Review: Practical Endgames Vol 8 - Practical Rook Endgames

I've finally gotten a chance to sit down and watch Karsten Müller's Endgame Vol 8 - Practical Rook Endgames.

It's taken him a couple of Chessbase DVDs but Müller now is able to smile on camera and is definitely very relaxed. He is in a particularly jovial mood and his presentation on camera is infectious.


There is no denying the endgame aspect of the royal game is definitely in his area of expertise and this time, he gives it in spades.

Mixing a bit of humour (for a German!) in between serious analysis and explanations, Müller is by now extremely comfortable in front of the camera. This is in stark contrast to his earlier DVDs where he can rattle off some complex variations and endgame techniques in a single breath. Here, Müller takes the time to pause and allows the idea to sink in (but not too long). He has definitely become a much better presenter, in fact, in spite of his German accent, his English is easily understandable and he has become one of my two favourite Chessbase authors (the other being Daniel King).


Ironically, one of the best segments was his commentary on an endgame between himself and fellow Chessbase DVD author, Daniel King. It was a team event in the German Bundesliga and Müller's team had by then lost. However, he explains how he wanted to play the endgame through to the end with King much to the consternation of his team-mates who wanted to go out and eat.

"Why go and eat when you can play a Rook ending?" was his reply.

LOL. The game lasted some 75 odd moves so you can imagine how long his team had to wait for him!

This DVD focuses exclusively on Rook endgames. Unlike his earlier DVD 2 (did I review this? I really need to find my old Chessbase DVDs in the closet), he expounds on important techniques such as how to deal with a blockading Rook, how to use the checking distance effectively, how to maximise the full potential of the Rook.

Chessbase has kindly provided a short video of this DVD. In this video, Müller adopts a slightly more serious tone but this video is typical of the rest of his videos, his explanations are always succinct and precise.

However, all this is not just fun and games. When you start the video, Müller fully EXPECTS you to pause the video in the beginning and study the position and decide on the best course of action to take.

I feel that this method is the best way to reap maximum benefit from this DVD.

The DVD is broken down into the following chapters:

Chapter 1: Rook v Pawn (5 videos)
Chapter 2: Rook techniques (9 vide0s)
Chapter 3: Protection against a series of checks (10 videos)
Chapter 4: The 4th phase of the game (3 videos)
Chapter 5: Activity counts most (5 videos)
Chapter 6: Defence (12 videos)
Chapter 7: Complicated cases (8 videos)

The majority of each video lasts between 2-4 minutes. However, do not be put off by the short length of the videos. What matters most important is the communication of ideas and how well the audience is able to absorb the lessons imparted by Müller. And it is here that Müller does not fail you.

There is one more thing I need to add. In some positions when Müller says this game is "theoretically drawn", he EXPECTS you to know HOW TO DRAW THIS GAME. If you're having trouble with this, please do get a copy of his book, Fundamental Chess Endings (or Nunn's Chess Endings) and read it. At the very least, get his earlier Chessbase DVDs Endgames Vol 1 and 2. These 2 DVDs will teach you the basic strategies and how to apply them correctly in endgames.

In summary, this is a top class video presentation given by Müller. He has IMHO, overtaken Dvoretsky as my favourite endgame author.

I am definitely looking forward to his next Chessbase DVD on endgames. Incidentally, if you haven't got enough of his endgame lessons, I encourage you to visit the Chesscafe website (where he produces an Endgame column every month).

Hiarcs 13 v Rybka 4 Opening Books War

The general chess public swooned when Jiri Dufek's Rybka 4 Opening Book (see image on right) hit the market (yes, the very same opening book that Topalov reportedly paid for and used for his World Chess Championship match against Anand earlier this year in Sofia).

But now, a new threat looms over the horizon in the form of the latest update to the Hiarcs opening book - Hiarcs 13c.

A few reports are now trickling in that this updated opening book is beating Rybka4 because Rybka is choosing less than stellar opening lines.

How does that affect me, you may ask?

Well, for the majority of players (those < 2,000 Elo rating), it probably does not matter. However for players above this rating level, things start to get hot under the collar.

Games can be won or loss straight out of the opening (as Anand can testify in Game 1 of the Topalov-Anand WCC match) and every advantage you have, you will use.

One of the main advantages of the Hiarc Opening Book is that it is constantly being revised and improved upon. When you purchase the Hiarcs opening book, you get a year's subscription which promises at least 4 periodic updates.

Sadly Chessbase/ChessOk's offering of Jiri Dufek's Rybka 4's opening book does not have such a feature.

As a chess engine, Hiarcs adopts a slightly different approach to Rybka. In the words of the programmer, Hiarcs tends to think positionally rather than analytically. As anyone who has used Hiarcs knows, Hiarcs tends to think in a more natural human-like way when finding evaluations.

Sadly, Hiarcs 13 was not sold and released as a Chessbase product as was Hiarcs 12 but that does not equate to mean that it is in anyway an inferior product to Rybka 4.

