Chess Reviews: 5

Sean Marsh
Book Reviews
No. 5

Starting Out: The Scotch Game
John Emms
Everyman Chess



The Scotch Game has been revitalised since Kasparov used it as a surprise against Karpov in 1990 and is now a thoroughly respectable alternative to the Spanish Game. John Emms is a consistently excellent writer who never fails to add a large amount of enthusiasm to his subject.



The Scotch is given the same treatment as the other openings covered in this excellent series, with lots of practical tips, notes and warnings flagged up to assist the learning process. Such instructive points are not confined to the opening.





For example:



‘It’s well known that lone knights are very poor defenders against passed pawns, especially ones on the edge of the board.’



‘Correspondence games are a rich source for discovering new and important opening ideas for over-the-board players, as these games are generally very thoroughly researched and analysed by the players involved.’



Following a short introduction - with the emphasis on typical pawn structures - Emms methodically moves through all the main lines and finishes off with the rarer Black tries. He doesn’t try and hype the opening up out of all proportion but sticks with sensible, honest comments such as, ‘The Scotch Four Knights is an ideal choice for the improving player, whether White or Black. The variations are neither too complex nor theoretical, both sides develop easily and the open positions are ideal for honing tactical skills.’

Here’s the fine finish of one of the author’s own Scotch games:





Emms - Summerscale
London 1997
22.Rxh7! Kxh7 23.Rh1+ Kg8 24.Rxh8+ 1-0 24...Kxh8 25.Bxe5+ Rxe5 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27 f6 with Qg7 mate to follow.

VERDICT: I think it is a great book for players looking to take up a new and promising opening, with plenty of analysis and tips for the already converted.

Starting Out: Defensive Play
Angus Dunnington
Everyman Chess

‘A harsh reality of chess is that - as in life - we don’t always get what we want; in fact we too often get what we don’t want’

With these wise words, the author begins a most interesting book on an aspect of chess that is often overlooked. Naturally, we’d all like to seize the initiative in the style of World Champion Topalov, but the fact remains that we spend a lot of time on the receiving end of a big attack or a tough positional squeeze.

Skill in defence could save lots of points. Yet players are reluctant to study defensive techniques because it can be hard work and perhaps because it is psychologically difficult to accept that we are inevitably to be on the ‘wrong side of the board’ much more often than we’d like.

Through six very instructive chapters (‘Active Defence’, ‘Simplification’ ‘The Castled King’, ‘Relocation’, ‘Holding On’ and ‘Provocation’), Angus divulges the secrets of this neglected part of the game.

The valuable tips include:

‘When deciding to simplify, don’t stop analysing at the point of the exchange itself’

‘If you don’t have anywhere near enough play for a pawn it makes sense to throw another on the fire if this means earning yourself a bigger share of the play.’

‘Never relax when ‘playing out’ a drawn ending - anything less than 100% effort and attention merely increases the opposition’s winning chances, and every half-point counts.’

One particularly interesting example appears in ‘The Castled King’ section.

Vasquez - Abreu
Cuba 2002
Here, Black is on the sharp end of a promising sacrificial attack. Angus highlights an excellent defensive strategy.
24 Qg4 Ne5! 25 Rh7+ Ke8 26 Qh5+ Kd8!
This is the idea. Black is material up and swapping the Queen off for the attacking Rook not only nullifies most of the offensive but also leaves a close points tally on the board. We are all reluctant to part with the Queen but Angus encourages us to look for the ‘threats’ to win it in such situations as the attacker can pay too high a price to execute such a threat.
27 Rh8 Kc7 28 Rxf8 Raxf8 29 Rg1 and Black eventually went on to win.

VERDICT: Angus is one of the best ‘common sense’ chess writers around. His books may not always have the snappiest titles and there are no ‘promises’ of forced wins inside 20 moves, but there is always a cornucopia of sensible, down to earth advice and practical tips. I think any player keen to put in some work would improve their play from careful study of this book.

Breaking Through
Susan Polgar & Paul Truong
Everyman Chess

I’d been looking forward to this book for some time and I can say straight away that I wasn’t disappointed.

The Polgars - and Susan in particular, being the trailblazer - had to overcome many obstacles on their way to the top. It seems like a description of another world when Susan relates not being able to compete in the World Championship cycle, even though she qualified, purely because it was then known as the Men’s World Championship.

When I first started teaching chess around the schools, back in the late 1980s, I used a good number of Polgar games as demonstrations. They were always exciting games, usually featuring a snappy finish but I was also able to show that chess is not totally male-dominated. At that time, local chess playing girls were almost completely non-existent. Within a couple of years we had changed all that and for a while we were ahead of most counties with our achievements.

The point is that without good role models, the girls would never have flourished and seeing the top-level break though of the three sisters was inspirational and influential in our own local efforts.

The opening section compromises of an autobiography by Susan, followed by a good selection of her own games and combinations, all well-annotated. Susan then covers the lives of her sisters, with plenty of anecdotes from around the chess world.

Judit made it to the top ten of the world ranking lists and recently competed in the World Championship tournament.

Sofia doesn’t play very much these days, which is a pity. Her performance at Rome in 1989 shows what we are missing. If you are unfamiliar with her success at that event, go and look it up on your database now!

Four shorter chapters finish off the book. These cover a variety of subjects, including the plans for the Susan Polgar foundation and the successful rebuilding and training of the US Women’s team for the 2004 Olympiad.

There’s also a plethora of interesting photos, featuring not only the Polgars but also a whole host of chess luminaries, including Fischer and Kasparov.

Amazingly, the obstacles go on appearing. Following the tremendous and unprecedented success of the US Women’s team at the 2004 Olympiad, the Olympiad Training Program was cancelled as politics once again moved in to spoil things.

The biographical sections make fascinating reading but I’m sure a lot of readers will be more interested in the pure chess content. Rest assured, there are plenty of terrific games here with all three sisters showing a remarkable flair for tactics.

Here is one of Susan’s all-time favourites…

Susan Polgar - Peter Hardicsay
Hungary 1985
17 Bb5+! axb5 18 Re1+ Kf8 19 Bh6+ Kg8

20 Re7! Bd7 21 Qxb8! Qxb8 22 Ne4! 1-0

Gudmundur Gisalson - Sofia Polgar
Reykjavik 1988
35 … Rxe2! 0-1 as 36 Rxe2 would allow 36 … Qxh2+!! with mate to follow.

Judit Polgar - Lars Bo Hansen
Vejstrup 1989
33 Qg7!!+ and perhaps you, dear readers, can work out the resulting mating moves yourselves?
Despite all the ‘mines in the road’, Susan has remained incredibly optimistic regarding chess and its place in the lives of young people. For further details, see:

www.susanpolgarfoundation.org/
and:
http://www.susanpolgar.com/

VERDICT: The inside story of a remarkable rise to chess success, against all the odds! This is an excellent and inspirational book on several levels. A good one to put on your Christmas lists, methinks!

Russians versus Fischer
Dmitry Plisetsky & Sergey Voronkov
Everyman Chess

An earlier edition was released in 1994 by Moscow Chess Books but this new version is fully updated and enlarged (462 big pages compared with 393 smaller ones). There is a lot more detail on the 1992 match and some new photos (although some from the first edition have been omitted). I was surprised at the time that the first edition wasn’t better known; I think this new Everyman edition will help to catapult the book into the limelight it deserves.

The book charts all of Fischer’s games with the Russians over the course of his career from Portoroz 1958 to Belgrade 1992.

There are lots of notes from the players themselves and a huge amount of interesting information about Fischer. The material gets deeper as Fischer sweeps his way to the 1972 title match.

The Russians are clearly extremely worried at the prospect of losing ‘their’ title (held by them since 1948) and no stone is left unturned in the search for weaknesses in his play. Lengthy analyses were submitted by players such as Korchnoy, Petrosian, Tal and Smyslov, picking over the openings and general game of the American.

