Signed Edition

It's nice to get a signed edition of a book. I was rather surprised to find this one in Waterstones just before Christmas...



I did wonder if they had some signed stickers left over from a footballer's autobiography and decided to put them to good use.

So Here It Is....

The current population of the world is roughly 6,700,000,000. I have sent cards to some of the people in that number but by no means all. So, dear readers, whether or not you received one of the Christmas cards, I wish all visitors to Marsh Towers a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

Ho Ho Ho!

Chess Reviews: 74

Endgame Fireworks
By GM Alexei Shirov

4.5 hours
ChessBase

A presentation on the endgame marks a new departure for GM Shirov. His former DVDs concentrated on a variety of openings and general ‘best games’ collections.

However odd it may seem to see the word ‘Endgame’ connected to Shirov, the second part of the title should assure the viewer that the Latvian wizard is still able to stamp his unique personality on proceedings, even when the board is bedecked with only scanty material.

In his introduction, he makes the remarkable claim that he doesn’t know a lot of endgame theory. This is familiar ‘complaint’ of his spiritual and geographical predecessor, Mikhail Tal, who claimed to be afraid of endgames. Nevertheless, both of them scaled to the very top of the chess world (even though one of them had his hands stepped on as he tried to take over at the summit) and it would be folly to suggest they played endgames poorly. The opponents here are all top Grandmasters, including Topalov, Kramnik, Adams and Karjakin.

His most famous endgame is undoubtedly this classic…

Topalov - Shirov

47...Bh3!

He goes into great detail to show that this was the only winning move. Only in 2008 - 10 years after the game was played - does Rybka manage to appreciate the strength of move 47.

It is interesting to discover that GM Shirov took the basics of the idea from an earlier game, in which he suffered a defeat at the hands of an endgame maestro.

Shirov - Andersson

44...Bxh4! and Black won with the King march f6-f5-e4-d3-c4, after which the passed pawns were much stronger than the Bishop.

There are 17 examples in all. Not all types of endgame are covered; this is definitely not a ‘how to play endgames’ product. The specific areas of interest here include ‘Opposite coloured Bishops’ , ‘Rooks’ (including two Rooks each), ‘Rook and Knight’.

Rooks with opposite coloured Bishops come under great scrutiny, taking five of the lessons. It’s easy to see the appeal they hold for a predominantly attacking player; middlegame themes seep through into the endgames and the unbalanced Bishops can add many a tactical twist to proceedings. An advantage in material is often much less important than piece activity.

Shirov - Lautier

Quite a few of the examples come from Rapidplay games. The presenter makes the point that even though faster time limits can dilute a player’s strength, the greater reliance on intuition provides fertile ground for the point the is trying to make. It’s the intuitive side of endgame play - with an overriding sense of creativity - that he is eager to demonstrate.

Sometimes, spotting an improvement on his earlier thoughts, he analyses on the go and it’s almost possible to see his mind swiftly running through the variations before presenting his new conclusions to the viewer.

The final example provides a bit of fun.

Karjakin - Shirov

The tablebases claim a win for Rook and Bishop against two Knights, but in some cases it can take over 200 moves to force checkmate. As GM Shirov takes the viewer through the game, he compares the actual moves played with the tablebase lines. A little (and imperceptible) inaccuracy here and there has a major effect on the number of moves to checkmate. At one point, Black achieves a position in which checkmate in 28 moves is possible. Along the way, Back could force the capture of one of the Knights, thus extending the 50-move rule.

This is a very interesting DVD and it should provide plenty of inspiration to seek creative solutions to your own endgame problems. It could be the perfect antidote for those who still see endgames as inherently dull.

Facing the World Champions
By GM Vlastimil Hort
4 hours
ChessBase

GM Hort may not be such a familiar character to anyone whose chess study started from the mid-1980s onwards.

His style of presentation isn’t forceful, as if he is trying to sell you an opening variation; he is a quietly spoken gentleman, very much of the old school. After watching just a couple of the video segments one feels at home, as if in the company of a long-term friend.

The games given here feature the kings of chess all the way from Botvinnik to Kasparov (World Champions 6 to 13 inclusive).

The stories behind the games often take as long as the playing over the moves themselves. Every single story is fascinating; the bulk of the anecdotes cannot be found anywhere else.

For example, GM Hort remembers taking an unexpected phone call from ‘Mr Botvinnik’ during the Monte Carlo tournament in 1968. The great champion offered to help him analyse his adjourned game with Bent Larsen, but GM Hort, quite shocked, declined. (It was in Botvinnik’s interests to try and prevent Larsen from scoring a win as he his main rival for first place). When Hort played Botvinnik in the next round, the latter declined the pre- and post-game handshakes.

He certainly doesn’t like to mix politics with chess and this leads to some very interesting opinions of Anatoly Karpov. He highlights how much Karpov was favoured by the authorities but pinpoints the death of Furman (Karpov’s second and father figure) as a major blow. He still gives Karpov his due as being a very strong player and speculates that his performance with the White pieces (in his prime) could well be the best in history.

