Chess Engines On The Cheap

.... well actually, free. :)

Unless you happen to be a chess professional or a serious chess enthusiast/player and absolutely want the latest and greatest chess engines, ranging from Hiarcs 13 to Rybka 4 and you have a bit of moolah to spend, then you probably don't want to read this blog post.

An amateur and a patzer such as myself, don't use the latest nor the greatest chess engine at all.

Besides the ever common Crafty (did you know it came in joint 2nd in the recent 2010 World Computer Rapid Chess Championship?) which you can get for free (http://www.craftychess.com/), there are also a few free chess engines available.

Rybka v2.3.2a is available for free from the Rybka website (http://www.rybkachess.com/free/Rybka232a.zip)

Stockfish is another free chess engine (http://www.stockfishchess.com/download/) along with Toga II.

There are also other free chess engines that are available and which have been removed from participation due to accusations of decompilation and cloning by the Rybka team. These chess engines include Firebird and Ivanhoe (which are reputedly even stronger than Rybka4). As to where to get these chess engines, well, I don't need to tell you how to find them, do I?

Finish Him

In the game "Mortal Kombat"(or as I affectionately like to call it - More-Dull Combat), the finishing blow to win over your opponent in this computer game is to land a killer blow (called a "Fatality"). So what has is got to do with chess?

Well, is there anything worse than losing a chess game?

Yes, when it's losing a chess game that you know you had a winning position but you could not convert the advantage and not being able to land the killing blow!

History has been filled with such examples from patzers like me, all the way to elite Grandmasters (the Topalovs, Anands and Kramniks etc.). It has also occurred with surprising regularity and at the highest levels (see the Botvinnik - Bronstein World Championship match 1951).

The recent Chess Olympiad is a good example.

Just to show you how bad my calculation skill is, take a look at the following position:

My opponent Black just played

20. ....Qd4?? trying to exchange off my Queen. I meekly retreated my Queen in the game but there is a nice little tactical blow in this position that will give me an advantage.

Can you spot it?


It's 21. Nd4!.

Once you see the move, it's not hard to realise what is happening. If Black takes the Queen with 21.... Qxg4 22 Nf6+ forks both King and Queen and White is a healthy piece up.

If Black moves the King with 21.... Kg7 Then 22. Qxd4 and either 22... cxd4 or 22... exd4 results in the 2 Rooks being forked with 23. Nd7 with a healthy exchange up.

So how does a patzer like me improve my skill in recognising killer blows?

We turn once again to the patriarch Mikhail Botvinnik.

Botvinnik had no chess coach. So how then did he develop his talent?

What he would do is to play over his games, extenuously finding improvements in his play or he can learn to play better. He will play out as many variations of his games as much as possible, objectively trying to seek out the "truth" in each position. By doing so over and over and over again, Botvinnik's chess acumen improved. He start to formulate plans, strategies, and more importantly, he developed his incredible ability to calculate long variations accurately.

This kind of training plan is purposeful. It's training with a plan, a plan that identifies your weaknesses and strengths and how to improve on your weaknesses and to develop your strengths at the same time.

In my case, my weaknesses are in the middlegame and in tactics. As a result, I find myself unable to recognise opportunities when they present themselves. So my training plan should involve solving middlegame problems, and tactical problems and familiar patterns and strategies arising from my typical middlegames.

So what is your plan?

Attacking Manual Wins ECF Book Of The Year

A well deserved and my heartiest congratulations to Quality Chess and to GM Jacob Aagaard.

The English Chess Federation has awarded the 2 volume work Attacking Manual 1 and 2 as ECF Book Of The Year.

I know what some readers might think. What's so great about these 2 books on attack that hasn't been dealt before? How do you compare them with evergreen books like Vladimir Vukovic's magnum opus Art Of The Attack or Rudolph Spielmann's The Art of Sacrifice in Chess?

I got a chance to browse a few chapters of it and the work is stunning, to say the least. You don't get phrases like "now White is winning" or "the rest is just technique".... GM Aagaard actually takes the time to tell you (in words - not variations) of the hows and the why. And nearly 99% of these explanations go into paragraphs, detailing the nuances of the position and the ideas and strategies attached to them!

This kind of work is getting rare these days where chess books (especially opening manuals) seem to be popping up, left, right and center.