Both chess engines are inhumanely strong.

PS: I don't work for Hiarcs btw and am in now way affiliated to them.

Chessbase Fritz Trainer: Valeri Lilov - Sicilian Kan Review

First off, I wish to categorically state that I have no beef with Lance Martin, the reviewer at ChessCafe. I've made my feelings known about his review and while I disagree with his review and in some instances, made my apologies known to him, I still stand by my review of Seirawan's DVD and simply put it down to a difference of opinion. I'm not a highly rated player nor do I pretend to be one. All my reviews have simply been of the standpoint of one from a patzer.

I've recently acquired one of Chessbase's other offerings (I've been dragging my feet on reviewing Daniel King's other Powerplay DVD on PP12: Hedgehog and I apologise for the delay)

Valeri Lilov's Sicilian Kan (see my pix on right - ok, I took the pix like this because I can't find room on my computer table and had to prop the DVD on my printer instead).

This Chessbase DVD is again typical of other Chessbase DVDs. There's no accompanying leaflets (typically non-related promotional materials from Chessbase on subscriptions to Chessbase Magazines) this time round on this DVD.

This Fritz Trainer comes in a plain DVD box with just the DVD inside (see 2nd image below). It is essentially a no-frills DVD.

The back of the DVD categorically states that Lilov, despite his young age is a famous quality online chess coach. I first came across his name when I still had a subscription to Chesslecture.com (I've since stopped my subscription because I was suffering from "chess information overload" - not easy when you have a job and trying to play chess at the same time). In his Chesslecture.com videos, Lilov's voice (you don't actually get to see the person just hear the voice played over a picture of a chessboard) was clear. I don't expect this to change.


Anyway, onwards with the review.

This DVD highlights 20 games.

I'm going to start comparing this DVD amongst other things with Lance Martin's review at Chesscafe, but also with Johan Hellstan's magnum opus, Play The Sicilian Kan.

Looking at the list, I began to heave a huge sigh (not of relief).

The first thing that comes to my mind is - if this is an opening repertoire DVD - then where are the annotations (typically, you would see the annotator field filled in)?

Without opening the DVD movies, I decided to look through the first game. Nope, no information. 2nd game, no information there either. In fact, ALL of the highlighted games exhibit no useful information at all!

And I don't mean not just useful information but no annotations. To have an idea, here's a screen capture of one of the games.


No words, no annotations, no Informant symbols, not even one "+=" sign in sight!

I'd noticed that this has been a trend of many of Chessbase's Fritz Trainer Opening DVD products. I'd really really wish that they put in some form of annotation. While I enjoyed watching the videos, it's frustrating when you have to open a separate chess program and key in all the relevant info mentioned by the commentator. This is especially more so considering it's a basic opening repertoire DVD.

The main lecture consists of some 21 videos listed as follows:-
01: Introduction:
02: A model game: Spassky,B - Fischer,R
03: The Bb4 idea: Saeed,I - El Taher,F
04: The best formation: Wang Zili - Yakovich,Y
05: How to fight an early Nf3 and e5: Hector,J - Movsesian,S
06: Plan with b5 & Qb6 - Main line: Kundin,A - Roiz,M
07: Plan with b5 & Qb6 - Main line with Bxe3: Timman,J - Sokolov,I
08: Plan with b5 & Qb6 - Deviations: Milu,R - Sulava,N
09: Plan with Bd3 - d7-d5 idea: Akopian,V - Svidler,P
10: Plan with Bd3 - Drago-Najdorf setup: Almasi,Z - Anand,V
11: The Hedgehog: Karpov,A - Bellon Lopez,J
12: Maroczy Bind - Plan with Bc5: Vallejo Pons,F - Epishin,V
13: Maroczy Bind - Plan with Bb4: Erdogdu,M - Navara,D
14: Maroczy Bind - Plan with Bb4 II: Ehlvest,J - Ivanchuk,V
15: Maroczy Bind - Sacrifice of e4: Hector,J - Csom,I
16: Maroczy Bind - Plan against Bd3-h3: Kamsky,G - Gurevich,I
17: Maroczy Bind - The Hedgehog Enhanced: Torre,E - Karpov,A
18: Maroczy Bind - The Sacrifice on e4 for Black: Morozevich,A - Svidler,P
19: General Plan No.1: Gross,D - Votava,J
20: General Plan No.2: Reschun,S - Stanec,N
21: Outro:

With a total video running time of almost 4.5 hours.

In the intro, Lilov explains that he has been playing the Sicilian Kan because it is a dynamic and flexible opening that can transpose into a few other Sicilian variants. Lilov gives a quick overview of the basic difference between the Kan, the Paulsen and the Taimanov (although the Taimanov is a totally different move order and leads to a different idea of the style of play).

One of the things I've always liked about the Kan is that it is as Hellstan in his book mentions, it is more of a system than an opening. Black really can go into typical positions based more on the ideas and plans rather than pure rote memorisation of move orders. One of the bad things I've disliked about the Kan is its slow development.