Of course, a win against a World Champion is a fine achievement regardless of colour, and the presenter is happy to show this encounter:

Hort - Karpov

Amsterdam 1981

18 Nxd5! Nxd5 19 Qf5 (1-0, 26)

There are three players that GM Hort thinks deserve the description ‘genius’ and they are Tal, Fischer and Kasparov. He clearly has a very special memories about Fischer and makes the point that the controversial American was always the perfect sportsman at the board.

He thinks very highly of Spassky too. In 1977 they played a tough Candidates’ match and Hort lost the penultimate game on time in a completely winning position. That must have been a bitter blow (it was the furthest he ever got along the World Championship trail) but he has remained on excellent terms with Spassky to this day. He says he looks forward to more meetings with him over the board, when at this stage in their lives they could simply have some fun.

I would definitely like to see more DVDs like this one. It would be great to see other veteran chess heroes - such as Spassky, Portisch, Larsen and Andersson - reminiscing about their finest chess battles

Power Play 8: Knights and Bishops

By GM Daniel King

ChessBase

The latest in GM King’s highly successful ‘Power Play’ series takes a good look at the differences between the two minor pieces.

He starts off with two very clear demonstrations of the strengths the two pieces enjoy on a good day. Both are winning positions for White (to play), as you can no doubt comfortably verify for yourselves:

Study by Averbakh

Study by Troitsky

There's a general discussion on the imbalance of strengths and what we should looking out for.

It’s precisely these imbalanced positions that club players tend to find very difficult to navigate over the board. I remember reading GM Bronstein’s theory on why the third World Champion, GM Capablanca, was so successful. The basic summary reveals a very simple method: trade an unlike minor piece early in the game and arrange one’s pawn structure according to the strengths of the remaining pieces

Then it’s on to the main work. As usual, the viewer is encouraged to switch off the analysis window and assess the first of many interesting positions.

GM King talks the viewer through 22 examples of play, methodically building up a store of essential knowledge.

12 test positions follow the main lectures, followed by the answers, with full explanations.

The first of the tests should whet the appetite:

White to play and win

The material is expertly chosen and GM King’s presentation skills are as polished and professional as always. Indeed, in my opinion he is the best of all ChessBase presenters. His delivery is directly to the camera and his natural teaching style comfortably entices the viewer into doing some hard work.

I believe that careful study of this DVD will provide the reader with a thorough grounding of the relative advantages and disadvantages of the Knight and the Bishop. Appreciation of such qualities should enable the viewer to add an extra twist to their over-the-board prowess.

So it is with these three very different ChessBase DVDs that we bring the reviews of 2008 to a close.

The first reviews of 2009 should follow very early in January, so stay tuned.

For further details of Chessbase products, please go to:
http://www.chessbase.com/

Missed a review? Pop along to my archive:
http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2007/12/chess-review-archive.html

Amy Macdonald Concert

I went to see Amy Macdonald last night, at Newcastle's Carling Academy. It's the show that was rearranged from October (as mentioned here: http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2008/11/entertainment-three-great-shows-and-two.html ).


There was a very large queue of people waiting to go in. The venue is 'standing only'; the doors opened at seven but the main act didn't come on till nine so it was a long wait. However, it was well worth waiting for.

The band came on first and struck up a fast and furious tempo. After a minute or so, Amy Macdonald appeared, strummed her way into the tempo and launched into a blistering rendition of 'Poison Prince'.

I took a few photos, all which were from a distance so are not of the highest quality. Nevertheless, they give a decent impression of the concert in progress.

She came across as modest yet excited when she spoke to the audience between songs. She was very happy to impart the news that her debut CD, 'This is the Life', had now sold two million copies.

Over the course of the first hour, Amy and the band ripped it up with all of the well known songs from her CD, including 'Mr. Rock & Roll', 'This is the Life' and the barbed 'Footballer's Wife'.



After a short break - and with the audience (estimated around 2,000 people) calling for more - Amy emerged and did a great solo acoustic version of 'Dancing in the Dark'.

Then the band came back on and they played for another 20 minutes. It was all good, exciting stuff.

It's been a packed year for Amy Macdonald, with constant touring and very impressive sales. There will be pressure now to come up with a worthy second CD. She certainly has an abundance of talent and energy and has kept her feet on the ground. The complete lack of tabloid sleaze stories is extremely refreshing.

I feel sure that we will be seeing and hearing a lot more of her in years to come.

Confusing Sign

What - no exceptions!?

Norman Stephenson's Openings Workshop: Issue 3 Now Online

Issue 3 of Norman Stephenson's Openings Workshop is now available over at my Chess Links Project junior website.

