Brilliant attack by Vassily Smyslov

This is an older video from my YouTube Channel; in case you have not seen it - hope you enjoy! In this game Smylsov shows two typical ideas for this type of positions:

1. The Queen + Bishop Battery when Black played h7-h6
2. A well-timed pawn break with d4-d5 that decided the game in this case

Combination by Efim Geller

Geller-Anikaev, 1979

White to move

On his way to winning chess USSR championship at the age of 55, Yefim Geller wins this brilliant attacking game. Watch the video for the solution and to see the whole game. A pawn storm on kingside results in the attack and invasion on the ‘f’ file. White’s play is a response to Black’s negligent 13… Rfc8, which weakened f7 pawn. Hint: the final shot aims at bringing the dark squared bishop to the long diagonal.

Pawn storm in the Sicilian – Salov swindles Gelfand

Salov – Gelfand, 1998

White to move

The d4 knight is attacked, but it is an essential piece for White’s initiative. How to keep the attack going and justify White’s pile of heavy pieces on the ‘h’ file?
Watch the video for the answer and to see the entire game – White actually got a bit carried away with his sacrifices and was lost right before the time control, but a fortunate swindle brought him a full point.

How to Attack in Sicilian Scheveningen – video with analysis

What does your best chess game look like?

I’ve put a complete video on ChessVideos site: http://www.chessvideos.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5940, and split it up into two parts for youtube since the most popular video sharing site has a limit of 10 minutes per clip: Part 1 and Part 2. Why put up this game? It was my only win in a tournament, and it turned out quite nice. The game could have concluded with a really spectacular finish if Black did not resign and continued to the bitter end:

White to move

23.Qf6!! would threat with Qg7x and Qf7x, so the only response is 23… Nxf6, but then 24. Nf6 is mate

Alfred still has a positive score in our personal encounters (that started in 1998), so of course him walking into my opening preparation was the main reason for such a disaster. Our games are always more fighting than my average game, so I am sure I'll have to prepare even harder for to survive our next battle.

Replay the game in the viewer with all variations:

Opening preparation – surprise your opponent

One of the most serious books on openings is "Opening preparation" by Dvoretsky and Yusupov. The authors talk more about the methods of studying openings rather than particular variations. A very important idea expressed by Dvoretsky is that openings can be conventionally split into two groups: those that lead to sharp positions where precise knowledge is required and those where understanding is more crucial. He related this to which openings a give player should study in view of how good his memory is. I think however, that appreciating the difference between sharp and calm systems can also be very useful for preparing for a particular game (a topic covered by Yusupov in great detail too)
During the 2002 Canadian Junior Championship I was helping a bit Lucas and Noam Davies to prepare for their games. Usually this consisted of a brief discussion of what the opponents play, and I did not go very far beyond some general advice.
However, before round 8 there were several free hours (because of the schedule) and this gave me and Noam a chance to look at the bulletin a bit more attentively. His future opponent, M. Strub had been playing the Petroff defence - an opening where on the top level grandmasters have found enough resources in Black's position to fight for dynamic balance. However, the value of every move is rather high, and if Black commits an inaccuracy, White's lead in development may prove overwhelming.
This made me look at the game S. Lipnowski - M. Strub with particular attention. I found the line in the NCO and to look for the first divergence from theory. What I saw was rather shocking: Black played a 13…c6 which had a 1 move refutation. The position was also in the spirit of my student: White develops a strong initiative; no subtle positional judgement is involved; with very careful defence Black can only get a very bad position, otherwise he is immediately lost. NCO stopped after 14. Bh6!!+/-, but I could see the tactical idea even without using a Fritz engine.
Why am I telling you all this? My point is that this is more or less an ideal example of opening preparation that is 100% effective, which does not happen very often. We only had to spend about half an hour to establish the precise main line: so basically Noam knew what is going to happened for another several moves, while for M. Strub this was quite a new position.
The only doubt that I had about our finding was that this was so easy for our opponent to establish after his game against Lipnowski. Mr. Strub just had to look into the NCO, or any other opening encyclopaedia after he played his game against Sam. So we also quickly checked what is going to happen if Black avoided the blunder and also tried to outline an approximate character of play in that case. It (an open position) also would quite fit Noam's style, so there was not much point in going many moves deep in that direction (after all, Black would have many ways of diverging).
I was quite surprised (and pleased) that Black fell into the trap and got quickly punished. Below is the game:
PS. (This report was originally written in 2002, but little has really changed in how one prepares for a specific opponent before the game during a tournament).

Davies,Noam (1670) - Strub,Michael (1719) [C42]
Cdn Junior Winnipeg, Manitoba (7), 05.01.2002

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.d4 d5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.0-0 Be7 8.c4 Nb4 9.cxd5 [9.Be2 0-0 10.Nc3 is a more popular continuation] 9...Nxd3 10.Qxd3 Qxd5 11.Re1

  many of Black's moves are forced - this simplifies the preparation 11...Bf5 12.Nc3 Nxc3 13.Qxc3 c6?