The first game highlighted by Lilov serves to bring an idea behind the Kan. While the line 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be3 is a very seldom played line, it does bring into mind one very uncomfortable fact. Because White is literally begging Black to play 6... Bb4 (as Dan Heisman would say, White is "Asking for Trouble"). White will find himself having trouble trying to regain the initiative because of Black's uncomfortable pin and target of the square c3.

I felt that once this idea has been communicated, Lilov should have moved on.

Lance Martin in his Chesscafe review felt that after

....7.Nde2 Nf6 8.a3 Be7
he was not sure if Be7 was worth the tempo.

First off, why did White played such a move like Be3 if it was bad? I think this is one point that Lilov only mention much later but one that probably should have been emphasised.

6. Be3 is a very popular move for other Sicilians but not for the Kan. It is the precursor to the dreaded English Attack because White was thinking of doing Qd2 and O-O-O with the typical kingside pawn pushes.

By playing Bb4, Black critically delays the English Attack and forces White to spend a few precious tempi to cope with this threat. In so doing, White often has to make a few "adjustments" which either impede his opening development or make concessional moves.

I know I'm going a bit into theory but that is part of the gist of the Kan move order.

The first lecture I have to say is good but could have been better. It left me with a somewhat good impression but I'd say that a better game should have been selected here and the whole game shown instead.

Lilov explains in a very clear manner and tends to be quite succint in his explanations. So kudos to him for it.

The next couple of lectures was between average to good but the game that turned this review around is on game 7.

In this game position: Timman - Sokolov, Lilov suddenly says that why should Black allow White to win a pawn with Ng6, instead he said,"It looks more suitable to me that Black should play Kf8." and concluded with, "and that's an equal position."

*smacks forehead* at this point, I was truly gobsmacked and I nearly fell out of my chair.

I may be rated only 1400+ but I know a LOSING position when I see one. I'll give you a couple of minutes to think over on why Kf8 in the above diagram leads to a practically lost game for Black. :) Highlight between the brackets if you want to know the answer quickly [Oh dear me, does Black really want to tell the White Knight,"Hello! I got a nice juicy square on e6 for you."]

This really ruined the entire experience for me for this DVD and at this point on, I had to start to question every part of Lilov's opinion and judgement.

I have a minor quibble on game 11. Lilov here attempted to explain the Hedgehog structure but unfortunately a 15 minute video is simply insufficient to explain such a complex structure in so short a time. Daniel King attempted to have a go at this in his Powerplay DVD but even that was still not enough time to explain it comprehensively. For people who are interested in this structure, I suggest Mihail Suba's and Shipov's treatments on the Hedgehog in their books. Lilov is struggling a bit here because he tries to educate the user on the Hedgehog but crams too much information and most of it in brief blurbs. To the user who is unfamiliar with the Hedgehog, he/she will find this lesson confusing.

Now comes the thing which every Sicilian Kan player is interested in - how to treat the Maroczy Bind. Lance Martin in his Chesscafe review accurately points out and I agree with him that Game 12 is a very unsual treatment of the Maroczy Bind and Lilov inadequately points just what is so dangerous with this formation. For those who are new to the Maroczy Bind, look up Hellstan's book - Game 33, page 251. Alternatively, you can look up Wikipedia or do a net search for this.

I would say that the target audience rating of this DVD is between 1500-1800.

Presentation style: 7/10
Material: 5/10
Length: 4/10

Overall: 5.5/10

I gave this low marks on material and length because:

a) Material was lacking in many parts when it comes to further explanation. The horrible mistake on game 7 just left a terrible aftertaste.

b) The length of the video in quite a number of the videos like those based on the Hedgehog was inadequate and seemed discordiant with the rest of the video - some of the choices of the game are a tad suspect.

I'm quite disappointed with this DVD, sad to say. It's definitely not one of Lilov's more memorable efforts. I really want to like it. :-(

Rybka 4 Is Not As Strong As You Think

Someone in Chessbase has a wicked sense of humour when it comes to advertisement of the latest Rybka 4 engine.

If you scroll down towards the end of the page, you would have seen this picture.


What's wrong with this picture?

Rybka4 is analysing the position and shows that Black's best move is ......

20 .....h6

For those who are unaware, this position is Game 4 of the 2010 World Chess Championship between Topalov and Anand. In this game, both Anand and Topalov criticised this move as being weak because it gives White an avenue for a dangerous attack/ Knight sac on h6 (which is what happened in the end).

Interesting, eh? :)

About Kramnik And His Book

While the World Chess Championship (WCC) continues on in Bulgaria, I would like to talk about the previous 14th World Chess Champion, Vladimir Kramnik.

I was watching a bit of Kramnik's Chessbase DVD,"My Path To The Top". Kramnik talks in depth on his first entry into the elite, then match preparations for his WCC title matches in this Chessbase DVD.

