Blessed

'Blessed' - the new CD from Lucinda Williams - will be released on 28 February.

Track List:

Buttercup

I Don't Know How You're Livin'

Copenhagen

Born To Be Loved

Seeing Black

Soldier's Song

Blessed

Sweet Love

Ugly Truth

Convince Me

Awakening

Kiss Like Your Kiss

There will be a couple of special editions and a choice of eight CD covers. Full details are available over at the official Lucinda Williams website.

Here's hoping there will be a UK tour, as there was for 'West' in 2007 and 'Little Honey' in 2009.

Smoke Fairies at The Sage

Smoke Fairies
The Sage
23.1.2011

Back to The Sage! This time it was the smaller Hall 2. They have shuffled the seating arrangements to produce a standing area with two tiers of seats around the edges. It looked like a sell-out to me.

Following two support acts - first, The Sea of Bees and then Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell - the Smoke Fairies took to the dark, dry-iced stage.

The Smoke Fairies are Katherine Blamire and Jessica Davies, friends from school days. They have a strong stage presence and their voices harmonise wonderfully.

Image is important and they certainly have a certain something in that department. As the dry ice rose, there appeared, through the gloom, the sight of Neil Walsh and his viola. Swaying slightly from left to right, with his long hair and long coat, he could almost have been an eerie captain playing away on the deck of a fog-bound ghost ship.

The first song of the evening was 'Summer Ends', the opening track from their excellent debut CD 'Through Low Light and Trees'. It's a great scene-setter for both the CD and the live performances. A smouldering and powerful song, it swirls around like a deep and disturbed mist, never quite fully forming, defying lazy labels and genre pigeon-holing. It's one of the best of their repertoire.


'Devil in My Mind' swiftly followed and it soon became apparent that announcements, band introductions and general banter were not going to feature heavily.

This did lead to a number of silences between songs as guitars were tuned for the next number, but there were still one or two snippets:

'Next year for Christmas, what me and Kath really want, is two guitar techs…Maybe not even Christmas, maybe for Easter; we’re getting desperate'.

'Sorry about the stage banter. Last night we made a small child cry. She came to the gig dressed as a fairy and I just simply drew attention to it and dedicated Living with Ghosts to her'.

The aforementioned 'Living with Ghosts' was another highlight of the evening.

Given the lack of introductions, I'm only making an educated guess that the drums and bass were commanded by Martin Dean and Kristofer Harris respectively (they were both on the CD). It all adds to the mystique!

The last song of the initial set was 'Hotel Room', an up-tempo foot-tapper which was very well received.

A three-song encore soon followed. There was a glimpse of the varied venues one has to expect on a tour:

'Yesterday we were playing in a library…we went into into the computer suite for the encore'.

'Frozen Heart' was the best of the encore songs, which culminated in a cover version of Killing Joke's 'Requiem', complete with (unnecessary) apology. 'I hope you don’t mind if we’re a little bit indulgent'. We didn't mind at all; in fact, we'd have happily listened for a lot longer.

At 70 minutes, it was a relatively short set but a very enjoyable one all the same. My advice is to get out and see the Smoke Fairies if you get the opportunity to do so. They are fresh, different and challenging. They are also going to grow in statue and reputation in the very near future.

The Smoke Fairies were happy to sign merchandise and be photographed just after the show.


For further details, please visit the official Smoke Fairies website.

Another site well worth perusing is Neil Walsh's blog. It includes a number of tour diary entries.

Chess Reviews: 168

ChessBase Magazine #140

The new issue of ChessBase has broken ranks with it's recent predecessors and changed the colour of it's magazine. It makes it easier to spot on the shelf but the question is, will this colour stay for the whole of 2011?
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The magazine starts with a thoughtful editorial from Andre Schulz, drawing attention to the lack of spectator interest shown at top tournaments:

'There are magnificent tournaments out there – but nobody goes to them. The world’s best players appear – and nobody is interested.'

