The Ozone Layer

As most of you realised, there is a big hole in the ozone layer over Antartica.

Because of this, fellas like us living in Australia literally get sun-baked.

It also has the unfortunate side-effect of making Australians do crazy things like falling in love with the "barbie" aka. BBQ and making Crocodile Dundee and Mad Max movies.

But have you ever wondered why there is such a huge gaping hole in the ozone layer in the Southern Hemisphere?

I have found the answer by accident.

It's not carbon emissions, heck it's not even cows' "emissions".

The true problem:

Air Hostesses

On my flight back to Sydney on British Airways, after checking in, settling into the passenger seat with most of the other passengers seated, BA air hostesses proceed to spray deodorant by the cans (with one in each hand) and all four of them walked up and down each aisle in turn, with fingers fully pressed on the nozzle. The whole plane was covered in deodorant "mist" when they're done. It was so bad, a few of the passengers (including myself) were coughing.

A good thing no one decided to lit up a cigarette at this time. The culprit might be accused of being a terrorist.

Either a passenger who has a really bad BO (body odour) came on board or they're secretly carrying out their dastardly deed of trying to enlarge the hole in the ozone layer and trying to ransom the UN for One Million Dollars! (cue: Dr. Evil).

I had a pretty nice one week break albeit it was a very short break. Now it's back to the grind and work beckons tomorrow.

Incidentally, I managed to pick up a Chessbase DVD in the midst of my travels. It is Daniel King's PowerPlay 6 DVD. I'll do a review of it in due time once I've looked through them.

For now, I'm dead tired and sleepy and need to catch some snooze.

Not Outsmarting Your Competitors

The curse of being a chess player strikes again.

Yesterday afternoon, Steven and I went down to a local bookstore to pass some time. I walked past this book on the shelf and it caught my eye instantly.

Other than the smug looking idiot on the book cover, guess what's wrong with the picture?

Alert chess players will see it instantly.

On the cover, if you're having the dark pieces and the idiot is having the white pieces, on which side should your king be on and vice versa?

Maybe the book is hinting that one of the ways of outsmarting your competitors is to play the role of the fool.

My First Completed Tournament

The Ryde-Eastwood League competition has officially ended for me.

The competition has members being split into 3 groups of 9 rounds each.

The competition ran for 11 weeks. It definitely was not easy for me to juggle work, studies and fit in chess during this period．

In 9 rounds (including one bye and one forfeit), out of 7 games, my FIRST completed official tournament record stands at: +5-2=0 (5 wins, 2 losses and no draws).

I'll just give a quick recap of my games.

Round 1: Tan v Alan Marton (1366)
Result: 1-0
Summary: In attempting to trap my bishop, Alan missed a strategic idea and allowed me to create 2 passed pawns, namely, my e and f-pawns to march up the board.

Round 2: Vince Chiara (1389) v Tan
Result: 0-1
Summary: Vince had a slight advantage out of the opening. But he made a slip in the middlegame in attempting to drive out my Knight from its outpost allowing my Queen to invade the position. I did not choose the best moves in the position but did keep the advantage. Subsequently, Vince had to make an exchange sac or lose his Queen (R for N). From then on, Vince tried to create counterplay and defended like a tiger. However, after winning another pawn, I returned the exchange to win a second pawn to obtain a winning pawn endgame.

Round 3: Tan v Quinlan Vasey (1029)
Result: 1-0
Summary: Quinlan is a likable young lad but it is a mistake to underestimate him. His chess skills have made huge progress and I estimate his true rating to be well above 1400. He made me fight for the initiative but I managed to push his pieces back. His Queen fell after a tactical oversight and the game was pretty much lost from there on. This game was played out to checkmate.

Round 4: Argo Kuru (1716) v Tan
Result: 1-0 (forfeit)
Summary: I was hyped up about this game and I have made preparations for him. Kuru is a very strong player and I would have loved to match wits with him. Unfortunately, upon arriving at the tournament hall, I was informed by Bill Gletsos that he had forfeited. In fact, he only played one game (loss) and had forfeited the rest of his games. Bummer.

Round 5: Bye
Summary: Since it was a bye, I didn't turn up and besides, my final exam was the next day so I stayed at home to study.

Round 6: Dennis Hale (1591) v Tan
Result: 1-0
Summary: I should have believed in myself more. Out of the opening, Dennis made a move that I had not expected and my first thought was to play a more dangerous but highly tactical line (which would have put me on a slight advantage) but I turned down and from that point on, I was struggling. I tried to fight back but it was in vain. I resigned after allowing his Rook to take one of the pawns holding my position together. This was a great learning lesson from Dennis.