In the post-mortem of Taimanov’s 0-6 Candidates’ shut-out, high level meetings were held to investigate how such a thing could have happened and how they could stop it happening again.
Baturinsky bemoaned the lack of decent adjournment analysis, and suggested that instead of sending three Grandmasters to help Taimanov, ‘Perhaps it would have been more useful to send over a physician.’
Spassky replied: ‘A sexologist.’
‘I see, Boris, that you are in a jovial mood’ came the cool response.

Korchnoy submitted a typically outspoken review regarding the play of both Fischer and Spassky a few months before the title match. He was critical of Spassky’s preparation, particularly in the openings.

The games are generally well known, of course and instead of picking the really famous examples I’ll just quote the end position of his very last serious game.

Spassky - Fischer
1992
White resigned 0-1.
Before we know it, another 20 years of exile will have passed by….


VERDICT: This magnificent book highlights, more than any other, the struggle Bobby Fischer had to take on an entire system at chess. This is a MUST for all Fischer fans and an excellent companion piece to Kasparov’s book on the great man of last year.

For details of Everyman chess books, please visit:
http://www.everymanchess.com/


Happy reading!

October 2005

Chess Reviews: 4

Chess For Tigers
By Simon Webb
Batsford

We should all be grateful to Batsford for bringing out a brand new edition of this classic book.
The new cover is eye-catching and will especially appeal to Hull City fans and the tiger theme is continued throughout the book via the use of Edward McLachlan’s excellent and amusing cartoons that start the chapters.

Each chapter is packed with excellent advice on how to improve your play, e.g. ‘How To Catch Rabbits’, ‘How To Trap Heffalumps’ and ‘What To Do In Drawn Positions’.

Webb himself once trapped a very famous Heffalump.

Webb – Reshevsky
London 1973

White is in trouble but he spotted a chance of a swindle.
He played: 30 Rf3 and feigned excessive nervousness, ostensibly due to his time-shortage, and hid the trick behind a facade of playing a quick move to enable him to reach the time control. Reshevsky was fooled and blundered with 30 …Qd7?? and was shocked by 31 Nc5! Which won the exchange and eventually the game.

One of the pieces of advice given to avoid blunders is to write down the move before playing it, but of course the rules now forbid this, as it can be taken as referring to written notes. However, an editorial note explains that this part of the book has been left in as a mark of respect to Simon Webb, who died in such tragic and terrible circumstances between him submitting the manuscript and it being published.

VERDICT: A real classic that everyone would benefit from reading, regardless of current playing strength. If you’ve got through life without this wonderful book, you have been missing out.

How To Choose A Chess Move
By GM Andrew Soltis
Batsford

There have been so many books on self-improvement over the years! Some are useful; some are just unhelpful potboilers and I was intrigued to see which route Soltis would go down as he has written books belonging to both categories.

He starts by questioning whether or not Reti really didn’t need to see a single move ahead during his famous combinations, as he had claimed, and quickly concludes that this is nonsense. Over the next 238 pages he tries to guide the reader through the various steps leading to the successful choice of a chess move.

A lot of the examples given to illustrate the themes are well-established classics but I was pleased to see a good number of very recent top-flight encounters, all the way up to 2005.
Nowadays, it is seen as trendy to be able think like a tree, because ‘green’ issues are definitely ‘in’. It’s the 2000s equivalent of the 90’s man being in touch with his feminine side.

However, thinking in terms of trees has been popular with chess players for much longer; in fact, ever since Kotov extolled the virtues of such a method in his classic work, ‘Think Like A Grandmaster’. The basic idea was to think through the possible candidate moves in a given position as if they were branches of a tree, but a player was advised to look at each branch once and once only before moving on to the next one.

Soltis goes a little bit deeper again and argues the pros and cons of this approach. For instance, he points out that such discipline and accuracy required to look at each branch only once involves powers beyond most Masters and are certainly not always suitable for your average club player.

One problem with thinking like a tree comes when the branches eventually merge and transpose, when there is a danger that the players will not twig the subtle differences along the way.

J. Polgar - Spassky

In 1993, Polgar and Spassky had a match and the Closed Lopez was one of their battlegrounds. Twice Spassky played the normal 11…Bb7 here, and after Bc2 Re8 they reached one of the main lines. In this game Spassky incautiously played 11…Re8?? But after 12 Bc2 Bb7 they merely transposed. Both players failed to see the difference – 12 Bxf7+! wins immediately as …Kxf7 Ng5+ and e6 wins the Queen in broad daylight. The correct move order, 11..Bb7, makes luft, not war.

There are some great nuggets of advice to be found in this book. For example, Soltis points out that, ‘the longer you study a position, the less you may see tactically.’ This must strike a familiar chord with most readers. How many times have you had a longer than average think, believing that you have sussed out the secrets of the position, only to have missed a one-mover early in the variation you had spent all the time on?

There’s lots of thought-provoking material in this book. Will reading it actually help the reader choose better moves? I really don’t know. After all the self-help books I’ve read over the years, I can’t recall ever consciously going through any of the various methods while I’m at the board trying to figure out the best way forward. Perhaps most of the advice is subconsciously buzzing away, but it still seems to me that most of us non-Masters choose moves based on a mixture of experience and intuition, tempered and clouded by how tired we are at the end of a working day, what else we have on our minds and what distractions there are in the room.

One interesting section considers a typical mistake in the way we think. Often, during a sequence we are calculating, it is easy to slip into thinking that a series of captures is forced, as in draughts. However, things are not always clear as this example shows…

Macieja – Sadvakasov
Curacao 2003

The Rooks have been taking pawns and White assumed that Black would continue the trend with 1…Rxb4, when 2 Rc1! is a strong reply. However, Black found the much stronger 1…Rc6! with a forced - and decisive - doubling of Rooks on the seventh rank on the way.
One of the most encouraging aspects of books such as these is how we can see that the top players can make exactly the same sort of mistakes we all do.

J. Polgar – Anand
Wijk aan Zee 1998

Here, Anand wants to complete his development with …Nbd7 but doesn’t want to allow Bxe6 and Ng5. Reluctant to ‘waste’ a tempo with the prophylactic 11…h6, he tries to gain one instead with a capture and played 11…Bxb3? Unfortunately for him, this is a terrible positional error with a very ‘club-playerish’ look about it. White’s bind on d5 could never be broken and Polgar could always plan to end with a Minor piece on that square. She later won brilliantly.

VERDICT: Interesting stuff and a good read. There’s a lot of thought-provoking material here and if you can absorb the information there is a good chance that it will indeed improve your decision-making at the board.

For details of this and all other Batsford chess books, please visit:

http://www.chrysalisbooks.co.uk/

Buzan’s Book Of Mental World Records
By Tony Buzan and GM Raymond Keene
D&B Publishing

This interesting book begins by pointing out that the Olympic motto ‘Citius, Altius, Fortius’ (‘Faster, Higher, Stronger‘) is better suited to mental rather than physical activities and observes that the one-minute mile is absolutely impossible until humans evolve wheels whereas the ability of the human mind is virtually without limits.

The first two chapters cover the birth of Mind Sports, through such colourful characters as As-Suli (AD 854-946) of Baghdad ‘the first chess grandmaster, the first mental sportsman, the first genius of mind sports’ and highlights what qualities are needed to become a champion.
Subsequent chapter take a good look at a variety of mental records before moving on to various Mind Sports.

Naturally, the chess content will be of most interest to readers of this column. Over the course of 25 pages we are taken on a journey from the very beginnings of chess right up to the infamous Adams v Hydra ‘Man v Machine’ clash of earlier this year (which ended in a terrible defeat for the human and quite possibly signalled the death knell for such encounters).