However, some events have gone some way to reversing the trend:

'The latest example of really successful presentation for a chess tournament is the London Chess Classic. So anyone who wants to know how to promote chess successfully can ask chief organiser Malcolm Pein, who made a brilliant debut last year and even went on with his helpers to surpass themselves this year.'

Indeed, coverage of the London Chess Classic is absolutely first class and is the biggest highlight of issue #140. The games have expert analysis with substantial input from the players themselves. Even better – authentic audio streams from London, featuring the voices of the players and other expert commentators (including Korchnoi) are included and they run for a total time of over six hours.

Here’s a couple of positions from London to whet the appetite. For the full stories behind the games I can recommend careful study of the material on the ChessBase DVD.

McShane – Carlsen

18 Nc6!

Kramnik – Nakamura

12 …g5!

Of course, playing a pawn to g5 isn’t always the best move…

Howell - Carlsen

42 g5? Qa4 43 Qg3 Qd1

London was a particularly bloodthirsty tournament and I’m sure readers will enjoy the top quality coverage given here.

Other notable features include coverage of the Women’s World Championship, the Russian Championship and the tournament in Reggio Emillia.

Hou Yifan became the youngest of all Women’s World Champions and she annotates a key game from her ascent to the top of the chess world.

The openings surveys are a popular part of the the magazine and this time they cover:

Bauer: Scandinavian 5 …Bg4
Marin: Caro-Kann with3 …g6
Bojkov: Sicilian 2 …Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 d5
Grivas: Sicilian 4 …Qb6
Dembo: Sicilian Richter Rauzer
Moskalenko: French Advance Variation
Kritz: Ruy Lopez Steinitz Variation
Schandorff: Semi-Slav 5 Bg5 h6 6 Bxf6
Hazai/Lukacs: Semi-Slav Ubilava Variation
Skembris: Queen’s Indian 5 Qa4
Postny: Nimzo-Indian 4 Nf3 c5
Kuzmin: Nimzo-Indian 4 e3 0-0 5 Nge2 (uh-oh...superflous 'g'!)
Schipkov: King’s Indian Saemisch ….c6, ….a6

There are other opening surveys in the form of Fritz Media Training and these are:

Kritz: French Steinitz 7 …cxd4
Lilov: Dutch Leningrad 6 b4
Mikhalchishin: Grunfeld 5 Bg5
Mikhalchishin: Ruy Lopez Archangelsk

Chess magazines are going through a tough time at the moment. It’s hard to find an ideal balance of material to appeal to the majority of readers, especially as games can be followed live all across the globe. However, the first issue of 2011 confirms, without a shadow of doubt, that ChessBase Magazine is still a first class product, holding its own as a perfectly valid - and, indeed, important - chess product in spite of the worldwide information boom.

Strategy University
Volume 1: The Central Approach
By GM Adrian Mikhalchishin
3 hours and 50 minutes
ChessBase

ChessBase have started two new series of DVDs. 'Strategic University' utilises the wisdom of top chess trainer GM Mikhalchishin.

Volume one features 21 video lectures covering the following aspects of central play:
Center Fight Passed Pawn Structure Change Closing the Center Flank Strategy

As is customary with this particular presenter, the games mainly feature classic players, such as Polugaevsky, Botvinnik, Rubinstein and Fischer. The illustrative games are well chosen and they clearly demonstrate the selected topic.

There’s a temptation, having set up a very nice pawn centre, to sit back and try and quietly improve one’s position. GM Mikhalchishin demonstrates several examples which show that the opposite strategy can be much more effective.

Rubinstein – Schlechter

Berlin 1918

I'm sure most of us, playing White, would be tempted to sit on the advantage and not try anything bold. Rubinstein chose an alternative way, reckoning that the space advantage and excellently placed pieces give him every reason to play directly with 13 d5! after which he went on to win.

There are a couple of issues with the presentation. The speed of delivery, coupled with a heavy accent, may leave lesser experienced players (and/or juniors) feeling a little bit out of there depth. Secondly, the striped shirt causes an unfortunate strobing effect which can be distracting.

