Quality Chess Blog

As I mentioned in a previous post, we failed to cover a line of the Exchange Variation in The Classical Slav. If you click on the following pdf link, you will find analysis by GM Boris Avrukh which fills the gap.

We shall also include this update in pgn form in our next newsletter. This is our standard policy when we spot errors and omissions, perhaps especially in repertoire books – mention the problem and make the solution freely and widely available.

 

When editing a chess book, it is important to consider all significant sources. When working on The Classical Slav I forgot to consider an important book: Playing the Semi-Slav by David Vigorito. So even though the new Slav book is still great (in my biased view) it could have been even better. So my apologies to Dave, Boris and the readers.
 
But how was I supposed to know a book called Playing the Semi-Slav contained analysis relevant to the Classical Slav? It is not as though Playing the Semi-Slav was published by Quality Chess and edited by me. Oh wait…
 
We will put up a blog post and newsletter updating what was missed, including one line in the Exchange Variation, which is commonly played even though not a critical test of the Slav.

Dear Quality Chess Reader,

Apologies for the long gap between newsletters – we have all had our heads down working on books. I can promise that our next newsletters will follow more swiftly.

In the past few months, Quality Chess books have been awarded a couple of prestigious prizes.

Judit Polgar’s How I Beat Fischer’s Record was the English Chess Federation’s Book of the Year.

Axel Smith’s Pump Up Your Rating won the ChessCafe Book of the Year prize.

Congratulations to both authors on their well-deserved success.

We have a new book available from shops on March 5th – Grandmaster Repertoire 17: The Classical Slav by Boris Avrukh. I am particularly keen on this one, as a brilliant analyst provides a world-class repertoire based on my favourite opening.

Learn more about our future titles at our Coming Soon page.

The chess files (in pgn and pdf) contain a few incidents from Quality Chess people at the British Chess League, including me showing how not to play the Slav. I would like to emphasize that the line I played is not part of Avrukh’s repertoire.

Regards,

John Shaw

Chief Editor

Quality Chess

In The King’s Gambit I mentioned that the Wagenbach Variation – 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 h5 – was first played by Jonathan Tait and that Mr Wagenbach was mainly a correspondence player. I have since learned (from Mr János Wagenbach) that neither of these things are true. Mr Wagenbach played it first – in blitz games in his club – and he is primarily an over-the-board player. I am happy to correct the record. When re-printing the book (perhaps soon) I shall also correct the relevant page.

The game below shows the Wagenbach working well for Wagenbach – but note the line I recommend for White is 4.d4 (with 4.Nc3 as another option) not 4.h4.

[pgn]

[Event “Correspondence”]

 

[Site “”]

 

[Date “1998”]

 

[White “Norton”]

 

[Black “Wagenbach”]

 

[Result “0-1”]

1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 h5 4.h4 d5 5.exd5 Bd6 6.Nc3 Bg4 7.d4 Ne7 8.Bb5+ Kf8 9.0–0 Nf5 10.Qd3 a6 11.Bc4 Ng3 12.Re1 Bxf3 13.Qxf3 Qxh4 14.Ne2 Nxe2+ 15.Rxe2 Nd7 16.Bd2 Nf6 17.Rae1 g5 18.Qf2 Qxf2+ 19.Kxf2 h4 20.Rh1 Kg7 21.Bb3 Nh5 0–1 [/pgn]

The following game is just fun – any instructional value is accidental.

Most modern players have great faith in their analytical engine, but it’s worth recalling that even 3400–rated monsters are not all-seeing. For sharp opening lines, a good database is just as essential as a strong engine. While browsing through a recent TWIC I spotted a perfect piece of computer-aided prep all the way to the end of the game. My guess is that White found the winning idea in his database rather than had it suggested by an engine.

Laurent – Gulbas, Belgium 2014

1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0–0 6.e5!? Nfd7

As played by Gulbas before. 6…dxe5 is less wild, but may also offer White chances of an edge after 7.fxe5.

7.Bc4
7.h4 c5 8.h5 cxd4 9.Qxd4 dxe5 10.Qf2 e4 led to a win for Black in Philipowski – Gulbas, Belgium 2010.

7…c5
7…Nb6 is much safer, but leaves White’s centre looking solid. A recent game continued: 8.Bb3 Nc6 9.0–0 Bg4 10.Be3 Na5 11.Qe2 Qd7 12.h3 Bxf3 13.Rxf3 Nxb3 14.axb3² Pruijssers – Cuijpers, Netherlands 2014.

8.e6 Nb6
As played 41 times on my database, but probably close to lost. 8…fxe6 is ugly and admits Black is worse, but at least he is probably not getting mated.

9.exf7+ Kh8
This is where a good database is more valuable than a strong engine. The engine will keep suggesting that White move the attacked bishop. Perhaps the horizon will stretch far enough if you leave the engine fixed here overnight, but that is impractical for most people to do with every position in their repertoire.
[fen size=”small”]rnbq1r1k/pp2pPbp/1n1p2p1/2p5/2BP1P2/2N2N2/PPP3PP/R1BQK2R w KQ – 0 10[/fen]

10.h4!
Gloriously crude. White sees a king on h8 and a rook on h1, and that’s about all. The usual move is 10.Be2 but it is painfully feeble in comparison.

