The Kenilworthian

2012 KCCC Gets Trappy in Round 3

2012-01-27T19:20:00.002-05:00

White to play and win.

I have annotated Goeller - Chen from the third round of the Kenilworth Chess Club Championship. It featured the Three Knights Defense with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4, which I comment on extensively in my notes. Fortunately for me, Chen walked into a tactical shot that won a piece in the opening (see diagram above) and made my task much easier than I had expected. I will probably face Arthur Macaspac next week, which should be an interesting game.

Frank Brady in Maplewood on Sunday

2012-01-24T16:47:00.001-05:00

Dr. Frank Brady will be at [words] bookstore in Maplewood (see map) on Sunday, January 29th, at 2:00 p.m. to promote the paperback edition of Endgame, his excellent biography of Bobby Fischer which I reviewed last year.

2012 KCCC Gets Irrational in Round 2

2012-01-21T09:25:00.001-05:00

Black to play.

I have annotated the game Hart - Goeller from the second round of the 2012 Kenilworth Chess Club Championship. The game quickly reached a rather "irrational" position so that we ended up spending a lot of time just on the opening. It was an interesting game to play, however, and made me think again about the Dunst Opening (with 1.Nc3) which used to be part of my own repertoire.

Dinner with Carlsen? Priceless!

2012-01-20T14:37:00.001-05:00

Actually, $2600 per person. I wonder how much he charges for lessons...

2012 KCCC Opens with a Gambit

2012-01-13T19:51:00.001-05:00

White to play after 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 b5 3.Bxb5 c6

I have annotated Goeller-Komunicky, from the 21st Annual Kenilworth Chess Club Championship, which began on Thursday night with a strong turnout. My game featured the old Anderssen Gambit 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 b5. I can't decide how to annotate that move now, since on close analysis it almost seems playable, especially after the book line (which I chose) with 3.Bxb5 c6 4.Be2(?!) Nf6 5.d3 d5 6.f4 which should grant Black equality after 6...dxe4! with the idea of 7.fxe5 Bc5! Fortunately my opponent played differently and I won a nice game. In the future, I will have to remember that best is 4.Ba4! heading for a sort of Evans Gambit reversed with an extra tempo for White, as I discuss in my notes.

Smith-Morra Gambit Update

2012-01-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

I have finally annotated the seven available games from IM Marc Esserman's 8-board Smith-Morra Gambit Thematic Simultaneous Exhibition at the Kenilworth Chess Club, which followed his lecture about the opening on April 15, 2010. I was inspired to finally put these games together by some recent developments in the Smith-Morra since I wrote Smashing the Finegold Defense to the Smith-Morra, The Smith-Morra Gambit's Siren Call, and my Smith-Morra Gambit Bibliography. These developments include IM Esserman's celebrated victory over a world-class GM with the opening at the 2011 U.S. Open; IM Lawrence Trent's useful ChessBase DVD on The Smith-Morra Gambit (2010); and the highly anticipated release of the Second Edition of IM Hannes Langrock's The Modern Morra Gambit (Russell Enterprises, December 28, 2011). I conclude with some newer Smith-Morra videos you can find on YouTube.

Esserman's simul at the club was an impressive rout, with the dynamic IM going 8-0 against mostly 1800+ opposition, and doing it in under 90 minutes (with most games over in about an hour). Soon after the simul, John Moldovan (The Chess Coroner) posted notes to his game along with some extensive notes on the opening in his article Smith-Morra Gambit (which includes a zipped pgn). As Moldovan points out, most players prefer to "ruin White's party" by declining the gambit, typically with 3...Nf6 -- which also serves against the standard Alapin with 2.c3. I also see 3...d3 quite frequently in online play. Most players are not prepared to accept the gambit, and many who do accept don't know what they are getting into. Based on my review of Esserman's games, this seems to be as true among GMs and IMs as it is among amateurs.

A case in point is Esserman's victory with the Smith-Morra over GM Loek van Wely, where the Dutch GM hardly seemed confident of his theory. This game has been widely recognized in the chess press and in video commentaries:

Esserman - van Wely, US Open 2011 at CTF Sartranc
Esserman - van Wely annotated by GM Mikhail Golubev
More of the Morra by Andy Soltis at The New York Post
Lenderman Last Man Standing in US Open by David Sands in the Washington Times
Du Nouveau dans le Gambit Morra by Luc Winants at La Libre
Chess Notes by Harold Dondis and Patrick Wolfe
Esserman - van Wely, US Open 2011 by Dennis Monokroussos (free registration required to view)
Boris Alterman at ICC (membership required to view)
US Chess News Blog includes some comments by Esserman, and other great games.

As usual among those on the losing side of the Smith-Morra, GM van Wely didn't know what hit him and went down hard in 26 moves. You can find several similarly speedy Smith-Morra victories by Esserman over strong opposition annotated online:

Esserman - Sarkar, Miami Open 2008
Esserman - Chandran, Eastern Class Championship 2010
Esserman - Bartell, USCL 2009 (also commented on by IM Mark Ginsburg and Harold Dondis & Patrick Wolf, among others).
Esserman - Lian, USCL 2008

If stories of Esserman's "retirement" from chess are true, let's hope they last about as long as the retirement of GM and recent World-Cup challenger Sam Shankland. Whether or not he decides to leave the game, however, we hope that he will first leave us with a book or video on the Smith-Morra, which his games have done so much to help revive. Anything he writes on the line would be very well received and a great contribution to theory. While we wait for Esserman to make a formal addition to Smith-Morra theory, however, there are two recent additions worth mentioning.

IM Lawrence Trent's DVD The Smith-Morra Gambit (available from ChessBase, USCF Sales, Chess Central, ChessCafe, and most other chess sellers) has been justly praised by reviewers, including Louis Lima and Marsh Towers. I have enjoyed this DVD tremendously, especially the videos, which are very nicely presented and easy to absorb in one sitting. Previously I have enjoyed watching Andrew Martin's Foxy Video on the Smith-Morra, though some of its suggestions -- including h4 against the Fianchetto Defense -- seem a bit dodgy, and the long video format can get a little tiring. I find short videos watched on a computer much nicer to deal with, as I can move easily around among the video content and control the order in which I watch it. I often watch videos while exercising or relaxing at the end of the day, when I might not be up for setting up a board or sitting through a long presentation.

Besides the format, I also like Trent's recommendations, especially his interesting suggestion of 7.O-O Nf6 8.b4!? against the Taylor Defense, which is exactly what Esserman surprised me with in his simul. His coverage of the declined line with 3...d3 (which I see surprisingly often in online blitz play) is a tour de force and has helped me a lot in completely dominating players who wimp out in that way. I also like his interesting suggestion against 3...g6 (seen with increasing frequency), which he suggests meeting in gambit fashion with 4.cxd4 d5 5.Nc3 dxe4 6.Bc4!? His other suggestions (including Be3 and b4 against the Classical Main Line) often match those of Hannes Langrock's 2006 edition, but he adds some games, insights, or analyses of his own that make important additions to my understanding. I was disappointed, though, not to find good coverage of a couple important lines, especially the e6, a6, and b5 set-up discussed by IM Richard Palliser in Fighting the Anti-Sicilians (2007) and the increasingly important Nc6, e6, and Bb4 line recommended by GM Efstratios Grivas in NIC Yearbook #88 (2008) and used recently with success for Black in Stopa - Kosteniuk, St. Louis 2011 -- though White failed to use Grivas's and Langrock's recommended 8.Qe2!

I am a strong believer in collecting everything I can find on the openings I study, precisely because most works these days offer only a narrow "repertoire," so you can only achieve general coverage if you buy them all. I think the last books to offer general coverage of the Smith-Morra were Graham Burgess's Winning with the Smith-Morra Gambit (1994) and József Pálkövi's Morra Gambit (2000), both of which discuss multiple alternatives for White and Black. This is why those two books are so prized by collectors today. No one wants a narrow repertoire, not only because "you can't trust anyone more than yourself" to choose opening moves, but also because I don't want to follow a single repertoire in my play. I like to have alternatives, even if they are just options I'd like to keep around to surprise particular opponents. Like most recent work on the Smith-Morra, IM Trent's DVD offers only a single repertoire, but it is full of new or less mainstream ideas that add to my knowledge and help to expand my own repertoire of choices. For this reason alone, I am glad to have it and definitely recommend it.

Though it also offers a repertoire, this second edition of IM Hannes Langrock's ground breaking The Modern Morra Gambit is not so narrow as many repertoire books and its main recommendations are very well considered. Admittedly, it does not offer the general coverage of some earlier works, but with analysis often delving deeply into critical lines (especially those Nd5 Knight sacs) there just is not room to do so. Where the author feels strongly that there are only a few sound options, he confines his analysis to these, only spending a page or so to show "how NOT to play" a particular line.

The new edition was released December 28, 2011, and one wonders why they did not delay it just a few more days to get a "2012" publication date, especially since they had already missed the Christmas buying season. It is currently available from various sources, including USCF Sales, Barnes & Noble, and Books-a-Million. I assume it will eventually be more widely available if you are willing to wait. To get the overview, you can read the table of contents and an excerpt at the Russell Enterprises website. Langrock has made use of recent games and sources, including IM Palliser's Fighting the Anti-Sicilians and IM Trent's Smith-Morra Gambit DVD. He also emphasizes that what sets this edition apart from the earlier work is his use of the most recent chess software, which helped him to delve more deeply into certain sacrificial lines.

The material is divided as follows:

Chapter 1 - The Qc7 System - 1.e4 c5 2.d4 cxd4 3.c3 dxc3 4.Nxc3 Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 d6 7.O-O a6 8.Qe2 Nf6 (8...Be7 9.Rd1 Qc7 10.Bf4) 9.Rd1 Qc7 10.Bf4
Chapter 2 - The Bd7 System - 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 e6 7.O-O Nf6 (7...Be7 8.Qe2 Bd7 9.Rd1 Qb8 10.Bf4) 8.Qe2 Be7 9.Rd1 Bd7 10.Bg5
Chapter 3 - An Early d6 and Nf6 - 4...Nc6 (4...d6 5.Bc4 Nf6 6.e5) 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.e5 (or 7.O-O)
Chapter 4 - The Classical Main Line - 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 d6 7.O-O Nf6 8.Qe2 Be7 9.Rd1 e5 10.Be3 O-O (10...Bg4 11.h3) 11.Rac1
Chapter 5 - The Nge7 System - 4...e6 5.Nf3 a6 6.Bc4 b5 (6...Ne7 7.Bg5) 7.Bb3 Ne7 8.Bg5 Bb7 9.O-O b4 10.Nd5
Chapter 6 - The Early Development of Black's Dark Square Bishop - 4...e6 5.Nf3 Nc6 (5...Bc5 6.Bc4 d6 7.O-O a6 8.a3) 6.Bc4 Bb4 (6...a6 7.O-O Qc7 8.Qe2 Bd6 9.Be3 Nge7 10.Rac1) 7.O-O Nge7 8.Qe2 O-O 9.Rd1
Chapter 7 - The Fianchetto Variation - 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 g6 6.Bc4 (6.h4?!) 6...d6!? (6...Bg7 7.e5!) 7.e5! (7.Bg5!?)
Chapter 8 - The Siberian Variation - 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 e6 6.Bc4 Qc7 7.Qe2 (7.O-O Nf6 8.Nb5 Qb8 9.e5) 7...Nf6 8.e5 Ng4 (8...d5) 9.Bf4 f6 10.Nb5
Chapter 9 - The Chicago Defense - 4...e6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 a6 7.O-O b5 8.Bb3 Ra7?!
Chapter 10 - The Tartakower System - 4...e6 5.Nf3 a6 6.Bc4 b5 7.Bb3 Bb7 8.O-O d6 9.Qe2 Nd7 10.Rd1 Ngf6 11.Bf4
Chapter 11 - The Taylor System - 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 a6 7.Bf4
Chapter 12 - Sidelines - including Finegold's 4...e6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 Nf6 7.O-O Be7 8.Qe2 O-O 9.e5
Chapter 13 - Black Declines the Gambit with 3...d3
Chapter 14 - Black Declines the Gambit with 3...e5
Chapter 15 - The Delayed Morra Gambit - 2.Nf3 (Morra's move order)

While Langrock has generally added newer games and deepened the analysis in some places (most notably in chapters 5 and 9), the biggest differences from the earlier edition occur in chapters 4, 10, and 11. Against the Classical Main Line with 9...e5, Langrock used to advocate 11.b4 but now prefers Esserman's favorite move 11.Rac1 (development above all!) meeting 11...Be6 with 12.b4. The chapters on the Tartakower and Taylor systems are new, as these lines used to be considered under "Sidelines." The Tartakower System received some positive support from Palliser's book, so it is worth considering at length, especially since the Knight sac with 4...e6 5.Nf3 a6 6.Bc4 b5 7.Bb3 Bb7 8.O-O b4?! 9.Nd5! (as featured in Esserman - Sarkar) requires careful treatment, and the main line gets quite complicated after 8.O-O d6 9.Qe2 Nd7 10.Rd1 Ngf6 11.Bf4 Qb8 12.e5! (probably better than my 12. Rd2 Ngf6 13. Rad1 b4 14. Rxd6!! mentioned in Youthful Smith-Morras). The biggest change in the new edition comes against the Taylor System, where Langrock has rejected the standard 4...Nc6 5.Nf3 d6 6.Bc4 a6 7.Bg5 in favor of the lesser known 7.O-O Nf6 8.Bf4, which Palliser described as "quite sharp." This line was analyzed at length by Karsten Müller in Has the Morra Gambit Been Revived? -- framed by Tim Harding's extended discussion of the first edition of Langrock's book--and has been played by English FM Ben Hague (though Langrock improves upon Hague - Wells, Sunningdale 2006, by substituting 9.h3! for Hague's 9.Qb3?!)

Overall, I think it was worthwhile for Langrock to come out with a new edition and I'm glad to have it. Though some chapters are very close or identical to the original, there are a number of places where the analysis or specific recommendations have been strengthened in important ways. Whether there are enough changes for owners of the 2006 edition to require an "upgrade" is a judgment call. But I'd say we Smith-Morra gambiteers need any edge we can get, so why not?

Among the more interesting sites on the Morra I have discovered of late is the Hungarian-language Morra Gambit blog "Morra-csel." I should also mention some new videos that have come out since my bibliography, including a very nicely produced quartet for beginning players from ChessTV's "Opening School" series. There are also some subscription-only services: David Vigorito, "The Morra Gambit in Action - Part One" (August 15, 2011, featuring Esserman - van Wely) and "The Morra Gambit in Action - Part Two" (August 16, 2011, featuring Esserman - Sarkar) at Chess Lectures.com and GM Larry Christensen, "Esserman Zings -- Thatsa Morra" (August 17, 2011, ICC / ChessFM) -- all subscription only.

As always, I welcome additions and comments from readers.

Kavalek Annotates His Masterpiece

2011-12-30T09:18:00.000-05:00

Kavalanche! Black to play.

In his article on The World Chess Hall of Fame at the Huffington Post, Lubomir Kavalek analyzes his own "hall of fame" game against Eduard Gufeld, featuring its famous pawn avalanche (or "Kavalanche" as some have called it). I looked briefly at the game when examining a similar Pawn Steamroller by a local player, and it has been very widely annotated. But, according to Kavalek, this is the first time he himself has ever annotated his "Mona Lisa." Even if you have played it over before, it is worth another look with notes by the master himself.