Nevertheless, the material is very instructive and experienced club players will be able to learn a lot from it.

Know the Terrain
Vol. 1: The Carlsbad
By IM Sam Collins
Seven Hours
ChessBase

The second new series has a similar mission as the first. The chess student is diverted away from spending too much time on the openings and encouraged to get to grips with the finer points of middlegame strategy.

The specific aim of the ‘Know the Terrain’ series is to take a good look at important pawn structures arising from Queen’s pawn openings. The Carlsbad structure is certainly a very important one to study and this is by no means a brief overview. It’s one of ChessBase’s longest running DVDs; at seven hours, there is enough time for a massive 53 video lectures.

The easiest way into the Carlsbad structure is via the moves: 1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nc3 Nf6 4 cxd5 exd5 A few moves further on, this familiar position can be reached:

As IM Collins says, there are several plans to consider here.

White’s traditional plan is the minority attack, which involves pushing the b-pawn to attack Black’s Queenside structure, with the idea of timely swap resulting in a weakness or two in Black’s position. Playing in the centre with Rae1 and Ne5, or a quick e3-e4, or if White elected to place the King’s Knight on e2 instead of f3, then f2-f3 and e2-e4 is another possibility, as is the aggressive 0-0-0. Runs through all of the main plans and pays good attention to detail.

There are many options for the Knights manoeuvres on both sides and Black also has several decent options to either slow down White’s minority attack or react to it once it’s reached the Black Queenside. Each of these is examined in turn, using classic illustrative games.

One game famously features an unusual plan in a very important encounter.

Korchnoi – Karpov
Game 31 World Championship 1978

19 a5 The presenter explains this as a natural plan to keep Black’s Bishop in a restricted state, but I feel there’s more to it in this particular case. 19 a5 is such an unusual way to play (most people would surely still have their minds set on b4-b5 at some point). I don't think Korchnoi's move has ever been fully explained (and I've read a lot of books on the 1978 match) so maybe it's something to return to at some point.

Endgames with various pawn structures evolving from the Carlsbad are also considered and there’s a brief look at how the Carlsbad can arise from openings other than the Queen’s Gambit Declined (such as the Slav, Grunfeld and Caro-Kann) and move orders in the QGD.

Sam Collins is a good presenter. His delivery is paced well and easy to follow, so even lesser experienced players will feel at home here.

This is a good DVD and it will be interesting to see where the series takes us next. Maybe an examination of the Isolated Queen's Pawn...?

The ABC of the Modern Slav
2nd Edition
By IM Andrew Martin
5 hours
ChessBase

In IM Martin’s introduction, he bemoans the fact that, years ago, he lost many Slav games to the original version of Fritz and is dismayed by the fact that subsequent versions of the engine have continued to specialise in 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6. This, he muses, is a possible reason as to why the Slav has become so popular over the last couple of decades.

This DVD focuses on the trendy 1 d4 d5 2 c4 c6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 a6. The 23 original video lectures have been joined by nine new ones (several from 2010), including a terrific win for Aronian against World Champion Anand - a good advert for any opening system.

Anand – Aronian
Tal Memorial 2009

Anand didn’t get to play another move. After the Slav c-pawn advanced one more square – 25 …c5 – his position was so bad that he had to resign.

The conclusion of the update is that despite the advance in theory since the first edition was released, Black can still play the …a6 Slav with confidence.

For further details regarding Chessbase products, please visit the ChessBase website

Interplay

Great news for fans of John Foxx. His new CD, 'Interplay', will be released on March 21st.

'Interplay' is a collaboration between John Foxx and Benge. It's been in the pipeline for a while and there's been a growing sense of anticipation leading up to the announcement of the official release date. Early indications clearly suggest that the wait will have been worthwhile.

Tracks:

Shatterproof
Catwalk
Evergreen
Watching A Building On Fire
Interplay
Summerland
The Running Man
A Falling Star
Destination
The Good Shadow

Some of the new material was played at the fabulous concert at The Roundhouse last year.

