The arrival of 2021 has
brought about some reluctant optimism to our fellow consciousness, but also its
own set of challenges.
We are based in Glasgow,
UK, which has brought two particular challenges. First off, we are seemingly the
global epicentre of the pandemic at the moment. We have more deaths per capita
than the US or any other major country. As a result, our country has entered
into a longer strict lockdown. We are still working, but everything is a bit
tricky.
Secondly, the United
Kingdom has finally left the EU. John and I were not in favour of this, but it
is what it is. We are currently facing some bureaucratic challenges that the UK
government or our business organisations did not properly prepare us for. We
are working on solving them and hopefully will soon. It is red tape and today
computers make it easy for those who know what to do. We just need to find that
person!
The effect of this on
some of our customers is the following:
Some web sales are
delayed. Our website will be updated by tomorrow, showing exactly what has gone
out. A lot will go out tomorrow. They will probably take longer to go out than
usual, but hopefully not too much.
Orders from chess
specialists. At the moment we have to solve the EORI issue. Once we have done
so, we are ready to ship books out again. Hopefully it will take just a few
days.
Hi guys, I wanted to give two solid dates for you and one shaky. Anyway, just an update on various things.
But first off, if you are a member of The Chess Book Collectors group on Facebook, please vote on your favourite chess cover of 2019. It is a little thing to do to recognise the people who put in a lot of time trying to please your aesthetic sensibilities. We do not care if you vote for one of our books or a book from another publisher. But we do ask you to vote.
As usual, we will be publishing the opening books in both paperback and hardcover, while the middlegame book will be published in hardcover and in paperback in half a year or more. This system is part of keeping your local chess specialist in business. The books do eventually become available on Amazon, we need those sales too stay in business, but remember that without the 50-100 chess specialists, the whole business of chess literature would seize to exist.
Further down the line, we have two volumes of The Italian Renaissance coming on August 12th, written by the strong Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv.
On the 16th September, we will release volume 3 and 4 in the Boris Gelfand Decision Making series. These will be the announced Technical Decision Making in Chess and a companion volume called Decision Making in Heavy Piece Endings, which will focus on positions with rooks and queens only.
We are also working on other books, such as the two Dutch Leningrad books by Marin, volume 5 of the Negi-series on 1.e4, the From Scratch series and of course my bloated project, A Matter of Technique, which is not an endgame book…
Saturday I made a bad mistake. While packing up web orders, I sent out the final copy of my first book for Quality Chess Practical Chess Defence, which is now not available through the website. Shops will still have it, but we are out. At the moment we are not reprinting. If I in 1-2 years look at it again, I would make an entirely new version, but at the moment I am busy with a lot of other things. The mistake is that I did not write a note to the buyer. I am sorry!
Also, there is a mistake that I know of in the book. Exercise 170 is to win, not to draw!
This position is also in Quality Chess Puzzle Book, the book John Shaw wrote based on the first of my collections of training material for Boris Gelfand.
About the webshop
We are open for business. But things are going slowly for another week still. I am doing the packing and posting personally. I go to the post office 2-3 times per week to send out the parcels. I am going in a moment, actually. There were too many to pack Saturday! I first had to go to the office to pick up the books…
Be patient. The books will come, just a bit slower than usual.
Also remember that the postal workers are also adjusting and that bringing out the latest book on the Grunfeld is not worth dying for, even if people are dying to read it.
Our friend Renier Castellanos has written another blog post for us. To download it as a PGN file go here.
Jamie Santos Latasa – Sophie Milliet, Sunway Sitges Open 2019
Opening Preparation As expressed in my previous blog post (see the Taimanov in Action) being well prepared in the opening is one of the key factors to obtain a good result when playing against a more experienced, higher rated and overall stronger opponent. I wouldn’t say opening preparation is a vital element to play good chess but it is surely a useful tool disposable to every chess player. The benefits of learning openings are many but these three are my main motivation: – Save time on the clock that will be used later at critical moments – Guarantee yourself a reliable position – Surprise an unaware opponent with a line In the game we are about to see, Sophie Milliet, a strong IM from France plays against the Spanish GM Jaime Santos Latasa. We can’t tell for certain how IM Milliet prepared for this specific game but she played an interesting opening line that features in Michael Roiz’s fantastic book The Nimzo Indian Defence.