Considerable attention is devoted to the World Champions and various attempts to rank them in order of strength. This can be a futile exercise - it is not possible to compare like with like, as things change so much over the generations - but it is always intriguing and fun to see how such rankings end up. Here, 18 players are considered to have sufficient criteria to enable them to be on the final list. Taking into account the results of all the serious games played by the greats, with various tweaking, Emanuel Lasker eventually emerges at the top of the list, closely followed by his old rival Wilhelm Steinitz. Kasparov is third, while Fischer - often the fans’ favourite - can only manage 12th place.

It is possible to argue all day with such lists but it has to be said that I agree with the sentiment expressed in the book that more attention should be paid to the early champions and their fantastic achievements. For instance, Lasker’s World Championship matches were so impressive that it is easy to slip into thinking that his trounced opponents such as Marshall and Janowski were very weak players, but that is certainly not the case. Lasker was World Champion for over 26 years - much longer than any other player, and a record that is very unlikely to be surpassed.

One unfortunate thing about a book dealing with records is that some of them will inevitably be broken, thus making some of the data out of date. Andrew Martin’s Simultaneous World Record, set in 2004, was broken a couple of months ago by Susan Polgar.

Whether or not one is interested in actually playing the other games featured in the book, (Go, Draughts, Bridge, Backgammon), the historical facts and records still make fascinating reading.
Dr Marion Tinsley is offered up as being a candidate for being ‘The Greatest Mind Sportsman of Them All’ for his fantastic ability in the world of draughts. He won seven USA National tournament without losing a single game and was undefeated internationally in match play between 1947 and 1995! In 1992 he won a massive match with computer program Chinook by a score of 4-2 with 33 draws.

The list of World Champions, from 1844 to present, is very interesting. Eight of the 21 are from Scotland (it’s always draughty in the Highlands, and the kilts are no help) and three from England, the sort of heritage British Chess can only dream about.

The book concludes with some puzzles and problems from the various disciplines.

Here’s a few random records to give you a taster…

Sean Adam is the fastest reader in the world, clocking up an amazing 3,850 words per minute.

Harry Lorayne has memorised 7,500,000 names and faces. So if he says, ‘I never forget a face’, you’d better believe him.

Akira Haraguchi memorised the first 83,431 digits of Pi in 2005.

I was going to tell you who the World Champion of memories is, but for the life of me I just can’t remember.

VERDICT: Although not a chess book as such, Buzan’s Book Of Mental World Records is well worth a look and contains many staggering facts and examples that will keep the reader entertained and amused for some time. It may also inspire you to give some of the other games a try and that can only be a good thing.

For details of this and all other D&B books, please visit:
http://www.dandbpublishing.com/

Archive: UNCUT! 42

The Sean Marsh Chess Column
UNCUT!
*Column 42*
* *October 2005* *

Dear Readers,

The current World Championship tournament is a chess spectator’s dream, with so many fighting games to keep the viewer entertained, captivated and enthralled. My pre-tournament top-tip Topalov is in tip-top form.

For once, the line-up is fully respected and there is a refreshing lack of chess politics. The chess itself is the only focus of attention. There are no big-name retirements, no off-form World Champions and no talk of the Petroff draw-death to distract us all from the wonderful games being played.

Needless to say, despite having an Englishman in the line-up, there’s no chance of seeing even the faintest glimmer of coverage on TV. We could try and sneak into the schedules, bulging with a never ending stream of so-called reality TV shows, by changing the advertising slant from ‘World Chess Championship’ to a ‘few people sitting around playing chess’ but I doubt that would work. After a lifetime of enduring ‘geek’ tags I suspect the average chess player is ironically too normal to feature on live TV.

I was in the unfortunate position of having to watch about 15 minutes of ‘Big Brother’ a short time ago and I could actually feel my brain turning to jelly. Even worse - one of the adverts gave us the ‘delightful’ Jamie Oliver telling us all how to make a ham sandwich (gosh, thanks) and then displaying the manners of a dog when he proceeded to tuck into it while still standing and talking with his mouth full. Or was such a display merely a further example of ‘reality’?

Oh well, never mind. Perhaps we should just accept our cult status and continue to keep ourselves to ourselves.

The return of the World Championship in any shape or form should be welcomed with open arms and this time, after so many false dawns, it really does seem that we are on some sort of path to reconciliation and title-unification.

By way of celebration, here are a few random snippets from the rich history of the Championship….

Unforgettable Positions

There are dozens of key moments in the big title matches. Here’s a random selection from the archives…

Steinitz - Chigorin
Game 23, 1892
With a victory in this game, Chigorin could have equalised the match at nine wins all, whereupon the match would have been extended beyond the ‘first to 10 wins’ rule as it was felt a margin of two points would have been required. However, Chigorin played one of the worst blunders in history with his shocking 32 Bb4?? Allowing one of the standard mating patterns after 32 … Rxh2 0-1

Bogoljubow - Alekhine
Game 8, 1929
Alekhine easily had the measure of his opponent and was able to indulge his tactical flair far more often than he had two years earlier against Capablanca.
26 …Ng3+! 27 hxg3 hxg3+ 28 Nh3 Bxh3 29 gxh3 Rxh3+ 30 Kg2 Rh2 mate

The only World Championship game to end in mate on the board.

Euwe - Alekhine
Game 26, 1935
‘The Pearl of Zandvoort’

The moment it became clear that Euwe was going to topple the mighty Alekhine from the throne (albeit temporarily).
21 Nxf5!! Bxc3 22 Nxd6 Qb8 23 Nxe4 f6 24 Nd2 and the central pawns advanced to bring about Black’s downfall. Despite winning the next game, Alekhine couldn’t close the gap as the last three games were drawn.

Fischer - Spassky
Game 2, 1972
White forfeits (0-1) following a dispute about TV cameras.

Not a joke, but a grave sign of things to come. Fischer’s principles, variously described all the way from ‘worthy’ to ‘baffling’ were to keep him from the game from the moment he won the title, with the exception of a big pay-day exhibition rematch with Spassky in 1992.

Karpov - Kasparov
Game 24 1985
With the whole board ablaze, Karpov resigns the game - and his 10 year-old title - to the only player he could never control.


Contrasting appraisals

Botvinnik on the young Karpov, circa 1965:

‘This young man understands nothing about chess’
Alekhine on the young Smyslov in 1945: ‘There’s a certain Smyslov, in Russia, who plays very well and will go very far’. Curiously, Alekhine had lost a game to Smyslov’s father back in 1912.

Inseparable

In 1983, Smyslov and Hubner met in a Candidates’ match. After three draws, Smyslov took the lead. Four more draws followed before Hubner finally equalised. Further games were required but they just kept on drawing. Ultimately, with just one win each and no less than 12 draws, the tie was decided by the spin of a roulette wheel. Smyslov chose red, Hubner black; the first spin came up zero. The second spin came up red and Smyslov progressed to the next round. (He went on to defeat Ribli but was eliminated by Kasparov in the Candidates’ final.)

Suspect?

In 1909, World Champion Emanuel Lasker played David Janowski in a four-game match backed financially by Janowski’s sponsor Leo Nardus. The contest ended 2-2 (four decisive games). Due to the fine showing of Janowski, Nardus sponsored a longer match. Thus a 10 game encounter was arranged which Lasker won easily with seven wins, two draw sand only one loss. This is the contest often mistakenly referred to as a World Championship match; it wasn’t but when the two met in another match in 1910 the title was definitely on the line. Unfortunately for Janowski, Lasker was again far too strong and easily picked up the eight wins necessary (won 8, drawn 3 lost none!).

Thus Lasker ensured a couple of decent pay-days from the generous Nardus. If the first match had been 4-0 rather than 2-2 it seems unlikely that Nardus would have seen it worthwhile to sponsor a title match with a potentially humiliating defeat for his favourite.

Did Lasker gambit two points in return for boodle? The lifetime score between the two players was 26 wins to 4 in favour of Lasker, with only seven draws.

