GM John Emms - Simul

My colleague Steve played in a simultaneous last Saturday against GM John Emms. According to John, Steve had the better of the opening which was a Closed Sicilian but unfortunately for Steve, John had a better positional game, hoovered up some pawns and Steve had to resign on move 30.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 e5 4. Bc4 Be7 5. d3 Nf6 6. Nd2 d6 7. Nf1 Bg4 8. f3 Be6 9. Ne3 a6 10. a3 b5 11. Ba2 Rb8 12. O-O O-O 13. Ncd5 b4 14. Kh1 Nd7 15. axb4 Bxd5 16. Nxd5 Nxb4 17. f4 Nxd5 18. Bxd5 exf4 19. Rxa6 Nb6 20. Bb3 Bf6 21. Bxf4 Be5 22. Bxe5 dxe5 23. Ra7 c4 24. dxc4 Qxd1 25. Rxd1 Rfd8 26. Rxd8 Rxd8 27. h3 Nd7 28. c5 Nxc5 29. Bxf7 Kf8 30. Bd5 Nd7 1-0

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

Attacking with the initiative!

Here is my colleague Steve's latest club game. This guy is what I would describe as a STRONG chess tactician. Although currently graded 149 I think that his playing strength is about 160 ... This is very instructive from the point of view of keeping the initiative in a promising position. It is an example of someone playing with the attitude of attack - Steve has kindly annotated the game ...

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 c5 3. Bg5!? Ne4 3...e6 is more usual here I think, but I was trying to steer the game into sharper territory 4. Be3 d5 5. c3?! Im not too sure about this move. I was expecting 5. dxc5 immediately, which would seem fit more with the Be3 idea. 5...  Nc6 6. dxc5 e5 7. Qa4 Qc7 ( 7... Nxc5 8. Bxc5 Bxc5 9. Nxe5 I saw this far as wasnt too happy with the position, so avoided it. Although 9...Qb6 looks very strong and I totally missed this. ) 8. b4 Bd7 9. Qb3 Be6 10. Qb2!? Before Qb2 I thought I was just a pawn down for nothing, so was actually angling for a draw with a repetition of bishop moves. 10...  Be7 11. g3 O-O 12. Bg2 f5 13. Bd2 Bf6 14. O-O Rad8 The computer has been suggesting I play ...b6 for the last few moves. It would certainly open lines and I think thats the right approach in this game. I need to forget about my pawn deficit and go after the king. 15. Rd1 d4 16. Rc1 I was quite happy to see the rook move for a second time, as I felt it had almost given me another move for free 16...  Nxd2 17. Nfxd2 e4 18. Nb3 Bg5 19. Re1 And the rook moves again, while my bishop takes up a decent diagonal 19...  d3 19...f4 was better I think, getting straight to the point. 20. exd3 Rxd3 21. Bf1 Ne5! I dont mind sacrificing the exchange here, as the knight will be a monster on d3. I think I was lucky that white didnt play b4-b5 earlier to push the knight to a bad square. 22. Be2 f4 23. Nd4 Bd5? ( 23... fxg3 24. fxg3 Qf7 is winning comfortably ) ( 23... fxg3 24. Nxe6 gxf2+ Would also be winning for Black ) 24. Rd1? According to the silicon beast, this is the final mistake. White had to play 24. Bxd3. ( 24. Bxd3 Nxd3 25. Qe2 fxg3 26. fxg3 Nxe1 27. Qxe1 e3 Black still has a big advantage here ) 24...  fxg3 25. hxg3 Nc4 26. Qc2 Rxg3+! The breakthough. 27. fxg3 Qxg3+ 28. Kh1 Qh3+ ( 28... Rf2 Also works just as well ) 29. Kg1 Be3# 0-1

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Budapest bamboozles my opponent !

I had all the luck in my club game last night. It is hard to believe that my opponent went horribly wrong on move 4 by developing his Bishop to g5 instead of his Knight to f3 first! This allowed for an early Bxf2+ picking up a pawn and following that with Ne4+ recapturing the Bishop ... (I won with the same thing online once).

I wanted to test my opponent this time rather than bottling out - to show who had the initiative and this proved to be the correct attitude - due to incorrect analysis my opponent technically through the game away on 11.Qd3?? (instead if moving his King back to e1) allowing a simple Knight fork winning his Queen! He valiantly played on and some of my colleagues say I made a bit of a meal out of the finish, but I came away happy with my first win for a while ... !