Xtreme Chess Is Cool

2011-12-22T13:30:00.000-05:00

Who said chess is not cool enough for TV? I really enjoyed the first episode of the Xtreme Chess Championship on video. Afterward, I didn't feel too bad about having lost to Justus myself in last year's USATE.

The Bryntse-Faj Gambit

2011-12-09T20:32:00.001-05:00

1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5 3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Ne5!?

I have posted an article on the Bryntse-Faj Gambit: 1.e4 c5 2.f4 d5 3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Ne5!? (download PGN here). It is a very rare but interesting variant on the more familiar Bryntse Gambit with 4.Ng5 and might be considered a reversed Budapest Fajarowicz (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 Ne4, which I treated in a webliography): hence my calling it "Bryntse-Faj." The similarity with the Faj is especially highlighted where Black plays an eventual ...f5 in that opening, and I conclude my game collection with a couple of Faj games where this happens.

I started looking at this line when I developed an anti-Sicilian and anti-French repertoire built around the Grand Prix with 1.e4 c5 2.f4!? (see Grand Prix with Na3 for example) and the line 1.e4 e6 2.f4!? d5 3.e5 against the French (see The Labourdonais McDonnell Attack). Of course, the main problem with this repertoire is that Black can immediately equalize against the 2.f4 Grand Prix with 2....d5! The Bryntse-Faj offers at least an opening surprise for even the most booked-up opponent who plays this way.

Giving this opening a name has been difficult for me, and I've chosen "Bryntse-Faj" simply because it most succinctly communicates the idea, which is to play the traditional Bryntse Gambit more like a reversed Fajarowicz. Of course, it is hard to give a name to an opening that so few strong players have tried and almost no one else discusses in print. In his discussion of the Bryntse Gambit (2004), Thomas Johansson mentions that GM Henrik Danielsen had tried this reversed Faj idea on ICC, and I found two of his games (played as H-Danielsen) as evidence. But a couple games on ICC hardly constitute a strong argument for naming it the "Danielsen Gambit." I thought of naming it after Dana Mackenzie, who has played it on several occasions and was kind enough to annotate and share those games with me (they are the centerpiece of the article). But Dana is much better known for his play of the main line Bryntse with 5.Ng5, with which he famously beat a GM in Mackenzie - Pruess, Western States Open 2006 (a topic he has covered in a great ChessLectures.com video, a great Chess Life article, and on his blog, as I mention in The Nuclear Option in the Sicilian Grand Prix.) Calling 4.Ne5 "the Mackenzie Gambit" would be confusing to anyone familiar with his current preference for 5.Ng5. Dana himself had suggested the "Sicili-pest" (after the Budapest) and the "Sicili-wicz." But both names sound too si-silly to take seriously. Bryntse-Faj gets to the same idea and seems a little clearer.

In sharing his games, Dana explained that he mainly ended up preferring 4.Ng5 over 4.Ne5 because he "got seduced by the Bryntse Gambit queen sacrifice." He then elaborated: "There are two reasons I didn't stick with 4. Ne5. One, as I said, was the Bryntse Gambit [with 4.Ng5]. The other was that, playing against Fritz 7 set at its highest level, I found myself constantly fighting for a draw with 4. Ne5, but when I started playing the Bryntse Gambit [with 4.Ng5], all of a sudden I could *beat* Fritz 7 at its highest level. (And Fritz 9, too, after I upgraded.) You can imagine how intoxicating that was! So I switched to the Bryntse [with 4.Ng5] and never looked back." Food for thought. And if I revisit this repertoire, I may take a closer look at the 4.Ng5 line myself.

Like Dana, I have also moved on to other approaches against the Sicilian, but I welcome any reader games played with the line, which I would be glad to publish here.

Google vs. Brooklyn Castle

2011-12-05T17:01:00.001-05:00

Justus Williams vs. Don Carrelli

On December 1st, Google NYC hosted the PS 318 chess team featured in the upcoming documentary Brooklyn Castle. At least 8 "Googlers" came and went, attracted to the chess boards and these exuberant kids. Highest rated on the Google team was our own Don Carrelli, former president of the Kenilworth Chess Club, who also sent me the picture above showing his game against NM Justus Williams. The kids, who included at least two masters, won almost all of the games. Don included the following comments:

"Justus and James went undefeated, even in bughouse! Seemed like all the games were 10 minutes or less. After skittles, we took lunch then a tour of the office. Followed by more skittles!"

"The kids had a blast, and so did I. It was fun to have everyone want to play against me. They probably just wanted to beat me....which for the most part, they did. Even their 1200 rated players gave me tough times in blitz. 2 wins 15 losses (give or take) and a draw. Justus even gave me 3-5 time odds."

A recent article in the NY Daily News emphasized the economic plight of this national championship team, which is greatly in need of your support. I hope some people at Google were reading that.

Nona Gaprindashvili's Epic Battles

2011-12-04T06:50:00.001-05:00

There is an interesting ChessBase interview with Nona Gaprindashvili (see original here) at the recently completed Senior Championship. In it she discusses or alludes to several of her most memorable games, all slugfests:

Velimirovic - Gaprindashvili, Bela Crkva 1984 (unbelievable)
Gaprindashvili - Peters, Lone Pine 1977 (last round, both needed a win)
Gaprindashvili - Lein, Lone Pine 1977 (the tournament where she became a GM)
Gaprindashvili - Shamkovich, Lone Pine 1977
Gaprindashvili - Kapengut, Reggio Emilia 1991 (cannot confirm date)
Ceschia - Gaprindashvili, Reggio Emilia 1982-1983 (see crosstable)

I am sure you can find many more "epic battles of the chessboard" if you play through her games. Worth a look.

Fred Wilson Lectures at DoCA

2011-12-03T16:49:00.001-05:00

Renowned chess author, bookseller, and trainer Fred Wilson will give a lecture titled “Simple Attacking Plans” at Dean of Chess Academy on December 10, 2011 at 6:00 pm. The lecture will showcase several unknown attacking “gems” from Nicholas Rossolimo and Peter Biyiasis. The games are featured in Fred’s forthcoming book entitled Simple Attacking Plans. Fred’s lectures are interactive and last for 90 minutes. Every attendee will receive a handout covering the material presented. The cost is $20. Please email noreen@deanofchess.com or call 908-595-0066 for more information.

Dean of Chess Academy is located at 3150 Route 22 West in Branchburg, NJ 08876.

Steinitz - Sveshnikov Attack Revisited

2011-11-25T16:37:00.001-05:00

I have posted The Steinitz - Sveshnikov Attack, Part Two (download PGN), which revisits the topic of my earlier article on this interesting variation of the Giuoco Piano. This new installment focuses on the most challenging line Black can play, which is 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d4 exd4 6.e5 d5 7.Bb5 Ne4 8.cxd4 Bb6! (see diagram).

A recent win by Gawain Jones over David Howell in the 2011 British Championship in Sheffield, England, inspired me to put together my notes on this line, which remains rather complex and double edged. I have been very impressed by Jones's play of late, especially in the Commonwealth and South Africa Open Tournament earlier this year, where Jones, Nigel Short, and David Smerdon (who finished in the top spots) all had success with the Modern Variation of the Two Knights. Food for thought for those interested in constructing a Urusov Gambit or Scotch Gambit repertoire with these lines.

Lasker's Defense in Informant 111

2011-11-19T06:42:00.001-05:00

Black to play.

"The Most Important Novelty of Informant 110" by Josip Asik in Informant 111 and at ChessCafe analyzes the game Topalov - Anand, Nanjing 2010 (discussed here last year), which featured a very interesting novelty in Lasker's Defense to the Queen's Gambit. It also includes a very thorough treatment of the 12...Be6 line (traditionally called the Cotlar Counter-Attack) in classic Informant style. There are now enough resources online to develop a GM-level knowledge of the Lasker:

Alter Ego (1972)

2011-11-05T17:01:00.001-04:00

"Alter Ego" is a freaky episode of the television series Ghost Story, which modeled itself after The Twilight Zone, with Sebastian Cabot in the Rod Serling role of host and a focus on the supernatural. Broadcast in 1972, this sixth episode clearly intends to capitalize on Fischer's recent triumph in Reykjavik. The title character is named "Bobby" and naturally plays chess. Who does he play with? Himself, of course -- or an evil version of himself who becomes hell bent on taking over his life. The story-line involving his social studies teacher, Miss Gilden (played by the incomparable Helen Hayes), is every educator's worst nightmare. Dated but mildly diverting, in three 15-minute installments.

West Orange CC Fall Swiss Starts November 8

2011-11-04T19:58:00.000-04:00

The West Orange Chess Club's Late Fall Swiss tournament starts next week. Here is the information:

Nov. 8, 15, 22, 29, Dec. 13, 20 West Orange CC Late Fall Swiss GPP: 6 New Jersey 6 rds., G/100, Reg. 7-7:30 P.M., rds. start at 8:00. EF: $30.00, members $25. Prizes: 1st $150, 2nd $100, 3rd $75 guaranteed; Best under 1900, $60, 1700, $50, 1500, $35 guaranteed. Details: http://westorangechessclub.blogspot.com/ and buickchess@gmail.com. Byes: Two 1/2 pt. byes available in any rd; must know by the end of rd. 4. Address: Toby Katz Community Center, 650 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange, NJ 07052. Chess Magnet School JGP.

Fluxus Chess Game

2011-11-02T23:49:00.001-04:00

I went to the Fluxus Art Show at the Zimmerli Art Museum today to play some chess. It was a fun experience and an interesting challenge to play a game using fruits and vegetables in place of pieces. I played an interesting game against Lev Zilbermintz, which I have reconstructed and annotated. Though not a lot of chess players showed up, it was a fun event and definitely representative of the Fluxus art philosophy, which often incorporates audience members into a spontaneous performance of art made up of found objects. It was a very relaxed atmosphere and one of the most fun games I have played in a long time. Though my opponent got confused by the crazy board and dropped a piece early in the game, he battled as best he could until I was able to put together a deadly mating net (see diagram below).

Black to play and win most quickly.

2011-10-29T14:20:00.000-04:00

The Zimmerli Art Museum at 71 Hamilton Street in New Brunswick, NJ (right next door to my office) is hosting a "fruits and vegetables themed chess tournament in [the] style of the Fluxus art movement" on Wednesday, November 2, 2011 from 4:00 - 7:00 pm. According to their Facebook page, "The tournament starts at 4:00 pm and games will be played first until 6:00 pm, when a free play period will begin, and then resumes at 8:00 pm when finalists play their last games and a winner is declared. This tournament is in knockout format. Come to play, to watch, and enjoy the art! Rutgers students get in free, $6 for non-students. This event is run in conjunction with the Rutgers chess team, and we appreciate your support in attending this event. If you have any interest in chess, recreationally, competitively, or aesthetically, please join our Facebook group Rutgers Chess Club and join us for meetings at the times and places specified on that page." Due to a prior commitment, I will not be able to attend myself but might catch the end of it.

Endings with Bishops of the Same Color

2011-10-15T12:30:00.003-04:00

FM Steve Stoyko gave a wonderful lecture on Bishop Endings at the Kenilworth Chess Club on Thursday, September 22nd, which I have finally written up based on my notes (with additional analysis). His focus was bishops of the same color, where the superior side often has winning chances. Though Steve would have liked to have given dozens of other examples, I think the ones he focused on went very far in laying out the principles. I have chosen to focus on only about half of the examples Steve presented, organizing them according to several critical themes: exploiting the short diagonal, needing "two weaknesses" to win, using the more active king, fixing targets on both sides of the board, deflection, and zugzwang. For those who want even more examples, I have compiled a bibliography of sources, including multiple videos.

Though Steve discussed several pure B v B+P endings, I have chosen to focus only on the classic position analyzed by Nimzovich since all of these endings have been well covered in several YouTube videos (see above). Pure B v B+P endings are fascinating, but they are nowhere near as stunning as the themes Steve covered in Bishop endings with multiple pawns where one side has a positional advantage. Here the theme of "two weaknesses" (typically two pawns on the same color as the Bishops, which can become targets) is very much worth remembering as it occurs frequently in practical play. In all of the positions, an untrained player could easily agree to a draw without recognizing the winning advantage that one side holds. Meanwhile, a player who knows how to fix his opponent's pawns on the right color square can steer the game toward a winning Bishop ending.

I look forward to Steve's next lecture, when he promises to do something on Rook endings.

Same-Colored Bishop Endings Webliography

Mark Dvoretsky, The Process of Elimination, Part Two (ChessCafe, September 2011)
Dvoretsky's article begins with discussion of a wonderful Bishop ending composition that is practically a tour de force of every Bishop ending theme.

Karsten Müller, The Overgrown Pawn (ChessBase, October 2011)
Examines a position where the defender's Bishop is trapped behind its pawns on the same color.

_______. The Eternal Hunt (Chess Cafe, June 2011)
Uses several practical examples to illustrate the problem-like theme of the "Bishop hunt," where a Bishop trying to stop a pawn along a short diagonal can be "hunted" by the King to force a draw.

_______. Capablanca's Concept (Chess Cafe, October 2010)
Discusses Capablanca's principle that you should try to keep your pawns on the opposite color of your Bishop, especially in Bishop endings of the same color.

_______. Small Advantages in Bishop Endings (Chess Cafe, October 2009)

_______. Same-colored Bishops (Chess Cafe, May 2009)

_______. Bishops and Overgrown Pawns (Chess Cafe, September 2004)

_______. Bishops at Work, Part Three (Chess Cafe, September 2002)

_______. Bishops at Work, Part Two (Chess Cafe, August 2002)

_______. Bishops at Work, Part One (Chess Cafe, July 2002)
Sets forth some useful principles of Bishop endings, which the series goes on to illustrate.

_______. Ponomariov's Tecnnique, Part One (Chess Cafe, March 2002)
Examines an interesting Bishop ending where Ponomariov used his king position to achieve a draw.

_______. Brains in Bahrain Game 3 and Brains in Bahrain Game 1 (ChessBase 2002)
Two Bishop endings from the Deep Fritz - Kramnik match.

George Orlov. Bishop Endings II (Jeremy Silman website)
A very useful overview of Bishop ending themes and principles.

_______. Bishop Endings I (Jeremy Silman website)

Brooklyn 64. Bishops of same color endings: Bishop v Bishop+pawn.
A useful quick overview of Bishop ending themes.

Armis. Bishop Endings video (Chessvideos.tv)
A useful overview of Bishop of the same color themes. This video could not be embedded.

NJKO Needs Fourth Board

2011-09-23T08:12:00.003-04:00

A message from the New Jersey Knockouts:

"Help! Your local US Chess League team, the New Jersey Knockouts, needs you!

"We have some personnel issues this week, and may need an under-2000 (1800-1999 on the August 2011 list) rated player for fourth board, for this week only. You would be playing in Lincoln Park, on Monday September 26 at 7pm. You need to indicate your interest to me ASAP, as the lineup must be turned into the league by tomorrow (Friday Sep 23) by 9pm. There's no guarantee that you will play, but I need to have some options. Please indicate your interest by emailing me at: minusone@alumni.princeton.edu."

