Quality Chess Blog

I am back for a second and final guest blog post here on the QC blog. You will be able to see a copy of this post, and all my future posts on chess-structures.com, my new blog.

Just like many of you, I spent a fair amount of time last week going following the US Chess Championship played in St Louis. There was plenty of excitement, the live broadcast was very good and more important than anything, the tournament featured what was arguably the strongest combination of twelve players to ever compete in the US Championship. Despite having plenty of nice games to choose from, I think that the game I will show next was the nicest illustration of concepts from Chess Structures put into practice.

Alexander Onischuk (2655) – Daniel Naroditsky (2633)

US Chess Championship 2015

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Bd6 6.Bg2 c6
The move order 6…0-0 7.0-0 Nbd7 8.Qc2 and only now 8…c6 seems to be more precise, making it harder for White to take control of the center.

7.Nc3 O-O 8.Bg5! Nbd7
8…dxc4 would be met by 9.Nd2 followed by 10.Nxc4.

9.e4 dxe4 10.Nxe4 Bb4+ 11.Nc3!
In case of 11.Bd2? Bxd2 12.Nexd2 e5! and Black equalizes.
We have reached the Caro-Kann Formation (Chapter 3), where White has more space and a better control of the center. The assessment of this position depends almost exclusively on whether Black can find a way to break in the center to release his spatial disadvantage. Otherwise, White will enjoy a lasting positional edge.

11…h6
Getting rid of the pin, aiming to create some counterplay with …Ne4.

It seems Black did not have better options, for example 11…c5 12. 0-0 cxd4 13. Qxd4 where White has superior coordination. Also 11…Qa5 12.Bd2 e5 is met by 13.a3! Bxc3 14.Bxc3 Qa6 15 0-0! with a big advantage.

12.Bf4 Ne4 13.Qc2 Nxc3 14.bxc3 Ba5 15.O-O

This is a good moment to evaluate the position. The structure has changed slightly since White now has doubled c-pawns (which also means he has a semi-open b-file). Black has been unable to release his position with either …c6-c5 or …e6-e5 and having his bishop trapped on c8 only adds to his misery. White has a very comfortable advantage.

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In the recent 4NCL I had the honour of playing first board for Wood Green with Black in two games. As I am entirely out of shape and blunder in more or less every rare game I play, my goal was to make draws, eliminate their best players and hope that the team would win on the other boards. This all went to plan and I gladly donated 1-2 rating points to the well-being of the team. Besides, I hope I will be allowed three white games in the final weekend!

My game on the Saturday was quite interesting at one moment, just after I blundered (always happens!) and I had to decide how best to deal with the defence. I think my considerations at the board were quite interesting and worth a minor discussion.

James Cobb – Jacob Aagaard

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 d5 4.e3 e6 5.b3 Bd6 6.Bb2 Nbd7 7.d4 0–0 8.Be2 Re8 9.0–0 Qe7 10.Qc2 dxc4 11.Bxc4
11.bxc4 e5 12.Nh4 Nf8 13.Nf5 Bxf5 14.Qxf5 exd4 15.exd4 Ne6 looks OK for Black. During the game I was slightly less sure, but I was going to play this way and that is what counts.

11…h6 12.Ne4 Nxe4 13.Qxe4 e5 14.dxe5 Nxe5 15.Nxe5 Bxe5 16.Qxe5 Qxe5 17.Bxe5 Rxe5 18.Rfd1 Kf8 19.Rd8+ Re8 20.Rad1 a5 21.a4 Rb8 22.R8d4 b5 23.axb5 cxb5 24.Bd5 Rd8 25.Kf1 Ke7

This is my blunder. I really had no clue that this was coming. As usual when this happens, I smiled. Life has lots of surprises for us; not all will be positive.

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It was our intention to publish Python Strategy together with Grandmaster Repertoire 1A – The Catalan on the 29th of April. Unfortunately we did not manage to finish it in time and we have had to leave it for the next publication date, which is the 27th of May. It is an advantage for the smaller chess retailers when we publish 2-3 books together, there are some possible savings on postage and admin and just time saved, which means that we do not want to publish a new book every two weeks.

On the other hand it does not make sense to hold back on a brand new opening book like GM1A on behalf of a book in the classics series.

To the publication plans for the near future looks like this:

It’s been a while since I finished writing Chess Structures, but I like the topic so much that I keep coming back to it – I know how much it improved my understanding of chess. I follow games on Chessbomb pretty much daily and I really enjoy it when I see a nice ‘structure-concept’ being applied. Often these games reproduce ideas shown in the book almost identically, while sometimes there are small (yet very important!) differences. So I thought, why not start a blog in which I will, once in a while, post a game which builds upon the ideas I shared with the readers of my book. Since the hardest point of starting a blog is finding any readers at all, John offered his help, suggesting I post a couple of guest blogs here. The permanent location of my blog will be chess-structures.com, though it will take me about 4-5 days to set it up properly, since I am a complete beginner as far as websites go.

