, I must confess, and needed a hint. Feel free to use a computer program on it, as Stockfish didn't help at all - the hint came from a commenter to the Facebook post, and then I had to figure out what he meant.

Warning: The title of the post may or may not be misleading.

Hints & solution below the fold in white font.

Pictures, cont.

The other day I mentioned Lars Grahn's Twitter feed, full of old pictures. Here's an example, a picture from a very famous game.

Euro Team Championship, Skara 1980. A classic. Karpov vs Miles: 1.e4 a6!? 2.d4 b5. 46 moves, 0-1. Photo: Lars Grahn pic.twitter.com/ZSA3xkpSX5

— Lars Grahn (@larsgrahn) July 1, 2016

Rumbles from Russia

Or from the Chess-News.ru website, in any event. They have an article claiming that Kirsan is losing support rapidly, and will be impeached at the Baku Olympiad. We'll see if it amounts to anything, but if he is in fact losing the support of the Russian Chess Federation, it will likely be the end for him as President of FIDE. 

Can't say as I'll miss him, but remember this Axiom for Life: It can always get worse! Kirsan was worse than Campo, and the next one could well be worse than Kirsan. However, if the Russian billionaire & Pres. of the Russian Chess Federation Andrey Vasilievich Filatov steps into the role, it could well be an improvement.

So now that I've added the Official Commentator Waffle Language, I'll sign off! (Yes, there is an Official Commentator Booklet, full of useful items on how to waffle, obfuscate, and otherwise cover one's posterior. Much of it has been cribbed from the Official Economist's Commentary series.)

PS Do people prefer this larger font or the normal sized font I usually use?

A violent attack!

So nice to be on a chess blog where that title means something good has happened!

Monster tactics from white it the game Nygren vs Thybo! 🔥🔥
Bc4! Nxf7! Rxb7!! Re1! Rxe5! #vismachess pic.twitter.com/qEKjfBNDOZ

— Johan Salomon (@JohanSalomon) July 1, 2016

Disappointing news for the Israeli Olympiad Team

Via David Llada's Facebook feed I saw the following message from Emil Sutovsky:

(HEART)BREAKING NEWS:
Israeli Team without Gelfand, Smirin and Sutovsky? Yes, and it is not about the generations' change. And, in the case you wondered, NOT about money (if you read till the end, you'll be surprised to learn, what amount has decided the fate of the Team). It is about an attitude towards the professional chess in our country. It is about the ultimate wish of the ICF leadership to show - who is the boss. They decided not to send a team for Euro-2015, and we had to swallow it. This time they decided that there should be a lower payment for the players in the Olympiad - and we are supposed to accept. Just because it was THEIR decision. They claim that the players are too greedy. How come that we have been always assembling the strongest team all these years? It is really pathetic. We don't have a proper national championship. We haven't had a proper classical round-robin GM event for over a decade! Players are totally neglected and forgotten by the Federation throughout the year, and only before the Olympiad/World/European Teams, they recall we exist.

In spite of all that, we have always reached the compromise. We were close this time as well, but ICF leaders ruined it all, insisting on us to succumb to their demands or quit the Team. I have played in the Israeli National Team for 20 years. I am always proud to play for my country, and I am proud to bring it several medals (including gold for absolutely best result among all the participants in the Olympiad 2010 and EuroTeams 2003). And now people, who hardly contributed to the Israeli chess recognition, set me an ultimatum. Either you accept it or you are out of the Team. At the end of the day it was a total difference of the "whole" 5000 NIS (about 1300 USD) that Israeli Chess Federation insisted on being cut. Simply pathetic. Of course, it was about showing "who is the boss". Succumb or quit. They pressed on the players, on the team captain Alex Kaspi (who resigned his post but stood firm with us), they angered Boris Gelfand to the extent I saw him only once (and I saw him in many different situations!). They knew very well, that Chess Olympiad is a very special event for any player. What they did not know, that the dignity is even more meaningful for some. Please, support and share if you don't want to see it happening again.

A very interesting position from the club tonight

A slow night at the club this evening, but at the end of it Jim McTigue and I played a game in 25 minutes with the usual five second delay. (Actually, we turned the clock off when we were both down to a couple of minutes and had a rather complicated endgame on the board, well before the position below.) The whole game was interesting, and I'm sorry I didn't record it. I may try to put more of it together tomorrow, but I'll probably forget most it by then.

That said, I did manage to get a couple of pictures of our hard fought endgame. Here's the most interesting position.

McTigue-Durham

Black to play

Can Black save the game?

I'll try to get back to this in a few days, or less.

Pictures

The Swede Lars Grahn has been tweeting lots of old pictures of chess players lately, mostly from the 1970s & 1980s. It you're interested in such things, check out his Twitter feed. Events of particular note have been Tilburg 1977, the European Team Championship from Skara 1980, and the Seville World Championship Match from 1987. I imagine those people my age & older will be particularly interested.