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. d5 Bc5 4. Bg5 Bxf2+ 5. Kxf2 Ne4+ 6. Ke1 Qxg5 7. Nf3 Qe3 8. Qc2 Qf2+ 9. Kd1 Qe3 10. Rg1 d6 11. Qd3 Nf2+ 12. Kc2 Nxd3 13. exd3 Bg4 14. Nbd2 Qf2 15. Kb3 Na6 16. a3 Bxf3 17. Nxf3 O-O 18. Rae1 Qb6+ 19. Kc3 c6 20. dxc6 bxc6 21. Be2 Qa5+ 22. Kc2 Rab8 23. Rb1 c5 24. Nd2 Qc7 25. Bf3 Rb6 26. Ra1 Rfb8 27. Rgb1 Qe7 28. Be4 g6 29. Bd5 Kg7 30. Bf3 f5 31. Ra2 Nc7 32. b3 Ne6 33. Bd5 Nd4+ 34. Kc3 Qh4 35. Rab2 a5 36. h3 Ne2+ 37. Kc2 Qf2 38. b4 axb4 39. axb4 Rxb4 40. Rxb4 Rxb4 41. Rf1 Qd4 42. Kd1 Qxd3 43. Rf3 Rb1# 0-1

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Powerplay 10 Calculation - GM Daniel King

I'm always looking for fresh ways to study tactics ... As the tactics puzzles I attempt to solve get more difficult I realise I am still lacking considerably in my calculation skills! To remedy this, I recently purchased a copy of Dan King's Powerplay 10 Calculation (DVD).

The lesson's start with Dan introducing 5 complex chess positions where the student is asked to choose between a course of action. E.g. "In this position, is it safe for White to take the knight on a6?" The student is then asked to go away and spend some time solving the problems. Dan advises you to use a board (as he does) to play through the positions. I personally thought it might be a useful discipline to play through the variations in my head as far as possible, because this is what I will have to do in a real game. I managed to spot most of the tactical ideas in the positions shown, but made a couple of astoundingly bad oversights! I therefore need to practice looking at EVERYTHING! I am also very guilty of stopping my analysis after 3 or 4 moves for each player which really isn't good enough for some of these positions.

Having done my own analysis - it was refreshing to see how a Grandmaster i.e. Dan King went about solving the same set of problems. He was totally thorough and objective - a lot more so than me. Like a dog with a bone he persisted in analysing each variation and some subvariations in great detail leaving no stone unturned. It was also quite interesting to see what extent intuition played in his analysis as well ...

So far as I can see, these lessons from a Grandmaster are excellent at making you think with the right mindset. There are over 4 hours of study on this DVD and I think that if you need to improve calculation as most of us do, then this is a great training tool. I thoroughly recommend Powerplay 10 - Calculation !

http://www.chessbase.com/shop/product.asp?pid=438

Tactics Problem #4

Here is a tactical finish from a Tal vs Larsen Match. Try and find the finish ...

(Careful not to scroll too far - you'll see the answer ... !)

White to move ...

1. Bc5 Qxc5 2. Re8+ Rf8 3. Qe6+ Kh8 4. Qf7 *

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

FIDE World Rankings

Just out of interest, here is a list of the world's top players at the FIDE homepage: http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml

Scotch Draw

In my latest club game I thought I had a reasonably good opening out of a scotch, but any advantage I had seem to fizzle away ... I had to defend to keep the draw ... There was surely more to play once the draw was agreed though? I was happy enough because the team won 3-2 overall!

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Bb4+ 6. c3 Be7 7. Bc4 Nf6 8. Nxc6 bxc6 9. Qc2 d5 10. exd5 cxd5 11. Bd3 O-O 12. O-O h6 13. Nd2 c6 14. Rad1 Re8 15. Nb3 Qc7 16. g3 Bd6 17. Bc5 Bg4 18. Rdc1 Bxc5 19. Nxc5 Qb6 20. Nb3 c5 21. c4 d4 22. f3 Bd7 23. Nd2 a5 24. Rfe1 Bc6 25. Ne4 Nxe4 26. Bxe4 Rab8 27. b3 Qb4 28. Re2 Bxe4 29. fxe4 Re5 30. Rce1 Qb6 31. Qd3 Qe6 32. a3 Qd6 33. Re1d1 Qb6 34. Rdb1 0.5-0.5

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

Shredder for Android

I bought and installed a copy of Shredder for my Android phone on the weekend and I'm not disappointed -


Like any chess computer, it gives you a rating and advises and assists you when you have played the wrong move (coach). There is also a tactics module thrown in (1000 problems). For £5.99 in total I think it is a worthwhile investment ... (should be available on Apple iPhone as well)

https://market.android.com/search?q=shredder&c=apps

Wijk aan Zee - 2012

Try this out - http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/livegames
you can follow the Wijk aan Zee tournament going on now ...