Our friend Renier returns with annotations of a recent game. You can see the game here or you can download it with this link.
David Navara – Robert Ris
European Club Cup 14.11.2019
Renier Castellanos
Trust,
but verify A common tradition in chess is to copy our colleagues whenever they
play a new idea in certain opening. In the recent Chess.com FIDE Grand Swiss we
witnessed a funny situation when Alexei Shirov, playing next to Sergey Karjakin
decided to follow Karjakin’s novelty in a well-known position of the Sicilian
Four Knights. A peculiar situation but not new to me. Few years back I was
playing in the Ortisei (Italy) Open when a something similar happened.
Nisipeanu played a new (strong idea) in a popular variation and the opponent of
a friend of mine started following the Grandmaster’s moves. They were playing
very far from the top board but it turns out that there were large screens with
the top games in the playing hall. She got up and asked the arbiter to do
something about it but it was too late. Something to think about. Back to our
main game, the real story behind this comedy is that Karjakin had totally
forgotten his game against Yu Yangyi from played in Baku in 2015 and played the
wrong move order leading to a lost position. Karjakin managed to get away and
win any anyway but Shirov was held to a draw, both were lucky as they could
have been severely punished. One would think that this tragicomic incident ends
here but it gets better. In the recently finished European Club Ch. David
Navara also played Karjakin’s novelty, was he unaware? One thing is certain,
his opponent Robert Ris a strong IM and respected theoretician was well
informed and ready to serve justice in this line.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4
cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Nxc6 6.Ndb5 is also a move here and black has now
the option of playing 6…d6 inviting the Sveshnikov or the more fashionable
line: 6…Bc5!? 7.Bf4 0–0 8.Bc7 Qe7 9.Bd6 Bxd6 10.Qxd6 Qd8 surprisingly this is
back in tournament practice with not bad results for black at all.
6…bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 8.Ne4
Qc7 9.f4 Qb6 10.c4 Bb4+ 11.Ke2 f5 12.exf6 Nxf6 13.Be3 Qd8 14.Nd6+ Bxd6 15.Qxd6
Bb7 So
far we have been following a rather forced line of the Four Knights
16.g4 16.Rd1 Is right and it’s what John Shaw recommends in the book Playing 1.e4 Sicilian Mainlines 16…Rc8 17.g4 c5 18.Rg1 Rf8 19.f5 (19.g5 also looks promising and it’s Shaw’s mainline.) 19…Qb6 20.fxe6 dxe6 21.g5 Nd5 22.Qxb6 Nxb6 23.Ke1 Nd7 24.Be2 Ke7 25.Rd3 Be4 26.Ra3 Rc7 27.Kd2 e5 28.Rf1 Rb8 29.Kc3 Rb6 30.Rd1 Rbc6 31.Bg4 Nb6 32.Ra5 g6 33.b3 Bf5 34.Be2 Nd7 35.a3 Be6 36.h4 Bf7 37.Bf3 Rb6 38.Rxd7+ Kxd7 39.Bxc5 e4 40.Bg4+ 1–0 Karjakin – Yu Yangui, Baku 2015
16…c5! Simple, logical, and
strong. Black takes over the initiative
17.Rg1 Ne4 18.Qd3 An improvement over
Karjakin’s and Shirov’s 18.Qe5 However, statistically white has better chances
with 18.Qe5
18.Qe5
Qh4? (18…0–0! and it’s just game over, the white king will not survive long
in the centre. For instance 19.Bg2 d6 20.Qxe6+ Kh8 and black will play either
Rf6 or Qb6 followed by Rae8 with winning positions in both cases.) 19.Bg2 Qxg4+ And now the two
games diverged.