The title match was the last occasion Nardus saw fit to sponsor Janowski. They fell out during a friendly game when Janowski could bite his tongue no longer over the playing strength of his millionaire benefactor. With the unwise words, ‘You are really the greatest patzer I have ever met!’ their partnership ended.

If your appetite for World Championship chess has been whetted, then off you go to find more interesting snippets! If it hasn’t, then go and grab a ham sandwich and switch on the telly!

Sean Marsh
October 2005

Chess Reviews: 3

Hello, folks! Thanks for dropping by. With the new season about to start it seems timely to take a look at some brand new opening books. You never know, one or more of these could be useful to freshen up your own repertoire….

Ruy Lopez Exchange

by Panczyk & Ilczuk
Everyman

Players wishing to avoid the main lines of the Ruy Lopez yet still drum up good winning chances with 1 e4 would appear to have numerous options. However, a lot of the older, romantic openings are really struggling in a theoretical sense and it is extremely difficult to gain a serious edge against a 1 ...e5 exponent who knows his stuff. Indeed, seeing a King's Gambit or Vienna Game appearing on the board is more likely to come as a pleasant surprise than an unpleasant shock.

One attempt would be to try the Exchange Ruy Lopez. Naturally, one would have to have some knowledge of all the other Black defences after 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 but as 3 ...a6 is probably still the most expected reply then White can cut out a whole load of memory work by bypassing all the long and difficult main lines.

Emanuel Lasker showed it is possible to beat very strong players with this; his most famous games was of course his defeat of Capablanca in a key game of the famous 1914 St Petersburg tournament. Despite the best efforts of the second World Champion, it's popularity was never very high until Bobby Fischer shocked the world by winning three games with it in the 1966 Olympiad. Although the world had to take more notice of it after that, even Fischer didn't play it consistently so I don't think the theory developed particularly quickly. Nevertheless, it remained a good surprise weapon in the right hands and is still a very valid very to play.

At the base of White's strategy is the superior endgame he obtains by doubling Black's pawns so early in the game. The resulting structure theoretically gains in strength for White after each exchange. In a pure ending, White's Kingside pawn majority will be able to force the creation of a passed pawn but Black is very unlikely to do that with his crippled Queenside. Consequently, some Black players try to buck the trend at the earliest opportunity. Some try an early ...Qd6 and castle long; others stick by the older idea with an early ...Bg4 and then offer the sacrifice after h3 h5!? (which White should clearly decline).

The first chapter deals satisfactorily with the early sidelines for both sides and then quickly concludes that 5 0-0 is the only way to play for an advantage. The subsequent five chapters deal with all the positions following 5 0-0. First we see some unusual tries for Black, such as 5 ...Be6 and 5 ...Qf6 (neither as bad as they appear at first glance) and then we really get stuck into the main meat of the whole opening. Chapters 3 and 4 deal with 5 ...Bg4 and 5 ...Qd6 respectively and the final two chapters take a good look at the well established main line 5... f6 6 d4 followed by either 6 ....Bg4 (chapter 5) or 6 ...exd4 (chapter 6).

In most of these lines, White seems to retain no more than a slight edge and a lot of the illustrative games end in draws. I think you'd need to very confident about your technique to play in this way; there is often a major difference between the concept of heading for a superior ending and actually taking it to its desired conclusion. I played the Exchange Variation at the start of my time with Guisborough chess club in the early 1980s, but I simply wasn't up to the task of converting the advantage and shortly afterwards dropped it from my repertoire.

VERDICT: If you are wanting to take up an opening in which you are likely to have the better of the draw most of the time, then I would recommend this book to you as a very thorough guide. Best of all would be if you were willing to take on the main lines of the Ruy Lopez and wanted an occasional weapon to slip in from time to time. You could even exaggerate the threat by pausing for a few seconds after 3 ...a6, just to keep the opponent guessing.

The Scotch Game Explained

by Gary Lane
Batsford

Another memory I have from my early Guisborough days is the way that Stuart Morgan made the Scotch Game look exceedingly strong. His harmonious play was well matched with the opening and a lot of his opponents simply didn't seem to have anything planned against 3 d4. At that time, the Scotch was considered an obscure opening but Kasparov brought its reputation kicking and screaming back into the chess world when he used it in his 1990 World Championship match with Karpov. Since then it has become a very respectable alternative to 3 Bb5.

Gary Lane's books have come in from a bit of criticism from some reviewers but I have always found his works extremely readable and suitably enthusiastic. His new book on the Scotch certainly lives up to his stated aim of 'providing a repertoire for White that requires low maintenance and can be learned in a weekend'. Lane runs through all the main variations and often gives them a slight twist to take play away from the main thickets of theory. For example, in the Mieses Variation he gives 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 exd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nxc6 bxc6 6 e5 Qe7 7 Qe2 Nd5 8 c4 Nb6 9 Nc3!? as his main line instead of the more common 9 Nd2 or 9 b3.

A bit of local colour is added when a couple of Eggleston games are referenced in the Scotch Four Knights chapter (although it doesn't say T. or D. - an omission chess books would do well to remedy sooner rather than later!).

I must admit that despite seeing a lot of Stuart Morgan's games all those years ago, the Scotch always was a bit of a mysterious uncharted country to me. Gary Lane's lucid explanations and cleverly chosen repertoire are helping me to plug the gap in my knowledge.

VERDICT: Of the three 1 e4 books this month, this is definitely the one I would choose to learn something new from and there is plenty of interesting material here for those already Scotching their opponent's intentions.

Italian Game and Evans Gambit

by Jan Pinski
Everyman

The problem with studying old romantic openings such as the Italian Game and Evans Gambit is that one ends up thinking that everything is absolutely fine for Black (providing he knows his theory). As a decent alternative to the Ruy Lopez, these two lines are both sadly lacking. I was therefore interested to see what the author would make of them and how he would be able to inject some enthusiasm into the subject.

Unfortunately, I came away from the book struggling to find out how to create any sort of problems for Black. Typical comments by the author:

‘In positions like this you can beat even grandmasters. Obviously before this can happen, they will have to die from boredom…’

‘The main line (of the Moller Attack) is also completely harmless and the main problem Black needs to worry about is how to create winning chances’

Pinski concludes that White must play 5 d3 to try and win with the Italian Game and this is the subject of chapter 4, where after the very first diagram we read: ‘Black should always equalize without any real effort.’

So, in just over 50 pages we find that the Italian Game is not really worth playing for White, but of course you could still get away with it down at the club unless your opponent remembers to break with …d5 when convenient.

The enthusiasm is stepped up once we get to the Evans Gambit. This was an opening in slumber until Kasparov amazingly revived it with several wins against top-notch opposition, including Anand. However, once again it seems like Black’s resources are more than adequate and White players will really struggle to make an impression with this gambit.

The author’s sweeping statement that ‘although the Spanish gives more promise of a theoretical advantage, the Evans Gambit gives better chances of actually winning the game’ doesn’t really hold water.

I was also disappointed by the lack of historical context. In 1981, when Karpov successfully defend the world title against Korchnoy, he employed the Italian Game as a surprise weapon. In game 8 of the match there was a very interesting battle, one of the finest scuffles of the whole match. In game 10, Korchnoy equalized earlier and after that Karpov returned – with devastating effect - to the Ruy Lopez. What wasn’t known to Karpov and his camp was that Korchnoy had consulted with Italian expert Jonathan Mestel three years prior to the Merano match with a view to using the opening as a surprise weapon himself. This is a good bit of historical colour, but the whole Karpov – Korchnoy episode is relegated to a mere side variation.

Later on, we are treated to a couple of Chigorin – Steinitz clashes to demonstrate the Evans Gambit. The play of Steinitz doesn’t escape strong criticism, but here was an opportunity to add a little flesh to the story and explain the reason behind the telegraph match and Steinitz’s stubbornness. He had developed a very dim view of gambit play and challenged Chigorin to a short contest. ‘Let us play two games, you opening one and I the other. You will play the Evans Gambit in attack and the Two Knights Defence in the defence, and I will prove to you that the sacrifice of a pawn which these gambits entail will lose against the opposing game properly played.’