Niche Market: Chess Shop

2011-09-18T21:27:00.001-04:00

A few days ago, the Village Chess Shop was featured in WNYC's Niche Market blog. I had been waiting to see it there. The article reminds me that I have not updated my Chess Tourist in New York City in many years... I wonder if other people have done so or if there are chess tourist guides to other cities. Here are some of my previous posts:

Review of David Rudel's Koltanowski Phoenix Attack

2011-09-18T00:32:00.001-04:00

I recently received a copy of David Rudel's Koltanowski Phoenix Attack: The Future of the c3 Colle (Thinker Press 2011), which continues his excellent work with Zuke 'em (reviewed here in 2009) and The Moment of Zuke exploring and explaining the Colle - Zukertort systems.

The main focus of the Koltanowski Phoenix Attack is the line 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.c3 (rather than 5.b3 in the earlier volume), and Rudel has an important contribution to make to the theory of the main line with 5...Nc6 6.Nbd2 Bd6 7.O-O O-O 8.dxc5 Bxc5 9.b4! This move is very interesting and was actually first tried by Edgar Colle himself in Colle - Euwe, Zutphen match 1924, so it's odd that it was thereafter generally ignored by theory. For example, in his otherwise excellent book Colle Plays the Colle System, Adam Harvey notes that 9.b4 was "An early experiment by Colle before he settled on the more usual 9.e4" and "dubious ... as it slightly weakens the queenside" (31). Harvey renders this judgment, it should be noted, despite not pointing to any errors on Euwe's part on the way to losing that game. Of course, 9.e4 has been the standard move and it is the only one mentioned in many texts on the Colle (including Andy Soltis's Colle System: Koltanowski Variaiton 5.c3), so there is bound to be some skepticism and prejudice. Rudel does an excellent job of laying that prejudice aside by showing from the outset that the more traditional 9.e4 does not yield any advantage against best play by Black and may even put White at some risk. If you are as convinced as I am that White needs something else here, then you will be quickly persuaded that 9.b4! is it.

I think anyone who spends time with Rudel's excellent book will want to give 9.b4 a try, and the book itself does an excellent job of teaching you how to make use of it. Those who need more convincing should check out the game Miltner - Appel, Bundesliga 2004-2005, which shows the 9.b4! idea in action. And there is no question that 9.b4 scores much better than 9.e4 in practice (though with many fewer games to go by at the moment). Highly recommended.

Review of No Passion for Chess Fashion

2011-09-03T20:18:00.002-04:00

I recently purchased No Passion for Chess Fashion: Fierce Openings for Your New Repertoire by GM Alex Raetsky and IM Maxim Chetverik. It resembles in some ways the Secrets of Opening Surprises series from New in Chess that I so much enjoy, and like SOS it presents some "unfashionable" lines which have nonetheless been played with success by titled players and would serve amateurs quite well. In the end I think its contents just do not measure up to the articles in SOS, which are usually much more thorough in their treatment of critical variations. But there is still some material of interest.

At first I thought the volume focused only on Black defenses, and it almost does so, with the sole exception of an odd chapter on Nimzovich's eccentric 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.Qg4, which even the authors have to admit "has turned out to be not as durable as his strategic principles." Though it might be worth a punt in blitz, I think the chapter on 4.Qg4 is unfortunate and should have been replaced with a piece on a line for Black so that the whole volume could have been subtitled "Fierce Black Counters for Your Repertoire." That said, the collection is like a typical SOS volume in that there will likely be only a couple lines you're actually going to adopt.

You can find the table of contents and sample pages at the publisher's website. Here is the breakdown of the chapters:

King's Gambit (2...exf4 3.Nf3 d6 4.d4 g5 5.h4 g4 6.Ng1 f5!?), 5-14
Petroff Defense (3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5), 15-23
Ruy Lopez (Alapin's 3...Bb4), 24-44
The Scandinavian (2…Nf6 3.d4 Nxd5 4.c4 Nb4), 44-56
Alekhine's Defense (2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.c4 Nb6 5.f4 g5), 57-64
The French Defense (Nimzovich's 3.e5 c5 4.Qg4) 65-81
The St. George (1.e4 a6) 82-129
Sicilian Defense (The Cobra 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e6 6.Ndb5 Bc5), 130-148
The Albin Countergambit (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 survey), 149-194
Chigorin Defense (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.g3 Bg4 4.Bg2 Qd7), 195-220
English Opening (1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Nd5 Ba5!?), 221-234

It is a somewhat motley collection, yet it almost represents a complete repertoire for Black: The St. George (1...a6), the Scandinavian, or the "Cobra system" in the Sicilian could take you pretty far toward complete antidotes to 1.e4, and the sections on the Albin, Chigorin, and English could go pretty far toward supplying the rest (though you'd need to supplement with some online sources).

As a 1.e4 e5 player, I was most interested in their surprising twist on Fischer's famous "Bust to the King's Gambit" with 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 d6. Here the authors recommend 4.d4 g5 5.h4 g4 6.Ng1 f5!? (instead of Fischer's idea of 6....Bh6, which is most popular). The 6...f5!? thrust, which was originated to some extent by Raetsky himself, is very interesting and has received some high level trials. After 7.exf5 Qe7+! 8.Qe2 I like best now 8...Bh6!? to hold onto the f-pawn, as in Metz - Held 1980, though I suppose Black is fine after their recommendation of 8...Bxf5 9.Bxf4 Nc6! (better than the time wasting 9...Bxc2?!) followed by O-O-O and rapid development for Black. This is a promising line and really worth a closer look, especially since my favorite Adelaide Counter-Gambit (which also features an early ...f5) has become boring with so many White players continuing 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Nc6 3.Nf3 f5 4.d3! as in Ivanchuk - Nakamura.

I must say I am too prejudiced against Alapin's 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Bb4 to give that a try any time soon. But I do like the Petroff line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 Bc5! which I examined in my article on an "Anti-Petroff Repertoire with 3.d4" as the chief reason White should not play 4.dxe5?! Of course, you would really need to know a lot more theory as Black in order to make use of their analysis of 4...Bc5, which White usually avoids by 4.Bd3 followed by Nxe5 or dxe5 (the latter of which is the focus of my article, albeit from the White perspective). The same is true of their analysis of specific lines in the Scandinavian and Alekhine (both good on what they cover), where it would have been nice to at least have some discussion of what a complete repertoire in these lines would look like. Perhaps if they had dropped the inconsistent chapter on the French they'd have had space to do that.

I have found Raetsky and Chetverik's 1998 book on the Albin helpful to my studies (as mentioned in my article on the Mengarini-Morozevich line), so I was most interested in seeing that chapter. I found the coverage here rather mixed with good and bad. I was impressed that Chetverik seems to repeat no games from their earlier work and focuses mostly on much more recent games. And he also offers the type of survey of the Albin that could be as useful from either side of the board, covering all of the major 5th moves for both White and Black following 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e5 3.dxe5 d4 4.Nf3 Nc6, when most common is 5.g3 (5.a3 and 5.Nbd2 are also treated) and now 5...Nge7 has gone far to rehabilitate the Albin, but Chetverik also gives games with 5...Bc5, 5...Bg4 (the old main line), and 5...Be6. His treatment here is rather fair and balanced, but much too superficial for my tastes. For example, I was pleased to see him begin with the critical line 5.Nbd2! (where "white is guaranteed a slight advantage" he later concludes) 5...Nge7 (most everything else is nearly refuted, as covered nicely in The Albin Countergambit by Dorian Rogozenco from CBM 134, as I discuss in The Albin Counter-Gambit in Question) 6.Nb3! Nf5 and now the absolutely most critical lines receive only brief treatment in a note:

...it's worth starting to think about how to reply to 7.e4!?, and your mood immediately sours.... 7...Nh4 has been tried, with the confused knights off in the distance. An exchange of queens, 7...dxe3 8.Qxd8+ Nxd8 9.Bxe3 Nxe3 10.fxe3, was encountered back in von Bilguer's day. Later a stable advantage was held without exchanging off the bishop so soon. A fragment from Pena Riasco - Fluvia (Spain 2007) is instructive: 9. fxe3 Bb4+ 10. Kf2 O-O 11. Bd3 Nh6 12. h3 Ne6 13. Bd2 Bxd2 14. Nbxd2 Nc5 15. Bc2 Bf5 16. e4 Be6 17. b4 Na6 18. Rhb1 c5 19. a3 Rad8 20. Ke3 -- those knights wouldn't have appealed to Tarrasch!

This "fragment" (which may improve slightly on Rogozenco's analysis) concluded: 20...Kh8 21. Ba4 Ng8 22. Bb5 Nb8 23. bxc5 Rc8 24. Ba4 Rc7 25. Rb2 Na6 26. c6 bxc6 27. Rab1 Nc5 28. Bc2 Ne7 29. Kd4 Nd7 30. Rb7 c5+ 31. Kc3 Rfc8 32. Nf1 Ng6 33. Ne3 Ngxe5 34. Nxe5 Nxe5 35. Nd5 Rxb7 36. Rxb7 a6 37. Ra7 h5 38. Rxa6 h4 39. a4 g5 40. a5 Kg7 41. Ba4 g4 42. hxg4 Bxg4 43. Rb6 Be2 44. Bb5 Bd3 45. Nf6 Bf1 46. Nh5+ Kh7 47. Nf4 Bxg2 48. Ba6 Ra8 49. Bb7 Rxa5 50. Nxg2 h3 51. Nf4 Ra3+ 52. Kc2 Ra2+ 53. Kc3 Ra3+ 54. Kc2 Nxc4 55. Rf6 h2 56. e5 Nxe5 57. Rf5 Nf3 58. Rh5+ Kg7 59. Kb2 Re3 60. Rh3 c4 61. Nh5+ Kf8 62. Bxf3 h1=Q 63. Rxh1 Rxf3 64. Rc1 1/2-1/2 A very difficult and interesting game for both players, though White seems to have had the better of it up until Black's interesting piece sac.

Obviously, this is nowhere near the level of analysis you can find on the web for free, and it seems almost criminal to just mention 7...Nh4 in passing when, as Rogozenco suggests, it may well be the best hope of rehabilitating this critical variation for Black. Surely Chetverik, who plays the Albin himself, has more thoughts on this critical line than he is sharing. The book went up on my shelf at that point.

Probably the most useful chapters to me personally are the last two. I was amused to find that just moments before the book arrived at my door, I had been playing a game with the Chigorin line 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.g3 Bg4 4.Bg2 Qd7 (though I have also experimented with 3...Bf5!? with some success). It is surprising how often this line seems to arise in my games of late, perhaps because so many White players are using the Catalan and other lines from "Wojo's Weapons." Meanwhile, I have long been intrigued by 1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4!? -- especially because I typically play 2...Nc6 here with an eventual Bb4 only later. Yet I do not care much for the looks of 3.Nd5 Be7(?) given as the main line by many books. Raetsky's 3....Ba5!? seems much more my thing, and I like the "irrational position" that arises after 4.b4 c6 5.bxa5 cxd5 6.cxd5 when Black can choose between 6...Nf6 or 6...Qxa5 with a very interesting game. These chapters made me take the book back down again and look more closely.

Overall, I'd say that I'd recommend this book to amateurs intrigued by any of the lines presented. While you cannot expect a complete repertoire or deep analysis, you will definitely learn something about some very interesting lines which you can then go research further with your computer or with web sources.

Polgar - Short, Rapid Challenge 1994

2011-08-03T20:21:00.000-04:00

A fascinating video from 1994.

Scotch Four Knights (C47) Bibliography

2011-07-31T15:04:00.002-04:00

A solid opening for amateurs is the Scotch Four Knights (C47), which generally arises via the Scotch move order 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 but can also come out of a Four Knights (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.d4) or Vienna move order (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4). I personally use the Vienna move order to avoid the annoying Petroff Defense and to meet a Philidor set-up with an f4 advance, though you need to be aware that after 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.d4 Black has the interesting gambit 4...Bb4!? (originated in Paulsen - Morphy, New York 1857) which is not available in the Scotch move order.

The long main line of the Scotch Four Knights goes 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 (in this move order, White has to know various anti-Scotch ideas, including Steinitz's 4...Qh4!?) 5.Nc3 (5.Nxc6 bxc6 6.e5 is the more popular Mieses Variation) 5...Bb4 (5...Bc5!? is also playable) 6.Nxc6 (White also has the strange 6.Bb5!?) 6...bxc6 7.Bd3 (7.Qd4!? Qe7 8.f3 is playable) 7...d5 (Black can also delay this advance and play 7...O-O 8.O-O with perhaps ...Re8 or ...d6) 8.exd5 cxd5 9.O-O O-O 10.Bg5 c6 reaching the standard tabiya, when White can consider 11.Qf3, 11.Na4, or 11.Ne2, all of which are considered roughly equal.

Though considered equal by theory, the Scotch Four Knights is quite interesting and can be safely played for advantage, especially at the amateur level. White gets a wide-open game with lots of piece play, and thanks to his slight initiative can generally get some concession from Black, typically in damaged pawns (following Nxc6) and the two Bishops (if Black plays Bxc3), which makes this a great line for positionally minded players who like to exploit endgame advantages. It is also possible to play for a kingside attack, as demonstrated by Berg - Sokolov, Malmo 2001 and Rasmussen - Jessen, Denmark 2002. The line was employed by many strong players, including:

Louis Paulsen (see Paulsen - Chigorin, Vienna 1882 and Paulsen - Weiss, Vienna 1882)
Aaron Nimzovich (see Nimzovich - Leonhardt, Belgium 1907; Nimzovich - Spielmann, Hamburg 1910; and Nimzovich - Rubinstein 1912)
Rudolf Spielmann (see Spielmann - Nimzovich, Munich 1905; Spielmann-Yates, Semmering 1926; and Spielmann - Lasker, Moscow 1935)
Moshe Czerniak (see Czerniak-Puiggros, Buenos Aires 1941; Czerniak - Paoli, Venice 1950; and Czerniak - Rellstab, Reggio Emilia 1951)
Joel Lautier (see Lautier - Campos-Moreno, Manila 1992; Lautier - Karpov, Biel 1992; and Lautier - Sokolov, Correze 1992)

Because the Mieses Variation popularized by Kasparov is all the rage, many books on the Scotch (notably Barsky, Dembo & Palliser, and Wells) skip over the Scotch Four Knights, perhaps on the logic that it is really a variation of the Four Knights Game; meanwhile you will occasionally find good coverage in books on the Four Knights (see especially Pinski's below). But books have become less necessary these days to learning such a popular system, and most players can probably find all that they need on the web. The following bibliography, presented in reverse chronological order, features many online sources which are an ideal starting point.

Bibliography

Scotch Four Knights (C47)

A great Chessgames.com collection on the Scotch Four Knights and related lines (including Belgrade Gambit and 4...Bb4). I often recommend that those seeking to learn a new opening simply play over as many high-level games as possible with the line. Chess.com also has a good page to help you develop your pattern recognition. This is a good place for most players to start, though for more serious students of the game these databases are a bit limited.

Scotch Four Knights Game: A System for White by "Hogeye" Bill Orton (2011)
An excellent PDF download that is easy to print and covers the whole line for the club player. Argues that "The Scotch Four Knights generally gives a slight edge and almost no losing chances. If you want to exploit small advantages such as the two bishops and better pawn structure in the endgame with little risk, this opening should be considered." Another great opening resource from the excellent Fayetteville Chess Club website.

The Openings Explained: The Scotch Four Knights [C47] by Abby Marshall at ChessCafe (2010)
This is an excellent article, with lots of commentary on minor side-lines that usually escape the notice of analysts but which you're likely to see at the amateur level. Clearly written by a player with lots of scholastic experience playing this line herself.

