The End Of My Holidays

No chess related post today.

As they say, all good things must come to an end. And such it is with my stay here in sunny, humid Singapore.

The thing I really miss most of all is my family, my in-laws and most of all, my brother.

It's been fun but alas, the 3 weeks flew by so quickly I felt like I really didn't have much of a holiday.

I've not been keeping up to date on working on endgames. Instead, I got sidestracked by the many many days I spent shuffling to and fro my parents, my in-laws and my brother.

By the way, I've did some reconnaissance on the local bookstore scene. If you're looking for good chess books, you can pretty much forget it. Borders downtown doesn't contain nice chess books although if you like to order them in, you can - it just takes a couple of weeks.

Kinokuniya at Ngee Ann City (it's not a city - it's actually a shopping centre) stocks slightly more chess books but the section is really hard to find, being placed at the back in a rather obscure location.

However, the chess books in the local libraries are frankly very good. They contain a nice spread of books, from Kasparov's My Great Predecessors to Kutov's Think Like A Grandmaster.

For the last few days, I logged onto FICS and played a few games. I noticed that there are some players using some kind of automated bots to constantly challenge you if you lose. It's kind of funny, you resign, your opponent challenges, you accept, resign, he challenges again.... repeat ad infinitum.... and the move frequency is odd. For example, simple moves take a longer time than you would normally expect and complex positions takes the same average time as an opening move which only shows that there's a silicon behind that brain - some people just have too much time on their hands.

In the meantime, I'll be packing my bags and getting ready for the trip home. Speaking of which, my study term starts on Feb 14. Drats.

Fritz 11 - Strange Infinite Analysis Behaviour

I was very excited yesterday.

I got a chance to give Fritz 11 a whirl on a family member's computer. He got Fritz 11. So I grabbed one of my old games and fired up Fritz 11.

Now in this position, I let Fritz 11 do an infinite analysis on this position (see diagram on left). After letting this position run for over 3 minutes, Fritz threw up the surprising line:

Analysis by Fritz 11: 1. -+ (-1.62): 36.Rxf6 Re1 37.Rxh6 Rxe5 38.dxe5 d4 ... (see 2nd diagram on left)

..... what the... ? 36. Rxf6??

Fritz is kidding, right? No.

Even more surprising is that after the move 36. Rxf6 was played, Fritz now throws up the following evaluation (see 3rd diagram on left) after analysing for about 3 minutes...

1. -+ (-7.17): 36...Qxg3+ 37.Kxg3 Rxe6 38.Rf5 Rd6 39.Rf3 Rd1 ....

What? After taking the first move, Fritz now decides that the position has swung from a -1 evaluation to a -7!

If you look at the first evaluation in the 2nd diagram, for some strange reason, Fritz didn't analyse or see the line 36. Rxf6 Qxg3+ 37.Kxg3 Rxe6.

This is very odd.

If anyone is interested to give this a whirl, I've copied the FEN position below.

4r1k1/2q3p1/4bp1p/3pR3/3P4/5RQP/5PPK/2r5 w - - 0 36

Cheers.

Review Of Alexei Suetin's 3 Steps to Chess Mastery

I recently picked up this chess book from the library. It's titled 3 Steps to Chess Mastery.

I tried looking up a review for the book but the comments were less than favorable (I'm not sure why).

I was actually quite surprised. Having leafed through the about 50 odd pages now, I actually found that this is quite a good book for my chess level.

GM Alexei Suetin has a knack of putting things simply and accurately.

Who is GM Suetin, you may ask? Well, Alexei Suetin is a highly respected GM in former USSR who is also a second and trainer to Tigran Petrosian for many of his most important matches, including his world championship victory in 1963. He was for many years Moscow's senior coach, overseeing the development of promising new talents.

This book combines 2 of Suetin's other works: The Chess Player's Laboratory and The Path To Mastery.

The book is published by Cadogen Chess, first in 1982 and then reprinted again 1983, 1988,1998 and 1996. Certain chess ideas may be a bit dated but the book has surprisingly aged well. It's been translated by Ken Neat.

The book is broken down into 9 main sections and I've highlighted a few subsections within these sections:

Part I : The Chess Player's Laboratory

1. Ways and Means of Improving
- Methods of Evaluating A Position, Planning, The Choice Of Move, Connection Between Opening And Middlegame etc.

2. In The Player's Laboratory
- The Test Of Mastery, Working On One's Own Games, The Technique Of Opening Preparation etc.

Part II: Work On The Elimination Of One's Shortcomings, And Other Problems Of Self-Improvement

3. Certain Tendencies In A Chess Player's Thinking
- Impulsive Thinking, Play By Analogy etc.

4. A Chess Player's Characteristic Thinking Defects
- Sense Of Proportion, Chess Culture, Loss Of Consistency, Keep Your Cool etc.

5. Direct And Indirect Consequences Of Tactical Mistakes
- Mistakes Which Are Difficult To Rectify and Errors Leading To Positional Concessions

6. The Problem Of Choosing A Move
- Combination Visions, The Harmfulness Of Routine Moves, Visual Imagination etc.

Part III: The Master Level

7. Dynamics Of The Struggle And A Concrete Approach To The Evaluation Of A Position
- A Modern Panorama Of The Chess Battle, Inductive And Deductive Methods Of Thinking, Visual And Verbal Ideas etc.