I hope for one day to see Kramnik putting out a new autobiography book. And I would like to have read his annotations since his last book in 2000. His one and only book, "My Life And Games" was one of the drearest book ever published (no offense) and the annotations stopped before his WCC match with Kasparov.

I came across his book by chance over the weekend. Looking at the book and comparing with the Chessbase DVD and other resources like Informant and New In Chess, I just don't understand it.

I have enormous respect for Kramnik. His annotations are simply superb and he shows a profound understanding of deep theory and calculation but the book was one of the few books that can put an insomniac to sleep.

When chess readers read an autobiography, they would rather it be filled with interesting materials, the thoughts, the ideas, the plans, essentially what it is like to be in the super-elite GM chess world - not endless reams of variation after variation.

Botvinnik started with his 100 Selected Games, a bit dry but nonetheless informative. But it was Mikhail Tal who paved the way of how autobiography books should be treated. Karpov and Kasparov went annotation crazy in theirs and while Kasparov's treatment in "Modern Chess" was interesting, it was not in the same league as Tal. Anand came close with his book,"My Best Games Of Chess" which won the BCF Book of the Year award.

Since then, no other World Champion has managed to eclipse Tal. The fact that Tal's book still stands today (in spite of computer chess engines' evaluation) is a testament of how important it is to communicate with the reader.

Kramnik is a very deep thinker and from the Chessbase DVD, this trait comes across very evidently. And I think it is an enormous pity that he has not put out another chess book in the last 10 years.

Chessbase Fritz Trainer: Yasser Seirawan - My Best Games Review

Before I start my review, a couple things about Chesscafe's review:

Chesscafe's reviewer, Lance Martin, recently reviewed this DVD and gave it a whopping thumbs down of 1 star.

Unfortunately, I am not familiar with the reviewer and I'm sure he's a competent reviewer. However, I have a couple of problems with his review.

He gave Shirov's My Best Games in the Grünfeld Defence 4 stars and proceeds to say,"It is moves like this that let us understand why people devote their lives to this endeavor. We may not see chess the same way that Shirov does, but the fact that all chess players have certain moves or positions that they will remember for the rest of their lives makes this game worthy of our time and effort. So is this DVD."

I find this comment rather ironic.

The problem is that Shirov has already covered this game in his earlier excellent DVD, Endgame Fireworks and a duplicity of material is rather unfortunate in this instance. I find it strange that for someone who has 48 Fritz Trainers, he forgot to mention that Shirov had already covered this too in an earlier DVD?

In addition, endgame expert Karsten Müller also covered this very same game in one of his Endgame DVDs as well. I may not have as many DVDs as Lance Martin but I know repeated material when I see one.

While he praises Shirov to the skies, he took a rather dim view of Seirawan's DVD in which Seirawan too display certain finesse in terms of technique (Seirawan may not live on Planet Shirov but he is still a strong GM in his own right).

Enought of Chesscafe, it's time to start my review (and also try to answer Lance's criticisms in the meantime). Note that this review is based on my personal preferences as a patzer. So, YMMV.

Seirawan's My Best Games is not any different from other Chessbase DVD products (see my review of Powerplay 11: Defence as a guide to the packaging etc.).

In this DVD, GM Yasser Seirawan traces his days as an early chess professional.

Chesscafe reviewer, Lance Martin first proceeds to take offence with the DVD with the comments,"Thus, we have to take this DVD for what it is: a chess autobiography from one of the highest rated American chess players in history. It begins with his first win over a GM when he was sixteen years old. If we are interested in the games of a junior chess player, then the DVD is worth watching."

With this statement, Lance Martin shows he is sloppy and doesn't bother to verify his facts. Seirawan was born in Damascus in 1960.The first game illustrated was against GM Arthur Bisguier in 1975 which makes him fifteen years old not sixteen (Seirawan even mentions his age for this game in his annotations). And I find that his statement about this DVD being the games of a junior chess player might make people misinterpret that the illustrated games are not of a good quality.

The list of games on this DVD

Of the 22 games covered, Seirawan's only showed 1 game when he was 15 years old. The games listed are:

Seirawan-Bisguier 1975
Weinstein-Seirawan 1977
Timman-Seirawan 1978
Seirawan-Grefe 1978
Darby-Seirawan 1978
Seirawan-Larson 1979
Seirawan-Miles 1979
Zaltsman-Seirawan 1978
Marjanovic-Seirawan 1979
Jhunjhnuwala-Seirawan 1979
Seirawan-Barbero 1979
Gligoric-Seirawan 1980
Van der-Wiel-Seirawan 1980
Seirawan-Korchnoi 1980
Seirawan-Timman 1980
Kovacevic-Seirawan 1980
Seirawan-Tal 1980
Seirawan-Rivas 1980
Seirawan-Korchnoi 1981
Seirawan-Hort 1981
Timman-Seirawan 1981
Karpov-Seirawan 1981

He illustrates 2 of his wins in the World Junior Championship in 1978. As you can see, by 1979, Seirawan was matching wits against the world elite. 3 of his illustrated wins in 1980 was at the famous Wijk Aan Zee tournament where he was joint first with GM Walter Browne among a group of GMs including Korchnoi, Timman and van der Wiel. These games are nothing to be sneezed at.