All Foxx followers should keep an eye on the following three sites:

Metamatic

Quiet City

Townsend Records

CSC Update

My latest report on the activities of Chess in Schools and Communities (Teesside region) is now available for your perusal. Pop along to the CSC website for details.

Daniel Pettitt: Lyrics (1993-2010)

Daniel Pettitt

Lyrics (1993-2010)

(Cover image © Daniel Pettitt)

Regular visitors to Marsh Towers will already be aware of Daniel Pettitt’s career, as he has been featured here several times (a simple use of the search box would be a good way to find out more). His new book, ‘Lyrics (1993-2010)’, is a large volume, containing a remarkable body of work.

The chapter titles are worth quoting in full, as they show the names of all of Dan's albums. Suitable titles aren't always easy to come by, but Dan never seems to lose the skill of hitting the nail firmly on the head:

Introduction

Daniel Pettitt

Beyond Paradise

The Fields of Ireland

Strangers Under Dark Skies

From Darkness To Light

End Times

The Star Nations

Shadow Songs

Undiscovered Country

Halo

The Season of Dreams

Ethereal

Tribal

And It Sounds A Far Off Place

I Woke Up Naked On The Side Of The Road

Tales Of Sodom And Gomorrah

Renaissance Songs

Heaven Can’t Wait

Seven Wonders Of The Seafarin’ World

Livin’ In A Troubled Land

Songs For The New Dark Ages

Bandits

Dawning Of A New Age

Unsung

The Machine

There are some intriguing titles of songs which no longer exist, such as 'Snake City' and 'The Love of a Thief'. It's not completely out of the question that these will turn up on an old tape somewhere.

Each and every one of Dan's albums - from 1993’s self-titled ‘Daniel Pettitt’ to 2010’s ‘The Machine’ - receives a short prose introduction and the cover artwork is reproduced, followed by all of the lyrics. It’s a very big book (586 pages) and it needs to be, as Dan's output is immense and it needs nearly 600 pages to breathe.

‘I hope the lyrics do stand on their own, maybe as a journal, a diary of my life’

In addition to the lyrics, Daniel provides short sections of autobiographical material. This proves to be quite revealing band refreshingly honest, chronicling the peaks and troughs to which no artiste could ever truly claim to be a stranger.

For instance, there were no fewer than 150 recordings in 2002 alone - an extraordinary output by the standards of any songwriter.

Not all years were as productive, as Dan freely admits: ‘Without a new song to my name in 2010, sometimes I didn’t know if I’d write again'. Of course, it didn't all that long for more new songs to appear.

Where do the ideas for all the songs come from? Dan's commentary offers some explanations. Sometimes an album may be inspired by the desire to write film music, another one may just want to tell some stories. Often there's a deeper side to the story: ‘This album is my relationship with the great unknown, both the physical and material with the esoteric and expanse of silence above us’ .

Despite Dan’s own occasional feelings that he has run out of songs, his catalogue continues to grow at an astonishing rate. There have been new albums every year from 1993 – 2010, with the sole exception of 2009. Five of those years (1993, 1995, 1997, 2001 and 2010) saw two new albums; 1999 brought three.

It’s a work of great honesty. In addition to the broad stroke overviews in the album introductions, diligent readers will learn a lot about Dan’s life through the lyrics themselves.

Numerous suitable quotes will back this up, including:

‘I hope the lyrics do stand on their own, maybe as a journal, a diary of my life’.

...and...

‘…All I ever wanted to do was reveal my own voice and show my own atmosphere through the music, revealing my mind.’

There has been quite a lot to reveal - and still a lot more to come!

It's good to see that the new Daniel Pettitt wesbite is up and running and Dan's work can also be investigated over at Amazon.

Game of the Month: February

The latest 'Game of the Month' for the Mike Closs Memorial year is now available for your enjoyment.

I am very grateful indeed for the continued support freely given by Peter Lalic for this project.

Catch up with all of Peter's superb videos on his website.

For the Mike Closs Memorial site, please click here.