Quality Chess Blog

In round 2 Jakob and I both surprised each other in the opening. Blind man’s bluff, sort of thing. At move 10 I played too quickly. Instead I should have played 10.Ng5, I think, and I would have had a nice opening advantage. When I started thinking deeply about the position, I realised that I had long term challenges and that I had no active plans. In other words; from more 12 I was playing for a draw. I was not overly impressed with 13…a5, as …Ra5-h5 would never happen. Instead I prepared for an opening of the c-file and offered a draw. Jakob accepted without serious thoughts.

Aagaard,Jacob (2520) – Glud,Jakob Vang (2518) [D94]
DEN-ch DM 2014 Sk0rping (2), 13.04.2014

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e3 g6 5.Nf3 Bg7 6.Be2 0-0 7.0-0 Bg4 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.e4 Nb6 10.Be3 Bxf3 11.gxf3 N8d7 12.f4 e6 13.Kh1 a5 14.Rc1 ½-½

So round 1 of the Danish Championship is over. I had the longest game of the day and followed a super-recommendation from Nikos, my long running second. With Black I had an at least equal position after 13 moves and +20 minutes on the clock. My opponent reacted poorly and I got a lasting edge. At move 30 I missed a forced win (…Qd8-h4, as was my alternative, but there is some …Bxf4! sacrifice I was nowhere close to finding), but managed to retain a lasting edge. After move 40 I was starting to wonder if I had overplayed my position and did not see a way to improve. Finally it dawned on me that I would be better off if I managed to exchange a pair of rooks. I did and won the game quickly thereafter.

Some of the other games looked a bit ropy, but all in all a good first day at the Danish Championships.

Bekker-Jensen,Simon (2445) – Aagaard,Jacob (2520) [D36]
DEN-ch DM 2014 Skorping (1), 12.04.2014

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bg5 c6 6.Qc2 h6 7.Bh4 Be6 8.e3 Nbd7 9.Bd3 g5 10.Bg3 Nh5 11.Nge2 Nxg3 12.Nxg3 h5 13.0-0 h4 14.Nge2 Bd6 15.f4 Nf6 16.Qd2 g4 17.f5 Bd7 18.Nf4 Qe7 19.Rae1 0-0-0 20.Qc2 Kb8 21.a3 Bc8 22.b4 Qc7 23.Qd2 Rhe8 24.Qf2 g3 25.hxg3 hxg3 26.Qxg3 Nh5 27.Qh4 Nxf4 28.exf4 Rh8 29.Qg3 Rdg8 30.Qf3 f6 31.Ne2 Rh4 32.g3 Qh7 33.Rf2 Bxf5 34.Bxf5 Qxf5 35.Rg2 Rhg4 36.Kf2 a6 37.Nc1 Qc2+ 38.Kg1 Qh7 39.Nd3 Bc7 40.Kf2 Ka7 41.Re3 Bb6 42.Nc5 R4g7 43.Qe2 Qf5 44.Rh2 Rh7 45.Rxh7 Qxh7 46.Qf3 Rg6 47.Ne6 Rh6 48.f5 Rh2+ 49.Ke1 Ra2 50.Re2 Ra1+ 51.Kf2 Qh2+ 52.Qg2 Qh5 53.g4 Qh4+ 54.Ke3 Rxa3+ 55.Kd2 Rg3 56.Qf2 Qxg4 57.Kc2 Rf3 0-1

http://liveskak.dk/dm/2014/

Having barely survived writing Endgame Play and a tour of Scottish whiskey distilleries with three old friends, where I was the driver, I have escaped Scotland for the gorgeous location of Rebild in Northern Denmark for the yearly Championship. I know, I know, I am retired. But this does not mean that I am not allowed to combine a holiday with a chess tournament. I am getting teased a lot in the office (not expecting sympathy) because I am retired, but to be honest, I act like a retired chess tourist. I don’t prepare a lot, I spend time chatting with friends and even giving a few training sessions with GMs during the tournament. Not behaviour I would approve of if it was one of my students displaying it.

I will put updates during the tournament here instead of the 2-3 next training posts. I hope I will be forgiven for this.

Very sad news from the printer a few days ago. The supplier has delivered the wrong type of paper. They do not have enough in stock to print ENDGAME PLAY as well as the two other books. And as it is quite costly to set up the printing, there is no chance of half a batch of books to take us through early publication.

So EP is delayed a few weeks. Mating the Castled King and Tal 1 – The Magic of Youth will come out on the 30th of April as previously announced.