Stopping any silly typical Sicilian sacrifices on e6

First off, Seirawan is very comfortable with the Chessbase interface and uses arrows and highlighted squares where appropriate to illustrate his thoughts well.

In addition, as this is a chess autobiography, it makes sense to have games when Seirawan was young. If Seirawan thinks that this game is one of his most memorable, then he has every right to include it. I think the Chesscafe reviewer was being overtly critical in his review.

I can easily give 2 counter examples. Kramnik's My Path To The Top Chessbase DVD and Anand's My Career Part 1 DVD both include games when they were very young. Does this mean that they're no less any important to them or they're of an inferior quality? Far from it. In fact, these games helped to illustrate how their chess skills have changed with time and how they've improved as a player to become part of the world elite.

As a result, I find it quite unfathomable that Lance would harp on this since he has some 48 Fritz Trainers. To me, this format has not differed in anyway from any of the other autobigraphical DVDs put out by Chessbase.

Lance then compliments Seirawan,"It was a wonderful win for Seirawan and he does an expert job of annotating it." and then proceeds to tear down the presented material and that Seirawan's annotations are far too brief.

Really. Which is which? If he is talking about there not being enough variations of the listed games, then I agree fully with him.

Cracking open a rock solid defence

But what he conveniently forgot to mention was that Seirawan's annotations are highly personal and different. Seirawan doesn't give you reams and reams of variations (ala Chess Informant style - really, if I wanted that, I let Fritz work its magic or look up past issues of Informant) but what he does communicate through his annotations are his thoughts and ideas. And it is is these thoughts and ideas that are worth their weight in gold. He quoted a game where Bent Larsen gave him a big hug for giving him a wonderful illustrative game about knowing where to put his pieces. He also showed a game which he classified as a turning point for him where he produced a technical win.

A typical annotation by Seirawan on one of his games

Although this DVD contained all of his wins bar one, it doesn't mean that Seirawan is only interested in beating his chest. On the contrary, in some of his games, Seirawan's acknowledged he had overlooked moves or made inferior moves but that both he and his opponent had missed in their analysis.

Lance complains that "Seirawan does not delve into the rationale for many of his moves." I find it quite the opposite. Seirawan is not interested in presenting the entire game and explaining each game move by move. Rather in every game, Seirawan concentrates on a few points where he explains or illustates a particular concept or idea that was important to him and how he goes about accomplishing his objective.

How Seirawan's opponent could have capitalised on his inaccuracy

Some of his ideas and plans are quite deep and original where the outcome is not apparent till a good 7 moves later as shown in Zaltsman-Seirawan. He also explains how he learns and improves his chess skill with each game and how during that time, adjournments helped to improve his game.

I'll give you an example, in Van der-Wiel-Seirawan, Seirawan explains how he exploits his opponent's mistake to move his pieces to squares where they are more effective and then proceeds to destroy White's seemingly rock solid position through a series of combinations. While this short was only 6 minutes long, he didn't had to make any more comments than was necessary and for a patzer like me, it was easy enough to follow.

In his later games, Seirawan starts to go into details on why he plays the moves he did to get to positions that he wanted that he can best use his strengths to win.

No, it's not what you're thinking, Seirawan is actually
making a very good point about the Keres Attack :-)

I would say that the target audience rating of this DVD is between 1200-1800.

Presentation style: 9.5/10
Material: 8/10
Length: 6/10

Overall: 8/10

This is not a training DVD like Daniel King's Powerplay series nor is it a repertoire DVD. Instead, it is more of a very personal autobiography. Think of it like you having a nice conversation with Seirawan in person as he recounts his story over a nice cup of coffee. Seirawan's presentation style is calm, clear and concise. He is never boring and interjects most of the games with a personal viewpoint, making the material very fresh and lively. This DVD is perfect to play when you're tired of doing exhaustive chess tactics or opening repertoire or training sessions. The material is light in that Seirawan doesn't give you variations upon variations of analysis. Instead, he focuses more on main plans and strategies. In so doing, Seirawan has given us an insight into a GM's mind at work.

ChessCafe Review - PP12 and Yasser Seirawan's Chessbase DVDs

Sorry, this is just a short blurb.

I had intended to do a couple of Fritz Trainer reviews (which some of my friends at my local chess club had kindly lent me) and others I had purchased on my own.

Today, Chesscafe's reviewer, Lance Martin, gave the following ratings on ChessCafe:

PowerPlay 12: The Hedgehog - 2 stars
Yasser Seirawan: My Best Games - 1 star

Frankly, I was floored by the poor ratings that were given to these 2 DVDs. I have seen some real stinkers by Chessbase but these 2 DVDs whilst not the best of the Fritz Trainer series, they are definitely not the worst nor are they anywhere near the mediocrity that pervades other interactive chess DVDs.