Grand Prix Attack with sound pawn structure

I walked away with a few more grading points last night when my opponent offered me a draw on move 18. It wasn't really a drawn position because there were opportunities for both players to capitalise - but on further analysis with my chess playing colleague Steve at lunchtime, it is quite possible that I had some better prospects in the final position reached ... It was just getting exciting at this point - I accepted the draw because I couldn't see a way forward at the time, but if I recapture d4 with cxd4 then I should be able to post either a Rook or even better a Knight to c5!

1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 e6 3. f4 Nc6 4. Nf3 g6 5. Bb5 Nge7 6. O-O a6 7. Bxc6 Nxc6 8. d3 Bg7 9. a3 b5 10. Ne2 Bb7 11. Qe1 Qe7 12. c3 O-O 13. Qg3 d5 14. e5 Na5 15. Nd2 Rad8 16. b4 Nc6 17. Nf3 f6 18. d4 cxd4 0.5-0.5

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

Budapest played correctly after 3.e3

Following on from the last post, here is a master level game I dug out which demonstrates how to play the opening correctly after 3.e3 and Black following up with 3. ... e4, as in my latest club game. This games shows how the strategy of initially attacking the Queen with a5 and Bishop on a4 result in a full scale attack against the castled King. The White Queen has to be sacrificed or a mate will surely follow ... The game ends with a neat Nf4 (to allow Nxf4 Qf3+ winning the Rook on h1)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. e3 e4 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Bd2 Bxc3 6. Bxc3 d5 7. Qc2 O-O 8. O-O-O Nc6 9. h3 Qe7 10. Qb3 Rd8 11. g4 h6 12. Bd2 a5 13. cxd5 Nxd5 14. f4 Ncb4 15. Bxb4 axb4 16. Ne2 Ra5 17. Kd2 Bd7 18. Ra1 Ba4 19. Qc4 Rd6 20. Qc1 Rc6 21. Qb1 Rc2+ 22. Qxc2 Bxc2 23. Kxc2 Nxe3+ 24. Kd2 Nc4+ 25. Kc1 Qh4 26. Kc2 Qf2 27. b3 Ne3+ 28. Kd2 Nd5 29. Kd1 Nxf4 0-1

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I can do better !

I made a beginner's mistake last night and blundered a pawn in the opening - I tried a Budapest - but he didn't accept the pawn on e5 and played e3! I played e4 but then had to think of ways of supporting it (the pawn)! I ended up blundering the pawn on e4 by a sequence that I wrongly (stupidly) assessed ... I played d5 to get a central pawn in - but of course he can play ... cxd5 I play Nxd5 he plays Nc3xe4! I felt like a right MUG ...!

I played well after that but my position was compromised (to say the least). My opponent is a solid tactician - I managed to pose him a few problems but - but then (in time trouble) I blundered a Bishop (by that time I'd already lost really)!!! I wasn't too upset - the pressure of having a long run of victories and draws is finally off - distant memory ! Funnily enough - neither my opponent or his colleague had heard of the Budapest !? - you have to laugh!!

I have become more determined now - I will play another club match on Monday! (Ave Grade is 140)

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e5 3. e3 e4 4. Nc3 g6 5. Nge2 d5 6. cxd5 Nxd5 7. Ncxe4 Bg4 8. Qb3 Nb6 9. Bd2 Bg7 10. Bb4 Nc6 11. Bc5 h5 12. N2c3 Na5 13. Qb5+ Nd7 14. Qxa5 b6 15. Qb5 bxc5 16. Nxc5 O-O 17. Nxd7 Bxd7 18. Qa5 Rb8 19. b4 Re8 20. Be2 a6 21. a3 Rb6 22. O-O Rc6 23. Rfc1 Qh4 24. Qd5 Rd6 25. Qf3 Bg4 26. Qg3 Qg5 27. Bxg4 hxg4 28. h3 f5 29. hxg4 fxg4 30. Ne2 Bxd4 31. Nxd4 Re7 32. Rxc7 R6d7 33. R1c1 Kf7 34. Rxd7 Rxd7 35. Rc7 Qe7 36. Qf4 Kg7 37. Rxd7 Qxd7 1-0

PGN Viewer courtesy of http://chesstempo.com/

Double Rook & Queen Sac !

