Tuesday, 9 April 2013

Annotated Chess Game in French Defence: Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen

French defence is famous for its solidity and counter attack possibilities in later stage of the game with a view to somewhat cramp position in the opening.

Game has been taken from the recent tournament (Grand Slam 2012), played between chess genius Calsen as black and Fabiano. Game was full of swindles but at last Carlsen did penultimate mistake under time pressure and lost the game in winning position but the way he handled the endgame was just fabulous.

Before presenting you annotated game, let me give you the list of some good books on french defence.

The Flexible French: Strategic Explanations & Surprise Weapons for Dynamic Players
French Defence by Gligoric 
Play the French, 4th (Everyman Chess)

Annotated game : Fabiano Caruana - Magnus Carlsen, Grand Slam 2012

Monday, 8 April 2013

Theoretical Positions In King & Pawn Endgame That You Must Know


Saturday, 6 April 2013

Rubinstein Trap

The Rubinstein Trap is an opening trap which is named for one of the chess legend Akiba Rubinstein; not because he used it against his opponents but he fell twice into it. You can read more about Rubinstein from wikipedia pages.


Source & Credit to : Wikipedia

Book by Rubinstein

Books on Rubinstein












The Trap

It is a opening trap under 'Queen's Gambit Declined' exchange variation where white capture 'd5' pawn with knight on c3, in return if black black is very much greedy and captures knight then loses queen. If not, trap offers minimum a pawn.

Position after white's Nxd5 from the game between Max Euwe and Rubinstein.



See the diagram(^) exd5 can be punished by Bc7 (Winning Queen). Here are two games in which Rubinstein fell twice.

Game 1 - Max Euwe and Rubinstein
Game 2 - Alekhine and Rubinstein

Question to Rubinstein: "Who is your opponent tonight?" Answer: "Tonight I am playing against the black pieces."  -  Akiba Rubinstein






Friday, 5 April 2013

Hurdles Between You and Chess Improvement


Recently I have wrote article on Chessimprover.com (GM Nigel Davies site) about Pressure & emotional instability which inspired me to write on other hurdles also which are between you and your chess improvement.

Fear
I was also victim of fear, while playing against higher rated player earlier I thought that if I could draw the game would be better for me but now I do not care. The reason of this change is change in my attitude. How you can change it? well first of all think positive, read good articles about positive attitude, read some inspirational books, worth to watch chess movie 'Knight of South Bronx' & so on. Remember that this all thing are not related to chess but those are having collateral effect in overall attitude. Remember that 'You will get what you think'

Emotional Instability
I have wrote detailed article on this at chessimprover which you can read. Some tips I would like to share with you in order to be emotionally stable. Yoga and Meditation are having great impacts on your emotional aspects. Try is as I did.

Expecting too much from you
It has been often seen among the amateurs (Including me) that we expect much from us. Like we study very hard for 6 month to 1 years and expecting very serious Elo jump. In reality we need years in order to be good players, In 'BHAGAVAD GITA' (Religious Book in Hinduism) It has been told that "Do your duty and Don't expect for results"

Unorganized preparation
Don't do unorganized preparation. Today you like one book or one coach and tomorrow different book or different coach... just don't do that. Search good mentor/chess coach and do what they say, walk on their plans as they are experienced and stronger than you in chess. I don't think that chess progress is possible without good coach; exceptions are always there.

Profound use of computers
I believe that too much use of computer in your preparation can be a reason in losing interest in chess. Analyse game your self and show then to stronger player than you, take their guidance  Prepare opening through studying games of chess legends not just few moves recommended by computers.

Ignoring Importance of end-game
Well known cause. We do not get king and pawn or rook endgame in our game so no need to study endgame (Amateurs and Beginners' words). Here you are mistaken as endgame is a tool on which you can play middle-game like ; exchanging pieces, launching attack, simplifying the position etc etc. If you learn endgame, you get to know importance of it.

Last but not the least 'Actions are much more Important than plans'. I hope you get my point.

Thanks for reading.