A
natural blunder. Let’s pay attention to the nature of this move, white
threatens to take on d7 with check but the rook on d1 also takes away the
square d1 leaving the king stuck on e2.
19.Bg2
is the only way to stay in the game 19…Qxh2! 20.Kd1 Nf2+ 21.Bxf2 Bxg2 with a
complex middlegame, I suspect white can survive, but that’s the only thing he
can hope for
19…0–0!–+
20.h3 On 20.Qxd7 Anything wins 20…Qxh2+ 21.Ke1 Qh4+ 22.Ke2 Rab8 the attack goes on, …Bd5 is a neat threat.
20.Rg2
d5 also winning for black.
20.Bg2
Rxf4! similar to the game
20…Rxf4 21.Qb3 Rf2+
22.Bxf2 Qxf2+ 23.Kd3 Qxg1 24.Qxb7 Rf8 A win is a win but black could have finished it
off in a glorious, unforgettable way.
24…Qg3+! 25.Kxe4 (25.Kc2 Qh2+ 26.Kd3 Nf2+) 25…Rf8! is mate in three moves Rf4,Rf5,Qe5 no matter what. Deserves a diagram 26.Qxd7 Rf4+ 27.Ke5 Rf5+ 28.Kxe6 Qe5#
25.Qxe4 Rxf1 26.Rxf1
Qxf1+ 27.Kc2 Qxh3 28.Qa8+ Kf7 29.Qxa7 Qg2+ 30.Kb3 Qf3+ 31.Ka4 Qc6+ 32.Ka5 e5
33.Qb8 d6 34.Qd8? 34.Qa7+
apparently was more resistant. Not easy for black after this 34…Kf6! (34…Kg6
35.Qe7 and draw is the most likely result) 35.b4!? cxb4 (35…e4 36.b5) 36.Qf2+
Ke6 37.Kxb4 white is still worse, game goes on
Our good friend (why still?) IM Renier Castellanos annotated an interesting game from the first round of the European Club Cup for us, after spotting that a sub-2400 IM used one of Pavlidis’s novelties to hold Mickey Adams.
Opening preparation in
practice. The first round of the European Club Cup competition brought some
very interesting games but my attention was in the match between Obiettivo
Risarcimiento Padova – Aarhus Skolerne. The Italian club is one of the
strongest in the field and a couple of my favourite players like Adams, or my
friend Paco Vallejo are playing there. In the first board Mickey Adams was
facing the International Master Skytte, Rasmus (2373). A strong player I must
say after I looked into his games. However it is not crazy to believe that
being paired with black against a world class like Mickey Adams, chances are
you are going to get squeezed and defeated badly. Before going to the game, I’d
like to tell you a brief personal story that you can take as advice. When you
are playing someone this strong, every wrong step will likely be punished,
every inch given will be taken. That means that going sideways, playing crafty
openings etc not only are unlikely to work but they are the wrong path to take
in the first place. In such events the best is to rise up to the occasion and
play some ”serious chess” and that means going into the main lines. I came to
this conclusion a little too late after I had the chance to play Kamsky and
Ivanchuk in Open tournaments. I lost both games without much resistance and I
was totally unsatisfied with what I played. Basically I chose the opening
randomly at the board and tried to survive on my own. In a way, I was already
defeated. Now back to the game.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 Skytte is an adept to the Taimanov / Kan Sicilian
family. Although he also likes to play the Pirc and Modern. So, among his
options we can tell already he had chosen the most principal one.
5.Nc3 Qc7 6.g3 a6 7.Bg2 Nf6 in the past he had preferred 7…d6 8.0–0 Bd7 leading
to Scheveningen schemes. While there is nothing wrong with that, it gives white
too much freedom of choice.
8.0–0 Nxd4 An
old line but very direct. The play now is pretty much forced.
9.Qxd4 Bc5 10.Bf4 d6 11.Qd2 h6 12.Rad1 e5 13.Be3 Bb4!?