14.Bh6!!+/- Here our analysis started, because the only source of theory we had was NCO which concluded the variation with 14.Bh6 14...gxh6 [14...Rg8 Databases also proved handy, we found that apparently this move was the best and were somewhat prepared against it too. But Strub (as I expected) chose a more "natural" response...] 15.Re5 Qd7 16.Rae1 Be6 17.d5!
17… cxd5 18.Rxe6 fxe6 19.Qxh8+ Bf8 20.Qf6
here our analysis more or less ended: White is winning at least one pawn and the future of the Black king is grim. Not surprisingly during the game it took Noam around 10 minutes to get to this position. I would say this is a nearly optimal time to spend to get to a known position, while making sure that none of analysis is false and this is indeed the position that we were looking at. 20...Be7 21.Rxe6 [21.Qxh6?! 0-0-0] 21...Rc8 22.Re1 Kd8 23.Qh8+ [As I was glancing at the position I thought it was better not let the Black king escape from the center (which Qh8 allows), and started to get nervous that my student might let things slip out his hands. Fortunately this did not occur. 23.Qxh6!? seemed more precise to me] 23...Kc7 24.Qxh7 Bb4 25.Rc1+ Kd6 [25...Kb8 - Michael missed this move, after which White is of course still winning..] 26.Qxh6+ Ke7 27.Qg7+ Kd6? [27...Ke8] 28.Qe5# 1-0
Replay the game in the viewer:

Two Knights defence – bishop sacrifice

Leonidov – Jiganchine, Moscow, 1997

Black to move

Yet another silly nostalgic post: When I was a junior, I was spending a lot of time analyzing (without a computer!) positions with initiative for a pawn. My coach wisely set me up with an opening repertoire that was based on home-grown gambits. There was no books explaining how to play in these positions, just me, and the wooden board. This game was one of those kind of games where you feel that your homework paid off, and you have a good sense for positions that you get. I sacrificed the bishop on f2, won a nice game, and kept a good memory of it. But now computer puts doubts into my head – was the sacrifice really winning? Or was it just enough for a draw? Either way, in the game White got afraid to take the bishop and got mated very quickly:

12… Bxf2+! 12. Ke2 Nh5 13. Ne4 Qd4 14. d3 Ng3+ 15. Nxg3 Bxg3 16. Qg1 Rf2+ 17. Kd1

Black to move
17… Bg4+ 18. hxg4 Qxg4+ 19. Ke1 Qe2#

Replay the game in the viewer:

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:

Attacking the king – rooks vs. bishops

I played a rare 15 minute game online today, and managed to get to an interesting position where bishops and rooks were tangled up in a curious way.

DDT3000 – Fundie, ICC, August 1, 2009

White to move

White is better because he controls the ‘e’ file, but here I was not sure what to do, but accidentally played the best move:
21.Ne4 This exchanges the main defender of Black’s king. Nxe4 22. Bxe4 Bg7 23. h5! And here Black started to collapse in time trouble f5 24. hxg6+

(Apparently also very good was 24. Bxf5! Bxf5 25. Re7
White’s attack is very strong: Qb6 26.
Bxh6! Rhg8 27. hxg6+ Bxg6 28. Bxg7 Rxg7 29. Rxg7+ Kxg7 30. Re7+ Kf6 31. Re6+
Kg7 32. Qg5 +-)

24... Kxg6 25. Bf3 Rf8 26. Re7 Bd7 27. R1e6+ Bf6

White to move
I thought this position was kind of curious – both bishops are attacking my rooks, but they are both pinned! Since none of my rooks can be captured – I can simply continue attack against the king.

28. Qe2! (28.Bh5+ was apparently mating immediately Kxh5 29. Rg7 Bxg7 30. Qe2#) 28... Qd8 29. Bh5#  1-0

Learn From Chess Grandmasters - Aronian-Ivanchuk - Nalchik 2009

I have been writing about positions with bishops of opposite colour for a while now, and today came across another example on this topic – this time from an endgame with queens. The video has annotations by Russian grandmaster Sergei Shipov, translated into English:

The final position is quite thematic, it’s as if White has an extra piece for the attack – the bishop on e4, and Black can’t defend against threats of Qh3x and Qh7x:

I am always on a search for good free chess videos to watch while exercising, the Crestbook channel on youtube is to be highly recommended.

How to Attack in the Caro-Kann – the last tournament I ever won

Does Black have attacking chances in the Caro-Kann defence? Of course he does, he just needs to be more patient than in many other openings, but with proper preparation – this is definitely possible.

Davies – Jiganchine, 2000. Black to move.

In this position I played 30… Bc7, and suddenly White resigned. There is no way to prevent Qh2 without losing material (e.g. 31.g3 Nxe3)

I recall that my coach really liked my play in this game. He was always careful about praising me, but after seeing Bc7 he said something along the lines of “That was an instructive game!”. Ironically, this was played in the final round of last tournament that I won so far. I later tied for first in a couple of tournaments (regular and active), but this was the last time I got clear first place. Until now I did not realize how long ago this was…

The game itself is very simple, but it’s interesting to see how quickly even a quiet position can collapse because of minor self-inflicted weaknesses like h2-h3. Replay the game in the viewer below:

Tactics in the Sicilian

I came across this interesting chess game, where in the course of 5 moves White gives up a two bishops and a rook, forcing immediate resignation!