And in the publishing world where pages are often precious "real estate" and tend to be in short supply (especially for chess books), Attacking Manual 1 and 2 breaks both stereotypes. Attacking Manual 1 contains over 320 pages of information while Attacking Manual 2 weighs in at over 450 pages of instructional work! These 2 books are truly phenomenal.

One final word about the books. IMPT: If you plan on getting Attacking Manual 1, do get the Revised and Expanded Edition. GM Jacob Aagaard clearly has put a lot of love and care into these 2 books enough to release a revised version in the space of 2 years - something nearly unheard of in the realm of chess publishing.

So if you don't have these books and you love to attack (or defend), then don't walk to the bookstore, run and get it and you'll have hours .... err, make that months of enjoyment.

Endgame Technique & Karsten Müller

When anyone mentions training on endgames, one of the names that frequently pops into conversation is Germany's very own chess mathematician and Chessbase presenter Dr Karsten Müller.

At times, his name has become so synonymous with endgame technique that I find it hard to separate one from the other.

He appears everywhere. When he's not releasing books (eg. the latest ChessCafe Puzzle Book 3), you can see him on every issue of Chessbase Magazine (where he deals out even more endgame commentaries and analysis in Chessbase video format), on Chessbase Fritz Trainers (his Endgame series are still ever popular) or on ChessCafe's monthly endgame columns.

And when he's not busy with doing books and videos, he plays for the chess club Hamburger SK team in the German Bundesliga. Dr Müller (he got his PhD at the University of Hamburg) was also a coach and trainer.

One of the reasons for his popularity is his video presentations for Chessbase. He attacks each video lesson with such fervour and aplomb and at times, is unintentionally humorous. In one endgame lesson, he looks at the position in a 2R+K vs 2R+K endgame and proclaims, "now, you can choose to exchange off one pair of the rooks.... *pause* .... maybe not, we shall see..."

I've been an avid reader of Müller's Chesscafe columns. If you sort through the Chesscafe archives, his Endgame columns are worth their weight in gold. If you're below 2000 Elo rating, there are at least 100 Elo points waiting to be earned in those columns.

(Above image: Karsten Müller in his Chessbase Endgame DVD
examines one of his own games in an endgame
which he converted with ease
- yes, he does know his endgame, folks!)

Some fun facts:

He achieved his first GM norm at the German Championship 1997. The critical game took place on his 27th birthday, he was a whole rook down but his opponent was short on time and allowed him a perpetual check.

As he was about to publish his book, Fundamental Chess Endings with Frank Lamprecht, tablebases started to appear on the chess scene. He had to go back and check all the analyses (yikes!) . To make matters worse, he uses the Nunn convention where each move marked by an exclamation mark(!) means it is the only move to play.

Igor Tabolyi sought fit to put a chapter on Müller in the book, Genius In The Background.

Müller has also translated a few chess books into German including Secrets Of Modern Chess Strategy, How To Beat Your Dad At Chess and Dvoretsky's Analytical Manual.

A Young Smyslov Game

The 7th World Chess Champion Vasily Vasilyevich Smyslov was one of the strongest players and some might argue, the strongest player in the 1950s, eclipsing Mikhail Botvinnik.

Just how good was he?

When you consider that he played 3 World Championship matches with Botvinnik in 1956, 1957 and 1958 and yet emerged with a plus score against Botvinnik, it's no small feat.

One of the most famous quotes from Smyslov was, "I will play 40 good moves. If you can play 40 good moves, we will draw."

He sure knows how to make the skill of making good moves seem effortless!

In this following game position (taken from the book Smyslov's Best Games, a young Smyslov is playing against Gerasimov in the Championship of the Moscow House of Pioneers in 1935, we look at this game after Gerasimov (White) plays 19. h3.

What did the young Smyslov (as Black) uncork that forced White to resign on move 22?


FEN Position:
[r2r2k1/1b3ppp/ppq1p3/4P3/N1P2bn1/PQ5P/1B3PP1/R3RBK1 b - - 0 19]

When you're ready, highlight between the brackets for the answer.

[Smsylov played the move. 19... Rd3!!
In the game White played
20. Qxb6 (if 20. Qxd3 Bh2+ 21. Kh1 Nxf2+ loses the Queen)
20... Rxh3 !! (the point)
21. Bd4 (if 21. Qxc6 Bh2+ 22. Kh1 Nxf2#) 21... Bh2+
22. Kh1 Bxe5+ (and White is helpless to stop a Windmill using a Bishop which loses the Queen!)
0-1
]