C44-C59: Scotch, Four Knights, Italian by various (2010)
A black repertoire in the open games, with the Scotch Four Knights chapter following Svidler - Malaniuk, St. Petersburg 1993-94, which ended quickly after a shocking Svidler blunder.

The Scotch Game (DVD) by Nigel Davies (ChessBase 2009) Running time: 5 hours.
This DVD provides a surprising amount of coverage of the Scotch Four Knights, which Davies recommends as the easiest variation of the Scotch to learn for beginners and amateurs.

Refuting 5...Nxe4 in the Scotch Four Knights by Michael Goeller
Analyzes the game Sevillano - Tamburro, US Open 2007, which offers a very clean and simple way for White to gain the edge against a potentially messy Knight sacrifice. While I still like Sevillano's 7.Be2, White might get a little more edge with 7.f3 as advocated by Abby Marshall and John Emms.

Starting Out: The Scotch Game by John Emms (Everyman 2005), pp. 9-57.
With nearly 50 pages devoted to the Scotch Four Knights, all presented at the amateur level and with no obvious bias for either White or Black, this is probably the book to get if you are looking to limit purchases (especially with so much good material freely available online). Also available as an e-book. Many of the games analyzed are over a decade old, but that is mainly an indication of how little theory has changed in the Scotch Four Knights since the popularization of the Mieses Variation. Main games include Bezman - Varavin 1997, Reinderman - Sokolov 1995, Tzermiadianos - Frendzas 1996, Radulov - Pinter 1978, Oppici - Miotto 1990, Ivanov - Liss 1995, Kobalija - Ivanov 1996, Berg - Leko 1995, Ardelean - Vajda 1999 (see NIC), Krutko - Dzhambulatov 2004, Adla - Muniz 2000, and Miles - Sorin 1995.

The Scotch Game Explained by Gary Lane (Batsford 2005)
Though presented as a repertoire book, this does a great job of covering the whole Scotch. For our purposes, it is especially admirable that the longest chapter in the book is devoted to the Scotch Four Knights Game and offers an excellent overview for amateur players.

The Four Knights by Jan Pinski (Everyman 2003), pp. 40-101.
Good coverage of the line for a general reader without Pinski's usual pro-Black bias. I especially like the quality of the games he chooses, most of which conclude in the endgame stages. Games featured include Bykhovsky - Howell 1995, Kountz - Van den Doel 2000, Nunn - Sulskis 1994, Berg - Sokolov 2001, Pavasovic - Beliavsky 1999, Lutz - Yusupov 1992, Christiansen - Gelfand 1992, and Lautier - Sokolov 1992, Malakhov - Pinter 1995, Golubev - Malaniuk 1994, and Pedersen - Khruschiov 2002.

A Drawing Sacrifice by A.C Van der Tak NIC Yearbook 60 (2001)

Play the Open Games as Black by John Emms (Gambit 2000)
An excellent repertoire book for Black after 1.e4 e5. Emms covers both 5...Bb4 and 5...Bc5!? from the Black perspective.

An Opening Repertoire for the Positional Player by Eduard Gufeld and Nikolai Kalinichenko (Everyman 1998), pp. 27-40.
I have to credit this book for getting me to consider the Scotch Four Knights as a practical weapon for White, though its coverage of the opening is not very deep. I was also influenced by their recommendation of a 2.Nc3 move order to simplify White's preparation.

4.d4 im Vierspringerspiel by Lev Gutman (Erste Auflage 1993)
This book is out of print but is worth tracking down for correspondence players and other serious students as it offers Gutman's typically exhaustive analysis. This volume has an introduction by Victor Korchnoi and focuses on the Scotch Four Knights via a Four Knights move order, dealing with 4...Bb4, the Belgrade Gambit with 5.Nd5, and the Scotch Four Knights.

Winning with the Scotch by Gary Lane (Batsford / Henry Holt 1993), pp. 64-81.
A bit dated but widely available for free download in PDF (not that I advocate that sort of thing). Lane completely redid and vastly improved his presentation for The Scotch Game Explained (see above), greatly expanding his coverage. One advantage of older books like this one, though, is they cover lines that drop out of future discussions, including the crazy 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. d4 exd4 5. Nxd4 Bb4 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8. e5 Ng4 9. Bf4 d4 10. Qf3 dxc3 11. O-O-O as in Popelyshev - Grischuk, Moscow Open 1995.

New Ideas in the Four Knights by John Nunn (Batsford / Henry Holt 1993), pp. 37-47.
This book is a bit dated and, surprisingly, does not cover the Scotch Four Knights, though it does offer ten pages of analysis on the 4...Bb4 gambit.

Gewinnen mit Schottisch by Lev Gutman (Erste Auflage 1992)
This book is out of print but is worth tracking down for correspondence players and other serious students of the Scotch as it offers Gutman's typically exhaustive analysis. This volume has an introduction by Garry Kasparov and is focused on the Mieses Variation but includes good coverage of early move alternatives, including 4...Qh4, 4...Qf6 and 4...Bc5, important for those using a Scotch move order.

Scotch Four Knights by Alexei Shirov NIC Yearbook 27 (1992)

Scotch Four Knights by René Olthof NIC Yearbook 25 (1992)

An Unbeatable White Repertoire after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 by Larry Evans and Ken Smith (Chess Digest 1988)
This book has held up remarkably well despite its age, mostly thanks to the smart recommendations of the late GM Evans. It also offers a good and basic Four Knights repertoire for White. However, while it covers the Belgrade Gambit and 4...Bb4 line, it does not cover the Scotch Four Knights.

Addled Adelaide

2011-07-30T10:46:00.000-04:00

Position after 4.d4?!

I have analyzed the game Carrelli - Goeller, KCC Summer Tourney 2011, played this past Thursday night at the Kenilworth Chess Club. It was a wild game and featured the Adelaide Counter Gambit: 1.e4 e5 2.f4 Nc6 3.Nf3 (3.Nc3 can be met by 3...Bb4!? -- my patented Anti-Pierce line) 3...f5! when White tried 4.d4?! leading to an odd looking position (see diagram above). Both sides played inexactly, we ended up going down a rather confusing path...

Bird Defense Fishing Pole

2011-07-16T09:22:00.000-04:00

Black to play
What's the best move to continue the attack?

I have annotated the game Balakrishnan - Goeller, KCC Summer Tourney 2011, from which comes the diagram above.

On Thursday night I played young Praveen Balakrishnan in Round 6 of the Kenilworth Chess Club summer tourney, employing my favorite Bird Defense to the Ruy Lopez. For the second week in a row, I found myself sacrificing material for a direct attack on my opponent's king. In this case, I employed what Brian Wall likes to call "the fishing pole" theme: dangling my Knight at g4 for capture in order to open the h-file. My young opponent, who obviously had never been hooked before, gobbled the Knight and went down to speedy defeat. At least it is very unlikely he will ever fall for that trap again.

Brian Wall plays the Fishing Pole via the Berlin Defense with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.O-O Ng4!? trying to provoke 5.h3 h5! and the bait has been set and is hard to resist. See Lee - Wall, Kansas Open 2007 for a nice illustration. Wall has posted endless examples of his "Fishing Pole" online and in the Unorthodox Openings Yahoo group. If you have a spare 15 minutes or so, it's worth checking out his Fishing Pole: First Blood Part 1 and Part 2 on Youtube, which examine a game where GM Walter Browne lost to the Fishing Pole in a simul, intercutting scenes from Rambo for dramatic effect. If nothing else, it will definitely help you to resist the bait yourself!

John Cox on Lasker's Defense

2011-07-12T12:08:00.003-04:00

I was very interested to see Lasker's Defense featured prominently in John Cox's just released Declining the Queen's Gambit (Everyman 2011), available from New in Chess. I don't think there has been a good book on the Lasker in over a decade, and certainly none from the Black perspective. Based on the excellent sample pages (in PDF or Zipped PDF files), which give the entire Lasker Defense chapter (thanks, Katar, for pointing that out), I'd say it looks like a great book and one which, together with Cox's earlier Dealing with d4 Deviations, offers a complete repertoire for Black against 1.d4. I look forward to reading it more closely.

Check out some posts in these pages related to Lasker's Defense:

Kavalek on Anand and Lasker's Defense
Lasker's Defense to the Queen's Gambit Declined (includes bibliography)
Lasker's Defense to the Queen's Gambit Webliography

The Kernighan Experience

2011-07-09T22:48:00.000-04:00

Goeller - Kernighan
White to play.

I have annotated Goeller - Kernighan, KCC Summer Tourney 2011, from Thursday night. As often happens in my games with Mark, I sacrificed material to drive his King into the open and had a great attack going until I lost on time. I call this "the Kernighan experience." You might prefer to call it "repetition compulsion." But I found the experience very enjoyable despite the potentially traumatic result. Always in my games with Mark I am reaching toward Tal-like artistry, but that perfect game remains always just outside my grasp. I came pretty close this time to grabbing it, which was satisfaction enough for me.

Before we started, Ian Mangion (seated at the next board) joked that I should definitely play for a sac at f7 as he had done in a recent win over Mark. At that point, I decided to try the Cochrane Gambit if Mark went in for his usual Petroff. When Mark played the Caro-Kann, however, I said to Ian, "Oh well, no f7 sac." But the idea was definitely planted in my head and likely influenced my play in the game. In the diagrammed position above, I began my attack by playing 12.f5! exf5 13.Nxf5 gxf5 14.Nxf7!!

John Bryant's Tactics

2011-07-03T10:13:00.000-04:00

Bryant - Shen, Round One
White to play

Bryant - Sturt, Round Three
White to play

Bryant - Ding, Round Four
White to play

Troff - Bryant, Round Seven
Black to play

Bryant - Naroditsky, Round Eight
White to play

I have posted tactical puzzles from the games of FM John Bryant from the recent 2011 US Junior Championship in Saint Louis. Though he finished 7th out of 10, Bryant's games were always tactically interesting, and it is telling that he was one of the only players with no draws (5 wins and 4 losses). Bryant's swashbuckling attacking play was not always sound, but it produced some very nice finishes, represented above. Most of the puzzles are fairly easy, except for the last which requires some judgment of the resulting ending. More about the championship, won by Andrew Young (who finished two points ahead of the field), can be found online:

Chess Wars

2011-07-02T10:04:00.001-04:00

Fredb1978 has posted all of the cut scenes from Chess Wars: A Medieval Fantasy (DOS 1996). It is rather disturbing to watch all of the possible "murders" that can be committed on the chessboard. And you have to wonder if medieval combat to the death is the most compelling storyline that can get mapped onto this abstract game. But it is an interesting historical example of how designers have tried to jazz up chess for digital game play. I have previously only seen the opening sequence from the game (see second video above). The concept of having scenes to accompany each capture clearly inspired Lego Chess, though the latter has a much more fun attitude (more appropriate for children).

Too Many Good Choices

2011-06-26T20:49:00.000-04:00

Black to play: what are the best options?

I have annotated the game Tomkovich - Goeller, KCC Summer Tournament 2011, which illustrates the problem of having too many good choices, especially at Game-60 with no time delay. In the diagrammed position above, it is Black to play after 7.c4? What are the best options? And how do you decide which to choose?

Peter Falk (1927 - 2011), Chess Fan

2011-06-24T15:08:00.000-04:00

Peter Falk kibitzes with GM Yasser Seirawan

Peter Falk, best known for playing the disheveled Los Angeles detective "Columbo" on television, and less well known for playing chess, has died. He was 83. My mother will be very sad, as she loved Columbo. Edward Winter has posted several pictures of Falk as a chess spectator (including the one above with a young Yasser Seirwan). Obituaries are widely available, including in the New York Times.

Chess and Expert Perception

2011-06-20T21:30:00.000-04:00

Sanjoy Mahajan's "What Chess Tells Us about the Value of Perception" at the ever-interesting Freakonomics blog discusses how GM chess intuition offers insight into the way truly gifted performers are able to grasp their subjects. His main reference is a study of Kasparov's ability in simultaneous play, where researchers discovered surprisingly little loss of playing strength even at the high speeds of simul play:

At 20 seconds per move, Kasparov mostly used his perception and judgment of chess positions rather than his ability to calculate chess variations (the “I take, he takes, I take, etc.” kind of thinking). Thus, simultaneous chess is a real-life laboratory for measuring the value of perception. How well did Kasparov play, in comparison to his normal strength when playing at the usual tournament rate of 3 minutes per move? His normal strength at the time was 2750 on the Elo scale of chess skill. (To give a feel for the Elo scale, a beginner would be rated about 1000, an average tournament player is rated about 1600, a master is rated at 2200 or above, and a grandmaster is usually above 2400.)

The amazing result: At the rapid “simul” pace, Kasparov performed at a rating of 2650: higher than all but half a dozen players in the world! In other words, most of his world-class expertise comes from how he sees and looks at the chess board, not from his calculation ability.

In many ways this explains the decision-making power of all experts and managers, who have a broad range of intuitive knowledge to draw upon to help them quickly analyze a situation and decide.

Two Rook Sacs in the Caro Kann

2011-06-20T06:47:00.000-04:00

White to play.

I have annotated Two Rook Sacs in the Caro-Kann, where I examine two recent games I played in a series of online blitz at Chess.com (my new favorite online play site). I actually lost the majority of games to this opponent, but these two stood out because they were both well played and featured completely sound rook sacrifices against the Caro Kann. In the first, I played the Two Knights Variation and stumbled into a very interesting rook sac idea (which I hope to have a chance to try again), and in the second I got a chance to use my knowledge of the Caveman Caro-Kann.

Chekhover Sicilian at the Summer Tourney

2011-06-18T10:08:00.000-04:00

Chekhover Sicilian, White to play.

I stopped by the Kenilworth Chess Club on Thursday to enter the Summer Tournament. I must say that Greg Tomkovich has done a wonderful job this year organizing the event, especially with the idea of having an under-1200 section, which has attracted a wider range of players to the club than we usually see, including many youngsters. There were about 30 people in attendance, almost all participating in the tournament. That's a far cry from the days long ago when Greg used to be the only person in attendance at the club during the slow summer months. The crowd was a little too large, especially since we did not have our usual second room available due to a Recreation Department meeting there. I probably benefitted from the attendance and the crowded conditions, as my opponent for the night, FM Steve Stoyko, seems to have been distracted by spectators at critical junctures in our game. Steve said he's not sure he will play again, but with some of his students participating I doubt he will stick to his conviction. After all, it is an unrated event and he has already paid his five dollars.

I have annotated the game Goeller - Stoyko, Kenilworth CC Summer Tournament 2011 not because I think it's one of my better games but because I think it exemplifies the problems faced by masters trying to win against weaker opposition from a very equal position. I discussed a similar issue in my article "Winning with a Forced Draw in the Petroff," where Mangion played for a forced draw in the Petroff and NM Kernighan tried to escape the draw at his peril.

In my game with FM Stoyko, we reached a familiar position from the Chekhover Variation of the Sicilian Defense (see above) which I had examined in "Notes on the Chekhover Sicilian." In that article I had annotated a game of mine where I followed Vasiukov and played 11.Kb1 from the diagram. As I indicate in my notes, Black has lots of ideas for counterplay, for example with 11...h6 12.Bh4 Qa5! (which seems clearer than Kasparov's 12...Re8). Rather flummoxed to find a better continuation here over the board, I decided to take the coward's way out and pursue a draw with a line that theory frowns upon: 11.Bxf6?! Bxf6 12.Qxd6 and White temporarily wins a pawn. Of course, Black gets lots of counterplay; however, it seemed to me that the game would simplify to a position I likely could hold by giving back the pawn. That's more or less what happened, except Stoyko, not satisfied with a draw against me, over-reached. And so I won my first game of the event, and my first game ever against Steve.