Acs – Paresishvili, 1999

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. a4
Nc6 9. Be3 O-O 10. f4 Qc7 11. Kh1 Re8 12. Bf3 Rb8 13. g4 Nxd4 14. Bxd4 e5 15.
fxe5 dxe5 16. Ba7 Ra8 17. g5 Rd8 18. Qe2 Ne8 19. Be3 Be6 20. Bg4 Bc4 21. Qf2
Qc6 22. b3 Bxf1 23. Rxf1 f6 24. Nd5 Rxd5 25. exd5 Qxd5+ 26. Bf3 e4 27. Be2 Kh8
28. g6 h6 29. Rd1 Qe5 30. Rd7 Nd6 31. Rc7 Bd8 32. Rc5 Qe6 33. Qh4 f5 34. Qh5
Kg8 35. Bxh6 gxh6 36. Qxh6 Qf6

   White to move

37. Bc4+ Nxc4 38. Qh7+ Kf8 39. Rxf5 1-0

Black resigned since 39… Qxf5 is followed by 40. g7+ when White can a get a new queen, or even better - capture Black’s queen first.

Online chess – clearing diagonal for a bishop

Here is a quick snapshot from one of the games I played today:

DDT3000 - deadly-viper, ICC, 3 0, 2009

1. e4 b5 2. d4 a6 3. Bd3 Bb7 4. Nf3 d6 5. O-O Nd7 6. a4 c6 7. Re1 b4 8. c4 a5
9. Nbd2 g6 10. b3 e6 11. Bb2 Bg7 12. Qc2 Ne7 13. Nf1 O-O 14. Ng3 h6 15. Rad1
Rc8 16. h4 h5 17. Ng5 Nf6 18. Qe2 Qc7 19. Bb1 e5 20. dxe5 dxe5

 White to move

21. c5! It may seem that the pawn could become weak on c5, but it is much more important to hit the weak spot on f7. Rfd8 22.Bd3 Rd7 23. Bc4 Rcd8 24. Bxf7+

Kh8 25. Be6 Rxd1 26. Rxd1 Bc8 27. Nf7+ Kh7 28.Nxd8 Bxe6 29. Nxe6 Qb8 30. Nxg7 Kxg7 31. Qc4 Neg8 32. Qe6 Qb7 33. Bxe5 Qa6 34.Rd7+ Kh6 35. Bxf6 Black resigns 1-0

About a year ago in a slow game I missed a similar, but less obvious opportunity:

Jiganchine – Trotchanovich, 2008:

White to move

32. a5! was the best way to continue the attack, since when the black king would try to escape from the kingside – Ba4 would come with decisive effect. I had found this example fairly interesting and even made a youtube video about it.

This also reminded me of an episode from one of my other games that was played even a longer time ago:
Seid – Jiganchine, 2001, BC Closed 2001

Black to move

32… c4! Now Black's pieces can be activated through the c5 square. 33. Bg2 Qc7 34. Ne4
Nd7 35. Bd4 Nc5 36. Bxc5 Bxc5 37. Nxc5 Qxc5 38. Bf1 Bd3 39. Bxd3 Rxd3
This position is an easy technical win for Black. A passed pawn, active pieces and an exposed White king make it almost impossible not to win this endgame.40. Ke2 Rd4 41. Qc3 Qd5 42. Rf3 Rd1 43. Qc2 Rh1 44. Rf2 Qd4 45. Kf3 Rd1 46. Re2
Rd3+ 47. Kg2 c3 48. Kf1 Rd1+ 49. Kg2 Rd2 After the exchanges on d2 the king is too far to stop the pawn 0-1

Online tactics: double piece sacrifice

White to move. DDT3000-KMehmedov, 3 minutes per game

I already sacrificed a piece for two pawns, and now need to keep the attack going. I came up with a second sacrifice, and the engine confirms that this is the best move:

17. Bh6! I noticed that I get to win the knight on d7, and just could not resist playing this.

The game continued:

17. … Bf6 (17... Kxh6 18. Qg6#) 18.Nxd7 Kxh6 19. Nxf6 (19. g4 !! +-) 19... gxf6 20. Qxb7
Qd6 21. Qf7 Re4 22. Rac1 Rae8 23. Rxe4 Rxe4 24. g3 Re7 25. Qf8+ Kg6 26. Qg8+
Rg7 27. Qe8+ Kh7 28. Qh5+ {Black resigns} 1-0

Video: Attack With Opposite Coloured Bishops

Since youtube does not allow videos longer than 10 minutes, I uploaded my longer video to chessvideos.tv. 

At the time I was quite proud of this game, and now while preparing the video it was interesting to analyse it in a few more details. I recorded this video during the Christmas break, just as the one about seeing the entire board and another one about opposite coloured bishops. If you ever read Mark Dvoretsky's book “Positional Play”, you start to look at opposite coloured bishops as a theme, so maybe that's why I already have two videos on that subject.