SPRAGGETT ON CHESS: 2011-05-29

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Test your tractical skill

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POSITION AFTER 26 MOVES

GM MAZE

GM TKACHIEV

Lasker and Steinitz taught that combinations can only exist if based on some sort of positional advantage(s). Well, here White has a lot going for him:

Better Bishop
Protected passed Pawn
Better co-ordinated pieces
Safer King position

HOW DOES WHITE CONVERT THIS? WHITE TO PLAY AND WIN!

Emanuel Lasker (1868-1941)

''Believe in the existence of that combination and seek to discover it. And if you have searched in vain a hundred times, continue. Possibly the advantage that you think you hold is only an illusion; your valuations may be at fault: prove them and improve them. But, first of all, search diligently; work, for such work is rewarded.'' (Manual, p 215)

''I want to train pupils to think for themselves and exercise just criticism. I will not teach them mere formulae, mere generalities, but will instil into them lasting principles that will grow and blossom; which are alive and vital. They must be ready and willing to put their conceptions , laws and valuations to the proof, again and again, diligently and cheerfully, from a sheer joy of the law and from veneration of the fact.'' (Manual, p 237)

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Today's winning smile

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''You're never fully dressed without a smile.''

~Martin Charnin

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Today's reflection

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''The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science.''--Albert Einstein

Tuesday's chess puzzle

Good morning, Tuesday! The following pure king and pawn study is one of the examples I usually give to my students at the beginning of a training lecture. The solution requires discipline and precision: White wins, not just because he has the first move, but more importantly because of the weakness of the Black pawns. How does White exploit his positional advantage? Good luck!

Nikolay Grigoriev

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Tuesday bits and pieces

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Some important news came of the FIDE Presidential Board meeting that just finished in Al Ain. First a ''modernization'' committee has been set up to--yes, you guess it (!)-- ''modernize'' FIDE. A report is expected back sometime before the end of the year. It is widely expected that most of the changes will be cosmetic, and that those in power before the ''modernization'' will still be in power after the ''modernization''....

Modernized American Gothic

FIDE RATING FLOOR TO DROP TO 1000

The FIDE Presidential Board in Al Ain decided to implement the recommendation of the Qualification Chairman and Rating Administrator to lower the rating floor to 1000 and produce the rating list on a monthly basis.

It was agreed that this should come into effect from July 1st 2012. With that decision the FIDE ratings are moving a step closer to the live top

This is bad news for chess federations and the like who have their own rating system. Rating systems are important assets: they generate funds that federations need to operate and to help bankroll its programs. Should FIDE use its considerable weight and influence--and get its way--we will soon be looking at a single rating system thru-out the entire chess world.

(The CFC will not likely be affected by the new rating floor of 1000 : with the new changes the CFC has implemented to its rating system, no member has a rating less than 2900)

CFC ELECTION TIME IN FULL SWING!

The annual CFC contest of musical chairs amongst the CFC executive members began last week . The rules are simple enough: everyone stands; the music starts; and when it ends the person left standing (without a chair, ofcourse) becomes the President. This procedure is repeated until every position of the executive is filled.

NEW CFC WEBSITE TO OPEN IN ~~APRIL MAY~~ FUTURE

The CFC allocated $18,000 for a new website some 6-months ago. This writer was given a glimpse of the new site just the other day, and it looks great. It is expected to open sometime before the end of the year, or by the time the money has been spent up. More details later.

Bids deadline for Anand - Gelfand 2012 extended

This should surprise nobody. FIDE reported that no bid has come in for the 2012 World Championship match between Anand and Gelfand. The bid deadline was extended to August of this year, when it might be extended again should the status remain unchanged. Minimum bids must include a $1,000,000 purse.

My spies in the CFC have informed me of the possibility of the CFC bidding: the match would take place in Guelph at the University Library. It would be CFC, FIDE ,FQE and CMA rated. The winner would get $750,000; the loser $250,000. Entry fee: $600,000 per player.

Monday, June 6, 2011

Today's thought

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''Every existing thing is born without reason, prolongs itself out of weakness, and dies by chance.'' Jean-Paul Sartre

Black beauty

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Samuel Burton: ''Vicky, you have two serious defects for a young lady. Your memory is to good, you're not respectful of your elders, and you talk to much.''

Victoria 'Vicky' Denning: ''Isn't that three?''

(Via great-quotes)

Walking into it

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

EXAMPLE ONE

Losing is often a direct consequence of our brains not working properly on any given day. In particular, walking into threats that we are not aware of or that we simply don't see (sometimes called a lack of sense of danger) can be very embarrassing.

