Quality Chess Blog

The Tromso Olympiad ended earlier today. I will start with a photo from earlier this week of the television in the house the Scottish men stayed in.

What’s the point? That is a snapshot of the five hours of live coverage the main Norwegian TV channel had of the Olympiad each day. Magnus Carlsen is watching his teammate Agdestein. Norway has gone chess mad, or maybe it’s Carlsenmania. If the BBC in the UK had five hours of live chess every day for over a week, there would be rioting in the streets.

For me, the chess in Tromso went surprisingly well,

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Greetings from the Olympiad in Tromso. As I write, Round 5 is underway, but since I am resting today, I can give a quick update on Rounds 1 to 4 for Scotland.

Tromso is beautiful, the weather is sunny and hot, the food and drink is great, and we are also winning a few games of chess. We have played Tanzania, Azerbaijan, Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe – three match wins and one defeat. You can probably guess which team got us.

Our team (in board order) is GM Colin McNab, IM Andrew Greet, GM me, FM Alan Tate and IM Roddy McKay. Highlights so far include Colin drawing with 2743-rated Mamedyarov and Roddy being on 3/3. I am on a middling 2½/4 – a loss to the Azerbaijani GM Safarli and 2½/3 against less fearsome opposition. My chess highlight so far is my game against Perera of Sri Lanka – see it on ChessBomb . Notable because I spotted a tactic – this great event is on move 37.

The photo below is taken from the house the Scottish Open team is staying in.

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I have confirmation from the printer that Grandmaster Repertoire – 1.e4 vs The French, Caro-Kann and Philidor by GM Parimarjan Negi and Grandmaster Repertoire 18 – The Sicilian Sveshnikov by GM Vassilios Kotronias have been printed on schedule and will be in our hands next week.

So what are the books like? ‘Stunningly brilliant’ says this biased publisher (but I’m right anyway). Excerpts of both books are at the following links: Negi and Kotronias.

Let’s start with Negi on 1.e4 – it’s the immensely strong repertoire of a young Super-GM who is noted for his opening prowess. For a huge opening book (600 pages) it is highly readable, as Negi seems an “ideas man” rather than merely moves-moves-moves.

Kotronias on the Sveshnikov is also a dream ticket – one of the world’s leading theory experts on one of Black’s most feared Sicilian systems. It seems no one has anything with White against the Sveshnikov (that will be a challenge for Negi later). So add this line to your repertoire and frighten White into the sidelines.

Forward Chess are preparing both books and will likely have their versions ready before us. I believe the Negi book is already there. So if you haven’t checked out the Forward Chess app before, then now would be a great time to start.

The Secret Life of Bad Bishops by Esben Lund is also on the way (from a different printer) but I will introduce that one separately later.

In my book I wrote that “over the board it is clear that the King’s Gambit is effective at all levels up to and including 2800+.” Maybe I should revise that to “all levels up to and including 3100+.”

At the recent clash of the best engines in the world (the “TCEC Supermatch”) Stockfish triumphed over Komodo, but Komodo had the consolation of a magnificent win with the King’s Gambit in the final game of the match.

The game is below with very brief comments.
 
TCEC Season 6 – Superfinal, Round 64, 2014.05.19

White: “Komodo 7x” Elo 3155

Black: “Stockfish 170514” Elo 3164
 
1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 Be7

The Cunningham – a Hebden favourite and perfectly respectable, but KG players do not lie awake at night worrying about 3…Be7.

4.Nc3 Bh4+ 5.Ke2 d6

“5…d6 is rather slow, and after 6.d4 Bg4 7.Bxf4 White’s powerful pawn centre and strong pieces outweigh his misplaced king.” So says page 352.

6.d4 Bg4 7.Bxf4

[fen size=”small”]rn1qk1nr/ppp2ppp/3p4/8/3PPBbb/2N2N2/PPP1K1PP/R2Q1B1R b kq – 0 7[/fen]

I have to agree with page 352.
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The following position is from last weekend’s 4ncl. Not the vital league-deciding match, but one of my less significant efforts with Black.

