Makes Chess Seem Sexy...

British GM Danny Gormally's fight at a nightclub with Super-GM Lev Aronian (FIDE) over the beautiful WIM Arianne Caoili at the recent Turin Olympiad has done more to put chess in the headlines than any story in recent years (including the Olympiad itself, of course). Some may see this as a sad state of affairs, but all I can say is "any publicity is good publicity." At least people are talking about chess. As Stephen Moss of the Guardian Unlimited puts it in his amusing essay "Sex by Other Means," the incident "is probably the best thing to have to have happened to this much-mocked pastime in a generation." And would it really be such a bad thing to have chess associated with beautiful women like Arianne? For the gossip minded, the story is also covered by the Telegraph, London Times, Sun Star, and Manila Standard. If we are lucky, it will make Entertainment Tonight....

Two Knights Sicilian, Part One

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3

Not satisfied with my results playing the Grand Prix Attack against an early ...e6 by Black (e.g.: 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6! 3.f4 d5 =), I have lately begun playing 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 when 3...d5?! is something of a mistake (and transposes to lines I know from the Two Knights French). If Black plays 3...Nc6, then I might play 4.Bb5 or 4.g3 and if 3...a6 (which I see most often) then 4.g3 and 5.Bg2, delaying a decision on whether to play d3 or d4. I have been thinking of switching completely to this new line, which I like to call the Two Knights Sicilian, and so began doing some research.

The best thing I've found so far is Joel Benjamin's great set of articles on "Anti-Sicilians" at the Jeremy Silman website. I hadn't visited Silman's excellent site in a while since it is updated rather irregularly and so I had overlooked Benjamin's articles. Silman has an incredible collection of materials, especially on Opening Theory, but the site has no clear business model, so it is hard to imagine how it can be sustained long term (except by the generosity of IM Silman and his friends.) But the articles there by Benjamin and others are first rate. I was most interested in the last pieces of the Anti-Sicilian series, especially Part Six covering 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5; Part Five covering 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 a6 4.g3 (focusing on lines with d3 followed by the provocative Ng5!? to play f4); and Part Four covering 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.Nf3 a6 4.g3 b5. Since I still like to play 2.Nc3 and still indulge in the Grand Prix against Black's 2...d6 and even 2...Nc6, I was less interested in the earlier articles on the Moscow (with 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+).

Books have also been useful. A nearly identical repertoire to that offered by Benjamin is discussed by Chris Baker in his often useful A Startling Chess Opening Repertoire (Everyman 1998). He even covers the 4.g3 lines (see pp. 114-124). I rather like the idea of playing 4.g3 and 5.Bg2 and keeping Black guessing about whether I'll play an open or closed system. For this reason, two other handy books have been Gary Lane's The Ultimate Closed Sicilian (Batsford 2001) where he discusses Nf3 lines blocking the f-pawn in the Closed with d3, and Nigel Davies's Taming the Sicilian (Everyman 2002) which covers early g3 and Bg2 systems in the Open lines with d4.

I am still at the experimental stage of learning this new system and so have been trying things out. One recent experiment in games on ICC has been 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.Bxd7+ Qxd7 5.Nge2!? as an odd way of playing the Moscow variation. I could find only one game in the databases I have, which was quite interesting despite being by two unknown masters: Kamber-Bartolini, Zurich 1991.

What do you think? Any book, article, website, or game suggestions are welcome....

10-year-old Anna Matlin (ELO 1565) Enters Summer Tournament

Anna Matlin

The annual Kenilworth Chess Club Summer Tournament began Thursday, June 1, with ten players entered so far and three games played in Round One. The most surprising game of the night (at least for me) was my near-loss to our newest member, 10-year-old Anna Matlin, rated 1565. That would have been considered prodigy level when I was a kid, though we recall that Hikaru Nakamura made master by that age. If she breaks 1900 by age twelve, though, then she will be on the same pace as Bobby Fischer! She has already demonstrated that she can beat an Expert with just a little more care at the critical moment (see diagram below).

Matlin-Goeller
White to play.

I look forward to seeing Anna's games in the coming weeks. She expects to attend the Kenilworth Chess Club regularly this summer to gain more experience against higher-rated opponents. All I can say to the rest of you is, "watch out!"

It was also a pleasure to welcome Rutgers student Devin Camenares back to the club after a semester-long absence. I hope his loss to NM Mark Kernighan (and a few losses to Anna in 5-minute games!) will not discourage him.

It is still possible to join the Summer Tournament. Games are unrated and played at Game/60 time control. Entry fee is $3 for the entire summer. Prizes for first, second, and third are awarded at the end of August to those players who accumulate the most points, with only wins and draws counting. Matches each night are by mutual arrangement with the lower-rated player getting White in the first game and alternating colors in any subsequent games. Complete rules are given to all players who join. Speak to TD Greg Tomkovich for more information and to report results.

Return to "Planet Kirsan"

Hat tip to ChessBase News for pointing us to the just-released online version of Michael Specter's report for The New Yorker titled "Planet Kirsan." I was wondering when the rest of the chess press would pick up on this bitingly critical piece about the current FIDE president, about which I wrote way back on April 20.

Janowski's Brother Indian

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3 Bf5!?

Reading Asa Hoffmann's excellent game collection, Chess Gladiator, I came across the interesting line 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3!? Bf5!? I'm not sure whether this line has a name, but it reminds me of the so-called Janowski Indian (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 d6 3.Nc3 Bf5!?), which I wrote about back in November 2005 in a piece titled Tal's Janowski-Indian Games. Perhaps we can call it Janowski's Brother?

As you know, I like to play The Panther from time to time (1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 d6 4.Nc3 e5), but lately I've been plagued by opponents seeking transposition to the Pirc with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d6 3.Nc3. So you can see the appeal to me of having this interesting new option.