I have in my possession both software and I intend to do a review on both of them some time in the next week.

Chessbase Fritz Trainer: Powerplay 11 - Defence Review

GM Daniel King is well known among Chessbase with his Powerplay series and his commentaries on playchess.com.

Today, we'll be looking into one of his Fritz Trainers DVD. Powerplay 11 - Defence.

This DVD is a "bare-bones" DVD comprising of just the DVD and the cover. This suits me just fine since it's the material on the DVD inside that matters not the fancy presentation or leaflets etc. accompanying the DVD.


As is common with his other Powerplay DVDs, the material in this case concentrates on one aspect of chess - here, it is on the art of defence.

A total of 39 short video clips make up this DVD. Some of these video clips last between 2 min and 25 min. In all, the DVD has about a total of 2.5 hr video running time (English only).


Please note that GM King also presents in German as well so German viewers are also able to follow his lectures.

The DVD is presented into King's usual format, the test positions are given during his introduction. A total of 12 Test positions are covered. His main material coverage is as follows:


Premature castling
Highlighted games: Marcelin - Shirazi

Delayed castling
Highlighted games: Topalov - Ponomariov, Sveshnikov - Kasparov

The advance of the f-pawn
Highlighted games: Bareev - Filippov, Kozlov - Yemelin, Karpov - Kortschnoj

The h4/g4 advance
Highlighted games: Spassky - Petrosian, Kapnisis - Skembris, Morozevich - Ivanchuk

Passive Play
Highlighted games: Lamorelle - Fressinet

The weakness of the back rank
Highlighted games: Arlandi - Nunn, Kasparov - Karpov

The process of elimination
Highlighted games: Kramnik - Anand, Illescas - Andersson


In his introduction, King explains that defence is not a particularly positive title because "no one likes to defend in chess." Actually, this title is not about discussing tricky defence techniques but more about how to identify situations where one can fall into a defensive or passive position. But he thinks that the title,"How to avoid going on the defensive" is probably too much of a mouthful to put as a title. I would agree. :)

As I mentioned earlier, in this DVD, he gives his customary test positions in the introduction. In these test positions, King wants the viewer to setup the board and engage in some hard thinking on what candidate moves to play and to not analyse from the computer screen. Or as King says, "to let the ideas flow through your fingers".

With respect to the test positions, the maximum benefit from this DVD IMHO is to analyse the test positions, calculate the variations/responses and after going through the main chapters, to go back to these test positions and see if you might want to change any of the positions/moves before going to the test solutions.


The test positions range from positional play to strategic play, from complex middlegame positions to endgame play. In all, 10 test positions are highlighted but one game will be discussed in 3 separate videos. Calculation is of the utmost importance here. The viewer is definitely going to get a good brain workout. Oh and don't forget to close the notation window (so you don't inadvertently look at the answers).

As always, King's presentation is at a comfortable level and is clear in his explanations. He does not rush things and takes the time to explain the moves and possible side moves. He also makes very good use of highlights and arrows to explain his ideas.

King also highlights important parts of a good defence - which involves a good amount of careful calculation, the potential of creating counter-attacking possibilities, when to trade and when not to trade. He shows you typical scenarios and how to overcome them and how not to be afraid of "ghosts" (as they say in chess).

The presentation material is excellent but the scope of this topic is too big to present in under 3 hours.

One game I would have definitely like to see him cover was the incredible game, Kramnik - Anand, Belgrade 1997 where Anand displayed an incredible array of defensive skills but that game would've probably taken up over an hour to explain. :)

IMHO I would say that the target audience rating of this DVD is between 1200-2100.

Presentation style: 9/10
Material: 8/10
Length: 5/10

Overall: 7.5/10

This is not to say the DVD is poor. It's quite the opposite, the material is excellent but I feel that more material could have been covered to reinforce certain points. I come away from this DVD learning some new things about the art of defence but I also felt the coverage was light and not as comprehensive as a whole if you compare with some of his earlier Powerplay DVDs. If you are a player who constantly gets into trouble or falling into passive positions, this DVD will really help to open your eyes.

Chessbase's Anand DVDs

Ok, I admit it. I have a soft spot for the current undisputed world champion Viswanathan Anand.

The Indian super-grandmaster is hard to dislike. No one can deny that Anand has been a good ambassador of the royal game and his conduct OTB has always been above reproach.

I have always had a liking for Anand's rather direct and unpretentious play.

And guess what Chessbase decides to do?

Viswanathan Anand: My Career Vol. 1

Viswanathan Anand: My Career Vol. 2

Which means I have a good idea of where the money for my Christmas presents are going.... much to the dismay of my wife.

And yes, I hate Chessbase. They're evil. ;)

Speaking of Anand, I do wish he releases an update to his book: Vishy Anand, My Best Games.