The First World Champion kept his extra pawn but it is clear that White has some compensation….

Steinitz lost the mini-match (played by telegraph) 0-2 and this led to their second World Championship match, in which he duly took revenge.
We do get some historical background to Captain Evans himself but this does come across as rather ‘cut and paste’.

VERDICT: All in all, this book is unlikely to win any new adherents to these ancient lines or even enthuse those who already dabble. It is best seen as a guide for Black and as such it could be useful.

Starting Out: Slav and Semi-Slav

by Glenn Flear
Everyman

It is always a great pleasure to read an opening book written by an acknowledged expert on the lines in question. One of the first really good books on the Slav was Flear’s ‘The Slav For The Tournament Player’ back in 1988. In 2003 he returned to the subject with ‘The a6 Slav’, a line so new in 1988 that it was covered in less than five pages.

Back in 1988 he also included a chapter called: ‘Avoid the Semi-Slav!’ so he must have changed his opinion since then.

This new book covers both openings in good detail. After a brief introduction, the first 119 pages cover the various lines of the Slav, including the lines where Black tries the ….g6. Even though the …a6 lines remain very much the trend in modern chess, the more conventional lines are given excellent coverage too, as is the rarer – but solid – Schlechter system. Flear also covers the early gambit attempts by White and concludes that Black should be fine against all of them.

Any player wishing to take up the Slav as a winning weapon must be aware of the danger of White shutting up shop with the Exchange Variation. The author recommends an early …a6 to create some imbalance and also comments that the drawish statistics are a bit misleading, as the Exchange Variation is often chosen as a route to a mutually convenient rapid draw. As it’s been recommended in a few books over the years as a good way to play for White, Slav players should not be lulled into assuming peaceful intentions every time the opponent swaps off the pawns, so this chapter is particularly useful.

The Semi-Slav is covered in the next 100 pages. The complications arising from the Botvinnik Variation are legendary and it should come as no surprise that the games of Shirov are well quoted as examples.

Segunda – Vera, Benidorm 2002
White went on to win. If this sort of tactical mayhem appeals to you, perhaps you should take up the Semi-Slav!

However, the Meran System is also a very tricky beast and Flear quotes one game in which Kramnik played a novelty on move 29!

Illescas-Cordoba – Kramnik, Madrid 1993

Kramnik played 29…Kf8! as opposed to the older try 29…Bxd6 and drew 10 moves later.
Of course, such lines are unlikely ever to be relevant at club level, but Flear does a good job of explaining the early moves leading up these long lines.

Following a short chapter on early deviations - including the popular line 7 g4!? – the book concludes with 12 quiz positions to test your understanding of the material studied.

As is customary with the Starting Out range, the book likes to flash up the occasional ‘Tip’, ‘Note’ and ‘Warning’ and these often carry wisdom far beyond just the opening in question. For example, a good tip is: ‘Go through your own games (as soon as possible after you have finished) and get your opening sorted out for the next time. Don’t hesitate, do it straight away!’ and in an excellent note we find out that: ‘If the centre opens up in positions with opposite-side castling, flank attacks lose their potency.’

VERDICT: This is an excellent book for the reader wishing either to take up the Slav and Semi-Slav, or an existing Slav fan who wishes to increase his understanding further. The Grandmasterly wisdom is also much appreciated and such snippets of advice will stand the reader in good stead.

For details of Batsford chess books, please visit:
http://www.chrysalisbooks.co.uk/

For details of Everyman chess books, please visit:
http://www.everymanchess.com/

Happy reading!
September 1st 2005

Archive: UNCUT! 41

The Sean Marsh Chess Column
UNCUT!
*Column 41*
* *September 2005* *

Dear Readers,

The chess world was saddened by news of the recent death of Leslie Stuart, one of the greatest local characters.

He won the famous Northumberland Zollner Trophy in 1949 and 1951 and was runner-up in the British Championship in 1952.

Leslie a Darlington regular in his latter days was always ready to encourage juniors.

This month’s column is a small collection of vignettes from the illustrate various chess moments from his long and fascinating life…


The Pin Variation
Although throughout his latter years he tended to avoid modern theory - often resorting to the London System and King’s Indian Attack, in which the main battle will usually take place in the middle game - he did enter a major theoretical debate from the Black side, with the Pin Variation of the Sicilian Defence.
After 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 e6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Bb4 Leslie specialised in the enormous tactical complications resulting from the critical White attempt: 6 e5 Ne4 7 Qg4 Qa5!?

Tim Wall worked with Leslie on this variation and used it against some very strong players. An article in the BCM (July 1996) by Andrew Martin shed a little light on the depth of preparation involved in this line. The statistics are very much in White’s favour, but over the board it is clear that the better-prepared player will have the better chances.

The line even made it into the GAMBIT book ‘101 Chess Opening Surprises’.

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Bb4 6.e5 Ne4 7.Qg4 Qa5 8.Qxe4 Bxc3+ 9.bxc3 Qxc3+ 10.Kd1 Qxa1 11.Nb5 d5 12.Qb4 Nc6 13.Nc7+ Kd8 14.Qd6+ Bd7 15.Nxa8

16...Qd4+! An original idea; by provoking Bd3, Black ensures the Rh1 is hanging after ….Qa1+
16.Bd3 Qxe5 17.Bf4 Qa1+ 18.Bc1 Qe5 19.Bf4 Qa1+ 20.Bc1 Qe5 with a repetition in the offing. Graham Burgess gives Leslie credit for the analysis, but unfortunately changed his surname to ‘Stewart’ in the process.


Personal Encounters
The first time I played Leslie was at the Redcar Open 1988, when he had made an effort to return to regular chess tournaments after a lengthy absence. He defended well for some time but slowly the position was resolving itself in my favour. Eventually I built up a winning advantage, but it had cost me a lot of time on the clock. In my time trouble, things started to go wrong.

Leslie stepped up a gear and created numerous difficulties for me, eventually turning the tables. I was clearly upset by the turn of events (not least because the same sort of thing had happened two rounds prior to this encounter, when I had lost on time having completely outplayed – for once! – eventual tournament winner David Mooney).

Leslie made a point of chatting to me throughout the remainder of the event. He apologised more than once for the ‘swindle’; he didn’t have any reason to do so, of course, rather than to cheer me up.

After 24 moves the position was clearly winning for me.

My 41st move was very bad but with my flag hanging and the time-control at move 45
41 Qxf7?? g5+! 0-1

Thereafter we would chat at various tournaments but didn’t meet over the board until many years later, at the Middlesbrough Open 2002. We reached this position from the opening:

I won the game and in the post-mortem Leslie made reference to Black’s opening scheme, calling it ‘Willie Winter’s’ opening. Like many others, I had been brought up calling this set-up after Botvinnik but a quick Chessbase search proved quite revealing; Leslie was of course quite correct, and there were several examples of William Winter adopting that particular pawn structure before Botvinnik popularized it.

Our third and final encounter was my very last Rapidplay game to date. Needing a win to share first place at one of Graham Marshall’s Hartlepool events, I provoked complications and my octogenarian opponent was up to the challenge.

A pawn sacrifice was followed by: 21 Bxg5 hxg5 22 Nxg5 Bf5 23 Be4 Qc8 and now…

24 g4! brought the attack forward. Leslie battled hard after emerging a piece down; he was never easy to finish off. In this same tournament he defeated a famous former county champion and made an impressive ‘plus’ score overall.


The 1952 British Championship
The following article first appeared in the Durham County Chess Bulletin, November 1988. It is a fascinating piece of writing and I thought it would make a fitting tribute to reprint it here. (I am very grateful to Paul Bielby for granting me permission to do so.) So here, for the first time since 1988, is the full, unexpurgated text of this fantastic article….