Sidestepping the main continuation
which is 13. ..Be6. This line is recommended and analysed in depth in the book
The Sicilian Taimanov by Antonios Pavlidis. The idea is to eliminate the knight
and ease white’s pressure over the square d5. White’s next move is considered
critical
14.Nb5 14.a3
is another option analysed by Pavlidis in The Sicilian Taimanov
14…axb5 15.Qxb4 Rxa2 16.Rxd6 16.Qxb5+ Bd7 17.Qb4 Ra6 is fine for black
16…0–0 17.Rd2 Be6! 18.Rfd1 A logical move which the author of the Sicilian
Taimanov has also faced over the board and he analyses it well in the book. To
me it is much more natural than the main line 18.f3 from the book.
18…Ng4!N The
novelty given by Pavlidis. 18…Qc4 was previously played Iuldachev-Pavlidis
Batumi 2018.
19.Bc5 Rc8 20.Be7
After thinking for a little less than 5 minutes, Adams is the first to deviate from the book. Pavlidis only considers 20.Bd6 Qb6 21.Bf1 with some tactical complications that are not unfavourable for black.
20…Qb6?! Black
follows the book but this move now is probably not the strongest. 20…Ra4!
21.Qxb5 Rd4 is a clean equalizer. Black is taking on c2 on the next move, for
example 22.Bb4 Qxc2 23.Qe2 Rxd2 24.Rxd2 Qc1+ 25.Qf1 Kh7 and black has nothing
to worry about, in fact white must play accurate.
21.c3 21.Bf1
Nxf2 22.Rxf2 Rxc2 23.Rd8+ Kh7 24.Rdd2 Raxb2 25.Qxb2 Rxb2 26.Rxb2 is probably
what black was looking for which is unclear. Black might hold, or he might not.
Hard to say.
21…Rc4 21…Ra4!
22.Qd6 Qxd6 23.Rxd6 (23.Bxd6 Bb3 24.Rc1 Rd8 looks excellent for black) 23…b4!
getting rid of the weak doubled pawn 24.c4 Rc7 25.Rd8+ (25.Bd8 Rc6=) 25…Kh7
26.Bd6 Rxc4 27.h3
And now black could try
27…Nxf2! 28.Kxf2 Rc2+ 29.Kg1 f6!! where he has enough counterplay to keep the
balance. Amazing stuff!
22.Qd6 Qa7 Black
seems to be wandering in a limbo, something completely understandable due to
the newness of the line.
22…Rc6 23.Qd8+ Qxd8
24.Rxd8+ Kh7 25.h3 Nf6 26.Ba3 with a clear advantage for white
23.Bf1? 23.h3!
Nxf2 24.Rxf2 Rxb2 25.Rdd2 Rxd2 26.Qxd2 Qa1+ 27.Kh2 Qxc3 28.Bf1! I presume this
last move may be what Adams missed during the game, it is essential to win the
b5 pawn soon enough. White just seems to be winning here
23…Ra1 24.Rxa1 Qxa1 25.Qd3 Rc7 The dust is off and black has a fine position.
Actually, it is white who needs to be careful
26.Qd8+ Kh7 27.Ba3 Rc8 28.Qd6? 28.Qd3 Bc4 29.Rd1 with a similar position to what
happened in the game.
28…Rc6? Returning the favour. Had black stopped thinking defensively and pay more attention to his position he might had seen 28…Qe1!.
This move is strong. Suddenly
white has problems with Bc4 coming, or the pawn on e4, rook on d2 and f2,
everything needs to be defended. Some lines: 29.Kg2 (29.Re2 Qb1 and now both
Bc4 and Nxh2 are huge 30.Rd2 Nxh2 31.Rd1 Nf3+ 32.Kg2 Qxe4 33.Bd3 Ne1+ 34.Kg1
Nxd3 35.Qxd3 Qxd3 36.Rxd3 Kg6–+) 29…Rc6 30.Qd8 Bc4 31.Bxc4 bxc4 32.Qd5 Nf6
33.Rd1 Qe2 34.Qd2 Qxe4+ it’s still early, but white is lost
29.Qd3 Bc4 30.Rd1 Bxd3? Played in just 2 minutes, while is not so bad, it
gives white additional chances. 30…Qxa3 31.bxa3 Bxd3 32.Rxd3 (32.Bxd3 Rxc3
33.Bxb5 Rc2 with equality, and Rc2 is not the only way.) 32…Nf6 33.f4 Rc5
looks steady for black 34.fxe5 Rxe5 35.Rf3 Kg6 not allowing Rf5.