The period spanning 2000 onwards (where the book stopped) has been very scant on details while Anand has won quite a number of tournaments since then, sometimes with incredible play.

Take for example, this Tal-style lesson in the art of sacrificing material he gave to young Sergey Karjakin at the Corus Wijk aan Zee tournament in 2006 or this killer Knight lesson to Magnus Carlsen at Linares-Morelia 2007.

Chess Magazines And Opening Knowledge

Chess players are thoroughly spoilt these days with a variety of chess magazines.Informator, New In Chess, Chessbase.... lots and lots of chess material and a huge number of them devote their sections to opening novelties.

Truth be told, for a patzer like me, I don't need to know Kramnik's 21st novelty move in the Catalan or Vishy's 37th new move in the Ruy Lopez.

So why do chess openings seem to grasp our attention so much?

The Chinese have an idiom,"A good start means that you're halfway to success."

I apologise for sounding like a fortune cookie but I learnt a valuable lesson on Wednesday night in my loss.

I misplayed my opening. Instead of going with my tried and trusted response to 1.e4, I did something crazy and duly got whalloped. You can say, that after the 6th move, I spent the rest of the 40 odd moves trying to repair the damage, leading to more holes and weak squares appearing all over my position.

In short, the game was effectively over in 6 moves.

Anyway, back to chess magazines. If you're looking to improve your opening knowledge, I'm giving a quick run-through some of the major ones (I apologise for leaving out TWIC - The Week In Chess) - they would be more than sufficient for the average club player.

Chess Informator/Informant. I got my hands on a very very old Informator (borrowed it from someone) and I was scared off my pants by the amount of knowledge that was present in there. This isn't some Uncle Bob's home cooked analysis, you're looking at heavy duty opening theory and annotations (Informator uses the well-known method of using symbols in their annotations so there's no words in their explanations). If you are thinking of making chess a career, this probably belongs to your must-have library. For the amateur (below 2000), I give this a miss.

Chessbase Magazine. I acquired a dated Chessbase Magazine 121 and found it was wonderful. Chessbase magazine tackles the chess theme in a slightly different way. The DVD format is of a huge help - you get Chess done - the multimedia way, you get a nice array of multimedia videos and chessbase files to work through for some of the opening knowledge. However, I was a bit disappointed in that Chessbase sometimes inserts "fillers" (you know how it's like when you go to catch a movie, and the cinema operators try to show filler movies to grab your attention like "Coming soon to a theatre near you" when all you want is to get the actual movie to start?). It's a bit like that. However, what I was disappointed was that some of the videos were in German! Errr... ok. Okay, I know Muller speaks in his native tongue in his Endgame videos but really, Chessbase should cater for a more international audience and trying to stick in a few videos in German with no equivalent videos in English gives you that same feeling of having the rug pulled from under you and gives you the feeling of being left out. One of the problem I realise is that the opening knowledge is not one that is catered for beginners but rather for people who already have a pet opening repertoire and looking to explore other possibilities within their repertoire. So if you're looking to have a bit of fun where you can relax back and work through possible improvements in your opening repertoire and at the same time, catch up on recent chess events/competitions, then this DVD is for you.

New In Chess. I love this magazine. I am fortunate in that my local library occasionally purchases them. It's fairly lightweight and I find them to be fun to read! Think "chess for the masses ie. the non-super Grandmasters" and you'll know what I mean. It contains both serious and fairly lightweight columns, giving you a nice balance between the amateur and the more serious.

And finally, we come to one of my favourite websites on opening theory, Chesspublishing.com. They have a variety of subscriptions but I found the best value for this site for an amateur like me is probably the 3-for-2 subscription. For about AU$50 odd bucks a year, you get periodic updates on 3 of your favourite openings for the price of 2. This is more than sufficient for you to use in tournament play for players under a rating of 2000. They also have a forum for you to air your views, and you get to mingle with like-minded players.

Updated note: Lest it be misconstrued, I don't subscribe to any of these magazines on a regular basis. They were more for curiosity, rather than anything. In tournament play at patzer level, getting a few of those Starting Out books based on your favourite repertoire and maybe 2 more serious opening books is definitely more than enough for the typical club player. In the end, your opening repertoire is designed to ensure you don't suffer as I did. Tactics, strategies and endgame training should still be the mainstay of your chess training.

Death Of A Chess Laptop

All of my chess stuff is stored on my laptop and yesterday, it decided to gasp its last breath .... for good.

The HDD is probably recoverable (together with most of my tournament results+opening repertoire as well as some Chessbase videos and Chess.FM videos) but unfortunately I can't get to it. My wife has a laptop but I don't feel like "usurping" her laptop for my chess stuff and I don't think that's fair.

So for now, I will have to scale back my chess stuff and find another way to record my chess stuff. I was also in the midst of preparing my opening repertoire and now I guess I have to resort to pen and paper instead of having a laptop to replay my moves.

