30 August, 2017

Tactic : Black to Play

If this isn't in ChessTempo's database already, I am sure it will arrive soon.

Black to play

As with so many "real game' tactics, its always easy to see after the fact.

Doubtless Kasparov had little time left on his clock if the reports of his comeback tournament are to be believed !

23 August, 2017

Réti annotation from 'Morgenzeitung', 1929

I admit that, despite my desire to understand, and appreciate, "super-GM chess", most of the time, even with explanatory commentary from a GM 'live in the studio', it is beyond my grasp.

Richard Réti, understandably given his position as the inventor of one of the pivotal hyper-modern opening systems, had a different opinion of positional chess, at least later in his life.

I picked up Harry Golembek's "Réti's Best Games" second-hand recently ( 6 Euros for a 1974 Dover paperback, which seems expensive until you see that the same thing reaches 265 GBP on Amazon ?!) and in  English descriptive notation : some nostalgic times ahead when I read the games !

The book's introduction takes a form of a memoir of Réti and finishes with part of his annotation, from 1929, to a game from Moscow between two Russian players, Pobedin and Lukomski, describing the following position, and it's flamboyant finish:

Lukomski-Pobedin, Moscow, 1929.White to play

ti wrote...."Something like this is not only pretty, but has the advantage of being much easier to understand than a difficult positional game. Thus it is only natural that the greater part of the chess world should be displeased with the fact that one seldom sees anything similar happening in modern master tournaments.

But the blame should be laid, not on the masters, but on the tournament organisers.

The latter must decide to invite to great-master tournaments some Pobedins as well. Then the public would see so many sacrificial combinations of this type that they would soon find them as banal and uninteresting as the writer of these lines - please forgive me for this confession - finds this Queen sacrifice."

Tartokower, however, described it is as "splendid", at least according to the Daily Express !

From my amateur level of chess, my heart certainly sides with Tartarkower on this, at least on the finish of the game, but my head is firmly with Réti for the general approach.

As a problem, the solution is simple, even trivial ! but see the full game below. 

Lukomski could have played 14...Qg5, and made Pobedin fight for it, but that would have been pointless, since the game is already over.

He lost it with the abysmal and thoughtless blitz-style move 11 of Bxd4, which, surely, even Tartakower would never have described as 'splendid' !




[Event "?"] [White "Lukomski"] [Black "Pobedin"] [Site "Moscow"] [Result "1–0"] [Date "1929"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 b6 4.e4 Bb4 5.e5 Ne4 6.Qg4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 Bxc3+ 8.Kd1 Kf8 9.Rb1 Nc6 10.Ba3+ Kg8 11.Rb3 Bxd4 12.Qxg7+ Kxg7 13.Rg3+ Kh6 14.Bc1+ Kh5 15.Be2+ Kh4 16.Rh3#

16 August, 2017

Tactics : A new high

I exceeded my old "highest rating" in standard tactics this week after solving the below problem.

Not only that but I also manged the solution in less than the average time of 4m 5s, and calculated the whole sequence of moves required.

Well, I was pleased with myself, anyway, especially as in the game it was taken from, White missed the tactic.

White to play

Solution

I was also happy with finding the solution to the following, as it was another area I fail often, the quiet move ( ah, given you a hint there).

Black to Play
Solution

For this one, Chess Tempo required an extra move for a change. 

In many CT problems, having calculated a sequence of moves, when you play them, the solution ends much earlier than expected, leaving you feeling a bit cheated, as if the time hasn't been invested properly.

This is particularly frustrating when CT stops after one move played. Having spent some time satisfying yourself that it is correct, you feel you want to show CT that you have actually worked it out, and not just guessed !


Finally, below is the highest rated problem I've solved so far ( standard 1656, Blitz 1899 )

White to play



 I spent some time on the 'wrong' solution, but have to give myself credit, in that I looked for something else, since the "solution" I had wasn't really good enough.

A fresh look produced the required result !

Solution

09 August, 2017

August Update

Its August, Summer holiday-time, and the majority of my work-colleagues are either on them, or about to take them, so probably a good time to recap on what I’m doing in the chess arena.

ChessTempo (CT) is ongoing, and with the change of approach I made, ie not focusing completely on what CT calls rated “standard tactics”, its proving to be a success for me.

So far, I have managed 47 days continuous tactics, averaging about 40 minutes per day.

Weekends more, weekdays less, but spending time daily on some sort of tactics training has done me good.

I can’t put that in rating terms, but I can say that I have reduced the tendency to re-capture automatically, I appear to see the opportunity for targets better, perhaps meaning a geometrical view on combinations such as pins and skewers, and it seems that more ‘out-of-the-box’ ideas are bubbling up to the surface as well.

Here, for example, although I ended up playing 16...Ra8, I actually considered the exchange Rxf3, which I doubt I would have thought about 6 months ago. Its not a bad move, but I didn't feel confident enough playing it at the time.


Black to play

Of course, there are days when I feel there is not enough time to do justice to a number of new tactics problems, in which case I have a set of ‘failed’ problems that I can practice with, consisting of about 15 or so that I can solve in less than 10 minutes.

I try to include at least one standard rated problem each day, but its no longer essential, as long as the daily workout is done.

Apart from tactics, I’m also working my way through Valeri Broznik’s “Techniques of Positional Play” after it was recommended to me by my local chess shop. So far still in chapter1 – Restricting the enemy pieces – but it does cover 7 of the 45 techniques he discusses in the book.

Lastly, to cover the opening phase of the game, I’m also working through Nigel Davies’ DVD “b6 for practical players”.

This is most enjoyable.

Although ostensibly a DVD on Owen’s Defence ( 1...b6) , he is actually showing how to use b6 as a useful transpositional move within your existing repertoire, or a move to ‘spruce up your repertoire’ and throw your opponent onto his own resources early in the game.

He particularly shows how it can be used as an adjunct to a French Defence (which is useful to me, since that it what I play as Black) but also offers what he calls economical or theory-light lines in the actual Owen's and in the English Defence against d4, c4 and Nf3.

In this way, the DVD can also offer a relatively complete Black repertoire, should you wish it.

In my opinion, Davies has an excellent presentation technique, and is a great teacher, especially as he aims most of his material at the player who has limited time to study.

To finish off, here’s an example that he gave of a tactic arising from a Tony Miles game.


Black to Play
Black to play [ Solution  14...Qxg2 15. Kxg2 Nxe4+ ]

02 August, 2017

Tactics : A beautiful combination

A beautiful combination...


Black to play