Questions of Modern Chess Theory

Last week I listed my resolutions for 2009. So the first book I will be going through, from cover to cover, is Isaac Lipnitsky's "Questions of Modern Chess Theory". The back cover says it's “the lost masterpiece of Soviet chess literature … Russian experts say it is one of the most influential chess books of the 20th century.” Boy, this has to be good right?

Well, I just saw that Chess Cafe posted a review, and reading it got me all excited about the book. I will be posting impressions as I go through it, but since I am just getting into it, I will quote a piece of the review for now. I chose the following partly because of the recent discussions on BDK's blog (and other places) about Watson vs. Aagaard, rule independence etc:

Chapter 7 (“The Concrete Approach”) is only seven pages long, but it may be one of the most important sections of the book. Lipnitsky demonstrates how dogmatic adherence to general principles can lead a player to defeat without his realization of what actually happened. “In any particular position,” he states, “the rejection of some laws (directives) merely makes way for the affirmation and success of others.” A player must be able to accurately assess, Lipnitsky states, “which laws – maxims, principles, rules – are valid in a given, specific case.” Here’s an excellent example, a practical case faced frequently:

It is White to move, and Lipnitsky addresses two opposite approaches regarding how White should capture the bishop on b3:

(a) The superficial, dogmatic decision: White must capture towards the centre with a2xb3, since c2xb3? would open up the king, which is on the same file as the black rook. Besides, after c2xb3? Black would be left with an easily won king-and-pawn endgame if all the pieces were exchanged. Therefore, a2xb3!.

(b) The concrete, creative decision: in this position the chief, determining principle is the all-out attack on opposite wings. In the event of 13.axb3? Nb4!, threatening Qd8-a5, Black obtains an extremely strong attack. On the other hand after 13.cxb3! Black’s attack is very hard to develop, despite the placing of the rook and king opposite each other (For example: 13…Nb4 14.Kb1!).

White for his part will be able to continue his successful storming of the opponent’s kingside. In these circumstances Black’s extra pawn in the centre has no special significance.

Thank you Chess Cafe for this detailed review. I am really looking forward to sinking my teeth into this classic and posting my own impressions. Stay tuned!

Chess Stud

I spent some time on the Playchess server last night, and the mysterious player "Raffael" was playing 4+1 blitz against some other GM. Many believe that Raffael is Kasparov. Well, I would not question it after seeing his performance. I saw four games, and he just took the other GM apart. It was awesome to watch. Ahhh must be nice to be that good...

Tournament Game

Ok so I finally had some time to go over one of my tournament games... I looked at my last round draw. Right after the game, I felt like I had given away the full point. However, looking at it now, I think I should be happy with the draw. This is definitely not my best game - I fell asleep in the middle game and made some bad moves, which should have allowed black to win the game. He allowed me to regain a small advantage, but in the resulting endgame my edge was not as big as I thought that day. A draw is not a bad result here.

Chessaholic tourney game.pgn

Resolutions for 2009

1. No more than 3 ICC blitz games a day, and at least 4 games per week with time controls of G/30 or longer

2. Renewed focus and discipline in doing tactical drills daily – I’ve been a real slacker on this one. Shame on me, as it was the reason to start this chess blog.

3. Stop jumping from chess book to chess book without really finishing. Focus on one book at a time and get through it, no matter how long it takes. In other words, cure my chess ADHD :)

That’s it for now. It may not sound like much, but I believe it won’t be easy to pull this off - it’s hard to break certain habits :)

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, Quanza, Festivus, or whatever else you may or may not be celebrating. Hope 2009 is full of love and happiness for all of you! And maybe some chess success as well :)

I meant to analyze and post my tournament games, but it's been a very busy month so I haven't found enough time for adequate analysis, and I don't want to post some half-assed attempt. I promise I will get to it once my Christmas vacation is over :)

See you all in 2009!

Weekend Tournament

So I played in a small tournament this weekend, my first tournament in quite a while. I was afraid I was going to be rusty, but I did OK. It was a four round Swiss (G/60), but I had a bye in the first round so I only got to play three games. In those three games I went +2 =1 which I am happy with, even though I should have won that drawn game as I had a slightly better position in the endgame. I will post that game shortly with some analysis.

Thinking Machine

Ok, this is pretty cool. In case you were wondering what it all means:

"When it is your (White's) turn to move, the chess board will gently pulse to show the influence of the various pieces. in the left image below, you can see waves over the squares around the king and (very lightly) over the squares where the pawns might capture. When the machine (Black) is thinking, a network of curves is overlaid on the board; see image at right. The curves show potential moves--often several turns in the future--considered by the computer. Orange curves are moves by black; green curves are ones by white. The brighter curves are thought by the program to be better for white."

More info here.

Dilemma

Chess is too serious for a game, but too much of a game to be taken seriously.

-Moses Mendelssohn

Rybka Wins World Championship

Hardly surprising, Rykba won the 16th World Computer Chess Championship. I watched some of the games live on the Playchess server, and most of them were spectacular. You can download the games in PGN format here. Check out the game against Hiarcs (2nd place winner) - awesome.

Simple But Beautiful

I love this position (number 165 in Alburt's Chess Training Pocket Book). It's white to move - what would you play?