POSITION AFTER 24 MOVES

GM MOISEENKO

GM MAGEM

A hard fought and unusual game up to now. Here White should play 25.h3 to force the Knight back. In that case the position would be about equal. INSTEAD, Magem played a horrible move just loses on the spot:

25. e7?

White must have thought that the Black Rook must retreat to g8 (when 26.Bxf7 wins).

25...Rxe7!

Ofcourse! This simple move was completely overlooked by the Spanish Grandmaster! If White now takes the Rook then he gets mated (!!) after 26...Nf2-ch (the old Philidor mate with the classic Queen sacrifice on g1). So Magem now has to retreat his Queen to d2, leaving Black with a crushing position after ....Ne3 and ...Rd8. INSTEAD, the Spanish GM threw in the towel in disgust!

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EXAMPLE TWO

It is funny how arrogance can sometimes lead us astray in chess. Witness the inter-play between the White Queen and the Black Rook in this game. Black tries to harrass the Queen at several positions. Black then sees the opportunity to open the position to get at the Queen and goes for it, not realizing that it is he himself who is being hunted! Before he realizes the danger, it is already too late.

POSITION AFTER 14 MOVES:

GM DORFMAN

GM FRESSINET

The position is about equal, and at first sight even appears boring. Black's last move (14...Rfb8) starts the theatre between the White Queen and the Rook. White replied 15.Qc2!?, to get out of the line of sight of the Black beast.

SEVERAL MOVES LATER:

Black's last move (17...Rc8) keeps up the stalking of the White Queen. This time, the hunted becomes the hunter:

18.c4!

Fressinet moves to gain the initiative in the centre, not fearing Black's Rook on c8. Black immediately takes up the challenge:

18...c5!?

Black's Rook is trying to dominate the White Queen

19.bxc5 Rxc5 20.d4!

A very strong move! Black now finds that White's threats are stronger! In particular, Black must surrender his center and soon he has problems defending his squares on the Queenside.

20...exd4 21.Bxd4 Rcc8 22.Qd3!

This last move is filled with poison. How does Black defend his b5-pawn? If 22...Rcb8?! then 23.Rb1 bxc4 24.Nxc4 allows the White Knight to invade on b6 with deadly effect. Or 22...Rab8 then 23. Rb1 bxc4 24.Nxc4 RxR 25.RxR Qe6!? (what else?) 26.Nb6! will soon lead to a win of the a-pawn.

Faced with this dilemma, Black jumps from the pan into the fire:

22...bxc4 23.Nxc4 Qb5

An artificial way to stop Nb6, as White soon shows, breaking thru the centre:

24.e5! PxP 25.Rxe5!

Now Black has much to worry about! There is now the threat to the Bishop on e7, a distant threat of a mate on the backrank (e8), the attack on his Queen. The threat of Nb6 has become the least of his worries!

25...Bc5 26.Rb1! Qd7 27.RxB! RxR 28.Nb6!

Ouch! Finally the White Knight goes to b6 and has the last word. Black loses decisive quantities of material. Dorfman threw in the towel. Moral of the story: you must show respect to the Queen.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

June: 1960 or 2011 ?

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Cheating at German Championship

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Cheating in chess has always been a much bigger issue than drug use, and is an issue that many prefer to sweep under the rug rather than deal with publically. Recently, especially following the FFE disclosure and suspension of 3 of its best players cheating during the last Olympiad (2010), there has been much less shyness in the press about bringing up this issue, and more stories are emerging of this growing problem.

ChessVibes reports today of a cheating incident that took place in the last round of the German Chess Championship. Fortunately, for all involved, the player suspected of cheating later confessed. Now it remains to see what kind of suspension the German Federation will deliver. It is widely expected to be not less than 2 years.

Chessvibes writes: ''A participant of the German Championship, which concluded on Friday in Bonn, was caught cheating. FM Christoph Natsidis used a chess program on his smartphone during his last-round game against GM Sebastian Siebrecht to analyse a position from the game. The 23-year-old player from Bannewitz, Germany admitted that he cheated, and was excluded from the tournament, missing out on an IM norm he had scored after 8 rounds.''

GM Siebrecht (a friend of mine) said later:

“We had reached a complicated position. I had taken on b2 which was a bit risky. However, in a very concrete position where calculating was necessary, he was constantly away from the board. Three times, I made a move and it took 8-10 minutes for him to show up at the board. Naturally I started looking for him and I even waited for a while in the toilets. One toilet was occupied, but I didn’t hear any typical ‘toilet sounds’.