I have managed to beat Level 8 out of 10 on the free Chess App on my Android phone(second attempt)! I'm not really sure how strong it is but, like a greedy kid in a sweet shop it went for whatever treats it could get it's hands on as quickly as possible and munched on them while I was busy concocting a tactical device to blow it away! Who says that you can't learn tactics from books? :) Most of my tactical ideas have come through a dedicated study routine, and this game proved that the tactical motifs can be learnt by familiarisation and the process of reading through them. I'm the first to admit that I'm NOT the most gifted chess tactician - far from it - but tactics can be learnt - hence this Blog!

You can easily see from the game that with a Queen on f7 (Move 26) White can't really finish off Black with a brute force combination ... but remember Philidor's Legacy and it is all quite easy to spot. There should be a Knight on h6 with the Queen giving herself up on g8 - Therefore to make this happen I need to retreat the Queen to b3 (Black gobbles up another Rook at this point) to allow Nf7+ Kg8, Nxh6+ Kh8, Qg8+ Nxg8 (Knight must capture because King cannot of course) Nf7# - instead of a smothered mate I have a neat little Knight and Bishop mate - easy when you know what to look for ... Of course this combination had to be forcing otherwise it would have been mate against me on the next move. Here is the game ...

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 e6 6. Nxf5 exf5 7. Nf3 Bd6 8. Bc4 Nf6 9. Bg5 Nbd7 10. O-O O-O 11. Re1 Qb6 12. Bb3 c5 13. c3 Qc7 14. Bc2 cxd4 15. Qxd4 f4 16. Rad1 Bc5 17. Bxf4 Qb6 18. Qd2 Rfe8 19. b3 a5 20. Bf5 Rad8 21. Qc2 h6 22. Ne5 Nf8 23. b4 axb4 24. Qb3 Bxf2+ 25. Kh1 Bxe1 26. Qxf7+ Kh8 27. Qb3 Rxd1 28. Nf7+ Kg8 29. Nxh6+ Kh8 30. Qg8+ Nxg8 31. Nxf7# 1-0

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Van 't Kruijs Opening

Having lost abysmally at Blitz chess against Steve lunchtime, I decided to take my frustration out on the Chess App on my Android phone. I played on Level 7 out of 10 as Black. I have looked up the opening moves on wikipedia ... it is Van 't Kruijs Opening. Here is the game that I managed to win - I will try and beat it on Level 8 tomorrow as White.

1. e3 d5 2. d4 e6 3. Bd2 Nf6 4. Nf3 c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. Nc3 O-O 7. Be2 Nc6 8. O-O a6 9. Na4 Bd6 10. Nd4 Qc7 11. h3 Ne4 12. Nxc6 bxc6 13. c4 Bh2+ 14. Kh1 Be5 15. Qc2 Rab8 16. Rac1 Bd7 17. Be1 f5 18. f3 Nf6 19. f4 Bd6 20. c5 Be7 21. Bxa6 Ra8 22. Be2 Ne4 23. b4 g5 24. Nb6 Rab8 25. a4 Rxb6 26. cxb6 Qxb6 27. Qb3 Bc5 28. a5 Qb7 29. fxg5 Rb8 30. Rb1 Qa7 31. Bf3 Ng5 32. Bd2 Kf7 33. Bd1 Ne4 34. Bh5+ Ke7 35. Be1 Bxe3 36. Qb2 Rg8 37. Qa1 Bf2 38. Bxf2 Nxf2+ 39. Kh2 Qe3 40. Bf3 Qf4+ 41. Kg1 Nxh3+ 42. Kh1 Qg3 43. a6 Ng5 44. Bd1 Qh4+ 45. Kg1 Nh3+ 46. Kh2 Nf4+ 47. Kg1 Rxg2 0-1

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