How to Think in Chess - Preventing Opponent's Plan and Prophylactic Thinking

Keres Memorial 2013, Vancouver, Highlights of my Round 3 game

Garry Kasparov Turns 50

Time flies, only “a few years ago” I was watching on Soviet TV an interview of a 27 year old Garry Kasparov while he was playing his last match against Karpov in 1990, and now he suddenly turns 50!

As a little tribute, here is a recent video I made of one of his last successful performances:

Chess Videos - Sveshnikov Sicilian

I make a lot of videos about the Sicilian opening, and a good chunk of them - about the Sveshnikov variation. Here is a collection of videos dedicated to that opening - pick any of 6 videos in the "playlist" option below:

Geller - Sveshnikov - blunder in time trouble

In this classic chess game - Evgeny Sveshnikov illustrates typical ideas of the Sveshnikov variation
1) Fight for control over d5 square
2) Pressure on the 'f' file
3) e5-e4 and Ne5 maneuver with kingiside attack

Even a positional giant like Efim Geller struggles to contain Black's active play and ultimately succumbs in time trouble.

Pawn Breakthrough in the Sveshnikov Sicilian

Book Review - Garry Kasparov's Greatest Chess Games by Igor Stohl

My blog entries are usually driven by analyzing games, and I must have not done much of that in the last month or so, thus the shortage of posts. Recently I have mostly been following chess events, in Moscow, London and Wijk An Zee. Sergei Shipov from http://crestbook.com has been putting up amazing video reviews of each round, and I have tried to watch every one of them.

This post is mostly a quick note that Garry Kasparov's Greatest Chess Games, Volume 2  by Igor Stohl is a very good collection of games of this great player. Annotations are written in context of Kasparov’s opening repertoire and give good insight into the second part of his career, as it progressed from 1994 to 2005, including arguably his best years in 1999-2002. I studied the games that directly included the openings that I play, but I would like to do a more thorough review of all games in the book that were played in Open Sicilian, as I can foresee that getting insights of Kasparov’s understanding of these structures is beneficial beyond learning the specific variations.

I will only give a quick taste of what Kasparov’s style was like at his prime – when he was able to combine superior opening preparation with aggressive play in the middlegame. In both games, in the same line of the Sveshnikov Sicilian, Kasparov developed strong attack against opponent’s king, and when his queen was attacked, he responded with completely unexpected counter strikes (ok, in my books these moves were as unexpected as a move at a GM level ever gets!). One of the combinations was played against Kramnik, making that game even more remarkable.

Kasparov – Kramnik, 1994

  White to move. Replay the game

Kasparov-Lautier, 1994

White to move. Replay the game

 

 

Summary: I am strongly considering getting Volume 1 as well!

Geller-Sveshnikov, 1978

Replay Game

Efim P Geller (2590) - Evgeny Sveshnikov (2565) [B33]

URS-ch46/Tbilisi (3) 1978

This game is one of the classic examples of black's counterplay in the Sveshnikov variation; moreover - it was played by the variation's author himself - Evgeny Sveshnikov.

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 e5 5. Nb5 Nf6 6. N1c3 d6 7. Bg5 a6 8. Na3 b5 9. Nd5 Be7 10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. c3 O-O 12. Nc2 Bg5 13. a4 bxa4 14. Rxa4 a5 15. Bc4 Rb8 16. b3 Kh8 17. O-O f5 18. exf5 Bxf5

19. Qe2 Main line is 19. Nce3 19... Qd7 20. Nce3 Be6 21. Rd1

21... Bd8 A typical maneouvre - from here the bishop controls both sides of the board. 22. Ra2 Qf7 23. Qd3 Qh5 24. Nf1

24... e4 This sacrifice opens up e5 outpost for the knight. 25. Qc2 Bh4 26. Ng3 Bxg3 27. hxg3

27... Ne5 Now that White's knight is traded off, the threat of Ng4 is quite real. 28. Nf4 Rxf4 29. gxf4 Nf3+ 30. gxf3 Bxc4

31. Qxe4 White had no time to recapture the piece. 31. bxc4 exf3

32. Rxa5 otherwise Qh3 was the threat. 32... Qxa5 31... Bxb3 32. Rb1 Re8 33. Rxa5 d5 # 34. Re1?? In time trouble, Efim Geller falls for a spectacular trick. 34. Qxe8+ Qxe8 35. Rxb3 Qg6+= 34... Qg6+

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