During the game Khenkin came to me and asked: ‘What’s going on? Where is your opponent?’ I decided to go to the arbiter and try to find Natsidis together. Then, indeed, we did find him in the toilet, but the arbiter did nothing, which made me very angry. I could not play a normal game anymore and in a position that was still complicated, I decided to offer a draw, which he accepted.”

“Then I knew enough, and I walked away. Later the arbiter came to me and told me that he had asked if the phone had a chess program installed. Natsidis said yes, and showed it to the arbiter – the program was showing a position from our game, about five moves before the end.”

Natsidis was caught red-handed, but didn’t sweep it under the carpet. He went to his opponent, to apologize. Siebrecht continued:

“He came to me and admitted that he did it, and then apologized. He said: ‘I’m completely stupid, I’m really sorry.’ And indeed, it was very stupid of him to do it in the final round, because he had already scored his IM norm after the penultimate round.”

FINAL PLACINGS IN THE GERMAN CHAMPIONSHIP

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MEANWHILE....

In general, cheating is born of ''opportunism''; giving in to temptation and doing something that one would normally never realistically think of doing. Perhaps one thinks that one can get away with it, that no one is watching or will suspect anything. In the German case, with the IM norm on the line, Natsidis was tempted to use his smartphone to help him secure the necessary edge. (Perhaps he even used it in earlier rounds!)

In the last round of the just completed Canadian Championship there was a case of alleged cheating in the game between Plotking and Calugar where 2 titles were on the line. Mr. Plotking was awarded a FM title for losing the game (he would not have received the title had he drawn the game.) This incident has already been extensively reported in previous blog articles here.

Cheating is very difficult to prove, and in the absence of a direct confession (as in the case in the German Championship), often all one has is indirect evidence and suspicions. However, this is sometimes enough for arbiters to exclude certain players and their results by using the section of the rule book that deals with ''bringing the game into disrepute''.

Mr. Plotking wrote on a message board last week a sort of defence of his actions in his game against Calugar. While not a confession by any means, Mr. Plotking did very little to salvage his reputation. We could call his defence: 'The $166 defence''. Plotking did not refute any of my observations from my original blog entry , nor did he address the FUNDAMENTAL question of whether he deliberately refused the draw because losing was more profitable. Instead, Mr. Plotking feels we should be focused on a $166 prize that he might have won...(!)

In essence, Mr. Plotking argues that he is smarter than everyone else: he just shrugs his shoulders and challenges anyone to prove that he had cheated! Plotking even goes to great pains to list numerous examples from his tournament praxis; yes, certainly he could have easily lost numerous games by trying too hard to win money prizes. All would have been unnecessary losses.

Furthermore, in an earlier post he even bragged :

''...I believe you just overestimate my chess level. I am not a 2300 FIDE-rated player. My rating fluctuates between 2200 and 2250 last few years, that means 2250 is very close to my top.

More important, I even don't know how I can play better. My opening knowledge is below zero and I don't plan to make any significant effort to improve it. I believe almost every 2000+ CFC-rated player knows openings better than me. In my last 4 games against higher-rated opponents I made mistake on move 7 (Hamilton), 5 !!! (Gerzhoy), 9 (Panjwani) and 6 !! (Samsonkin). Pretty impressive numbers, right?''

We are supposed to conclude that Mr. Plotking can lose any given position at any given time or on any given move...and this is his right! But don't accuse him of being unethical!

What can I say? If Mr. Plotking wants to claim that he is an idiot --and idiots lose all types of good positions unnecessarily--then he is welcome to it! I doubt anyone would be proud of such an affirmation...it seems a lot like the defence of insanity to avoid being tried for murder!

In the real world cheating is not a crime and nobody is hurt, but neither is it something to encourage, let alone to brag about and then dare others to prove it! In sports, cheating-- in all of its varied and imaginative forms--leaves a bad taste in one's mouth.

The chess community has a right and an obligation to expose those examples where the game of chess is brought into disrepute. The Plotking vs Calugar game brings the chess into disrepute. It is important for the leaders of the chess community to denounce this kind of behaviour. It took place during a national championship. What is more, the titles of FM and IM deserve more respect than Mr. Plotking showed them.

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Friday, June 3, 2011

Fighting chess

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IT TAKES 2 TO TANGLE

Today's game comes from the French Team Championship which is taking place right now. Infact, this game was played today! The adversaries are the Ukraine GM Moiseenko and the French IM Battaglini. Both players have styles that lead to complex and difficult to evaluate positions where the stronger player usually comes out on top.

Alexander Moiseenko is one of the Ukraine's leading players.

How does one create winning chances when the opponents are within a class of each other? Indeed, how does one go about trying to win if the opponent refuses to make mistakes?