31.Rxa1 Bxe4 32.Re1 f5 33.Be2 33.Bxb5 Rb6 34.c4 white retains some pressure, one
idea is to play f3 and trade the F for the e5 pawn. With two bishops and the
two vs 1 on the queenside white can put pressure for a while.
33…Nf6 34.f3 Bd5 35.Bxb5 Re6 36.Kf2 g5 Unnecessary display of activity but it also works.
36…e4 37.f4 Bc6 38.Bc4
Bd5 shouldn’t be a problem for black. The protected e-pawn is an insurance.
37.c4 Bc6 38.Bxc6 bxc6 39.Bb4 g4 40.Rd1 gxf3 41.Kxf3 Kg6 42.Rd8 Ne4 43.Rg8+ Kf7 44.Rc8 h5 45.Ke3 Kg6 46.Rc7 Nf6 47.h4 f4+ 48.Kf3 fxg3 49.Kxg3 Kf5 50.Kf3 Ng4 51.Rg7 e4+ 52.Ke2 e3 53.Rg5+ Ke4 54.Rxh5 Ne5 55.Bc5 Nxc4 A very interesting game. A great approach by the Danish player who managed to play a very decent game and even had a chance to cause a major upset! ½–½
Some of you will know that I have taken on a volunteer position in FIDE, as Chairman of the Trainer’s Commission. In the last year a lot of my spare time and some of my work time has gone into this work. It is difficult for quite a number of reasons, mainly because nothing ever get to a bad place without it being good for some, who will want to keep it as it is.
The key thing has been to restore the credibility. With the former secretary having won 6 trainer of the year awards during his tenure, we started from a low point.
However, there was a different problem, which is that to get the credibility, we needed representation from all over the World. China, Russia and India are the emerging leaders of world chess. So we convinced the most famous coaches to join us: Yu Shaoteng, Alexander Motylev and RB Ramesh. Of the three, the latter has been the most active in the Commission work, but the two others have been available with their inputs in meetings.
If we were to eliminate everyone with any connection to the commission from the awards, we would quickly have an amputated list of candidates. So we stroke the middle point. Peter Long and I ran the organisational side of it, with no influence on the voting at all. I had maybe two conversations and I was very careful not to give any opinions away.
The result was five winners that all won far ahead of their competitors. Two of the winners are friends of mine. This was probably inevitable. However, I did nothing to help them win…
One of the truisms of our time is that you should never explain yourself on the Internet – specifically social media. Over the weekend I was urged by one of our writers to engage with an individual who was slamming The Nemesisfor being plagiarism. While the guy was not listening and repeating falsehoods, I thought there was general interest in the questions posed. And for this reason I am repeating the facts here, relating to the overlap between The Nemesisand Application of Chess Theory. (I know the link says out of print, but I think they have a newer version. Still this is what Google gave me).
First of all, The Nemesis is a new translation of a new compilation of Geller’s writings, published by Russian Chess House. We got the rights from them. In Application of Chess Theory there were 100 games grouped according to openings. I am not sure if this was Geller’s idea originally or if it was done by someone else.
It is also unclear to me if Application of Chess Theory is based on the sale of rights to Pergamon and if Geller was rewarded for this. I do not think anyone knows and doubt there is a way to work that out. As I see it, both books are legal.
Our friend was concerned that some of the translations ended up with similar meanings. I refer to a dictionary if someone does not know what translation means. 86 of the games are the same games. The Nemesishas added notes from Max Notkin in many places.
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