After the game Steve showed me that the new way of playing this line for White, developed by Judit Polgar, is to keep the Rook at h1. So instead of playing 10.Rhe1 O-O reaching the diagrammed position, White plays 10.Qd3 with the idea of Nd4 and f4-f5. Play typically goes 10.Qd3 O-O 11.Nd4 and now with the Rook on h1 White can meet a Black h6 with h4! inviting him to open the h-file. I vaguely remembered seeing a video that laid out this idea and it is included below.

Chess Mates 1st Anniversary Tournament

2011-06-13T13:31:00.001-04:00

Chess Mates 1st Anniversary Tournament is being held this coming Sunday. I urge all area chess players to come out to support the tournament and those involved. Here is the full information:

Chess Mates 1st Anniversary Tournament

Sunday, June 19, 2011

G/45 Open Grand Prix Points: 10
4-SS, Rds.: 12:30, 2:15, 4:00, 5:45 p.m.
EF: $50, members $40. GMs Free - $50 deducted from prizes.
Guaranteed Prizes: 1st -$350, 2nd - $200. Top U2400, U2200, U2000- $100.
Limit 2 byes, commit by 2:00 p.m. Re-entry $25, counts half, no re-entry after 2nd round.

Chess Mates Chess Club is located at 1531 Irving Street, Rahway, N.J. 07065. For more information, please visit their web site, email them, or call them at 732-499-0118. See the official USCF TLA.

2011 KCC Summer Tourney Opens Tonight

2011-06-09T10:57:00.000-04:00

The Kenilworth Chess Club's fun, friendly, yet highly competitive Summer Tournament starts tomorrow night at 9:15 p.m. This year we will have 2 sections: Open and U1200. Here are the rules :

Entry Fee is $5.00.
The tournament will run from June 9th through August 25th.
The event is not rated.
The time control is G/60.
G/55+5 (delay or increment) may be used if there is mutual agreement between paired players.
You may play anyone in your section. The first time you play an opponent, the lower rated player has white, in subsequent games against the same opponent you alternate colors.
You may not play the same opponent more than four times in the tournament.
You get one point for a win, one half point for a draw, and zero for a loss.
You may play as many or as few games as you like, but no more than two in one night. The more you play the more points you can win.
All games are to be played at the Kenilworth Chess Club during normal operating hours.
The winner is the person who has the most points at the end of the tournament.
The prizes are 60% for first place, 30% for second, and 10% for third.
Entries are accepted throughout the summer.

Past winners of this popular, unrated event include NM Scott Massey (2004), NM Mark Kernighan (2005), Greg Tomkovich (2006), John Moldovan (2008), Ian Mangion (2009) and Ari Minkov (2007, 2010).

Please remember that the Kenilworth CC will not have access to the Community Center until 9:15 p.m. tonight because a CPR class is being taught there.

Rounds 2-12 will begin at our usual starting time of 8:00 p.m.

I am going to try to participate this year, which I have not done since 2008 I think. I am sure I will not attend enough to have a shot at winning, but it is a fun event and a great tradition that has helped to sustain the club through the slow summer months (when so many players go on vacation). Here are some reflections from past tournaments in which I participated:

More Second Chances (2008)
Chess and Second Chances (2008)
KST Wrap-up, Part One and Part Two (2006 -- Chess Coroner)
Summer Tournament Update (2006)
Summer Tourney Upsets (2006)
The Same, But Different (2006)
2006 KCC Summer Tourney, Round Four (2006)
2006 KCC Summer Tourney, Round Three (2006)
2006 Summer Tournament, Round Two (2006)
10-year-old Anna Matlin Enters Summer Tournament (2006)
Kernighan - Goeller, KCC Summer Tourney 2005 (2005)
Goeller - Kernighan, KCC Summer Tourney 2005 (2005)
The Summer Tournament (2005)

Albin Revisited

2011-06-08T10:27:00.000-04:00

Woolverton - Pritchard
Black to play.

I have annotated the game Woolverton - Pritchard, London 1959, which is exactly the type of game likely to inspire people to try the Albin Counter-Gambit -- besides being a nice early example of my favorite 5...Nge7 variation (a line that is nicely covered in Nigel Davies's Gambiteer II).

Shirov Goes Caveman vs Anand

2011-06-06T20:52:00.000-04:00

Michelangelooo tells me there is now no doubt about who is the highest rated player to have tried the Caveman Caro-Kann: it is Alexei Shirov, who trotted out the once surprising rook sac yesterday in his match against World Champion Vishy Anand in Leon, Spain. The game has been widely annotated on the web and shows that Anand had little trouble equalizing by declining White's sacrifice and offering an exchange of queens (following the method shown by Capablanca). Shirov hardly did the opening justice, but Anand played a very good game and won a convincing victory.

ChessBase, Leon Masters 2011 (see also article)
ChessVibes, Anand Beats Shirov 4.5 - 1.5
Dennis Monokroussos, Anand - Shirov, Leon 2011
Official Site
More as they come in

Game of the Century Revisited

2011-05-30T07:24:00.000-04:00

"The Game of the Century" (with JavaScript gameboard) is revisited at ChessBase, which has posted the wonderful section of Frank Brady's Endgame that tells the story of Fischer's famous masterpiece (with some great pictures not in that book), accompanied by GM Sergey Shipov's first-rate annotations of the game. See "Frank Brady's Endgame: Review and Webliography" for my comments on Dr. Brady's masterpiece, which I heartily recommend.

Cavewoman!

2011-05-27T22:25:00.004-04:00

White to play.

I have annotated the game Lahno - Khotenashvili, European Women's Individual Championship, Tbilisi 2011. It received passing reference from Malcolm Pein and was brought to my attention by Caveman aficionado Michelangelooo. It is a pleasure to see GM Kateryna Lahno playing the Caveman Caro-Kann, which I have written about here a number of times. GM Lahno may be the highest rated player to have used this tricky line, which invites her opponent to chase after a Rook with her Queen at the risk of falling into a wooly mammoth trap in the process. Though Khotenashvili did not test her preparation fully, Lahno played a very nice game and concluded things in stunning fashion (see diagram above). Previous pieces on the Caveman Caro-Kann include:

Candidates Ends and It Will Be Gelfand vs Anand

2011-05-25T23:18:00.001-04:00

I never would have predicted that Boris Gelfand would win the FIDE Candidates matches to decide the World Championship challenger. He will now play Vishinathan Anand in 2012. His final game against Grischuk may have been the best game of the entire Candidates cycle and it has already been widely annotated. I will post additional links and video as it becomes available.

Lubomir Kavalek, "It's Anand vs Gelfand for the World Chess Crown" in Huffington Post
Alejandro Ramirez, "FIDE Candidates Finals: Gelfand Wins Right to Challenge Anand in 2012" at ChessBase
Dennis Monokroussos, "Gelfand's Game Six Win over Grischuk" from The Chess Mind
Sergey Shipov, "Candidates Matches Final, Game Six" translated from Crestbook
Peter Doggers, "Gelfand Beats Grischik, Wins Candidates" at ChessVibes

Winning with a Forced Draw in the Petroff

2011-05-21T23:14:00.001-04:00

Black to play after 6.Nxf7!?

I have annotated the game Mangion - Kernighan, KCC Quads 2011, which featured the Petroff line 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.Bd3 d5 5.Nxe5. I have previously analyzed 5.dxe5 in my "Anti-Petroff Repertoire with d4." However, 5.Nxe5 is the more popular move, and though it leads to more symmetrical positions it can be very sharp and interesting. Kernighan's response 5...Nd7 was recently analyzed in "Plugging Away at the Petroff" (Chess Life, March 2011), where Andy Soltis told how the famed Harvard economist Ken Rogoff developed the line, which theory had previously frowned upon, and helped make it the most popular response to 5.Nxe5. Soltis also points out that Mangion's surprising 6.Nxf7!? (shades of The Cochrane Gambit) was first played in Zaitsev - Karpov, Leningrad 1966 (a "GM draw" frequently repeated, including in a 2009 US Championship game).

Mangion had looked over these lines and felt secure in being able to force a draw with 6.Nxf7!? against his higher rated opponent. After 6....Kxf7 (Karpov's 6....Qe7! is probably more interesting -- see my annotations) 7.Qh5+ Ke6!? 8.Qe2 (threatening f3 to regain the piece with attack), Kernighan likely should have chosen 8...Kf7 when White simply repeats with 9.Qh5+ etc. splitting the point. Instead, he chose the more "principled" but losing continuation 8....Kd6? when followed a typical Kernighan king walk and speedy victory for Mangion.

With his win over NM Kernighan, Mangion (rated 1971) has beaten two masters in as many weeks (having defeated KCC Champion Ken Chieu in the first game of the quad). If he has success in his final game, he may very well break the 2000 rating barrier.

Fun with Don and Arnold

2011-05-19T14:42:00.001-04:00

Don Carrelli has posted an excellent video at the Kenilworth Kibitzer, which includes commentary by Arnold Schwarzeneger. How Arnold found time to comment on chess with all that he's going through this week I'll never know....

Slay the Spanish!

2011-05-11T23:33:00.000-04:00

I have been working through Tim Taylor's recent Slay the Spanish! Weapons against the Ruy Lopez (Everyman Chess 2011), along the way creating a Slay the Spanish game collection at Chessgames.com focused on the most sound lines in his repertoire. You can find the table of contents and introductory overview online in various places. My plan was to write a review, but Tim Harding has done a thorough job in today's "Slaying the Spanish and Other Matters" (Kibitzer #180 at ChessCafe) and John Donaldson gives a nice overview, so I hardly see the need to add much more myself. Slay the Spanish! offers a very interesting repertoire with a nice mix of choices, both very sound (for serious games) and a little less so (for internet blitz and other fun occasions). I bought the book because I had already started looking at the Steinitz Deferred as a more reliable method than the Smyslov Variation of gaining the sort of fianchetto positions I've been seeking in the Open Games (as discussed in A Black Fianchetto System in the Open Games Part I and Part II). Similarly, I have been trying out Mihail Marin's preferred approach (analyzed in ChessBase Magazine #128) to the fianchetto vs the Italian Game with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 d6!? rather than 3...g6, which also feels a little more sound. Against the Ruy Lopez, I have always chosen to sidestep the Exchange Variation by varying on move three (even flipping the Bird at the Spanish Bishop with 3...Nd4); but Taylor offers some very interesting ways of countering the Exchange, especially with Larsen's 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 bxc6!? where Black gets the two Bishops without the typical structural concession of the weaker majority. The coverage of the Siesta Variation (with ...f5) and the Yandemirov Gambit (with ...Bg4, meeting h3 with ...h5!?) are a nice bonus and I'm sure those who play most of their chess as online blitz will find these lines a lot of fun. I find the more solid lines more interesting, and I appreciate most how Taylor focuses on high class games played by World Champions and contenders (especially Keres), making Slay the Spanish! one of those rare opening books where you really get a lot out of playing through the games themselves. Highly recommended.

Women's Championship

2011-04-29T20:23:00.000-04:00

Wow! What an ending in Game 2 of the Women's Championship playoffs. Congratulations to Zatonskih for winning her fourth title.

Chess in DC Schools

2011-04-23T12:53:00.001-04:00

My favorite part about the chess program in Washington, DC, described here is that it gets the kids to teach the faculty about the game. Brilliant.

Joe Renna's Photos from Ippolito Simul

2011-04-21T21:13:00.001-04:00

Dean Ippolito vs Joe Renna

Joe Renna has posted a very nice Picasa web album of pictures from Dean Ippolito's World Chess Record simultaneous. Updated: Joe posted a comment to say he wrote about the event in the April issue of his Peterstown Newspaper (see pages 14-15), which included "brutal" annotations of his own game by Kenilworth CC president John Moldovan. John also posted his notes online in java replay. The game featured Marshall's 1.d4 d5 2.c4 Nf6!? line discussed here previously. But, as John points out, Joe did not play it like Marshall....

Sidney Bernstein's Dragon Ideas

2011-04-20T13:56:00.001-04:00

Soltis - Bernstein, New York 1965
Position after 13...h5!

I have analyzed the game Soltis - Bernstein, Marshall CC Championship 1965, which features an interesting innovation from Sidney Norman Bernstein (1911-1992). I have already written about Bernstein in these pages (see "Sidney Bernstein Plays 1...Nc6") and have long been impressed by the many original ideas in his book Combat: My 50 Years at the Chessboard (still in print thanks to Ishi Press). It's a shame that not more of Bernstein's games have made their way to the databases.

Reading Dan Heisman's "Learning from Andy" at ChessCafe, I was reminded that Bernstein had some interesting ideas in the Dragon, including a early ...h5 advance that he played against a young Andy Soltis. The fact that Bernstein tried out his ...h5 advance against Soltis in 1965 is ironic because Soltis himself would go on to develop a similar idea which has since become known as the Soltis Variation of the Dragon. In his wonderful history of recent opening theory, Revolution in the 70s, Garry Kasparov suggests that this line truly originated in Larsen - Westerinen, Halle 1963, though he acknowledges that it was clearly Soltis's use of the idea in the early 1970s in several high profile games that was the impetus for its widespread adoption. Heisman shows, of course, that Soltis was clearly using it even before that in more local contests. Is it possible that Soltis had a local inspiration for the idea in Bernstein? You be the judge. In any event, Bernstein had some interesting ideas in the Dragon, many of which seem to presage Simon Williams's approach in The New Sicilian Dragon (Everyman 2009). There is nothing new under the sun. But chess history has a way of ignoring the larger pool of players who contribute to new ideas.

World Record Simul in Raritan on April 9th

2011-04-05T10:48:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder that IM Dean Ippolito will attempt the simultaneous Chess World Record this weekend, on Saturday April 9th, beginning at 10 a.m. The event will take place at St. Ann School at Anderson Street and Second Avenue in Raritan, NJ, and there will be prizes throughout the day for participants. Originally, Dean's website suggested an 1800 ELO limit for participants (presumably to help him satisfy the Guiness win ratio requirement), but that upward rating limit has now been removed. See the Dean J. Ippolito Chess World Record website for more details and to register as a participant.

Anderssen - Lange, Breslau 1859

2011-04-03T01:22:00.000-04:00

I think I truly fell in love with chess when, as a teen, I first played over Anderssen - Lange, Breslau 1859, which I saw in The Golden Treasury of Chess. It is a truly spectacular game and probably my main inspiration for taking up Bird's Defense. I was very disappointed to learn, years later, that Lange's entire combination was flawed and that Anderssen could have won with 10.Qe1! (see notes by Bob Basala, for instance, who expresses having a similar disappointment upon learning that). So you can imagine how much more disappointed I am to learn today in "Edward Winter's Chess Explorations (61)" at ChessBase that the game itself is almost certainly nothing more than "analytical exploration" between the players in question. All of the romance of chess seems to evaporate into air...

Carlsen's Grand Prix Attacks

2011-03-28T17:31:00.000-04:00

In "Aronian Wins Last Amber Chess Tournament" (also at ChessBase), Lubomir Kavalek offers an excellent analysis of Carlsen - Topalov, Monaco 2011, from the recently concluded Amber tournament. The game saw the Norwegian phenom trotting out the Grand Prix Attack vs the Sicilian, which is a line you do not see a lot of anymore at the highest levels. In a later game against Anand (discussed in the notes) Carlsen's opening did not fare as well.