Chester 1952; Blackpool 1988. A Very Personal View
By E.L. Stuart
1. Chester
When in the late Spring your editor suggested I might write a piece describing the 1952 BCF Congress at Chester, I mentioned that I was going to Blackpool in the summer, and we agreed it might be quite interesting instead to compare, or contrast, the two BCF Congresses I would have participated in at a remove of 36 years. The word is contrast - the difference nearly that of chalk from cheese; and that most hackneyed expression is in fact apt, since the Congresses were markedly dissimilar both in 'flavour' and content.

First, Chester - where I arrived pretty naive and open-eyed, after a nine year 'lay-off' from outbreak of was in 1939 to my return to England in late 1948 followed by a three-year parochial stint in and around Newcastle. Focus of interest, the Championship: entry gained by beating Gerald Abrahams (see long article in the July 1988 BCM) in the NCCU Final, much to his surprise and even more mine.

The Congress comprised: British Championship (Swiss) with 28 competitors; Major Open; First Second and Third Class; and Juniors (Under-18). No Ladies Championship (one competitor, Eileen Tranmer, in the Championship); no 'Veteran Championship' (one 'veteran' also in the Championship, E.G. Sergeant). Total entry just over 100.

Two preliminary points seem worth making for any younger readers. First, there were then very few congresses indeed in England, except for the BCF and Hastings and the Paignton Congress, inaugurated the year before, only a very occasional congress in celebration of something or other. None, of course, of the weekend congresses no so prolific. Secondly, there were no 'gradings'; it was several years later that a first grading system (in bands - 1A, 1B, 2A, 2B etc) was instituted. So that unless someone had a 'reputation', or had been encountered over the board, his strength was largely a matter of surmise.

The Congress seemed to me well enough organised; good playing arrangements, adequate information, satisfactory control, Rate of play, 40 in 2.5 hours - flatteringly Grandmaster style. Pretty lengthy adjournments. Of the tournaments other than the Championship, I could say very little. Perhaps the most interesting point is that the winner of the Major Open, ahead of S. Milan of Stockport, was a US airman stationed at a camp nearby.

As to the Championship itself, it was, by common account, one of the weakest ever. This was largely because it coincided with the Helsinki Olympiad, where England finished 16th; thus, there were missing Golombek, Milner-Barry, Jonathan Penrose who, playing in his first Olympiad and one of the youngest of all the competitors, scored a splendid 65% on board 1/2), Barden and Hooper. Alexander was otherwise occupied.

Then well-known competitors, perhaps recalled by some readers, included: Bob Wade, Peter Clarke, Alan Phillips, Gerald Abrahams (mentioned above), Barry Wood, H. Israel and Scottish Champion, J.M. Aitken. All readers will know two other competitors; Tom Wise and Peter Oakley (then, however, of Chesham).

I at that time knew, apart from Abrahams, only R.F. Boxall, a strong player who dropped early out of the chess scene. I hadn't played Tom Wise - though that was soon remedied, since we met in the first round.

Far from offering a round-by-round commentary, which would interest no one, I want to make, with hindsight, a few general points. Two linked by common theme; consistency, or rather, the lack of it. Sergeant, for example, scored 4.5 from his first five games, but only one draw from the other six; he may have tired, but even A.Y. Green, a much younger man, leading at the end of the first week, then lost four games in a row.

Alan Phillips, well in the lead later with seven points out of eight games finished on the same score (he blamed me(!) When I met him again for the first time, a couple of months ago in the Manchester Congress since he lost to me in the ninth round and continued downhill. I should add, however, that he'd by then (36 years) got over it, inviting me home to share a bottle of wine, etc!).

The other manifestation of lack of consistency was in the nature of the play. Many up-and-down games, with the advantage dissipated, or even changing hands; a lack of incisiveness, of the 'killer' instinct. (I'm not disassociating myself from this; quite the contrary - I still suffer from it. I recall that in a league match last season, my opponent losing the exchange in the early opening by an error, I made such a meal of it that by the adjournment I'd lost nearly all advantage - in fact winning only by an adjudication appeal. At the adjournment I jokingly remarked to Dave Mooney who'd been playing on the other side nearby, 'You’d have finished that off a bit more efficiently' to which, with characteristics terseness, he replied: 'He’d have been dead!')

I might add - though the point won't be new to the majority of readers - that in that era there was less incisiveness and 'bite' in the early opening generally, a more leisurely build-up. In that context it will be common knowledge that was then far less 'theory', but beyond that even quite strong club players still often aimed in fact at no more than a decent position, to enable them to get on with the real game. Higher up, of course, and even more so at the top, it was already very different.

The other general point - with hindsight playing an even greater part - is the pervading amateurism. Not only in a narrow sense - there was then only one 'professional' player (Wade) - but in the general approach and atmosphere. Something of what has been said in the previous few paragraphs is, I suppose, itself an illustration of this.

So (it's obligatory, isn't it?) to the result - in doubt, as is usual, till the last round. And that saw a strange turn of events; Wade, leading with eight points and Phillips lying second with seven both lost; H. Israel and I on six and a half played to a hard endgame draw; and the three players on six, Boxall, Clarke and P.N. Wallis all won. So Wade ended up clear winner, with no less than six sharing second place (still a record?). Peter Oakley and Tom Wise finished around mid-way, Peter catching up a by then rather dejected E.G. Sergeant and beating Abrahams on the way, and Tom making a fine finishing burst of three and half from four.

Postscript
Alan Phillips had the consolation of sharing first place with Barden only two years later (1954). Bob Wade won again in 1970, in an immeasurably stronger Championship.

2 Blackpool
Facts point much of the difference. The Congress comprised: British Championship (68 competitors, including David Walker and Peter Hempson, runner-up at Washington; eight grandmasters, 24 International Masters, one WGM; three WIMs); Major Open (88 competitors, including Tim Wall and me); British Ladies Open Championship (three woman Masters); British Veterans Championship (including that indefatigable pair of regular past winners, H. Golombek and P.C. Hoad); an All-Play-All of several sections; 6 (Swiss) 5-day tournaments; British Junior Championships for every year from Under-9 to Under-18; plus two differentially-graded weekend tournaments And a One-Day Quickplay. Over 500 competitors in all (a BCF record), including over 270 juniors (no less than 4 in the Under-9 section).

Surveying all this, I was again open-eyed, even though several weekend tournaments had acquainted me with the sight of these babes-in-arms! (Indeed, since Blackpool, as recently as Harrogate, I found myself playing in the Open a - very composed - 12 year old (149j), one of Brian Eley's protégés; the pair of us must have been contenders for an age-gap record!).

Organisation overwhelming, All games in one vast hall, with two 'analysis rooms'; incredibly swift posting of results; half a dozen demonstration boards, very efficiently maintained; a full daily commentary in a another hall with an IM and the BCM National Organiser, and 'audience participation' (Dunce's caps for suggestions shown to be inferior; I soon won one on the occasion my game finished early and was about to gain the distinction of being given another - for a tactical stroke in a baddish but complex position - only that Murshed went on himself to play this line...and duly lost). naive as ever, I found out only after round six one other interesting organisational item, and that was that for 10p one could get photocopy of any game in one's tournament - or even perhaps in an y of the main tournaments - I had begun to wonder why couple of my opponent s had seemed well prepared for me, but the play served me in good stead in a later game when I concluded that my 205 rated opponents was addicted to a particular Bishop sortie and quite put him off by not allowing it!

The whole atmosphere at Blackpool was very different from that at Chester…chess, chess, chess. A ‘Chessic’ function every evening, including a Speelman simul, a ‘question and answer’ session with IMs in attendance and the odd GM looking in; a session - very useful for juniors and the odd adult - of brief coaching with IMs at £1 a go, as well as the inevitable Lightning.