10…Nxc4
10…Bg4 does not stop the advance: 11.h5!

11.h5 Bf5 12.hxg6
This is a wonder-novelty. Well it was when Ivanisevic played it in 2012. 12.g4 and 12.Ng5 were the old messy moves.

12…Bxg6
The engine can quickly take it from here: after just a few seconds its first choices over the next few moves lead to a win.

13.f5! Bxf5 14.Ng5 Qd7
14…Qc8 is perhaps a more challenging defence, but still losing. 15.Qh5 h6 16.Nd5!+- If you see the Ivanisevic game below, perhaps this line is what White was remembering from his prep. Naturally I at first had no idea why going to c8 is tougher than d7. The point is that if White plays as in the game, the queen can slide along to g8: 16.d5 Ne5 17.Ne6 Rxf7 18.Bxh6 Bxh6 19.Qxh6+ Bh7 20.Ne4 Qg8 Black is just hanging on.

15.Qh5 h6

[fen size=”small”]rn3r1k/pp1qpPb1/3p3p/2p2bNQ/2nP4/2N5/PPP3P1/R1B1K2R w KQ – 0 16[/fen]

16.d5!N
The engine gives this at once as winning.
The original game was less convincing but all good fun: 16.Nd5 e5 (16…cxd4!?) 17.g4 (17.Nf6!) 17…Bxc2 18.0–0 Bg6 19.Qxg6 Qxg4+ 20.Kh2 hxg5 21.Bxg5 Nd7 22.Rg1 Qf3 23.Bf6 Qf2+ 24.Rg2 1–0 Ivanisevic – Dzhumaev, Al-Ain 2012. So how could Dzhumaev have avoided this? Probably he couldn’t. Just accept that this sort of thing will happen occasionally if you play sharp lines.

16…Ne5 17.Ne6 Rxf7 18.Bxh6 Bxh6 19.Qxh6+ Bh7 20.Ne4 Qa4 21.N4g5 Kg8 22.Nxf7 Qe4+ 23.Kf1
Black resigned as 23…Qf5+ 24.Kg1 Qxf7 25.Rf1 is mating.

I would not be surprised if White had the whole game on his computer before the game started. How to avoid this happening to you? If you have a sharp forcing position in your repertoire (like 6…Nfd7) then you need to keep up to date with the latest games. Even the best engine won’t save you from an over-the-horizon killer sac.

[pgn]

[Event “Belgium”]

[Site “”]

[Date “2014”]

[Round “”]

[White “Laurent”]

[Black “Gulbas”]

[Result “1-0”]

 

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. f4 Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. e5 Nfd7 7. Bc4 c5 8. e6

Nb6 9. exf7+ Kh8 10. h4 Nxc4 11. h5 Bf5 12. hxg6 Bxg6 13. f5 Bxf5 14. Ng5 Qd7

15. Qh5 h6 16. d5 Ne5 17. Ne6 Rxf7 18. Bxh6 Bxh6 19. Qxh6+ Bh7 20. Ne4 Qa4 21.

N4g5 Kg8 22. Nxf7 Qe4+ 23. Kf1 1-0[/pgn]

 
Quality Chess is in need of an assistant editor to work full time with our team in the centre of Glasgow.
 
The job will mainly be editing of chess books, but other publishing-related tasks will be part of the job. It is important to note that the main part of the job is to edit writing by non-native speakers into high-quality English.
 
You would be working with a highly qualified team: GMs Shaw, McNab and Aagaard, IM Greet and our (untitled) part-time bookkeeper.
 
Some on-the-job training will be available, but a decent understanding of chess is necessary (a rating over 2000, preferably more), good English and decent typing skills are essential. A basic ability to operate Word and ChessBase are expected as well.
 
Working hours are: 9.30-18.00 Monday-Thursday and 9.30-15.00 Friday.
 
Holidays and holiday pay according to the statutory minimums, but with the chance to take extra time off if needed. We are especially understanding of the need to play chess tournaments!
 
If you are interested, please contact our MD John Shaw on john@qualitychess.co.uk to get financial details and possibly set up an interview, in Glasgow or by Skype.
 
Closing date: 21st February

Congratulations to Axel Smith! Pump up your Rating is the 2013 ChessCafe Book of the Year.

From the moment I read the first draft of the first chapter, I had high hopes for this book and I am delighted other readers are just as enthusiastic. As the book’s publishers we are of course biased, but I would say Axel is a highly deserving winner. He put a remarkable effort into writing his book and then trying to improve it. If you have not already read Pump up Your Rating (if so, why not?) then you can get a flavour of it from this pdf excerpt.

 

If you look very closely at the following image at Magnus Carlsen’s Twitter account, what do you see? Note the book on the top right. It’s blurry, but that’s the back cover of Learn from the Legends by Mihail Marin. The World Number 1 using Mihail’s work in his World Championship preparation. Of course.

 

You may have noted there was no training post from Jacob this week. Jacob is on holiday, so consider this week’s lesson to be that an occasional rest is healthy. But if you wish to solve the study in the picture at the link, it is White to play and win in the following position.

[fen size=”small”]4R3/3p4/8/p1k5/8/p3p3/2P1K3/8 w – – 0 1[/fen]