The Cochrane Gambit

2011-03-27T01:27:00.003-04:00

The Cochrane Gambit against the Petroff Defense (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe4 d6 5.Nxf7!?) is hard to take seriously at first glance. White surrenders a piece for two pawns and exposes Black's King in the center, but does he really have enough compensation for a whole piece? You have to do some analysis and look at games to see how interesting White's long term chances are due to his center pawns. In his 200 Open Games, Bronstein claimed that the Cochrane Gambit was "no weaker, in the author's opinion" than the alternatives because "White, with his two mobile pawns, has a long-lasting initiative in the center." A number of grandmasters have tried the line, even in high-level encounters (see Topalov - Kramnik Linares 1999 or Short - Shirov Dubai 2002). So you have to think: if GMs are willing to give it a go, it is definitely viable at the amateur level.

I had never given the Cochrane a close look until I analyzed Mark Kernighan's recent game against it (see game six of the Select USATE games I posted), which helped me to recognize what a fun opening this can be for the first player, leading to very exciting and high stakes games where pawns are used to dominate the opponent's pieces in a very Clamp-like way.

Below is a partial bibliography and webliography of sources devoted to the Cochrane Gambit from the white perspective. I have generally left off books devoted to the Petroff Defense generally that should include a chapter on the gambit, though these would probably be worth consulting as well. I should probably also mention that you need to be prepared for the Symmetrical Petroff, where Black plays 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4!? (and you cannot continue 4.Nxf7? due to 4...Qe7! and Black wins).

Cochrane Books
Any book on the Petroff will cover the Cochrane Gambit, but there are not too many book sources with analysis from the White perspective. Alterman and Baker offer useful coverage in their books.

Boris Alterman, "The Cochrane Gambit" The Alterman Gambit Guide: White Gambits (Quality Chess 2010): 117-157. I have reviewed this book and think it offers a great introduction to the Cochrane, especially for developing players.

Chris Baker, "Petroff Defense" A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire (Cadogan / Everyman Chess 1998): 27-43. I really like this book, no matter what anyone says about it. The coverage of the Cochrane is useful.

Gyozo Forintos and Ervin Haag, The Petroff Defense (Macmillan 1983): 107-115.
This just happens to be the only book on the Petroff to grace my shelves. It offers a surprisingly balanced treatment of the line considering it is written for Black players.

W. John Lutes, Petroff Defense: Cochrane Gambit (Chess Enterprises 2002), 250 pages.
"Author W. John Lutes has become known worldwide for his exhaustive research in chess. In this volume he actually includes two books, a history of the entire Petroff Defense and a detailed analysis of the Cochrane Gambit. The historical survey spans 165 pages. The move than 1300 footnotes in this section underline the depth of the research involved. This includes the pioneer study by Jaenisch and Petroff translated from the 1842 French, and the Jaenisch 1871 German, which has never before appeared in English."

Anatoli Matsukevitch, The Cochrane Gambit (Match Chess 1994), 28 pages.
A simple pamphlet, mostly with games.

Viacheslav Osnos and Nikolay Kalinichenko, "The Cochrane Gambit 4.Nxf7" NIC Yearbook 19 (1991).

Eric Schiller and John Watson. Survive & Beat Annoying Chess Openings: The Open Games (Cardoza 2003): 211-226. This is a book you should have if you play the open games as Black or White. It has lots of useful analysis, including this extensive treatment of the Cochrane, which the authors call "A near-crazy sacrifice" with "many advocates among amateur players." Recommends meeting Topalov's 5.Nc3 with 5...Be6 6.d4 (6.f4!?) 6...d5! and the standard 5.d4 with either 5...Nbd7!? or 5...c5 6.dxc5 (6.Bc4+ d5! 7.exd5 b5!) 6...Nc6 7.Bc4+ Be6 8.Bxe6+ Kxe6.

Cochrane Web Resources
There is a lot of amateur interest in the Cochrane, and a lot of analysis on the web.

Cochrane Gambit, Petrov Defense (C42) by Uwe Bekemann
An interesting website devoted exclusively to the gambit, with game references and complete analysis.

The Mighty Cochrane Gambit by IM Mark Ginsburg
Includes a brief bio of Cochrane and a game of the author's from the 80s.

Gambito Cochrane from Hechiceros del Tablero
Some analysis from the defunct Spanish language website, with PGN file.

Opening Lanes #74 by Gary Lane at ChessCafe

The Legacy of John Cochrane by Nikolay Minev at ChessCafe
Includes analysis of some recent games with Cochrane's gambit.

The Cochrane Gambit at Linares 99 at ChessBaseUSA
From the archives, a commentary on Topalov - Kramnik.

Cochrane Gambit by GambitFan
A nice game collection at Chessgames.com.

Cochrane Gambit by Wookash

Alterman on the Cochrane Gambit by Kenilworthian
A game collection at chessgames.com featuring the games that Boris Alterman used to discuss the Cochrane Variation in his book on White Gambits. Chessgames had about half the games only.

Cochrane Gambit at Everything about Petrov

Cochrane Gambit zipped files download from Gambitingly Way

The Cochrane Gambit by GM Magesh and GM Arun
Features the nice game Pruess - Haessel, Berkeley 2008.

John Cochrane at Wikipedia

Petroff's Defense, Cochrane's Gambit blog
I really do not understand the purpose of this blog, which is not updated and simply posts a lot of very basic analysis.

Cochrane Videos
There are a number of videos related to the Cochrane Gambit, but the better ones are not freely available online except in preview.

GM Boris Alterman, The Cochrane Gambit Part One, Part Two and Part Three at ICC (Download) One of Alterman's video lecture series on gambit lines, which was the basis for his later book. Requires ICC membership to login.

IM David Pruess, "Conquering Cochrane Concepts" Part One, Part Two, and Part Three at Chess.com. Requires subscription, but previews available (see links above and embeds below).

IM Bryan Smith "Another Cochrane Gambit" at ChessLecture.com Video (25 minutes -- April 30, 2009)

GM Jesse Kraai, "A Perfect Example of the Cochrane's Strength: David Pruess vs. Dale Haessel" at ChessLecture.com Video (11 minutes -- December 30, 2008)

GM Jesse Kraai, "How to Beat the Petrov with the Cochrane Gambit" at ChessLecture.com Video (32 minutes -- December 19, 2006)

Gems from USATE 2011

2011-03-20T13:52:00.000-04:00

Lewis - Hart, White to play

Higgins - Chen, White to play

Most - Meinders, White to play

Vigorito - Miller, White to play

I have annotated eight gems from the US Amateur Teams East (a.k.a. World Amateur Teams) 2011. You can download the PGN file (so your computer can help you understand any of the puzzles above that confuse you -- they are pretty difficult, I must confess), or download the whole USATE 2011 PGN of games gleaned from TWIC #853 (download zipped PGN or CB file).

Of course, by now everyone knows it was the West Orange Crush taking first prize at the 1,200 player event. Tournaments in the South, North, and West make the World Team a far-reaching contest. Those looking to relive the experience can check out quite a bit of video on YouTube, including a long clip featuring the impressive musical performance by Khess (starting six minutes into this otherwise boring video) and overly-complete video of the last round of the bughouse event. The crosstable shows that I basically broke even (losing only three points), which is about what I'd expected from a 50% score (which was lucky based on my games).

"The Prince's Gambit" in The New Yorker

2011-03-14T12:34:00.001-04:00

"The Prince's Gambit" (abstract only) in The New Yorker does a good job of presenting Magnus Carlsen to a general readership. The story concludes with his desire to do well in the Amber tournament, so it is nice to see Carlsen joining the leaders today. Worth picking up.

Jeremy Gaige (1927-2011)

2011-03-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

According to the The Philadelphia Inquirer, chess historian Jeremy Gaige died in that city on February 19th of emphysema at the age of 83. His Chess Personalia: A Biobibliography has been an indispensable desk reference for all chess journalists. Hat tip to Mark Weeks.

Kavalek on Gligoric

2011-03-07T20:26:00.000-05:00

Lubomir Kavalek has a great piece on Svetozar Gligoric titled Chess Legend Turns to Music (reprinted at ChessBase), which uses the release of Gliga's new album as the occasion to analyze the wonderful game Petrosian - Gligoric, Zagreb 1970 (which seems to have inspired his own fascinating game Keene - Kavalek, Teesside 1975). Gligoric's album has previously been discussed at Chessvibes, but I could find no further information. Likely it will be a while before it is released in the US. Meanwhile, we can enjoy this wonderful game, which presents a fascinating response to the Bayonet Attack.

Lego Chess Set

2011-03-01T15:13:00.000-05:00

Melanie Penola recommends you Build a Chess Set Out of LEGOs, in a way which seems more child-friendly than the Lego Star Wars chess set noted here last year. I think my son will be inspired by this one.

Learning to Sense Danger at the Amateur Teams

2011-02-24T11:26:00.000-05:00

Goeller - Williams, White to play
Should White play 25.Bxb6 or 25.Rxb6?

Goeller - Lima, White to play
Should White play 21.g4 or some other move?

Kopec - Goeller, Black to move
Black wants to play Bxf3 and dxc4, but in what order?

I have annotated three of my more interesting games in a piece titled "Learning to Take My Opponent's Threats Seriously at the 2011 World Amateur Teams." That sums up the big lesson I needed to learn from my games, and the three diagrams above show the crucial position from each game where I went wrong because I did not think carefully enough about my opponent's threats. I did see the threats and sensed the danger. I just did not take those threats seriously. Fortunately, I was able to get a draw in two of the games. And I managed a 50% score on Board One for our team, so I'm pretty happy with how things went overall.

I will be posting some more games and stories from the recently concluded World Amateur Team tournament soon.

Amateur Team Weekend

2011-02-17T06:38:00.002-05:00

The Chess Party of the Year Is About to Begin shouts the headline at USCF online as we head into President's Day weekend and the 41st year of the US Amateur Teams. There seem to be some strong teams in contention, including one organized by Dean Ippolito that comes in at 2199 and is sure to be sitting on top board for at least the first rounds. In the past few years, I have played on the Kenilworth A team and have been myself in the hunt for the top prize, which usually includes your team's photograph on the cover of Chess Life (the ultimate amateur chess player validation). But after we lost last year despite being the only team going into the last round with a perfect 5-0 record and playing on Board One for all the marbles, I think it seemed inevitable we'd go our separate ways this year.

This year there will be many teams with Kenilworth players, including the wonderful Chessaholics teams organized by Mike Wojcio (who came back special from Hawaii to play again this year). My own team will be The Kenilworthians (rated 1931), with myself, Ian Mangion, Don Carrelli, and Max Sherer in board order -- a true Kenilworth team, with all of us having participated in the club championship. We'll see how it goes. Those looking to get psyched should read Team Spirit by Glenn Petersen and Tournament for the Rest of Us by Glenn Budzinski.

Meanwhile, just for fun I annotated three interesting games from USATE 2010 to help me remember that there are always chances and second chances in amateur games.

The Big Clamp

2011-02-12T15:10:00.001-05:00

I have assembled a games collection at Chessgames.com titled The Big Clamp to help me study IM Lawrence Day's "Big Clamp" strategy. I first read about "The Big Clamp" in Modern Chess Theory where it was published as "Sicilian - The Big Clamp" (3:5-6, pp. 46-59) and "The Big Clamp II" (4:1, pp. 42-55). Those interested in getting a copy can purchase the 1980-1981 and 1981-1982 volumes of Modern Chess Theory edited by Raymond Keene from Hardinge Simpole, or search out Day's rare little volume titled The Big Clamp: An Anti-Sicilian System (The Chess Player 1984) which reproduces those two articles with two additional games Day played in 1983. In researching this post, I discovered that Day's 32-page pamphlet can also be viewed and downloaded at Scribd (see The Big Clamp: An Anti-Sicilian System). My 100-game collection includes most of the games given by Day along with some of my own supplements showing the 19th Century origins of the clamp theme and some of its continued influence.

I was intrigued enough by the 19th Century origins of the strategy that I picked up Cary Utterberg's wonderful book De la Bourdonnais versus McDonnell, 1834: The Eighty-Five Games of Their Six Chess Matches, with Excerpts from Additional Games Against Other Opponents (McFarland 2005) which made me recognize how Philidor's pawn strategy influenced play up until the Romantic era of Anderssen and Morphy, when the focus of theory turned to tempi and made pawns mere objects of sacrifice to blast open lines for piece play. One of the most common ways to pursue the Big Clamp today is the Grand Prix Attack (1.e4 c5 2.f4) which McDonnell first employed with success in game five of the first match. According to Utterberg, this line was called the "Philidor Variation" because it followed analysis by Philidor. Not surprisingly, Morphy greatly disapproved of this line, writing, "If there is anything to be regretted in connection with the combats between these illustrious players, it is the pertinacity with which McDonnell persisted in adopting, in two of the debuts which most frequently occur, a line of play radically bad." He continues: "The move of [2.Nf3], or still better, [2.d4], are those now generally recognized as the best" (quoted in Utterberg, p. 58). In some ways, The Big Clamp represents a rediscovery of Philidor's legacy, as I suggested in my piece on The Philidor Clamp.

That legacy continues today, most visibly in the intriguing 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 line in the Sicilian, which Stefan Bücker connects directly to the Big Clamp concept in his article "A Knight on the Edge." Nigel Davies (who had recommended the Big Clamp via 1.e4 c5 2.d3 in "Strangling the Sicilian with 2.d3!") picks up on 2.Na3 in "1.e4 for the Creative Attacker" which sets forth a very interesting Big Clamp inspired repertoire that includes Glek's Four Knights with g3, the McDonnell - Labourdonnais Attack (1.e4 e6 2.f4), and 2.f4 vs the Pirc. You can see a nice games collection at Chessgames to get a feel for the rest.

You know an idea is deeply entrenched when even amateur players are invited to develop a repertoire based on its principles. A Big Clamp repertoire with 1.e4 followed by d3 is set forth in De Witte Leeuw (The White Lion) by Leo Jansen and Jerry van Rekom, the amateur authors of the interesting Black Lion (on 1...d6 leading to the Philidor). Another repertoire based on 1.e4 followed soon by f4 is presented by Alex Bangiev in White Repertoire for 1.e4, which includes the Vienna Gambit, Grand Prix Attack, and Advance Variation vs. the Caro-Kann. I have personally presented a number of articles that together begin to set forth a Big Clamp repertoire for White built around the Grand Prix Attack vs the Sicilian and the McDonnell - Labourdonnais Attack vs the French. Day's The Big Clamp has been a continuing inspiration, and one I wanted to share with others. I welcome readers' suggestions for how to fill out the rest of the repertoire, and I am especially intrigued by the idea of building a Big Clamp repertoire from the Black side. More to come.

Another McDonnell - La Bourdonnais Attack

2011-02-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

White to play. What's the best plan of attack?

I have annotated the game Goeller - Sherer, Kenilworth CC Championship 2011, from the fourth round of the club championship played Thursday night. It was my second McDonnell - La Bourdonnais Attack (1.e4 e6 2.f4) of this tournament, and a very complex and interesting game. Of course, it probably could have been even better if I didn't have to play the second half of it with less than a minute plus 5 second increment on my clock. I definitely have to work on my time management! But despite my time challenge, I still managed to pull off a win, putting me in contention for the championship next week in a final round game with tournament leader Ken Chieu.

