Chesswitch on holidays

This blog is on holiday until further notice. Summer has been getting at me and work and maths have been priority number one lately. I hope that winter, which will deprive me from many outdoors activities, will bring me into the chess mood again. Untill then, chesswitch is on holidays!

Chess Secret: Winning with the Black

Statistically black looses more gamess than white. 60% of the games won are for the white, which is a significant percentage but still a subjective one. There are people who play very well as black. Styles vary. But I was let into an interesting secret of playing with black.

Usually I block the center when playing with black and use Nimzowitch ideas:

"First restrain, then blockade, finally destroy!"

Many times this system works. Sometimes it doesn't. The drawback of this system is that it needs to played perfectly by good chess players, otherwise a novice might get trapped into a passive game, not develope all pieces on time and quickly loose. There is more to this system than these lines of course.

My teacher suggested trying to create asymmetrical positions when playing with the black. He said that since black always has the second move, symmetrical positions do not give him the opportunity to attack but to solely defend. Asymmetrical positions create a little more fun on the chessboard and open up more possibilities for the black! That is why the sicilian defence is so popular as black opening!

Mysterious Alekhine :: A genious or a war criminal?

Alekhine is one of my chess idols. I admired his chess style but mostly I admired the openings he invented. His life seems to have been very controversial though. I have read before that he might have been involved with the "bad guys" of the second world war and I always hoped that this might have been an inaccuracy. I had also read about the mysterious way he died. It is officially claimed that he choked from a piece of food or that he had a heart attack. This article in ChessBase revealed a very important claim or hypothesis. That Alexander Alekhine might have been shot by a a state group of the french government that was created to punish those who had co-operated with the enemy during the second world war. This claim was done by the doctor who apparently had been pressed by the government to write a false death certificate.

If Alekhines association with the enemy was true then it is truly dissapointing that a great chess genious could have taken part, even merely by lending his name, to war crimes. The german wikipedia article states that he might have allowed the germans faschists to use his name in hate-articles so that he can continue his chess career. The english wikipedia article states that this statement has not yet been proved despite the extented investigations. The german wikipedia article goes on to present with even more horrifying rumours I do not even wish to discuss here. Fact is that we do not know the truth. Fact is also that he had been expelled by the chess community after the end of the second world war.

If he had been a criminal then he did not seem to find solace among criminals after the war. He was depressed and lonely, sensitive in a way that a cold-blooded criminal could not have been. In his own words July 1944:

"The best part of my life has passed away between two world wars that have laid Europe waste. Both wars ruined me, with this difference: at the end of the first war I was 26 years of age, with an unbounded enthusiasm I no longer have. If, sometime, I write my memoirs – which is very possible – people will realize that chess has been a minor factor in my life. It gave me the opportunity to further an ambition and at the same time convince me of the futility of the ambition. Today, I continue to play chess because it occupies my mind and keeps me from brooding and remembering."

Regardless what the truth actually is, his chess-achievements and knowledge is what keeps me admiring him. We usually never really know the true characters of famous genious and personalities. But we can use them in the most positive and contructive way, disregarding the negative aspects, for our own personal growth.

Learning Chess Openings is a dull business

Learning openings is a dull task when it comes to reading whole books about them. I am not afraid to confess that I find this extremely boring. However, since I do like to learn openings I discovered a new and fun way of learning them. I visit chessgames.com browse through my favourite chess players and view their games. Before choosing a game to view I take into consideration the opening played and decide whether I want to learn that. Surprisingly this method does have good results. It is fun and most importantly it is quick! It takes more than the double time to set up a board, fetch a book and try to read through the chess ciphers. At least by viewing games one can concentrate upon learning and not on whether one reads the chess script in a correct way or not.

Today I discovered that the d6 of the black in the sicilian is not limited to the dragons variation. It seems that also the najdorf uses that and who know how many more? Now I am left wondering which move actually differiantates the dragon from the najdorf.... ??

In search for the perfect black opening - Dragon's Sicilian

I know I should not be studying openings, I know that they are for more advanced chess players but they really do fascinate me. I believe they do teach me ways of understanding the strategy of chess. I am not sure why but it is more difficult to find interesting opening for the black and then once you get to know them, you find that almost all openings have been written to deal with the problems of the black. The fact that black has the second move is a disadvantage and black has to fight a lot to become even. Or maybe I am just bumping into openings that are suitable only for the black.

I have had a repulsion for the sicilian, maybe because my brother used to play it a lot and I never could beat him. I tried playing it when I was younger and too inexperienced and it did not lead to success. Many years passed until I decided to play chess again and now I wanted to get to know the sicilian a bit more, at least how to face it. The first interesting sicilian variant I came across had the e6 at some point. I admired this e6! What an amazing move! I played this variant again and again. Then I got a book called Dragon's Sicilian and started to read it. To my great disappointment the first analysis did not have any e6 .. it had d6! D6??? I could not believe it, nor could I understand its philosophy. What a pity I thought, maybe I should find out what the e6 is called and get a book on it. But the more I read into this book the more I started to find d6 "not that bad'. Now I have just read a few pages and I cant understand what I was thinking when I liked the e6 :))!! Probably both openings are good, but it is going to be the dragon's sicilian for me now and I only play this at yahoo games to get to know it more!