Those buying all three books on the website before this post will of course receive the first two books by mail and the third one later; while those buying these three combined after this post, will fall for our rules of “combined orders are shipped when all books are published.”

I am very disappointed of course, so please, if you want to share your feelings, let them be of sympathy.

For years people have asked for a deluxe hardback version of Learn from the Legends. I am starting to understand why, as this book easily won the “best of the first decade” vote. Here are the results (I know you cannot see Carlsen’s Assault on the Throne with 5 votes at the bottom, but I am travelling and on a laptop and will aim lower than for perfection).

Thank you to everyone who voted and especially to those who voted for me :-).

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?

Recently I had a conversation with an IM about the ideal line-up for the 2014 Candidates Tournament. I leaned towards this being a fine tournament, accepting the financial incentive to have a wildcard and not feeling overly burdened by the participation of Andreikin, despite him not winning more than one real game of chess at the World Cup.
 
We randomly drifted into how we would have filled the eight places if we had to pick them, rather than filling them with players who had qualified. From my perspective it is a bit of a morbid thought experiment, as the principle of majority participation by qualification rather than rating is the only way that makes sense to me. If everything was done on rating, why not just crown the highest-rated player the ‘Best Player in the World’ and be done with it? The answer is of course that we want a match, which to me also means that you need to have a tournament to pick the challenger, and again tournaments to fill that tournament.
 
But anyway, in this experiment I picked, among other people, Boris Gelfand. Not because I am on friendly terms with Boris; nor because he supports what we are trying to do with Quality Chess. But because he won three super-tournaments in 2013. One in front of Carlsen, one shared with Aronian (none of the top players care about the tie-break in events other than the Candidates) and one shared with Caruana (the last of the Grand Prix tournaments).
 
The IM argued that Boris should not be included because he is in bad physical shape. Although I agree that there is a big difference from Carlsen and his six-pack, and Gelfand’s more natural mature look, and that being super-fit is an advantage in chess. But it is only one of many parameters.
 
Actually, I have always hated selection for anything based on style, evaluation of talent or discipline, hair colour or other rubbish. At the end of the day, what should matter for those picking participants for junior events, national teams and so on, should be all about results. There are many ways to do just about anything in life and chess is no exception.
 
The time Gelfand is saving by not doing two hours of sport a day is used solving puzzles, analysing the opening or looking at complex endgames (entirely guessing here, but you get the point). Do we know what the perfect balance is? I don’t think so. We know what the perfect system is for Carlsen – and what is much more important – Carlsen knows it too! Gelfand has over time carved out his own routine, based on his personality and perception of his own strengths and weaknesses, as have the other top players.
 
I am quite sure that both Carlsen and Gelfand would lose a lot of strength if they tried each other’s systems. They are built on their own experience of what they want to do and what works for them.
 
This leads me to an absolute point behind all of this musing: You will never have enough time to do all the training you think you should do. You should tailor your training based on your own likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses.
 
Actually, despite being unable to know you so well without spending a lot of time with you, I am willing to put my reputation on the line (well, yours actually, but I can live with that) and advise you to look at two things in connection with chess improvement.
 

a) the thing you do the best
 
b) something you do poorly and feel frustrated by
 
This could be physical or it could be endings. Either way. Develop strengths and try to remove some weaknesses; and feel free to delay working on either at times, if this makes you happier. At the end of the day; that is what life is also about.

John stumbled over this quote on the English Chess Federation’s Forum:

Just look at the two Judit Polgar books published by Quality Chess. It’s a dead cert that all the notes were written by Marin. This is the best annotated game collection I’ve ever seen in my life (and I think I’ve seen ’em all). Tears of gratitude emanate copiously as I flick through the pages of these two tomes.

We are of course grateful that our books are appreciated, but probably we should clarify what is happening here. Mihail and Judit are friends since she was a small girl and have worked together on a number of occasions. When she decided to write the book, she knew she needed help and turned to one of the best chess writers around. What he is mainly helping with is structure, advice and occasional typing. The opinions, the choices, the variations are all Judit. This year she went a week to Bucharest and he a week to Budapest. They have also both worked independently. There have been sections I have seen that were clearly written by Judit and others written by Marin (detectable from their personal recurring grammar mistakes).

So, it is no secret that Marin is helping a lot with these books; but they are not ghosted as they would be for a footballer or other celebrities. Judit is intensely involved and does not do this for the money at all – which is a good thing, as otherwise the books would not happen. I am personally looking forward to the last volume a lot; the first two have been some of my favourite chess books ever.