Round 7: Arthur Hyunh (1837) v Tan
Result: 1-0
Summary: I was feeling terrible on that day and was not in the mood to play chess. I wasn't making moves, I was shuffling pieces. Arthur won in a canter. It was a nice attack by Arthur. I should have pulled myself together for that game.

Round 8: Douglas Eyres (no rating) v Tan
Result: 0-1
Summary: I was initially wary of players with no ratings. However, after Douglas made a slip, his King was suddenly trapped in the center and unable to castle as both my Bishops sliced through his position making his defence difficult and it was only a matter of time before I invaded on another front and his defence unfortunately could not cope.

Round 9: Tan v Ray Kitchen (1456)
Result: 1-0
Summary: Ray made a slip in the move order of a Closed Ruy, losing a pawn in the process. He subsequently miscalculated and lost a minor piece and it was downhill for him from that point on unfortunately.

This result put me on 7 points (counting the bye and the forfeit) and currently 2nd on the board behind group leader Arthur Hyunh in my group. A few other players still have some postponed games to wrap up and it won't be till another 2 weeks before I know the final placings for my group.

The top 2 players for each group go on to play the other top 2s from the other groups.

My brother-in-law Steven has finished the top of his group with a few people currently vying for 2nd so there's a fairly good chance I would play him for the later stages if I retain my 2nd position. I played a couple of quick games with him this afternoon and the aftermath wasn't pretty (for me, that is). But it was plenty of fun, fun, fun!!!

On to not so good news, my studies have re-commenced and it's another final slog of another 7 weeks before I finally finish my course.

Where's The Tactics?

Tactics can occur in the unlikeliest of places sometimes. Take for instance, the following game I played recently at Ryde-Eastwood League club. I only found out after going over my game with Fritz and Fritz instantly spewed out the tactical shot!

Rather than give you the position and give you a hint, what I intend to do separately here is to show a consecutive sequence of 5 moves that are being played out.

The idea is to mimic an actual game scenario - which it is. Here, no one is going to give you the exact position and say, "White to play and win" or "Black to mate in 3 moves" or something obvious.

No, I am not going to give you any hints at all other than the fact that this is DEFINITELY NOT EASY to see over the board.

So set yourself a time control of at least 20 minutes for the whole of this exercise. If possible, set up the actual board and pieces according to the first diagram shown. Examine each sequence of moves in turn (take your time), when you think you have seen enough and cannot find any good moves, go to the next position. Then think over the position again. The idea is NOT to go backwards. Once you have moved forward each position, do not go back. This is to provide impetus for you to analyse and mimic the conditions exactly similar to an actual game in progress.

Remember: Do NOT RUSH! Take as much time as you like for each position.

Without further ado, let's go onto the 1st position!

FEN position
4k2r/ppq2pp1/2r1p2p/3pPn2/Pb1P1B2/1P6/R3KPPP/1N1Q1R2 b k - 0 19

19. Rf1
Black to play and move
Examine this position carefully,
if you're happy that there are no tactics available here,
please move on to the next position

19. ... O-O

20. f3
Black to play and move
Examine this position carefully,
if you're happy that there are no tactics available here,
please move on to the next position.
Do NOT go back to the previous position.

20. ... Qb6
21. Be3
Black to play and move
Examine this position carefully,
if you're happy that there are no tactics available here,
please move on to the next position.
Do NOT go back to the previous position.

21. ... Rfc8
22. g4
Black to play and move
Examine this position carefully,
if you're happy that there are no tactics available here,
please move on to the next position.
Do NOT go back to the previous position.

22. ... Nxe3
23. Kxe3
Black to play and move
Examine this position carefully.

This is the last position.

Now, have you seen the tactic that was immersed in one of these positions?

One of the above diagrams contains a very deep tactic, one that is not easy to spot. If you cannot find it, don't fret. I didn't see it either.

To see the answer, please highlight between the brackets.

[The very deep tactic occurred on move 22. g4 for Black above - the 2nd last diagram. The amazing tactic goes as follows:

22... Qa6+!
23. Kf2 (Note: White is worse after ....
23.Qd3 Rc2+
24.Rxc2 Rxc2+
25.Bd2 Nxd4+
26.Ke3 (26.Kg3 Bxd2 27.Nxd2 Qd3 28.Rf2 Nxb3 and White loses a piece)
26.... Qb6
27.Kf2 (if 27. Qxd4 Bxd2+ 28. Nxd2 Rc3+ and the White Queen is lost)
27.... Bxd2
28.Nxd2 Nxb3+
29.Kg3 Nxd2 )
23... Rc2+! An amazing sacrifice, you say.... watch what follows now
24. Rxc2 Rxc2+!
25. Qxc2 Qxf1+!! An incredible temporary Queen sac - did you see it?
26. Kxf1 Nxe3+
27. Ke2 Nxc2
Now Black gets back all his material and is a piece up and winning. Incredible.
]

Chessbase Review: French Defence

I've been meaning to review this DVD since the end of last year and I finally managed to get some time to do this.