Which leaves me again with no opening for as white... but we cannot have it all, can we?

Chess Motivation

I have 2 posts in my viruswitch blog about chess. I wrote them last january when I hadn't started this chessblog yet. In fact what I describe in them has been the seed of my chess motivation that grew into my little addiction. I feel as if there is something missing without these 2 posts from this blog, so I am going to republish them here.

Chess at the Speed of Light

Sunday, January 29, 2006 // posted by viruswitch at 01:21

Today was one those rare days that will remain unforgetable to me. It was the first time I saw a grand master of chess (national and european champion, 3rd medal worldwide) in action. Needless to say that I was taken aback with surprize, shock and admiration. I have never seen anything similar in my entire life! The chessmaster was very friendly and funny, doing jokes all the time while playing against us in a speed, comparable almost to that of light.

The clock was set at 5 minutes for the opponent and ONLY 35 seconds for the chessmaster! 35 seconds are normally not even enough to perform all the game-moves of the pieces along the board. But his fingers were moving so fast, still much slower than his mind, which foresaw the next moves and made combinations that beat all of his opponents within seconds. At the end of the evening, he analysed some games and taught us several things.

I am very happy that I had the honour of getting a great interview from him. The interview will be published in one of my sites and and in the local newspaper. Tomorrow is the official simultane game and even though I know I will loose, I am looking forward to it because I remember his words:

"What matters is the knowledge one gains out of a game and not victory or loss. That is why one should not get dissapointed but keep on playing and learning from ones experiences."

Almost a draw with a GM

The draw was right in front of me in move no 39. I saw it, I knew it, but I didnt believe in it. Thats why I lost it. The game was amazing, although I have to say that the grand master gave me 2 extra rounds to think. In the end not many people were left playing and he was returning much quicker to my board. The truth though is that I have much more to learn in chess. By no means would a draw mean that I have the level of the grand master. So maybe I shouldnt even think about it and return to the "earth". Its just frustrating because I saw it but I didnt play the correct move.

Here is the game:

Grand Master - Viruswitch

1. d4 Nf6
2. c4 e6
3. Nf3 Bb4
4. Bd2 B:d2
5. Q:d2 o-o
6. Nc3 Re8
7. e3 b6
8. Be2 Bb7
9. o-o Ne4
10. N:e4 B:e4
11. Ne1 c5
12. f3 Bf5
13. e4 Bg6
14. d5 e5
15. Nc2 d6
16. Ne3 Nd7
17. Bd1 Nb9
18. Ba4 Rf8
19. a3 a5
20. Bb5 Ra7
21. b4 Na6
22. B:a6 R:a6
23. b:c5 b:c5
24. Rb1 a4
25. Rb7 f5
26. e:f5 B:f5
27. N:f5 R:f5
28. Rb1 Ra8
29. Qb2 Rf8
30. Re1 Qh4
31. Re4 Qh6
32. h3 Rf4
33. R:f4 Q:f4
34. Rb8+ R:b8
35. Q:b8+ Qf8
36. Q:f8 K:f8
37. Kf2 g5
38. Ke3 Kg7
39. Ke4 h5 ?????????
40. Kf5 black resigns

The original postings can be found here.

Deep Fritz 8 :: A great and funny chess program

I installed Deep Fritz 8 today and I must say I am impressed! Chessmaster 9000 didn't make it for me, I got bored trying to find my way around it. Fritz on the other hand is funny! Plus it looks powerful. The settings are there in the form of small buttons just like in dreamweaver :))! And the "coach" warns each time you make a bad move.

The Coach (a funny strickt looking guy with a cigar in his mouth, a hat of the sixties on, holding huge chesspieces...) warns with subtle hints like: "Can't the million move monster simply catch your pawn." Or: "G1-e2? What nerve!" You can reply with:

-Give me a subtle hint.
-Give me a broad hint.
-I dont believe that.
-Ok I take it back.

What fun!

Ponziani Opening - English Opening

Today I learned a variation of the Ponziani Opening or the English Opening. It is a beautiful opening! I wish I knew that during the times I was playing e4. I grew to hate e4 because the position always ended in a very normal and same way. But the english opening is very nice! I am thrilled. I might consider playing it also as Black. Since I dont know the sicialian yet, and the Alekhine doesn't prove to be very powerful against strong players. I might have some chances with the english one. I will try it tonight. The variation I learned is :

1. e4 e5
2. Nf3 Nc6
3. c3 ! f5!

both moves seem almost revolutionary to me! The White's reply is even more astonishing!

4. d4! and the correct way for the Black to capture is fxe4
5. Nxe5 Qf6
6. Ng4 Qg6
7. Bf4 (threatening the pawn at c7) d6
8. Ne3 Nf6
9. Na3 Be7
10. Qb3 a6
11. Nac2 Nd8
12. Bg3 Nf7
13. Bc4 0-0 +=

I would not want to be the black in this position. All variations end in favour of the white. This means I shouldnt play it as Black. Or I ll have to look into the next variations such as 3... d5.

I think I have been reading too much on the hypermodern school of chess and I have not gotten to know the romantic school (english, scotch, three knights, four knights, italian etc.)

e4 is still a problem for me as Black.