Learn all about an interesting line in the French Defence over at:

http://www.chesslinksproject.btik.com/p_Opening_Notes.ikml

Chess Reviews: 73

Mastering the Chess Openings
Volume 3
By IM John Watson

351 Pages

Gambit Publications

‘My objective with this work is to provide instruction and analysis ranging from that appropriate for a low-rated player with, say, one or two years’ experience, to a long-time player who is familiar with a good deal of theory.’

IM John Watson is a popular writer. His works on chess strategy and the French Defence are all highly regarded; indeed, no 1 e4 e6 player should consider their library complete without at least one edition of ‘Play the French’.

His series aimed at ‘Mastering Chess Openings’ was originally planned to cover two volumes but now it looks set to run to four books.

Long-term Watson readers should be delighted to see that this volume covers the English Opening. The author wrote a famous tetralogy on 1 c4 in the late 1970s/early 1980s.

At 351 pages, this is the longest book in the series to date. The coverage is not encyclopaedic; indeed, some rather important lines are omitted (or at least only mentioned in passing), such as:
1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 g3 Bb4 5 Nd5

However, there is still a large amount of material with coverage of all the major variations of the English Opening, namely:

General Introduction
Introduction to the English Opening
Reversing the Sicilian: 2nd Moves
Introduction to 2 Nc3: Black Plays Flexibly
2...Nf6 and g3 Systems
Four Knights Variation
Three Knights and Closed English
Pure Symmetrical Variation
Main Lines with 2 Nf3 and d4
Asymmetrical Variations
The Hedgehog Variation
Mikenas Attack and Nimzo-English
King’s Indian Variations

After 1 c4 e5, there’s an obvious point which leads to an interesting discussion on the merits of reversed openings.

‘So you might ask (and many players have done so) why anyone would subject themselves to playing against the Sicilian Defence with a tempo less?’

IM Watson provides plenty of detail regarding the pluses and minuses of such an approach. The extra tempo isn’t always useful.

Similarly, he takes another bull by the horns when he outlines the differences between White playing 1 c4 and 2 Nc3 and the trendy 1 c4 and 2 g3. The subtle differences may have passed most players by so it’s well reading his stock taking summary.

Reading IM Watson’s prose reveals one of his great writing strength; getting the reader to think, and often rethink, even for positions and variations in which one’s knowledge seemed complete. His works are never dry and always inspiring.

Sometimes the illustrative games end with a brief assessment but no mention is made of the eventual result; this looks a bit odd and could have been cured by a simple '1-0 (34)' typ of comment.

Those already familiar with the author’s writing style will feel at home; he is at his chatty best, talking directly to the reader (sample snippet: ‘…play should continue with 10...Qxc6, to which I’ll return in a minute’). He has the ability to sum up the salient points of even the trickiest variations in easy to follow prose.

For example, on this tricky pawn sacrifice:

1 c4 c5 2 g3 g6 3 Bg2 Bg7 4 Nc3 Nc6 5 Nf3 e6 6 d4

…he has this to say:

‘For many years this radical pawn offer was not taken seriously, partly because the expenditure of two tempi to place a bishop on g2 would not generally fit into a sacrificial theme. So, what is going on? Above all, White is trying to exploit the weak dark squares created by the move 5...e6, in particular d6 and f6. In what follows he will play either Nb5 or Ne4, attacking d6. In addition, 6 d4 frees his dark-squared bishop to rush into play by Bf4 or Bg5, hitting one of those weaknesses. Since Black’s c-pawn will end up on d4 (or gone), the potential manoeuvre b3 and Ba3 will strike at the d6-square and sometimes prevent castling (even Bb2 attacks down the long diagonal) and the advance c5 might add to White’s grip on d6’

Incidentally, the ‘dull’ tag often dumped on 1 c4 can be safely refuted once and for all. Dangerous and exciting lines are available for English players, just as they are for 1 e4 devotees.

Here’s a few of random examples, all nicely covered in the book:

1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 g4 would clearly be fun to play over the board.

This comes from a Mikenas Attack (1 c4 Nf6 2 Nc3 e6 3 e4). White improved on earlier theory with 12 Bh6!! in Ni Hua - Aleksandrov (Calcutta 2004).

Black can have fun too:

8...Nxe4! when 9 Nxe4 d5! leads to serious problems for White.

The extensive bibliography, covering nearly two full pages, clearly shows the depth of research.
There’s a very good index of variations, complete with way marking diagrams, which needs to be thorough for the English Opening due to the large number of early transpositions.

It would be great to see Watson let loose on a new version of his four-volume classic coverage of 1 c4, or at least a full and frank single volume repertoire book, in the style of his classic French Defence tomes.

Meanwhile, this fine overview will appeal to anyone looking to discover the inside story of a powerful and important opening. Those who already play the English will enjoy this new book too. Mastering an opening can take a long time; this book will provide a plethora of help and inspiration along the way.

In my opinion, this is the best volume in the series (so far).

For further details regarding the Gambit books, please visit their website: http://www.gambitbooks.com/

Missed a review? Please visit my archive:http://marshtowers.blogspot.com/2007/12/chess-review-archive.html