The recent disappointment in the fighting qualities exhibited in the recently concluded Kazen Candidates Tournament (matches) has provoked much debate on the state of chess at the top: everybody plays very safely with the Black pieces and 'just' safely with the White pieces!

Moiseenko's answer to this dilemma is to take some risks (they don't even have to be very big) and to force the opponent out of his usual habitat. By forcing the opponent to think for himself (instead of simply playing by memory), winning opportunities appear by themselves.

It is very difficult to play accurately in chess. To be able to play 10 best moves in a row is a quality that only a handful of top players are capable of...

POSITION AFTER 13 MOVES

An opening that is not so often seen in master chess. Usually White plays 14.Bb5 (neutralizing the pressure on White's d4-Pawn) with mixed results in practice. Moiseenko prepared a little surprise for Black....

IM BATTAGLINI

GM MOISEENKO

14.0-0 !?

Not much of an innovation, but atleast it gets Black thinking. Now it is dangerous to immediately take on d4 (14...Nxd4?! 15.Nb3! NxN 16.Bb5-ch! with a strong attack) but Black could now simply play it safe and castle; after 15.Nf3 Rd8 16.Qd3 h6 it is an interesting game where White is freer but Black is solid.

However, chessplayers have the right to make second-best moves, and here Black provokes White by grabbing a pawn at the expense of losing his castling rights. Did Black overestimate his defensive resources, or underestimate the initiative that White now gets? Only Battaglini can say....

14...Qc3?!

My first chess teacher in highschool taught us all to castle early, for fear of lightning striking...

15.Ne4! Qxd4 16. Nd6-ch Kf8 17. Qh5!

With good attacking chances for the Pawn. Black must defend against White's immediate threats, and while he can do so, it is the long term problems connected with a lack of coordinated pieces that causes Black so much trouble.

LATER, THE POSITION AFTER BLACK'S 20th MOVE:

White must be careful not to fall for 21.Re4?! since Black can escape his problems with 21...Qxe4!, which gets 2-Rooks for the Queen and slows down White's attacking chances considerably.:

However, there is no need for rushing things! White has a harmonious development at the cost of his pawn and Black is still undeveloped on the Queenside, White is now able to paralyze Black even more with simple moves. Any top-notch GM should be able to win the above position: it is just too difficult to defend !

21. Bb5! Qb4 22.BxN! PxB 23.Qf3 Rd7 24. Re4!

WHITE BRINGS IN THE ROOK (MOST LIKELY VIA f4) AND THE GAME WAS SOON OVER

Returning to the topic of Kazen and too many draws in chess, I am of the opinion that computers are not responsible for the lack of ambition demonstrated by the elite players in the world whenever they play in important qualifying tournaments. Why blame a machine when you can blame its master?

Databases have changed the way that the typical tournament is fought in the sense that now information is not ONLY the private property of the strongest and most dedicated professionals...today the battle field is more balanced and getting the upperhand in the opening is difficult against a prepared adversary. However, this change is a natural change that most players welcome.

What is really different today from say 20 years ago--even remarkably so-- is that in the heat of the battle many top GMs don't want to take risks...without first checking out the tactics with their chess engines! Gone seems to be the pioneer spirit of the debate of new ideas....

But, ok, the life of a even a top GM is not a bed of roses: why should he be willing to fall on his sword just to satisfy the more carnal pleasures of the fans?

I am not sure what the solution is, but there is no doubt in my mind that it would not take too much to change the present situation: if another Fischer were to come along then people could become inspired by what the human spirit is capable of if you really want to do something special.

Until that happens (and I hope it does, soon!) , I suppose the chess world will simply be inhabited by copiers, and naturally become a more sterile place where ideas take second place to safety and creativity is considered an unnecessary evil.

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Today's tactics workshop

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

Dedication. 'Sticking with it-ness'. Persistence. Daily practice. Lots of practice. And them some more...This is what makes a champion. Not just great results and beautiful games to sell books to chess fans, but the actual grit and grind that makes a role model for the next generation to look up to and learn from. When I was younger I remember being mesmerized by Tal's games, his combinations and his successes. But what really stayed with me all of those years since was Tal's attitude, his energy and his drive. That is Tal's real legacy...the example he served to me and to thousands of other aspiring chess players.

Enough said! Now it is time to get down and do your daily practice and training. You may not become a champion but you can still aspire to great things. Here are 10 exercises from actual master and grandmaster games. Give yourself 30 minutes to solve the entire lot. Score 5 points for a correct solution. For each mistake in calculation, or for overlooking an important defensive idea, deduct 3 points. Master level is 20 points. Good luck!

SOLUTIONS POSTED LATER TODAY