I used to play the main line French then subsequently moved onto the Winawer/MacCutcheon variation (which I mentioned a long time ago that I was not going to learn to play but which I took up in the end). Since then, I've moved on from the French Defence.That means no more Milner Barry gambits, no more Alekhine-Chatard attacks for me although I'm still quite tempted to investigate the Burn and Guidmard variations of the French Defence.

So what I am getting to here? Well, this blog post is dedicated to Greg who mentions in this blogpost here.

I've been playing the French on and off for nearly half a year now. I am not an expert in the French Defence and I don't profess to be one. However, it has garnered me a few wins so far so I guess it's not that bad. Till today, I still have a soft spot for the French Defence although I have been investigating other opening defences to improve my opening repertoire in response to 1.e4.

The problem with playing the French Defence is that it's a rather misunderstood defence. Some people think that the French Defence is a tame defence. Well, they couldn't be more wrong. The French Defence is a strong counter-attacking defence.

In case you missed it, let me say that again, it is a counter-attacking defence.

While White is busy pushing pawns, Black hits back at the center (usually) with everything except the kitchen sink.

For a club player, I would seriously recommend Ari Ziegler's French Defence DVD (image on left) - Repertoire For Black if and only if you're interested in taking up the French as your main repertoire. Unlike some *other* Chessbase DVDs, this DVD is by and far, one of the best Fritz Trainers to have come out of Chessbase.

The DVD comprises some 7 hours (!!) of lessons. Frankly I am very surprised that Chessbase managed to squeeze that much information into 1 DVD. If Ziegler were to make a second DVD dealing with other variations of the French Defence, I would be the first in line to buy it.

What about the DVD itself?

Ziegler speaks with a rather slow, serious (some would say ponderous) and thoughtful voice. He is so unlike the cocktail-drinking-yawning-in-front-of-camera Jacob Aagaard, the somewhat placid but solid presenter Andrew Martin, the funny Daniel King, the somewhat-whiny voice of Rustam Khasimzhanov and the ever-gruffy-voice-and-nerdy Karsten Muller.

When he says something, he pauses, thinks, and gives you his thoughts on the position. He does not rush but he expects you to see tactical combinations quickly.

However, I do notice that Ziegler sometimes zips through the moves at record speed at later segments. That's because he presumes you've already watched the earlier clips and knows the variations so he doesn't bother wasting time .

He starts off with the Advance variation (you can read up ChessCafe's rather brief review of the DVD in this link), followed by the Tarrasch, the Classical and the Steinitz.

There are a few minor odd-looking moves in Ziegler's repertoire unfortunately (I leave it to you to figure it out) but I would say it is definitely more than good enough for the club player. He also gives short rift of the Exchange Variation and does not even delve into the Winawer nor the MacCutcheon. So if you're looking for insights into these lines, unfortunately, you would have to look somewhere else.

I have since expanded my repertoire of the French Defence and included a few new lines taken from materials from other sources.

This DVD would take at least a week to digest all the necessary information (especially for newcomers to the French Defence) and I would strongly urge to work at your own pace and not to hurry.

One big pity is that some of the annotations for the games are in Swedish. A real shame as Ziegler's annotations are very insightful.

As a note, some viewers may be left "hanging in the air" regarding a particular reference to a player. In one of his video segments, Ziegler mentions of a player who "knows the French from every angle". He is not referring to Uhlmann or Korchnoi but the Swedish CC Grandmaster Rune Holmberg. You are not likely to find his games in normal databases but you can find it by looking up CC chess databases. I strongly urge you to find his games and go through them if you're interested.

After you have digested the DVD, what next, you say? I would say, read up more on the French Defence. Any books by John Watson regarding the French is usually good.

I know what some people are thinking. Who plays the French Defense these days? It has virtually disappeared from super-GM play. Well, the beauty of the French Defence is that there are still many unexplored lines.

If you want to know more, there is no shortage of great players on the Black side of the French. They include Victor Korchnoi, Wolfgang Uhlmann, Mikhail Gurevich, Nigel Short, Alexander Morozevich and Evgeny Bareev.

And now for something unrelated.....

For the last note of the day, speaking of a trip back to the past...... here's a very nice blast from the past.

Who was undoubtedly acknowledged as the greatest in the chess world?

One that even Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand saw fit to humble themselves and acknowledged; together with other famous grandmasters as shown in the signatures in the picture on the right?

David Bellows, that's who.

I know what you're thinking,

"Who On Earth Is David Bellows?!!" *wink*