8. Intuition And Risk In Chess
- Broad Aspects Of Intuition, Restrictive Play And 'Pressurizing' etc.

9. The Various Styles And Schools Of Chess Creativity
- Problems Of Classifying Styles, Individual Playing Styles, Playing Styles And Chess Practice etc.

This book has about 190 pages in all. Keep in mind that many of these subsections are only discussed in about 2-4 pages each.

One thing I liked about this book is how Suetin lays out the details to you in a concise manner. He doesn't go through many pages explaining why he states a particular statement. He shows it to you by means of suitable game examples, historical anecdotes (and explains them why they are so).

I'll read to you a few of the paragraphs so you can have a good idea of what the book is like.

The following few paragraphs relates to what should go on in the player's laboratory with respect to to preparation.

"For a young player, wishing to raise the standard of his play, it is important, even essential, to make analysis an integral part of his home training. The starting positions from this can (and should!) be most varied (after all, in practice one has to deal with all kinds of situations). But nevertheless, the emphasis should undoubtedly be on complicated middlegame set-ups, full of tactical content. For the most part, such a criterion is well satisfied by positions arising at the transition from opening to middlegame in present-day openings. It is no accident that it is on such problem set-ups that the strongest players sharpen their analytical mastery. In this way a dual aim is achieved : the development of analytical skill, and a penetration into the jungle of a particular opening system, which one can add to one's 'armoury'.
....

What generally happens is that, the deeper you go into the jungle of such positions, not only does the evaluation not become clearer, but often the player is faced with an even more confused picture.

But this should not dismay the analyst.

A knowledge of highly complicated, practically inexhaustible positions opens up enormous scope for the development of the most varied aspects of chess thinking. The result is that, along with the development of analytical potentialities, the player's genuine understanding of chess grows, without being confined within some formal framework. Also, the deeper your analysis of positions in the transition from opening to middlegame, the greater the advantage you gain over your future opponents. Also in opening preparation, virtually the most important thing for the practical player is to be constantly ahead in your 'production secrets'.

Thus you should attempt to be a Sherlock Holmes of chess. And remember that each time you can get down to the essence of the problem by a combination of painstaking and inventive work, worthy of a clever detective.

It is not all positions, arising on the transition from opening to middlegame, that are full of specific content. But always, after the completion of mobilization, there arise a certain complex of of strategic and tactical problems (provided, of course, that in the opening neither side has made some bad mistake, allowing the opponent quickly to gain a serious advantage).

Therefore, when studying variations, you should attempt in particular to see the 'physical meaning' - the intrinsic strategic and tactical ideas. In short, when studying an opening (ie. in essence, a specific middlegame) you should not so much aim to remember the variations, but rather to study the most important critical positions that arise here."

This is very good advice. The book is practically littered all over the place with explanations like this.

The book also contains some very interesting insights and stories. Take for example, the following excerpt:

"Later I became acquainted with several of the training methods employed by Keres. Thus, for example, he liked to study one and same position from opposite points of view. If say, a pawn was sacrificed for the initiative, with inexhaustible ingenuity he would seek resources for the attack. But then came the 'dead point'. Keres would turn the board through 180 degrees, and with equal ingenuity and energy would begin searching for resources of defence and counter-play."

Too often we have books these days of tactics, endgames, combinations, openings, middlegames. However very few books have been devoted to combining them together so they make sense. What this book does is connects these 'dots', so to speak.

Unfortunately, I've not the chance to investigate the highlighted games mentioned in the book in depth but I think the games serve more to highlight a point (and the lines should of course be checked with computer analysis where possible for accuracy) than anything else.

The book contains many many useful tips on how to master chess and what are the steps needed to achieve success over the board.

If you manage to find this book at an old second hand bookshop, do read a bit through it and see if you like the book.

I know I certainly had.

Endgame Realisation

How good is your endgame technique? Definitely superior to mine, that's for sure.

I recently played this endgame.... or rather, misplayed this endgame.

I managed to convert this endgame... again, playing the 2nd line which Fritz recommended and again, I missed the stronger line. In fact, the difference between the suggested 1st and 2nd lines were so wide, I was surprised I missed it totally.

White just captured my pawn with
47. Rxe3

How would you proceed from here?

[In the game, I played

47...Rf4+
48.Ke2 Rxe3+
49.Kxe3 Kxh5
after which I proceeded to win by marching down my pawn.

However, the strongest continuation was:
47...g4+
48.Kf2 Ra2+
49.Kg3 Rxe3+
And I win White's Rook]

What Do I Do Next?

I've reached an interesting position here arising from the Ruy Lopez: Berlin Defence.

Black just played the move 22... Ne5. I fail to find the correct tactic here, proving once again, my tactical vision is just not good enough. Instead, I found the 2nd best move which Fritz gives as less than optimal - difference of 1.0. A swing large enough to highlight my omission.

My question is this:

What is wrong with Black's position? In this case, I'm not giving out any clues. It's up to you to figure out the best continuing line.

[In the game, I played 23. Nxe5. But I missed the following stronger tactic.

Surprisingly, White can solidify his advantage by playing
23. Nxd6!! The Knight naturally cannot be taken by the Black Queen because if 23... Qxd6 24. Qh6#.

23.Nxd6 Nf7 (forced as any other Knight moves either loses the Knight or results in Qh6#. Note: If the Queen tries to defend with 23... Qe7 then 24.Qxe5+! Qxe5 25.Nf7+ loses a piece
24.Nxf7+ Qxf7
25.Qxc5 and White has netted 2 extra pawns]