Frank Brady's "Endgame": Review and Webliography

2011-02-04T16:19:00.003-05:00

Frank Brady's Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall - from America's Brightest Prodigy to the Edge of Madness is the only book that tells the complete story of Bobby Fischer (now that his years have been numbered at 64), and the only biography to do so with deep knowledge and compassion. It has justly received widespread attention and praise, as detailed in the webliography below (which I have updated to include Kasparov's comments).

From the opening chapter (available for preview online), readers sense that this is not a standard biography of the Cold War chess champion and later reclusive anti-American anti-Semite. Instead, it is a compelling recreation of Fischer's life and times that helps us understand how he saw the world so that we can leap over the barriers of negativity we may have constructed around him to recognize again what an amazing person Fischer was (especially given his circumstances). Brady does a remarkable job of combining scrupulous historical research with a storyteller's gift for significant detail, so that readers not only trust the teller but allow themselves to be transported by the tale. It is quite appropriate that Brady has recorded an audio CD of the book (you can hear clips online), since the author -- a famous biographer who knew Fischer well -- has a powerful ethos and deep affection for his subject that is made contagious through his voice. I have often said to myself that I "despise the man but love his games," but Endgame's humanizing vision of Fischer makes it possible to accept the whole package.

Brady's description of Fischer's economically impoverished childhood inspires the most sympathy, not only for Fischer but for his entire family. Many biographers have portrayed Fischer's mother, Regina, in a very negative way, practically blaming her for Fischer's later greed and paranoia. But Brady gives the full background, more accurately depicting Regina as a WWII Jewish immigrant forced to flee Europe and return to the country of her childhood, leaving behind her credentials (she had studied medicine for six years) and her husband (Gerhardt Fischer's German citizenship prevented him from emigrating to the U.S.) She raised two children in Brooklyn as a single, working mother driven to take a variety of jobs while studying to be a nurse. I am fully persuaded by Brady's view (mentioned in "In Defense of Bobby Fischer's Family," where he mostly debunks ridiculous spying allegations) that Regina did the best she could for young Bobby and that we should admire how tirelessly she worked to support her kids and to promote Fischer's success. I knew some things about Fischer's family and childhood circumstances, but Brady's account helped me appreciate what it must have been like for Fischer as a "latchkey child" coming home "to an empty apartment," with no father and "little sense of neighborhood" due to his family's frequent moves. We come to see how chess provided the male mentoring and sense of community that Fischer craved, inspiring him to the long hours of study that made it possible to rise to the top and achieve international celebrity.

Probably anyone could make us sympathetic toward Fischer the child. That's the Fischer we already love -- the brilliant boy who played the Game of the Century. It takes a lot of work to make us sympathetic to Fischer the adult, especially in the pages that follow the description of Fischer's many diatribes against the U.S. and "the Jews" during interviews on Hungarian and Phillipine radio, including the infamous interview following 9/11 when he said "I applaud the act" and "I want to see the U.S. wiped out." Brady reports these facts carefully and offers no defense of Fischer's ravings, though he suggests some of what inspired his animus. But while he rejects the words, he does not give up on the man, and Fischer remains always very human, if very flawed, in Brady's account.

Brady's description of Bobby's indomitable fighting spirit as a youth helps us to understand and even identify with some of the more uncivil and even bizarre ways that trait was expressed in later life. Fischer's demands, his seemingly peevish outrage over arbitrary limitations, his refusal to bow to authority under any circumstances -- all these behaviors can be interpreted as natural extensions (if sometimes exaggerations) of the very personality that helped him at the chessboard. With his personality and background in mind, it becomes easier to understand Fischer's actions, as when Brady tells the story of Fischer's incarceration in Japan, where he physically resisted arrest and fought the guards on numerous occasions. Fischer's behavior had been depicted in the press as obvious evidence of dementia, but Brady simply presents the facts in the context of Fischer's personality so that we see him as fighting for his right to be free and independent -- desires with which we can all identify. To make this work, Brady turns to the techniques of a fiction writer. Reader preconceptions dissolve from the opening sentence as Brady recreates the scene of Fischer's 2004 arrest, using the moment when our epic hero most felt like he was facing death to transport us, in medias res, into Fischer's worldview: "'I can't breathe! I can't breathe!' Bobby Fischer's screams were muffled by the black hood tied tightly around his head. He felt as if he were suffocating, near death. He shook his head furiously to loosen the covering" (1). By making us occupy Fischer's perspective, he helps us to understand better what drove him to the perpetual struggle against his jailers, who Fischer clearly saw as adversaries in a very serious game. One passage from the book gives some telling details:

Bobby was like a caged panther, pacing up and down, continually complaining about everything, from the food, to the temperature, to the disrespect his captors showed him, and screaming at the guards. [...] Once, when he told the guard who brought him his breakfast that his soft-boiled eggs were really hard-boiled and that he wanted an additional egg, they got into a scuffle. He ended up in solitary confinement for several days and wasn't permitted visits or even allowed to leave his cell. Another time, he purposely stepped on the glasses of a guard he didn't like and was given solitary again (283).

When I heard about similar behavior in news accounts following Fischer's arrest, I think it made me less sympathetic toward him and simply sad that he was so "insane." But reading this in the context of Brady's biography, I felt a sense of identification with Bobby, some agreement with his view that his detention was unjust (as Brady points out, he was the only known individual against whom the U.S. government attempted to enforce sanctions), and a willingness to see his behavior -- while atrocious -- as a potentially sane response to a crazy situation (simply exaggerated by what Malcolm Gladwell would call "the power of context").

Brady's book brings readers to a place where they can sympathize with Fischer even at his worst, such as in his seemingly grasping and greedy behavior. I was especially persuaded by Brady's parallels between Fischer and impoverished artists who rarely are able to capitalize on the fair market value of the beautiful things they produce or the memorabilia they owned. Again, Brady's specific and scrupulously researched details tell the story. Of the Game of the Century he writes: "In today's market, the estimate auction price for the original score sheet is $100,000. Bobby's remuneration from the American Chess Foundation for his sparkling brilliancy? Fifty dollars" (65). In 1982, Fischer sold his infamous pamphlet I Was Tortured in the Pasadena Jailhouse for $1 per copy. "Twenty five years later, an original copy of I Was Tortured... was selling as a collector's item for upward of $500" (228). You begin to understand why Fischer may have become so obsessed, late in his life, with the fact that his possessions in U.S. storage were auctioned off (a Jewish conspiracy against him according to Bobby, but an unfortunate mistake that those responsible for tried to correct according to Brady). With so many out to exploit and profit from his celebrity, why shouldn't Bobby get a piece of the action? Why shouldn't he feel deeply betrayed that his possessions were auctioned off to become items of trade among the chess public? These are the type of sympathetic questions that Brady's book makes readers consider, and we cannot help but gain a much more rounded view of a very complex man after reading it.

The book's release seems to coincide with a rising tide of Fischer reappraisals, including Liz Garbus's much-touted documentary film Bobby Fischer Against the World (HBO). It may just do a lot to help restore Bobby to the country and the people he worked so hard to alienate and make it possible for chess to have its king again.

Selective Webliography of Thoughtful Reviews and Interviews

Mike Barry, "Eye on the Island" at AntonNews "This might sound odd but Fischer’s career arc was comparable to that of a successful boxer, with a meteoric rise followed by a stunning, slow-motion fall. "
Kim Becker, "Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall" at LiquidHip blog
Will Boisvert, "The Troubled King of Chess" interview with Frank Brady
Brooklyn64 blog, "Endgame: Bobby Fischer's Remarkable Rise and Fall"
John Carroll, "Juggling chain saws" at SFGate.com
Caroline Jackson, "Mentor helped young Bobby Fischer make right moves" interview in The Villager. "Brady met the chess master-to-be when he was in his late teens and Fischer was 10 or 11. Brady saw a group surrounding a table where Fischer was playing a quick match between tournament games. Brady said a man asked Fischer why he made a certain move and Fischer exclaimed, 'Please, this is a chess game. This is brain surgery. Don’t ask me that.'"
Garry Kasparov, "The Bobby Fischer Defense" in The New York Review of Books. "Brady’s book is an impressive balancing act and a great accomplishment. Before even picking up the book there is no reason to doubt that Brady liked Bobby Fischer and that he has a friend’s as well as a fan’s rooting interest for the American chess hero. But there are few obvious traces of that in Endgame, which does not shy away from presenting the darker sides of Fischer’s character even while it does not attempt to judge or diagnose it. What results is a chance for the reader to weigh up the evidence and come to his own conclusions—or skip judgments completely and simply enjoy reading a rise-and-fall story that has more than a few affinities with Greek tragedy."
Al Lawrence, "Looks at Books: Frank Brady's Masterpiece" at USCF Online. "The book’s you-are-there quality comes in large part from the fact that Brady was indeed so often there, involved in directing both the 1963-64 U.S. Championship, in which Bobby scored his famous 11-0 sweep, as well as Fischer’s participation by telex in the 1965 Capablanca Memorial, where the rest of the competitors played face-to-face in Havana, while Fischer hunched over a board at the New York City’s Marshall Chess Club through games extended several hours by the transmission process. Brady shared walks, talks and dinners with the young chess champion, experiencing first-hand both Bobby’s comradeship and pique."
Dana Mackenzie, "Review of Frank Brady's Endgame" at Dana Blogs Chess "The first 200 pages of Endgame, which take us through the end of the Fischer-Spassky world championship match, do not contain any revelations that will knock your socks off. But they do provide a rich narrative of this more public part of Fischer’s life, which will help you understand Fischer’s point of view a little bit better. ... The last 130 pages are the ones that chess players, I think, will read the most avidly. Brady fills us in on all the things we didn’t know about Fischer’s life after 1972, the details that Fischer himself tried his best to keep hidden (as, indeed, he tried to keep himself hidden)."
Tom Mackin, "Endgame: A book review" in The Star Ledger. "In this stark, unsparing biography, Frank Brady, who spent a good deal of time with Fischer, calls him “a brilliant, quixotic chess prince.” He also displays his deep knowledge of the game, managing to make a simple chess notation like “pawn to king four” as exciting as a game-winning pass to a receiver in the end zone."
Janet Maslin, Odd, Odd Case of Bobby Fischer in The New York Times. "Mr. Brady, a biographer dangerously drawn to megalomania (he has also written books about Aristotle Onassis and Orson Welles), takes a demystifying approach to Fischer’s eccentricities. He sees the person behind the bluster, and he presents that person in a reasonably realistic light."
Laura Miller, "Endgame: The genius and madness of Bobby Fischer" review at Salon.com. "Frank Brady's Endgame ... presents Fischer's story with an almost Olympian evenhandedness that ends up making it far more absorbing than any sensationalized account. Brady knew Fischer as a child, as Fischer was emerging as a chess prodigy in New York City, but the author renders himself almost invisible in this book. The cloud of chaos and ire that Fischer walked around in all his life doesn't seem to have infected his biographer at all."
Dennis Monokroussos, "A Review of Frank Brady's 'Endgame'" at The Chess Mind blog. "Brady is also rather gentle with Fischer. It’s by no means a whitewash, but it would be very easy to write a book – an accurate and objective book – in which he comes out looking far worse than he does in Endgame. My overall impression is that Brady is a little too sympathetic, but perhaps it helps balance one-sided portrayals of him as an anti-Jewish, anti-American nutjob."
Jamie P., "Check(mate) this ego - 'Endgame' by Frank Brady" at the Suchabooknerd blog. "I don’t know jack about chess. ... Interesting note: One of Fischer’s classmates was a young girl named Barbra Streisand, who admits to having had a crush on the mysterious Fischer. Who knew?"
Matthew Price, "Brilliant Player, Bad Moves" in the Boston Globe. "In “Endgame,’’ Frank Brady, a communications professor at St. John’s University, tells the story of Fischer’s life with dramatic flair and a sense of judiciousness. Fischer could be unruly, pathologically touchy, and repulsively insulting, but he played chess brilliantly. At times, Brady, who knew Fischer and studied his life for decades, cannot quite keep the fiend and genius in balance, however much he fills us with a sense of Fischer’s torments. “Endgame,’’ to its credit, is not written solely with chess aficionados in mind; Brady, a longtime chess hand and founder of Chess Life magazine, explains the technical aspects of the game with an appealing clarity as he tells the story of Fischer’s fame and fall."
Guy Raz, "The Troubled Genius of Bobby Fischer" on NPR's All Things Considered. Interview and book excerpt.
Jim West, "Definitive Book on Bobby Fischer" at Jim West on Chess. "Endgame is a page turner, like a detective novel except the mystery never gets solved because Fischer's life is stranger than fiction."

Chess Ngrams

2011-02-01T14:03:00.000-05:00

Karpov vs. Kasparov

I was testing out Google's Ngrams tool (which allows you to search the relative occurrence of words across one million books in English) and got some expected results.

Chess, checkers, and backgammon

Hypermodern

The Double Swindle

2011-01-29T18:50:00.001-05:00

Black to play. Is there anything worth trying?

White to play. Should he accept a draw?

I have annotated the game Mangion - Goeller, Kenilworth Chess Club Championship 2011, from the third round this past Thursday. It's not a pretty game and I clearly should have lost. But I was saved by an amazing double swindle. In the first diagram above, I played the tricky 19...Be7!? to which Ian immediately responded (as I had hoped) 20.Qxe5! when quickly followed 20...Bg5+ 21.Bxg5 Rxe5. But that was only half the swindle. The more important part was that as I took his Queen off the board, I offered a draw, suggesting that it was a magnanimous gesture toward a worthy opponent who otherwise was killing me. Ian immediately accepted, too stunned by the surprising turn of events to notice that a draw was not his best option....

Nakamura Leading at Wijk aan Zee

2011-01-28T19:15:00.001-05:00

I have been following with great interest the games in the Tata Steel (formerly Corus) tournament at Wijk aan Zee (see A-group games at Chessgames.com), where US Champion Hikaru Nakamura is battling for first against World Champion Vishy Anand, with Super-GMs Lev Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, and Vladimir Kramnik nipping at their heels. There have been a number of good ChessVibes videos for fans, including Carlsen's discussion of his game with Nakamura (Naka's only loss), Kramnik's discussion of his game with L'Ami (the more I see of Kramnik on video, the more I appreciate him and his style of play), and Anand's discussion of his masterful exchange sac against Wang Hao. Going into the last rounds, Nakamura has taken the lead and is "Close to a Career Best Triumph" in the strongest tournament of the year. A very exciting event, especially for fans of the U.S. Champion, who have a great weekend of chess to look forward to (which almost makes up for being snowbound here on the East coast).

Adventures in the La Bourdonnais - McDonnell Attack vs the French

2011-01-22T22:26:00.003-05:00

White to play. Can you find a winning plan?

I have annotated two of my Adventures with the La Bourdonnais - McDonnell Attack vs. the French (1.e4 e6 2.f4), including a disappointing draw with John Moldovan from Round 2 of the Kenilworth Chess Club Championship. John has annotated the game as well, and it is interesting to compare notes. Though I wasn't happy with my play or with the outcome, the game did strengthen my belief in my nineteenth century opening repertoire. I just have to learn how to play on two sides at once and exercise a little more lateral thinking to do so. For more analysis of this line, see my article on McDonnell's Anti-French.