Thursday, 4 April 2013

Breakthrough

It is very much important to have passed pawn in endgame. Sometimes material on the board is even but it may be possible to have passed pawns for both on different wings (King side, Queen side. In endgame it is advantageous to have passed pawn on the side where your opponent has not castled. In general that is called majority on the queen-side. It is advantageous because your opponent king has to travel far to reach your passed pawn by the time you can just take off some of his pawns and gaining material advantages.

Pawn Breakthrough :

It is basically a process of creating passed pawn.In simple terminology;  finding correct series of pawn moves to produce passed pawn called pawn breakthrough.First we will go through some famous examples then we will dig this topic deeply.

Remember : You must be having prior knowledge of 'key square' and 'Rule of square' in order to understand pawn breakthrough.

Position 1: White to Move



This is very famous example to explain pawn breakthrough. See the diagram(^). White white to move, white can easily win with
1. g6!! hxg6 or 1....fxg6, 2.h6! gxh6, 3.f6 and wins
2. f6! gxf6
3. h6 and promoting the pawn and wins.

But there is question why white was winning on the given position?

  • Black king was too much far from the queening square.
  • White pawns were more advanced.White won't be able to win if pawn were on the 4th rank and black's pawn on 6th rank.


Position 2: White to Move



In this position(^), white can win with either with f5 or g5
1. g5 Kb4
2. f5 (threat is to g6 on next move, creating passed pawn on e file)exf5
3. g6!! fxg6
4. e6 and black king is not far from queening square.

again winning is thanks to white advanced pawn and king's positions.

In the both diagrams, kings were far from the action. But it is very much harder to evaluate position when king is in action. Let's look at some examples.

Position 3: White to Move



In the diagram(^), if black king was far from the action then white can easily win with 1. b6 - axb6 2. a6  but here position is different, as if 2. a6 then Kc6 and black can win even therefore much deeper calculation is required
1. a6! Kd6
2. b6!! Kc6
then pause for moment which one is better b7 or bxa7, yeap may be you got right
3. axb7! and wins (as b7 draws because 3...Kc7 and black can save a day due to stalemate tricks)

Position 4: Black to Move



In the given position(^) with white to move white can win easily Kd4, but if black to move then it is his or her only chance, How he/she can win? with 1....c3 2. bxc3 bxc3 3.Kd3 and white can easily get the black's passed pawn.

Think for some more time, may be you get that
1....c3
2. bxc3 b3!!
3. axb3 a3 which is not in the reach of white's king.


So there is no rocket science to learn pawn breakthrough, but below are some examples in the form of puzzles which you should try to solve first then look at the answers.

Test Positions

(1) White to Move


(2) White to Move


(3) White to Move

Wednesday, 3 April 2013

kasparov's octopus knight : Outpost

An outpost is a square where you can place your piece safely which can not be attacked by opponent's pawn and your opponent can not capture it without giving up some material advantage. Normally piece is protected by pawn but sometimes it can be protected by other pieces also. Any of your piece (Rook, Bishop and Queen) works well on an outpost but knight (Octopus) works better because its impact on nearer squares being short range piece.

Power of Octopus

Benefits of an Outpost :

  • When a piece occupies an out post it becomes more powerful ( We have been told that knight on the 6th rank equals to rook)
  • It creates problem in opponent's piece improvement. ( For example white knight on e6 creates problem in getting d and f files, pressure on g7 etc ), cramping your opponent's position
  • Sometimes it is not favorable for your opponent to exchange the piece which is on outpost because it may create strong passed pawn or if protected by other piece than that piece will get outpost.
  • An Outpost is used to launch to create successful king-side attacks

Strategy to find an outpost :

  • Look for Isolated pawn, when your opponent has an isolated pawn then the front square  of that pawn can become outpost for you.
  • When your opponent has advanced his/her pawn then it creates hole. Space behind the pawn can be outpost for your piece,  For example in the diagram white has advanced his pawn to d4,e5 and f4 which creates hole in e4 that is protected by  d5 pawn would be a great outpost for Black's knight or bishop. Even you can place knight on f5 but first need to play h5.


Remember : NOBODY will force your opponent to create hole in his position, you have to create it.