Highlight between the brackets for the solution.
[ 1.Bg5! And black resigned. He can't take the bishop with the h pawn, as Qh5 will be mate. If black's queen takes the bishop, white wins with Qg8# ]

Alekhine Gone Bad

Ok, I have to do something before LEP puts me on his infamous Zombie list. Hmm how about a mindless yet fun blitz game from last night. Ah, quality posting.

alekhine.pgn

Hell Yeah!

USA Basketball Returns to the Top.

That Pile Next To My Bed

Not much posting going on here lately, mostly due to time constraints - you know, stuff like work, relationships, travel, etc. Anyways, over at Likesforest’s blog, he shared his current reading list, and I thought that was cool so I’ll do the same. These are the books that I am currently working trough:




Other bloggers have commented on Heisman’s Tactics book before, and if you haven’t read it, take a look at it. It covers all the tactics you need to know and working through it a couple of times will definitely pay off.

Jepser Hall’s Chess Training for Budding Champions has one of the dorkiest covers in my chess library, but I really like the book. It’s a great comprehensive chess course for the intermediate player that not only addresses the fundamentals (pawn structures, how to develop a plan, etc), but also talks about HOW to study.

Then there is Kasparov’s My Great Predecessors Part II, which one could spend a lifetime studying… it’s got material that is way over my head (and probably many masters’ heads), but I’m mainly using it to study Botvinnik’s games, which I have really come to love (thanks mostly to drunknknite).

Last but not least, I continue to work with Alburt’s Chess Training Pocket Book. I’ve commented on this book before, and I still think it’s one of the best little chess books out there, period. It’s very compact so I take it most everywhere I go, and the 300 positions offer great lessons – not just tactical lessons, but positional, endgames, etc. If I had to make a top 5 list of books in my library, this one would be on it. And I was really excited to see that a sequel is coming out soon!

Well, that’s about it for today. I’m hoping to put up some posts soon taking an in-depth look at Rybka 3, which is on its way into my greedy little hands. Stay tuned.

In Other News...

Ok so this is not related to chess in any way, but it's seriously cool... The Large Hadron Collider is close to beginning its particle beam tests. Check out the pics at that link, this stuff is just mind-blowing. Amazing to think that human minds can design and build something like that.

I am sure that thing beats Rybka hands down.

Getting My Endgame On

(The post title was inspired by this post).

I love Chessbase's endgame tablebases and use them a lot for analysis, but sometimes (e.g. when traveling and studying a book) I don't have access to them. So I was pleasantly surprised to just stumble upon this website, which makes tablebases for endgames with up to 6 pieces available online. Cool beans.

Rybka 3

OK I think I will not be getting Chessbase 10 for a while, but I am really tempted to buy the new Rybka 3 engine. For the first time, this engine will be sold for the Chessbase interface. I've been using Fritz 8 for years now, so I think I can justify an upgrade, sort of. This thing looks like a monster :)

White to Play and Kick Ass

I found the following little gem on Tim Krabbé's Chess Curiosities site. Take a look at the following game from Hendriks - Spanton, Hastings 2006. After

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Bxd2+ 7.Qxd2 dxe4 8.Nxe5 O-O 9.dxe4 Qe7 10.Qf4 Nh5

they reached the following position:



What’s the best continuation for white? Hint: It’s a beautiful move. Highlight between the brackets for the solution:

[12.Qg3! Nxg3? 13.Ng6+ hxg6 14.hxg3# Note Black isn’t forced to play 12…Nxg3, but 12...Rxf7 still leaves white with an advantage, for example after 12...Rxf7 13.Qg5]

Back...

...from a beautiful vacation. No emails, no internet, just lots of sunshine, drinks, and fun. Took an endgame book with me but study was rather limited (mostly due to cocktail-induced laziness).

Chessbase 10

Damn you Chessbase! Why do you have to tempt me?

The folks from Germany just came out with a brand-spankin' new version of everybody's favorite toy. The article lists a bunch of new features in Chessbase 10:

• New integrated online database with millions of games, kept topical and up-to-date by ChessBase;
• split-second online search results (DSL);
• automatic update of your local reference database (Big or Mega) with the weekly instalments of games;
• display of games and moves with statistics in tree style;
• optional restriction to quality games in all searches;
• openings references include an overview of common variations;
• new search booster for super-fast results;
• openings books with instantaneous display of replies;
• fast-and-easy preparation for any specific players, with tree display and games;
• player dossier with improved openings references;
• direct access to the ICCF server for correspondence chess games;
• new engine functions, e.g. display of discarded lines;
• new functions for the chess server: e.g. online database accessible for kibitzers, ECO codes in the games lists, tactics training, full Chess 960 support.
• In addition: new look with high-resolution pieces, improved window management.

Must... resist...

Tournament of Lepers II, Round 4: Tom

I played round 4 against Tom a.k.a. Rhuiden tonight and had a good time except that well, I lost. Things were going well as we transitioned into the early middle game, when I managed to make one of those beautifully horrible moves that are too ridiculous to even really get upset about it. I could try to make excuses - I was tired, the sun was blinding me, my dog ate the keyboard. Truth is, I just didn't pay attention, and it's hard to win a chess game that way. Nicely done Tom.

Too tired for analysis...