Round Two in the Kenilworth CC Championship

2011 KCC Championship, Round One

2011-01-15T22:43:00.001-05:00

McAuliffe - Goeller, Kenilworth CC Ch. 2011
Black to play.

I have annotated the game McAuliffe - Goeller, Kenilworth 2011, from the first round of the 21st Annual Kenilworth Chess Club Championship. I have had two previous games against Dr. Geoffrey McAuliffe, both of which were quite interesting: in the 2005 club championship and the 2008 summer tourney. The present game went well for me and should help build my confidence going forward. I got to play my favorite Black Fianchetto System in the Open Games (see Part One and Part Two), which has turned out to be a very solid system and a great fit with the King's Indian against d4. John Moldovan has posted all of the games from Round One along with a crosstable. John and I are scheduled to play next week in the "battle of the bloggers."

The first round of play in the Kenilworth CC Championship.

Kenilworth Chess Club Championship Starts

2011-01-13T04:33:00.000-05:00

The 21st Annual Kenilworth Chess Club Championship tournament starts tonight -- see the Calendar or The Chess Coroner for details. Games from the 2005, 2006, and 2007 championships are collected online, and I'm sure more recent ones are online too. In his history of the club, Mike Wojcio tells how important the championship has been as an institution that has helped to keep the club going for over two decades. Mike is a bit of an institution himself, but (unless he suddenly comes back from Hawaii) this will be the first club championship without him. I'm sure he is enjoying himself. I will be playing in the championship myself, especially since the five round and unrated format make it a great opportunity to shake off some rust in preparation for the US Amateur Teams.

Alrick H. Man Vienna Gambit Theme Tournament

2011-01-11T07:09:00.000-05:00

I have annotated the game Carlos Torre - C. E. Norwood, New York 1925 as the first installment in a new series on the Vienna Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.f4) which will feature all of the known games from the Alrick H. Man Vienna Gambit Theme Tournament. The tournament ran from December 1924 through March 1925 and was played at the Marshall Chess Club in New York City. Participating were Frank James Marshall, Carlos Torre, Erling Tholfsen, Horace Ransom Bigelow, Rudolph Smirka, C. E. Norwood, and G. Gustafsson. Torre's games were the most inspired, and his win over Norwood has some great tactical moments (see diagrams below).

I learned about the 1920s series of sponsored theme tournaments held at the Marshall Chess Club back when I collected the games of the Dimock Theme Tournament of 1924, which featured the Urusov Gambit. Other tournaments I know about required a line of the Greco Counter-Gambit (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 f5 3.Bc4), the Lasker Variation of the Evans Gambit, and the Sicilian Wing Gambit, though there may have been others besides those held from 1921 - 1927. I have collected the games from the Greco Counter-Gambit tournament (from October 1921) as part of my Bishop's Opening coverage, and there were some interesting games, especially Forsberg - Jaffe which adds to the theory of the Rousseau Gambit. I decided to write up the Vienna Gambit event because I have suddenly become interested in the line myself, as it seems such a natural repertoire fit with the Grand Prix Attack, Labourdonnais - McDonnell Attack, and Saemisch Variation vs the Alekhine. I may eventually work my way through all of the events, as I find it such a pleasure to work on projects that combine historical research, chess opening analysis, and web publishing. I hope readers enjoy them as well, and perhaps they will inspire interest in holding sponsored theme tournaments, which is a wonderful tradition well worth reviving.

Torre - Norwood, New York 1925
White to play after 19...Bxd3

Torre - Norwood, New York 1925
White to play after 25...Kh8

Panov Botvinnik (B14) Webliography

2011-01-09T17:39:00.000-05:00

I have been trying to figure out how best to meet the Caro Kann. I have tried a lot of different things, including the Caveman Advance, Apocalypse Exchange, Fantasy, Two Knights (also here), and Short's 2.Nge2, but I am still not satisfied. Maybe it is time to return to the Panov Botvinnik Attack (B14) with 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4, which (along with the traditional Exchange) was among the first lines I learned and played as a kid. There are lots of web resources to support exploration, and I have included a number of book sources as well. If you want a quick-start, you cannot go wrong tracking down Aagaard's book (out of print) and joining ICC to watch the series of excellent videos by Ronen Har-Zvi (previewed above). There is a video by David Vigorito from ChessLecture.com which gives a great overview of the whole Panov Botvinnik, including the fianchetto line (I won't embed that one due to the obvious copyright infringement). I also think just playing over loads of games at a site like Chessgames helps a lot. I have included some resources related to the isolated queen pawn, and should add Katar's excellent video "Intro to IQP Openings for White." I am sure there are additional resources out there I have overlooked, so I welcome additions from readers.

Web Sources

Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack (B14) at Chessgames.com
A useful collection for reviewing some games. I find this is always the best place to start when learning a new opening. You can also find some good focused games collections here:

Panov Botvinnik Attack Chessgames.com collection by gambitfan (an excellent White repertoire)
Attacco Panov B14 Chessgames.com collection by sergionm (a Black perspective)
Caro-Kann, Panov Botvinnik Attack Chessgames.com game collection by KingG

Caro-Kann, Panov-Botvinnik Attack from 365Chess
Another good games collection to click through online. Unlike Chessgames.com, however, here you cannot download game files without membership.

The Panov Attack, Fianchetto Variation by Eric Schiller
From the web archives, presents a well-organized analysis of lines with Black g6, which I think is Black's best approach.

The Openings Explained #4 by Abby Marshall at ChessCafe
Covers the endgame line that follows Nc6 and Bg4 by Black. A good substitute for that section of Aagaard's book.

An Unusual Weapon Against the Caro-Kann Part One by Andrew Martin

An Unusual Weapon Against the Caro-Kann Part Two by Andrew Martin

An Unusual Weapon Against the Caro-Kann Part Three by Andrew Martin
Martin advocates an early c5 advance for White, gaining space and control of dark squares. I have played this line myself and like it a lot -- it is somewhat more positional than the more dynamic Panov lines which can get a little crazy.

Nebolsina - Gromova, VIII TchRUS W, Sochi 2007

Meeting the Panov-Botvinnik Attack wth the Albin Counter Gambit by Dennis Monokroussos

Winning Moves in the Panov-Botvinnik Attack by WT Harvey

Steiner's Variation vs The Caro Kann by Stefan Bucker at ChessCafe
The line with 1.e4 c6 2.c4 can often transpose to the Panov, but it also has some interesting byways worth exploring.

Selected Books, CDs, and DVDs

Jacob Aagaard, Easy Guide to the Panov-Botvinnik Attack (Cadogan Chess 1998)
This is a great book for amateur players, with lots of advice and explanations, including very useful diagrams so you "get the picture" right away and useful discussion of middlegame strategy. The game examples are logical and very memorable. I am especially impressed by his coverage of "the Classical Endgame" that arises after 1. e4 c6 2. c4 d5 3. exd5 cxd5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Qb3 Bxf3 9. gxf3 e6 10. Qxb7 Nxd4 11. Bb5+ Nxb5 12. Qc6+ Ke7 13. Qxb5 Qd7 14. Nxd5+ Qxd5 etc. which makes this line more attractive for people who are often intimidated by positions where the queens are off. He also has a section quite explicitly labeled "Avoiding the Endgame" which is equally good.

Sam Collins, An Attacking Repertoire for White (Batsford 2005)
An excellent repertoire book based on isolani themes that includes Sveshnikov's favorites, including the c3-Sicilian, Advance French, and Panov Botvinnik.

Sam Collins. 1. e4 Repertoire: Grandmaster Lines Explained for Club Players (ChessBase 2009) A slightly different repertoire from the earlier book, but mostly representing an improvement since it exchanges the Giuoco Piano for the Scotch.

Jovanka Houska, Play the Caro-Kann (Everyman 2007)

I think this is a good repertoire book and it is rightly popular among amateurs. For that reason alone, it is worth knowing her suggestions for Black, which are 1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.c4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 going into main lines: if 6.Nf3 Bg4 and if 6.Bg5 e6 and 7...Be7

Anatoly Karpov and Mikhail Podgaets, Karpov's Caro-Kann Defence: Panov's Attack (Batsford 2006)
Along with Aagard's book, this is one of the few good things ever written on the Panov Botvinnik and it bears the name of a former World Champion known to play the defense. So it would seem like a must-have book, though it is definitely very Black biased. See review by Jeremy Silman, who is quite enthusiastic, and Bill McGeary who is less so.

Zoran Petronijevic, Caro-Kann Panov Attack ChessBase CD 2004
See Preview from Steve Lopez describing it, very positive review from Carsten Hansen.

Useful Isolani Resources

Alexander Baburin, Winning Pawn Structures (Batsford 2003)
This contemporary classic book should be in the collection of every chessplayer whose repertoire might ever generate an isolani situation. Despite the title, it is really a textbook on the isolani and related structures and the last book you will need on that score. What makes this book especially useful is that the majority of its examples could arise from either a 1.e4 or 1.d4 move order, so it is quite relevant to any isolani repertoire, especially to positions that can arise from the Caro Kann or the French. This book is currently out of print, but you likely can find free copies online -- or borrow it from a friend and copy the useful bits. Batsford really ought to bring out a second edition.

Ivan Sokolov, Winning Chess Middlegames: An Essential Guide to Pawn Structures (New in Chess 2008)

Sokolov is brilliant and this is a very good book, with over 100 pages devoted to isolani positions. However, the game examples are exclusively Queen's Gambits, so I did not find the positions always as relevant to an e-pawn repertoire.

Isolani Lecture by Steve Stoyko
A great introduction to isolated pawn themes.

Pieces in Motion: The Isolated Queen Pawn by Manny Paddy Fealy

Intro to IQP Openings for White by Katar

Yaacov in Vegas

2011-01-04T20:00:00.000-05:00

Norowitz - Smirin
White to play and draw.

I have annotated three games played by SM Yaacov Norowitz at the North American Open in Las Vegas. In one game, against the world-ranked Ilya Smirin, he pulled out a draw from an apparently lost position (see diagram above). Yaacov may well be the highest rated player since Claude Bloodgood without an international title, and before long he might just get an invite to the US Championship based on his rating alone.

For more on the North American Open, see Kacheishvili and Stocek Top Vegas and Friedel in Clear Lead at North American Open from the USCF site.

Caveman Sighted at Hastings

2011-01-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

Position after 8.e6!!

There was a Caveman sighting at Hastings! FM Steve Giddins annotates the game Kaufeld - Gibbs (java replay here and also at TWIC), from the third round of play at the Hastings Masters, where White demonstrated my favorite way of playing the Advance Variation of the Caro-Kann (discussed here about four years ago in several articles: The Caveman Caro-Kann, Caveman Blitz and Caveman Redux). As Giddins quotes Jack Rudd after 8.e6!! (see diagram above): "I don't know what's going on in this position, but I like it!" Check it out and then try it yourself, if only for kicks. Hat tip Michaelangelooo.

Notes on the Chekhover Sicilian (B53)

2011-01-02T09:04:00.000-05:00

I have annotated the game Goeller - Camenares, Correspondence 2011, where I had the chance to learn more about the Chekhover Sicilian (B53) played via the relatively unusual move order 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.d4!? exd4 4.Qxd4 (see diagram above). Though I ended up transposing to the main Chekhover lines popularized by Evgeni Vasiukov, I was inspired by the way Gadimir Guseinov plays the line with an early f4 (made possible by avoiding Nf3 right away), as described in my notes. This line is sometimes called "the Hungarian Variation," but much more often named after Vitaly Chekhover (1908-1965), who seems to have originated it in the game Chekhover - Lisitsin, Leningrad 1938 (though I could find no other examples of his playing it). He is best remembered today as an endgame composer and writer and was a professional musician and pianist.

The opening variation (which usually arises by 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4) is fairly popular among amateurs, since it allows free and rapid development of the pieces in the style of Paul Morphy and even resembles Morphy's approach to the Philidor as White with 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 exd4 4.Qxd4. Though it is possible to play the line with an early c4 advance, seeking control over the center in Maroczy-bind fashion, it is much more common among amateurs simply to develop the pieces to natural squares by Nf3, Nc3, Qd4, Bb5, Bg5, O-O-O, and Rhe1 with complete mobilization and free play in the center. White will later retreat his Queen to d3 or d2 and centralize the Knight with Nd4 as a prelude to a kingside attack with f3 or f4, g4, and h4 etc. I have always been impressed by how naturally rapid development leads to an attack in this line, especially in Vasiukov's games (which are featured in my notes). However, it is generally not difficult for Black to find counterplay if he knows what he is doing and is willing to take some risks. After close analysis, I think the line is basically equal, with chances for both sides, but that does not make it less interesting to play!

For those who want to learn more about the Chekhover (also spelled Checkhover online), I have put together a brief webliography of sources. You can find a large number of videos by ChessLectures on YouTube that set forth a repertoire based on this line, though I have only embedded those where White plays Nc3 rather than the Maroczy idea of c4 (you can find the rest of his videos easily enough if that interests you). Pete Tamburro had some lectures a while back at ChessFM/ICC on the Chekhover in his "Openings for Amateurs" series, though I cannot locate them now (and they would only be available for subscribers anyway). Those interested in having a book might consider A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire by Chris Baker, though I express some doubt about his recommendations in my notes.

Sicilian (B53) and Sicilian B53 Best Games at Chessgames
A useful collection of Chekhover Sicilian games and a great compilation of "best games" to help you get a quick sense of ideas and themes in this line. You might also search games of Vasiukov playing Sicilian B53 for more inspiration.

ECO B53: Sicilian, Chekhover Variation from 365Chess
Another useful games collection for getting a quick overview, though this one does not allow you to download files without subscription.

ECO B53 Sicilian, Chekhover variation from ChessCalisthenics
A nice collection of games featuring tactical situations to analyze. You might call it "tactics in the Chekhover, in Black and White."

Vasiukov - Van Wely, Aeroflot 2002 annotated by Boris Schipkov
This is one of the nicest games for White in this line, very well annotated at the Chess Siberia site.

Strictly for Amateurs by Bobby Ang
A nice introduction to the line and apparently Ang's first published chess writing. But he later wrote an even better one on the Chekhover in his "Chess Pieces" series that I cannot locate. From the Internet Archives.

Opening Lanes #15 by Gary Lane
Discusses issues with the early e5 advance by White (which is advocated by Chris Baker).

Sicilian Checkhover Win for White by ChevetteEighty
An amateur video at Chess TV, which does not seem to allow embedding.

Sicilian Checkhover Variation: A Diamond in the Rough at Chess.com
Warning: this page kept crashing my browser (which likely needs updating). Focuses on the games of Judit Polgar with the line.

La Variante Chekhover by Francisco Acosta Ruiz
From the defunct Hechiceros site, via the internet archives. This article offers an interesting approach for Black to the Maroczy bind with c4 by playing an early f5. I include this only because it would likely be hard to find -- and to give you one more reason to reject c4 ideas.

Holiday Party and Business Meeting

2011-01-01T07:16:00.000-05:00

Don Carrelli Steps Down as KCC President

For any who missed this year's Holiday Party and Business Meeting, the most important news was that Don Carrelli stepped down as club president after an excellent year of service; and John Moldovan was elected president and Dr. Ian Mangion was elected vice president by general acclamation. See Business Meeting Minutes for complete details. The club championship will be unrated this year -- see Kenilworth Championship Starts January 13th for complete details. I will be playing in the club championship myself and on a team with Carrelli and Mangion at the US Amateur Teams.