Now for better understanding lets look at Kasparov's game against Karpov; World Championship Match Game No 16

Kasparov's Octopus Knight

In this game Kasparov sacrificed a pawn in order to get his knight on d3 and went on win. This is one of the Garry's Masterpiece and in the book 'The Mammoth Book of the worlds's Greatest chess Games' credit given to the knight on d3 which they called Octopus knight.

Kasparov wrote : Such Games are remembered for a long time, and in particular by the winner himself after literally putting part of his soul into sustained realization of his plan.... None of my earlier creation are compare with 16th game as regards the grandiosity of overall plan. " There is one other important reason why I can confidently call this game my supreme creative achievement. The Value of any brilliantly won game 
increases in accordance with the strength of the opponent. What is noteworthy is the fact that this victory was achieved over such a super-class player as Karpov"


Tuesday, 2 April 2013

Game Explained by Mozart of Chess

Carlsen is now challanger of Vishy Anand, let's see what 'The Mozart of Chess' is saying on the game played  against Anand in 2011.




Monday, 1 April 2013

Grandmasters' stalemate tricks

Stalemate is a resource or tactical weapon which can be used by the player with inferior position in order to save a game. Try to solve some puzzle those are taken from grandmasters' games. 






Puzzle 1 : Adams vs Dimitrov



Puzzle 2 : Evans vs Reshevsky




Puzzle 3 : Bernstein vs Smyslov

Drawing with Vancura Position

So far in Rook ending we have discussed Philidor Position (Drawing Method) and Lucena Position (Winning method), today we are going to discuss Vancura position(Drawing method).

Position's characteristics :


  • Strong side is having an extra pawn and that is rook pawn.
  • Pawn is not beyond its six rank (Pawn is on h6 in diagram)
  • Strong side rook is tied up in defence (in front of the pawn, Rook is on h8)
  • Defender rook attacks pawn from the rank (Rook attacks pawn from c6 in diagram)
  • Defender king must be on other-side of the board in the corner (in our case King is on b7 or a7) so that stronger side rook can not check the king to promote the pawn or can sacrifice the pawn in order to set up skewer.


Drawing Method :

Key :Do not allow your opponent to support pawn with the help of king.

1. Kg5  Rc5+
h7 was not possible because of Rh6! 2. Kg5  Rh1 3. Kg6 Rg1+ 4. Kf7 Rf1+  5. Ke7 - Ra1 draws, Please not that defender king must be in corner(b7 or a7) if defender Majesty is on c7 the white can win sacrificing pawn with Ra8! if ....Rxh7 then Ra7+ wins or Defender king is on b6 then Rb8+ and can promote the pawn to queen.

2. Kf6 Rc6+ (Important square in Vancura position for defender rook)

3. Ke5 Rg6 (attack continue through 6th rank on pawn)

4. Kd5 Rc6

5. Rh7+ Kb6 etc

Summary : Pawn can not be advanced because defender rook gets behind the pawn and Stronger side king cannot  advance because of checks.

For better understanding and clear picture of the position lets go through some examples.



White to Move

1. Kb5 Rf5+
2. Kb6 Rf6+
3. Kc5 Rf5+
4. Kd4 Rf6
(4... Rf4+ ?? 5. Ke5 Rf6 6.
Rg8+ And wins)
5. Ke5 Rb6
6. Kd5 Rf6
7. a7 Ra6
1/2-1/2





Black to Move


1... Rh1
(1... Rg1 ? 2. Kf5 Rh1 (2... Ra1 3. Ke5 winning) 3. Ra7+ Kh6 4.
Rb7 Winning) 

2. Ra7+ Kg8
1/2-1/2










Drawing Zone
In 1950 Peter Romanovsky published below drawing zone

In the position, with Black to move ; Black can draw by reaching Vancura Position only and only if White king is on one of marked square otherwise white wins