Now let’s get started with some chess. As you may have realized, almost every game in my book was decisive (that is, not a draw) since drawn games (especially agreed draws) are like an unfinished story, and people just don’t like to read stories without an ending… Anyway, the only exception to this rule was Onischuk – Dominguez from the World Cup of 2013. This game was a Carlsbad structure (Chapter 5) which I thought was very instructive, as it shows how Black might completely neutralize White’s queenside plans. A few days ago, as I was following the Women’s World Championship in Sochi, I found a great example which pretty much takes off where Dominguez left off, and brings home the full point. The contenders: young star Guo Qi from China was White against World finalist Natalia Pogonina. Let’s see the game:

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 c6 7.Qc2 Nbd7 8.e3 Nh5 9.Bxe7 Qxe7 10.Be2 Nhf6  

11.Nd2?!
White deviates from theory, possibly to prevent …Ne4. This is a little imprecise since quickly playing b2-b4-b5 should be the priority.
Normal was 11.0–0 to follow up with Rab1, b2-b4-b5, and if 11…Ne4 12.Nxe4 dxe4 13.Nd2 Nf6 14.Rab1!? we have transposed to Chapter 20, the French Type II (with colours reversed) where White’s prospects are good, since the break b4-b5 is easy to carry out, and Black lacks material (and moves) to create serious kingside threats.

11…Nb6 12.0–0 0–0 13.Bd3
If 13.Rab1 then 13…Bg4! 14.Bd3 Bh5 is similar to the game.

13…Bg4 14.Rab1 Bh5!
Black is aiming to trade light-squared bishops, which is a good idea.

15.b4 a6
A standard reply, to trade off a-pawns, getting rid of a potential weakness.

If 15…Bg6 then 16.Bxg6 hxg6 17.b5!? would typically create problems for Black, since both the a7- and c6-pawns can become weaknesses, however White’s play has been imprecise, and after 17…Rfc8 18.bxc6 Rxc6! Black has good counterplay (but not 18…bxc6? when White is a little better).

16.Na4
After 16.a4 Bg6 17.Bxg6 hxg6 the standard 18.b5?! is met strongly by 18…cxb5 19.axb5 a5! with an edge. Black has a passed pawn, making White’s entire enterprise a failure.

16…Nxa4 17.Qxa4 Bg6 18.Bxg6 hxg6 19.Qc2
My favourite moment in the game; Pogonina is doing well, but now how should she stop a4 and b4-b5?

19…Ne8! 20.a4 Nd6

Black is slightly better.
The position is almost identical to the game Onischuk – Dominguez (annotated in Chapter 5). White’s queenside play is no longer dangerous. The big difference between this game and the one in the book is that here Black has a half-open h-file, creating better prospects for kingside play.

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We are continuing our special offer – if you buy three books or more and live inside the European Union (as defined by UPS) we will send you an extra book free.
For the past two months, the default option on the free book has been Tactimania but we will change that now to GRANDMASTER VS AMATEUR.

But if you already have GRANDMASTER VS AMATEUR or would prefer a different free book, then send us an email with your order, asking to have it replaced with one of the following titles:

TACTIMANIA
TRUE LIES IN CHESS
CHAMPIONS OF THE NEW MILLENNIUM
SAN LUIS 2005
ATTACKING THE SPANISH
GRANDMASTER VS AMATEUR
REGGIO EMILIA 2007

Also, the excerpt of Avrukh’s Grandmaster Repertoire 1A – The Catalan is now available at the following link. We are still waiting for the final word from the printer, but the publication date looks like April 29th.

My endless to-do list for next week includes working on a Playing 1.e4 book (yes, it will exist) and reading a lot of Razuvaev title suggestions. One of Ray’s suggestions “Razuvaev on Gambits” is a title I had suggested earlier in the office. If we use that title, do I get the free book?

It is with a heavy heart that we have come to the realisation that John will not be able to complete his work on the 1.e4 books. He is half way through the first book, but overburdened by managerial work and the responsibility to our authors, who deliver on time, to get their books out quickly and efficiently.

We apologise to everyone who were looking forward to these books. At least we have the Negi-books for you 1.e4 guys…

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Apparently it is another intelligent marketing ploy to call an, as yet, untitled book in our publishing schedule Hoolabaloo in the draft of the last blog post I wrote. As Colin had edited something incorrectly in a previous blog post, he thought it was a cute way of drawing extra attention to the book. What can I say? Can’t keep raw talent down?!

The book is a small book – probably 128 pages – in the Classics series by one of the true greats of chess writing, Yuri Razuvaev. It is about various ideas in the opening, mainly gambits, written in 2003. A nice light read. The Russian title does not translate well, so we are looking for a cool idea for a title.

Obviously there is a prize – a free copy of the book and your name on page two will be awarded for the best title – the one we use that is. Suggestions below. We will make a decision at our editorial meeting on Monday.

Here it is, I am going to make some accurate predictions about a few future publications. Accurate, in the sense that I will give dates when I believe these books will be out. How accurate this turns out to be only time will tell. So here are my predictions:

29th April
Boris Avrukh’s book Grandmaster Repertoire 1A – The Catalan will be our big release of course. Let me underline again (and again) that this is a new book. Yes, there is a small overlap with the first volume and a few lines that are repeated. But Boris has done the work and fans of the first book should be happy with this book as well.
The other release is a book in the Classics series, Python Strategy (in our opinion a better title than “The Strategy of Soundness”) with collected writings by Tigran Petrosian. We are very happy with this book and we hope you will be too.

20th May
A triple release date. First of all, there is Boris Gelfand’s Positional Decision Making in Chess, which in my honest opinion is a great release. But then I am biased.
Then there is Learn from the Legends – 10th Anniversary Edition by Mihail Marin. This is our most popular book from the first ten years of our company. I hope this new version will find an audience. It deserves it.
Finally, there is a little book by Razuvaev on gambits, called HOOLABALOO in the Classics series.

June somewhere
Another triple publication! Lars Schandorff’s Grandmaster Repertoire 20 – The Semi-Slav, Tibor Karolyi’s Tal’s Best Games 2 – The World Champion and John Shaw’s Playing 1.e4 – Caro-Kann, 1…e5 & Minor Lines.