Just Grrrrrrr......... eeeeeat!

One of my network administrators at work says I could probably get a refurbished laptop for cheap and gave me a weblink. I scoured the weblink and it looks interesting.

Some of the old laptops with 80GB HDD + 1 GB RAM and a Celeron are less than $300. I am quite tempted to get one of these but the missus might have something to say about spending more money on chess than is required.

Considering how much time and money I've already spent on chess videos, I don't think I can run this past her.

By the way, in case anyone is wondering why I have not been blogging much about chess stuff, it is because I'm right now in a lull period and taking a rather extensive break from chess after the Ryde Eastwood Club competition.

There's nothing on for me tomorrow at the club so I'm not sure if I want to go there anyway. I may instead want to stay at home and check out King's latest DVD.

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.

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*

Christmas Presents For Chess Buffs

It's that time of season again. And this year, my Christmas presents have been planned beforehand.

My father-in-law is getting Muller's Endgame DVDs from Chessbase for his Christmas present.

Last year, I got him Ari Ziegler's The French Defense DVD (from Chessbase) for his Christmas present but apparently, he didn't think much of the French Defense. The year before, I gave him the book Tal-Botvinnik 1960 which he did read it and play through and analyse the annotated games in less than 1 week!

My brother-in-law on the other hand is getting one of Daniel King's PowerPlay DVDs.

With Christmas around the corner, I'm enjoying Convekta's Total Chess Training and am currently reading a rather nice book, Mikhail Sherevsky's Endgame Strategy. I hope to finish the book come new year.

All Worth It

Folks,

Here it is (see diagram on right) , the reason why I:
a. forfeited my last 6 games in my chess club competition
b. took 1 week of annual leave from my work
c. woken up with "keyboard" face (aka. falling asleep at my keyboard) more times than I can count
d. ate instant noodles the last 8 days

My next study term doesn't start till February next year. So I have a good 3 months to brush up on my OTB chess skills. *grin*

Now that we got that out of the way, I thought I take a little breather (especially after that last post) and post a small little review of a Chessbase (yes, the nerds from Germany- I can't count the number of times that website has pictures of attractive looking women playing chess which is highly embarassing) DVD.

It's a slightly dated DVD. It's from GM Daniel King's PowerPlay 1 DVD - Mating Patterns.

Yes, it's another less than veiled attempt by Chessbase to seduce you to part your hard-earned money.... and to provide GMs with some additional income.

Btw the picture on the right of Daniel King is not him asking you for a handout (although it may appear to be so) nor to buy more of his DVDs (which he certainly won't mind).

Bad jokes aside, in this DVD, King explores in detail the following main mating patterns:

a. the Greek gift sacrifice
b. the Lasker double bishop sacrifice
c. the Lawnmower Mate
d. the Bishop See-Saw
e. the H-file Rook distraction
f. the Knight mate
g. the Back Rank mate

In each of these patterns, King throughly explains the combinations needed to carry out each of these tactical treats successfully and when to recognise the tactics fail.

I have to say that among other commentators in other Chessbase DVDs, he is one of the most interesting commentators and there's seldom a dull moment in his presentations.

King is precise, clear and engaging. He also slips in a few jokes to keep up the interest of the viewer, which I think is wonderful in that it breaks up the monotony - especially if you've been viewing 3 or more lectures (like I have been doing) consecutively.

In all, there are approximately 40 lectures and 11 exercises in this DVD, totaling about 4 hours.

The only caveat of this DVD is that most of these tactics can be read from say, Vladimir Vukovic's classic The Art Of The Attack and there is little fresh material here if you are already versed in these mating attacks.

Most of the lectures start off from middlegame positions where tactical shots abound.

There's a minor quirk here. King was puzzled at one stage on how to remove the arrows he had placed all over the board and had to ask, "Mr. Cameraman, what am I doing wrong?" which clearly demonstrated his unfamiliarity with the ChessBase user interface. *tsk tsk*. ;)

But other than that small slip, his annotations are excellent.

Now the million dollar question. Will I recommend this DVD to other players?

Well, I am quite tempted to ask you to read Vukovic's classic and other well known chess tomes instead. This DVD fills the gap for an improving player who has little time to study and wants an introduction to the world of mating attacks and mating combinations.

I would rate this DVD more suitable for beginners to early intermediate players.

Oh, I find the review at Chessbase on this DVD is pretty much spot on.

Fritz11

Chessbase is sure releasing lots of new chess engines of late.

Shredder 11 is out and Fritz is arriving soon on Nov 22 and my wallet is going to be a lot thinner if I yield to the temptation.

But should I really upgrade my Fritz10? I don't really see the need to at the moment and I'll probably defer buying it until I can pick it up dirt cheap when Fritz 12 comes on.

At the current moment, I don't really need a super duper powerful chess engine that I use only for post mortems because my chess skills are nowhere near master level.

Thanks but no thanks, chessbase.