Examples of Drawing Zone

Sunday, 31 March 2013

Sunday - Fun Day

Don't you want to play chess now? Source funtoosh.com

Mr Harpreet Singh Gulati is traveling from Moscow to Turban Pore [Capital of Khalistan] by "Kithe" Pacific.Seated besides him is Gary Kasparov. Gary asks him whether he would like to play chess to kill time.
Gulati :"Oye Gar(r)y. You think I don't know who U are?. I can't compete with a world champion"
Gary: "How about if I play left handed ?"
Gulati: [Think.. Think..] "OK!"
Gulati is demolished in 4 moves... and is very upset through-out the rest of the journey. On landing he meets his friend Manpreet Singh.
Gulati: Hey! U know what! I played Chess with Gary Kasparov and he defeated me in spite of him playing left-handed...
Manpreet: Oye ullu-de pathey! He sure did fool you! U know what! Gary IS LEFT-HANDED!!
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com

A man went to visit a friend and was amazed to find him playing chess with his dog. He watched the game in astonishment for a while. "I can hardly believe my eyes!" he exclaimed. "That's the smartest dog I've ever seen.""Nah, he's not so smart," the friend replied. "I've beaten him three games out of five."
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com

A group of chess enthusiasts had checked into a hotel, and were standing in the lobby discussing their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and asked them to disperse. 
"But why?" they asked, as they moved off. 
"Because," he said, "I can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer." 
source: http://www.jokebuddha.com

A chess master died - after a few days, a friend of his heard a voice; it was him! 
"What's it like, where you are now," he asked. 
"What do you want to hear first, the good news or the bad news." 
"Tell me the good news first." 
"Well, it's really heaven here. There are tournaments and blitz sessions going on all the time and Morphy, Alekhine, Lasker, Tal, Capablanca, Botvinnik, they're all here, and you can play them." 
"Fantastic!" the friend said, "and what is the bad news?" 
"You have Black against Capablanca on Saturday." 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

A Chess Player is walking from the lake carrying two fish in a bucket. He is approached by the Game Warden who asks him for his fishing license. The Chess player says to the warden, "I did not catch these fish, they are my pets's pawn. Everyday I come down to the water and whistle and these fish jump out and I take around to see the sights only to return them at the end of the day; remember that the Chess Board is like an ocean; full of fish". The warden, does not play chess, he not had any idea what he's taking about; not believing him, reminds him that it is illegal to fish without a license. The Chess Player turns to the warden and says,
"CHECK" "If you don't believe me then watch," as he throws the fish back into the water. The warden says, "Now whistle to your fish and show me that they will come out of the water." The Chess Player turns to the warden and says, "What fish!?" 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

Frasier: I can see why she likes the game - "the king is stationary, the queen has all the power". 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

Q. Which chess piece is the most powerful?
A. The Knight, It goes over the top. 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

Q - Which group of women are the best chess players? 
A - Feminists. Their opponents begin with King and Queen, but *they* always start with 2 Queens. 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

Three retired International chess grandmasters were playing chess in the park.
The first grandmaster said, "it is windy today." 
The second grandmaster said, "no, it is Thursday today". 
The third grandmaster said, "me too, let's go back inside for a drink" 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

The young apprentice went to his master and asked him: 
"Which is the best game man made?". 
The old master though a little bit and said 
"It's chess I guess, no?". 
"What about go?" came the next question instantly. 
"Aah, go was already here!" 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

A gentleman must play a game of chess with a blind person, he proposes to the blind person:
"As him cannot see he will grant an advantage to him as part of the deal. We will not play in equality of conditions."
"This sound really fair" replied the Blind Person. 
Then he asks the gentleman: "When?" 
"Very well", the other men responded to him "any night that you prefer." 
Source : http://www.chessebook.com/

Two chess players are playing a correspondence game. White lives at the South Pole. Black lives at the North Pole. The postal service is rather slow and play proceeds at the rate of one move per year. After 15 years of play, white makes a daring queen sacrifice, the consequences of which are by no means clear.
Source : http://www.thenerdsite.com/

A year later, as he sees the postman returning, he is very excited. He thinks "Will black take my queen?", "Is the sacrifice sound?" He tears open the reply and sees "Jadoube."
Source : http://www.thenerdsite.com/

Q: How many squares are there on a chess board?
A: Two, plus the spectators.
Source : http://www.thenerdsite.com/

Two friends meet on the street one day and one of them says, "My wife says if I play in the chess tournament tomorrow she'll take the kids and leave me." The other asks him, "So what are you going to do tomorrow?" And the other answers, "Same as always: 1. e4."
Source : http://www.thenerdsite.com/

