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

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

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:

Kramnik in the Sveshnikov – The Breakthrough Style

The book of Vladimir Kramnik’s  games published in Russia in the end of the 1990’s was called the “Break”, and for a while it became my constant source of aesthetic pleasure. I did not understand back then why people talk about Kramnik as a boring or even solid player, and still don’t understand it now – from following most of the tournaments where he plays. This is a player with a very dynamic sense of pawn structure and of how pawns and pieces release their power in unexpected (to the opponent) moments of the game.

Merely looking through a collection of his games in B33 ECO classifications I immediately came across several examples (I had known most of them from before, but a couple were new to me!). These games were played against the top players of the world, with good results. While regretting that Kramnik stopped playing the Sveshnikov, I do understand that one has to switch repertoire from time to time – in part to develop one’s style, but also to avoid computer preparation as lines that Kramnik makes popular – get overanalyzed to death and become difficult to play for a win.

Lutz –Kramnik, 1995
  26…e3 ripped White’s position apart before queenside pawns could promote.

Polgar – Kramnik, 1998
  With unexpected 38… a4, Black undermined White’s knight and pinned 3 White pieces along the long diagonal.

Anand – Kramnik, 1998
After 13. Qf3, Black fought for initiative by sacrificing two pawns – 14…f5! 15. exf5 d5! getting enough counter play for the material.

Shirov – Kramnik, 2000
With 20…d5!! Black was able to transfer the b8 rook to the kingside via b6, and again – obtain enough counterplay.

Leko – Kramnik, 2000
with 36… b4, Kramnik puts more pressure on White’s tangled position, although in time trouble the game ended as a draw after Black missed a win.

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

Anatoly Karpov turns 60

It is hard to believe that Anatoly Karpov is turning 60 on May 23. There is a lot chess players today can learn from this great player, both in terms of positional ideas, and in terms of fighting spirit at the chessboard. His early games had a significant impact on my opening repertoire, and I made several videos with the goal of learning typical ideas that Karpov demonstrated in the 1970s and 1980s.

Photo by Frank Hoppe

Here are videos from my youtube channel with 5 games played by Karpov. He won with White in all of these games and the videos illustrate why he was very successful with 1.e4 and show how he was able to play in the same active positional style against just about any opening.

Defeating the Pirc defense. This game made me realize how important it is to predict opponent’s plans.

  Beating the Najdorf

Beating the Najdorf – yet again!

Handling the Sveshnikov variation in the same style – by exploiting the ‘d5’ square

 Defeating the Open Spanish – illustrates the importance of initiative in the endgame. This line became a critical test of Black ideas in this variation.

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!

Understanding Chess Classics - Attack by Jorge Pelikan in Taimanov Sicilian

White to move

Jorge Pelikan is a player credited for popularizing the opening system that later transformed into the Sveshnikov variation. But in this game he demonstrates his attacking skills on the White side of Open Sicilian. I really like attacks like this one, that come from superior development in open positions. White’s pieces are very active, and Black also has some weaknesses on the dark squares, in particularly on d6 (typical for Taimanov Sicilian). So in the position on the diagram White uncorked the following:

15. Nf5 !! Be5 (15... exf5 16. Bd6 Qa5 17. Rxb7 Qxa2 18. Bd5 Qa4 19. Rxd7 Kh8
20. Rxf7 Qg4 21. Rd7 Qxd1 22. Rxd1 a5 23. Bc7 Ra7 24. Bxc6 Raxc7 25. Rxc7 Rxc7
26. Rd8+ Bf8 27. Rxf8+ Kg7 28. Rxf5 Rxc6 29. Rxa5 Rxc3 30. Ra2 +-) 16. Nh6+
Kg7 17. Ng4 d5 18. c4 Bc3 19. cxd5 Nd4 20. Ne3 f5 21. Bd6!
another piece put en-prise
Qxd6 22. Rxb7+ Kh8 23. dxe6 Qxe6 24. Nd5 Qe5 25.
Nb6 Rab8 26. Nd7 Qf4 27. Rxb8 Rxb8 28. Nxb8 Qxb8 29. Qd3 Qb2 30. Qe3 Kg7 31.
Qg5+ Kf8 32. Qf6+ Ke8 33. Re1+ Bxe1 34. Bc6+ 1-0
Replay the game below in the viewer:

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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