A good deal of time was spent avidly following results and post-game analysis (and doubtless, ‘preparation’), with may of the younger juniors ‘skittling’ away like mad. (And I haven’t mentioned the ‘top of a tram’ Tournament the day before formal play - which secured more publicity than anything else). What also contributed to a sense of pervasive chess was the timing of the Tournaments; while the main events started at 2.15 p.m. the hall was a very busy place from 9.30 a.m., so that when one looked in to see whom one was meeting in the next round the scene looked much the same.

All this, of course, will be ‘old hat’ to those who have attended BCF Congresses in the this modern era; and they will be blasé, as I was not, about the sight of all the ‘Mums’ (nearly all very middle-class) watching adoringly their talented offspring!

So much for the atmosphere or ‘flavour; - a bit of a hothouse effect, I reflected, though at the same time very stimulating.

As to the real object of the exercise, and therefore the course of events and the play, what to say? Those interested in the leading results and perhaps in picking up some tips will have looked at the BCM and/or Chess. For the rest, it’s by now stale, anyway, and intrinsically less newsworthy than the Short v Speelman match or the latest International Congresses.

I’ll say only that I think it was generally conceded that Mestel had deserved his victory, but I didn’t see anything like the general enthusiasm which greeted the win by the universally popular Wade at Chester. I’m not, of course, suggesting that Jonathan Mestel is nit very popular - only that there was a tangible reaction to Bob Wade’s win; perhaps people are these days more ‘buttoned up.’

A little local colour. In the Championship, David Walker, in my estimation, and with fingers crossed, could feel content, with only half a point under 50% and only the same half point below GM Rogers (graded 2535!) and IMs Wells, Pritchett and Large; all his points were scored against rated opponents, with an average nearly 100 points above his own. Peter Hempson finished on the same score, after an exhilarating four and half in the first six rounds, in which he beat both GM Plaskett and IM Hebden.

My own interest this time round was in the Major Open. It was, of course, a very much stronger tournament than the Chester Major Open, though I should judge the relative disparity is a good deal less marked than that between the two Championships. Tim Wall was the other Northeast contestant. He, too, had, I would think, reason to be content. A score of six and a half in strong company - and he was unlucky not to score higher; I myself saw two endgames where very persistent opponents resisted (not ‘to the death’, since they obstinately refused to die!) in difficult (though not losing) positions.

I achieved only my minimum aim - a 50% score, though I was told, consolingly, by one of the controllers that I had a achieved ‘half a FIDE rating’! What the implication (if any) of that, or even of a full FIDE rating may be - save some sort of ‘Chessic snobbery’ - I haven’t an idea!
Did I, before the digression, make my point about ‘chalk and cheese’? Readers must judge. But so it seemed to me.

What I think it boils down to is what I adumbrated vis-a-vis Chester: professionalism. In the narrow sense, this is to state the absurdly obvious; count, and savour the GMs (even with Short and Speelman missing - preparing fore their match - and Nunn in a tournament abroad) and, if you can borrow some fingers, count the IMs. One doesn’t need to speak of their preparation and mastery of opening t theory and of technique.

More to the point, for us lesser mortals, is the extent to which these professional elements have seeped, or even cascaded, down to the very strong non-professionals(and, one should add, to the average or average-plus tournament and club player). Given a concrete advantage not merely material but positional) and these days the win doesn’t slip away; and the ‘draw’ is held. There is a near-universal; toughness now, stemming I think, mainly from so much tournament play, but also from so much excellent instructional literature and, for the younger generation, from coaching.

At Blackpool a reflection of this increased ‘toughness’ was to my mind the more onerous session of play in the main tournaments; 40 moves in two hours, then, without a break, after 20 in an hour; and, if then unlucky (or lucky?) enough to get an adjournment, resumption after an interval just long enough to get a meal. I pretty well circumvented all that! Only two of my games went beyond the four hours.

You’ll be saying that all these obiter dicta have nothing to do with the case - as some Gilbert and Sullivan character proclaimed. I have indeed strayed from my given theme. And enough is enough.

...and with those wise words it seems it is time to bring this month’s column to close…

Sean Marsh
September 2005

Archive: UNCUT! 40

The Sean Marsh Chess Column
UNCUT!
*Column 40*
* *August 2005* *

Respect! That’s what we chess players lack. If we practiced the piano for as many hours as we do chess we would earn respect and not derision. Piano players often boast about reaching grade 7 and the like….7!? I used to be in the mid-190s, walking with the Gods! Did a piano maestro ever have to get up and answer the phone? (…especially when only one minute remains on the clock…!)

The distractions incurred during an online blitz session are surely enough to drive a chap to murder. A 30-year stretch as punishment would be little deterrent; in all these years, I’ve never managed to finish a sentence yet.

Sometimes, however, people see chess players as something rather more than we are. Quite a few years ago, I received an anonymous letter (well, sort of…). Quite what I was expected to do in my capacity of chess correspondent for the Cleveland Advertiser is anyone’s guess. However, as a curiosity from the fringe world of chess, I present to you the story of…

TUKA
The letter was hand-written in red ink. I have corrected a couple of spellings but retained the unusual use of punctuation and brackets in the interests of historical accuracy.


Sean Marsh,
I would like to introduce myself to you as (TUKA). I am an individual artist who has walked on not only the streets of London (Britain) but Sydney, Melb (Australia) and many more. The one thing all these countries have in common, no matter where it is are (people who live on the streets) which unfortunately is no new news. As you know, like everyone, these people are deprived of even the basic necessities. I think – I know, it’s about time – something was done about it, to help those less fortunate than ourselves. I know steps are being taken, I just think things are taking a little long. (Please hear me out).
I would like to set forth a request, to organise an appeal to all those artists in the (Pop/music & television world) to – paint, sketch, draw on t-shirts, jeans, trainers, any artistic or (non artistic) design so that it can with a lotta help be auctioned off and give all the proceeds to charity.
‘It would be good to see art for once working for the people’
I don’t seek fame not fortune, that’s the reason for the name I have (T.U.K.A.) it simply stands for (The Un-Known Artist). I know it’s a difficult task to undertake and organise something of this scale, that’s the reason why I’m writing to someone like yourself. I’ve just got to get it through to the media and most of all to reach the people who can help do this. I am for real – serious, I do mean what I write/say and I do hope you can help.
All it takes are people to help push the wheel, once the wheel starts rolling, it will keep on rolling.
Well, you can throw this away and not give it another thought, but the fact of the matter is, these people who are deprived don’t go away, they just keep on growing! I know it can be done, all I need is a helping hand.
Thanks for reading these words. Again, if you can help, please do.
Sincerely,
The Un-Known Artist,
TUKA

I wonder what happened to TUKA and his campaign. Did he exist at all? Is he still wandering the streets dreaming of a better world? Or did he end up like the majority, with a bald head, glasses and paunch? Perhaps he regenerated into Bob Geldof and lived his dream after all. Perhaps we’ll never know. Whatever his fate, he is surely a rare example of someone according chess and its players with rather more respect than we are used to.

Grades
From approximately the era, I chanced upon an old grading list. The list wasn’t done on computer in those days (surprisingly few things were) but arrived via lots of hard work by the then-grader, Mike Creaney, who wrote everything out by hand.
This list includes only those players above 140.

Grades 1989/90
Richard Hall 212
David Smith 208
Norman Stephenson 202
Morray Vincent 199
David Wise 193
Robert Akehurst 184
Robert Shaw 184
Steve Dauber 182
Glen Bowen 180
James Akehurst 180
Paul Gregory 179
Trevor Glass 177
Ken Glass 175
Sean Marsh 174
Jeff Glass 169
Mike Closs 169
Mark Suscens 163
Joe Spayne 162
And Barker 160
Jason Glass 158
Graham Marshall 159
Howard Turner 158
Stan Horkan 155
Steve Rodgers 153
Howard Cockerill 151
John Marshall 151
Stuart Morgan 151
Richard Moore 150
Dave Redman 150
Robert Harding 148
Steve McCormack 147
Brian Myers 145
Jason Benham 146
Ron Stather 149
David Baillie 145
Steve Tighe 148
Steve Cole 142

A good number of the players on the list are either no longer in the area (America, Cuba and Australia are the last recorded sightings of three of them) and/or are not active in chess any more.