Q. What is the difference between a chess player and a couple on a blind date?
A. The chess player mates then chats......
Source : Susan Polgar's Blog

There once was a Polgar named Judit.
She was great and we always knew it.
She made top 10 in the world,
and showed lots of girls,
Shes a girl with a brain and can use it.
Source : Susan Polgar's Blog

An ordinary club chess player is suddenly noticed by many as he begins to win all of his matches. 
It is noted that his rise in ability co-indices with the player pulling out a small book from his 
pocket before each game, which he reads for about a minute or so before putting back into his 
pocket. 
A wealthy, but rather ordinary, fellow club member watches this man with keen interest. He sees 
him perform this ritual of book reading before each game and then going on to win decisively- he 
will soon be club champion and headed for national fame. 
After another emphatic victory, the wealthy gent approaches the man and offers him $1000 for 
his book. The man kindly declines. He offers $5000, $10 000 and then $20 000 to similar refusals. 
Desperate, he offers the man $100 000 for the book. The man thinks for a long hard minute or 
two and then accepts the offer. He walks away with the money minus his book. 
The wealthy man, trembling, opens up the little book and astounded reads the following sentence 
written repeatedly: 
"Remember to always protect your king!"
Source : Gameknot Chess Forums

Interviewer: Do you prefer sex or chess? 
Boris Spassky: It depends on the position.
Source : Gameknot Chess Forums

Anand: In what country were you born? 
Gelfand: Belarus 
Anand: Which part? 
Gelfand: What do you mean which part? Whole body born in Belarus, moved to Israel. 
Anand: Good move!
Source : Gameknot Chess Forums

Daily Tactics Trainer

This section will be published every day in which we will provide three tactical diagrams and answers will be published on next day.

Before going for today's puzzles lets have a look for yesterday's solutions.

Yesterday's (30/03/13) Solutions

(100) Sibarevic - Bukic
Banja Luka, 1976
1.Rxe5+ Be7 [1...dxe5 2.Nf6+ Nxf6 3.Rd8#; 1...Nxe5 2.Nf6#] 2.Rxe7+ 1–0

(101) Shurawlew - Kriwon
Riga, 1990
1...Kh6 2.Bb1 f5 0–1

(102) Short - Larsen
Naestved, 1985
 1...b5 2.Qb4 a5 0–1


Today's Puzzles

As I have got some complains about the current format of puzzle that, it is confusing so I have changed it. From now onwards you will get daily three puzzles displayed on right hand side corner. You select puzzle by clicking on L1,L2 and L3. I will get back to you with some innovative format for chess puzzles.

Saturday, 30 March 2013

Daily Tactics Trainer


This section will be published every day in which we will provide three tactical diagrams and answers will be published on next day.

Before going for today's puzzles lets have a look for yesterday's solutions.

Yesterday's (29/03/13) Solutions

(97) Silber - Suetin
Leningrad, 1957
1...Bh3 2.gxh3 [2.Bd4 Qxg2+ 3.Ke1 f6 4.Qxf6 Qxe2+ 5.Kxe2 Nd5+] 2...Nf5 0–1

(98) Sikora - Sturc
Zilina, 1976
1...Nf3+ 2.Kh1 [2.gxf3 Rg3 3.Kh1 Rxh3+] 2...Rg3 0–1

(99) Siedinja - Ansinja
Riga, 1980
 1.Qg6+ Kg8 2.Qxe8+ 1–0


Today's Puzzles

(100) White to Move

(101) Black to Move

(102) Black to Move

Daniel King on 'Kasparov and Anand' game in Sicilian Defence

Who don't know Daniel King ? and when we talk about analysis, commentator and presentation; the first name come to our mind is Daniel King. He is an English chess Grandmaster, coach, journalist, author and broadcaster. A very famous and attractive personality in chess world.