Black to play

D. Bisby – J. Shaw, 4ncl 2014

Identify the candidate moves and make a quick assessment. I would suggest spending no more than a couple of minutes, 5 at the absolute most.

[fen size=”small”]5bk1/B4pp1/3p4/3Qp1p1/1Pr1P3/5RP1/2q2PK1/8 b – – 0 29[/fen]

Answer below the fold.

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As originally announced, three new books will be available on April 30th – Mating the Castled King by Danny Gormally, Mikhail Tal’s Best Games 1 – The Magic of Youth by Tibor Karolyi and Endgame Play by Jacob Aagaard.

If you read a previous post about how Endgame Play would be delayed due to paper trouble at the printer, then you may be surprised. Me too. Printing on time has gone from “a losing cause” to back on schedule in just a couple of days. But I will take good news even if the process is bizarre.

A repertoire to last a lifetime

Karpov’s Strategic Wins

Tired of Bad Positions – Try the Main Lines

A review of GM Repertoire 17: The Classical Slav got me thinking. The review had a highly favourable conclusion but mentioned that GM 17 improved against the repertoire Avrukh recommended years ago in GM Repertoire 1. “So much for the ‘repertoire to last a lifetime’” as we had written on the cover of GM 1. The reviewer’s comment is half-joking (at least that is my interpretation), but it caused me to look again at some of the sales text listed above.

(I have not linked to the review as I am perfectly happy with it, and I do not wish to start another “Quality Chess disagrees with reviewer” extravaganza. The review is excellent – no complaints here.)

So is ‘A repertoire to last a lifetime’ misleading? Well, the GM1 repertoire could last a lifetime. You could play the variations it recommends forever, and with success (4.e3 against the Slav, Fianchetto against KID, Catalan against QGD, etc.). But that does not mean the details will never need updating. Did anyone seriously believe that Boris Avrukh had ‘solved chess’ and found the strongest possible move in every position? People rightly have a lot of faith in Boris, but that would be too much.

Karpov’s Strategic Wins? Are all the wins in those books ‘strategic’? Whatever that means. Still, great books, in my opinion.

Tired of Bad Positions – Try the Main Lines. A tagline on our GM Repertoire books. What is a main line? And not every sideline automatically leads to a bad position.

As an example, 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3 e6 6.Nh4 against the Slav was not, I think, a hugely popular line at GM level before Avrukh recommended it in GM1. Was it really a main line? It certainly is now.

So here are my questions: how do you feel about such sales text? Do you ignore them as pointless sales waffle? Take them literally and absolutely, then search for loopholes to prove us wrong? Any other examples of our sales text you wish to debate?

Dear Quality Chess Reader,

We have just sent three new books to the printer, and we predict these books will be available on April 30th.

Mikhail Tal’s Best Games 1 – The Magic of Youth by Tibor Karolyi is the first of three volumes covering Tal’s life and games. In addition, the author contacted many of Tal’s contemporaries, who were kind enough to share their personal stories about a popular champion. A pdf excerpt is here.

In Endgame Play Jacob Aagaard continues his Grandmaster Preparation series. Rather than me say how good this book is, let’s see part of what GM Karsten Müller writes in the Foreword: “With Endgame Play Jacob Aagaard has again proved convincingly that he is indeed one of the best chess authors of modern times.” A pdf excerpt is here.

Mating the Castled King by GM Danny Gormally is an entertaining guide to attacking play. Well-chosen model examples and test positions are complemented by the author’s lively writing style and original terminology. Clobber your opponents with motifs such as the “Shotgun” and the “Tower of Terror”! A pdf excerpt is here.

There are no chess files with this newsletter, as we have concentrated fully on completing these three books. We will make up for this in our next newsletter.

Regards,

John Shaw

Chief Editor

Quality Chess