For others, it’s a case of ‘the more things change, the more they stay as they are’. What is noticeable is that we haven’t had anyone graded over 200 for some time and the dizzy heights of 212 now seem almost impossible to aim for. Just look at how many locals we had above 140 – almost 40! The real problem we have to match such a number these days is the brain drain, taking away our conveyor belt of promising juniors to pastures new. A pity; we enjoyed a strength in depth we rather took for granted at the time and we would welcome with open arms a return to such stability and solidity.
Snippets

A couple of game fragments from my recent battles are hereby presented for your perusal.
The first came at the end of a long game, but shortly after my first column of book reviews, in which the same theme was explored. Black had held an edge throughout the game but White brought things to a swift conclusion with:

62 Rh7+ Kxh7 63 Qc7+ Qxc7 ½-½


The next position could almost be inspired by the thousand s of cookery shows to grace our screens. Instead of the delights of the Cheese Melt and Tuna Melt, I present the Long-Diagonal Melt

27…a3 28 Ra4 Qxa4! 29 Bxa4 axb2 30 Rb1 Nxc3

0-1
Hmmm...nice!

Sean Marsh
August 2005

Chess Reviews: 2

Greetings, readers! This time we have three books from Batsford to peruse. All are interesting but I’ll start with the pick of the bunch…..

Najdorf: Life and Games

by Lissowski, Mikhalchishin & Najdorf

It is surprising that such a colourful life as that enjoyed by chess hero Miguel Najdorf has never been well documented. I suspect we’d be inundated with books about this fascinating man if he’d been a World Champion but more often than not he’s been relegated to the sidelines of chess history and reduced to walk-on parts in the life stories of others. I am delighted to see Batsford reverse the trend with this excellent new book .

Najdorf was far more important than his superficial legacy suggests; i.e. the naming of one opening variation after him. His chess career was lengthy to say the least, stretching more than six decades.

Originally Polish, Najdorf remained in Argentina after the Second World War broke out during the 1939 Chess Olympiad. This was one of 15 Olympiads the great man would play in. Tragically, his family and friends back in Poland didn’t survive. Najdorf was alone in a foreign country with only $320 to his name. Such circumstances would have been the end of most people, but Najdorf was made of sterner stuff. and somehow survived.

In order to draw attention to the fact that he was still alive, and try and establish some sort of contact with people back home in Poland, Najdorf conducted lots of simultaneous displays. In 1943 he broke the world record for blindfold play, taking on 40 players at the same time (+36, =1, -3). Four years later he broke it again, with a +39, =4, -2 score after an exhibition that lasted an astonishing 23 hours. These feats certainly grabbed the headlines!

After the war, his tournament results continued to impress. When Fine dropped out of the World Championship tournament of 1948, Najdorf was the obvious replacement, but FIDE didn’t see things that way and just went ahead with five players instead of six. A pity; Najdorf’s famous victory over Botvinnik two years earlier at the Groningen tournament proved he was capable of upsetting the odds.

The full story of Najdorf’s life can be found in the first 50 pages of the book, and it is followed by several pages of his tournament and match results, stretching from 1928 too 1996. The bulk of the book covers 131 great games with notes, a lot of which are by Najdorf himself. Here we find wins over the likes of Botvinnik, Spassky, Tal and Fischer. He played all the World Champions from Capablanca through to Kasparov, which is quite an achievement in itself.

The book concludes with some examples of Najdorf’s fluctuating fortunes in the endgame, some puzzles from his games and several anecdotes.

Verdict: A highly recommended book and one which fills a significant gap in our literature. Please, Batsford…let’s have some more like these!


The next volumes continue the impressive ‘Revealed!’ series. As with the Modern Benoni book (reviewed in issue 1), the standard series formula is continued. This takes us through the ‘Introduction’, ‘First Moves’, ‘Heroes and Zeros’, ‘Strategy’, ‘What’s Hot?, ‘Tricks and Traps’ and ‘Test Positions’. I think this formula works very well, especially if the books are read from start to finish instead of just being dipped into randomly.

The Queen’s Bishop Attack Revealed

by GM James Plaskett

The lines examined in this book have never been as popular as the Trompowsky, and probably never will be. The average player will find it hard to understand what is achieved by 1 d4 d5 2 Bg5. Indeed, the theory of this Pseudo-Trompowsky is still very much in its infancy and this is the first book on the subject.

It’s not easy to avoid huge icebergs of theory as early as the second move, but White manages it with 2 Bg5. The Slav and Queen’s Gambit lines are ruled out and playing Albin Gambit style with 2 ...e5 is rendered somewhat undesirable. Ironically, after 1 d4 d5 2 Bg5 c5 3 e4, White can a reversed Albin with an extra move if he wants it. The Heroes are the usual free spirits such as the late Tony Miles, Julian Hodgson, Ian Rogers et al.

The games in the book are fantastic and extremely unusual. There is so much scope for experimentation with vast areas of uncharted territory to explore. Any player adopting this opening could easily stamp their own ideas onto it and rack up a number of speedy victories. It should certainly keep you well ahead on the clock as the poor opponent has to try and navigate the alarming number of un-trodden, dangerous paths. Some will seek to exploit the weakened squares on the Queenside, but after …Qb6 will be faced with one of the eternal gambit questions: b2, or not b2? That is the question…..

GM Plaskett is an interesting writer. He admits from the start that this opening is by no means a forced win for White and he tries to be objective throughout.

Verdict: The Queen’s Bishop Attack could well be one the last great unmapped openings. If such things appeal to you, or even if you just want a fresh surprise weapon tucked away for that special occasion, then you could do a lot worse than give this one a try.

The Sicilian Bb5 Revealed

by GM Neil McDonald

This particular Anti-Sicilian has continued to grow in popularity and is seen at all levels. Local yokels may remember that it was a mighty weapon in the hands of David Mooney, who thrashed all-comers with it on the local tournament circuit. Even closer to home, Norman Stephenson used it to defeat reigning British Champion Michael Hennigan in 1994.

One of the appealing aspects of Bb5(+) is that it cuts down the amount of theory one needs to learn to take on the Open Sicilians. Dragons and Najdorfs are all good fun, but we can’t all keep up with the latest wrinkles. Even the very best players in the world resort to it for the same reason, as did Ivanchuk against Kasparov at Linares 1991. He didn’t have time to prepare for his first round game so played 3 Bb5+ and went on to score a famous victory. One year later, Bobby Fischer resorted to this opening and produced one of the most memorable games of his ‘World Championship’ comeback against Spassky. Ironically, Cozio first mentioned Bb5 back in 1740, so as GM McDonald points out it predates all the main lines of the Sicilian Defence.

It’s hard for Black to generate the same sort of play against such a solid rejoinder and facing these lines can be a very frustrating experience. Yet the opening has in some ways become a victim of its own success and those wishing to take it up will find that there are a number of books and even a couple of DVDs already out on the subject.

I have yet to see a piece of writing by GM McDonald that I couldn’t recommend. He is a natural author and chess coach who always seeks to explain his subject carefully. He is particularly strong on outlining the strategy, which takes up a good chunk of the book. White can call the shots, with plans of all types at his disposal. The ‘Tricks and Traps’ chapter is also essential reading and will save – or gain – many points over the board.

I rarely play 1 e4 but with such lucid explanations and tempting lines found in this book I might be tempted to give it the odd whirl this coming season…

Verdict: An excellent introduction to a popular opening, but one which also contains plenty of meat for the established Bb5(+) player.

For details of this and all other Batsford chess books, please visit:

http://www.chrysalisbooks.co.uk/

Happy reading!
August 1st 2005