As a player
  • International Master in 1982
  • Grand Master in 1989
  • First at Sydney open with Boris Gelfand in 1988
  • First at Geneva young masters with Ian Rogers in 1990
  • Winner of Bunratty Masters in 1996

As an Author and  Media personality :
  • Winning with the Najdrof - Buy Now from Amazon
  • How good is your chess - Buy Now from Amazon
  • How to Play chess - Buy Now from Amazon
  • Power play series 1- 18 - Buy Now from Amazon
  • Writer at The Guardian, Chess Magazine and Schach 64 Commentators  for the prestigious chess tournaments

Presenting you the game annotated by Daniel king and played by two world champions named Garry Kasparov (The chess legend) and Vishy Anand (Current world champion).




Anyone who would like to save the game can copy and paste following text in the PGN viewer or chessbase.


[Event "Geneve PCA-GP Credit Suisse"]
[Site "Geneve"]
[Date "1996.09.01"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "Anand, Viswanathan"]
[Black "Kasparov, Garry"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2735"]
[BlackElo "2785"]
[Annotator "King,D"]
[PlyCount "109"]
[EventDate "1996.08.??"]
[EventType "k.o. (rapid)"]
[EventRounds "4"]
[EventCountry "SUI"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1996.11.01"]

1. e4
 
Anand
 
1... c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Ng4 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 g59. Bg3 Bg7 10. Be2 h5 11. Bxg4 Bxg4 12. f3 Bd7 13. Bf2 Nc6 14. Qd2 Ne5 15. O-O e6
 
[15... g4! Anand 16. f4 Nc4]
 
16. b3 Ng6 17. Rad1 g4 18. f4 h4 19. Nde2 h3 20. g3
 
I hope you will forgive my digression; now we come on to the main theme of this article: the far-advance of the rook's pawn. This and the following game caught my eye, well, I was commentating live on both of them, so they couldn't fail to. The variation Kasparov has played has grown in reputation over the last few years. The kingside pawns are flung up the board introducing a variety of dynamic possibilities. Here Kasparov has managed to advance his h-pawn all the way to h3 making life extremely awkward for White. With no light-squared bishop to cover g2, there will always be a threat of mate looming against the king should the position open. Moreover, as both the e and f pawns have advanced, the king has no cover along the second rank.
 
20... Rc8 21. e5
 
Shutting out the bishop on g7 as 21...dxe5 22 Ne4 gives White some chances. However, even after
 
21... d5
 
White is not out of danger, even though the position has closed.
 
22. Nd4 O-O 23. Qd3 f5!
 
Securing the structure. White cannot contemplate 24 exf6 Qxf6 as the position begins to open, and once again the king on g1 is in a shaky position.
 
24. Nce2 Rf7
 
During the game, I thought I was better, but White should just keep the position closed.
 
25. Rc1 Bf8 26. c3 Ne7 27. Rfd1 Nc6 28. c4
 
Opening the position is a mistake, though the alternative was just to sit there and allow Black to build up pressure on the queenside. It is difficult to criticise moves in a speed game. Anand was obviously trying to blast his way through to the weak-point on e6, but the plan rebounds.
 
28... dxc4 29. Rxc4 Qe8 30. Qd2 b5 31. Rcc1 Nb4 32. Nc3 Rc7! 33. a3 Qa8!
 
Precisely why the position should have remained closed.
 
34. Be3 Nd3 35. Rc2 b4
 
[35... Nc5 Anand 36. b4]
 
36. Na2 Nc5 37. Qe2
 
[37. axb4 Anand 37... Ne4 38. Qe2¢]
 
37... bxa3 38. b4 Ba4 39. bxc5 Bxc2 40. Nxc2 Bxc5 41. Bxc5 Rxc5 42. Ne1 Rb5 43. Qc4Rb2 44. Qxe6 Qa7 45. Kh1 Rxh2 46. Kxh2 Qf2 47. Kh1 Qf1 48. Kh2 Qe2 49. Kg1 Qxd1
 
There's no perpetual.
 
50. Kf1
 
[50. Qg6 Kf8 51. Qh6 Ke7 52. Qg5 Kd7]
 
50... Qd7 51. Qxa6 h2 52. Qg6 Rg7 53. Qh5 Rh7 54. Qg6 Qg7 55. Qe8
 
time. The h-pawn played a starring role in the game and is due to be crowned for its hard work, but Anand lost on time first.