While reading an old tournament book about the prestigious Montreal 1979 tournament, I came across an incredible sacrifice by L. Kavalek against R. Hubner: Kavalek sacrifies a whole rook on move 15 for some initiative...This sacrifice just looks crazy, a cheap blitz swindle and yet, as we will see below, this is far from clear (courtesy of our silicon friend Stockfish)
A few takeaways:
When attacking,
Always try to involve all your pieces (cf. 21.Re1!!)
Try not to exchange your attacking pieces unless there is a clear gain in sight (True that 21.Nxh8+ grabs the exchange but White still remains a piece down with a dying initiative)
Even if the attack is not going your way, keep trying to find resources and counter chances; even after Nxh8+, Kavalek probably misses a draw at some point in the game (28. Ba5!? instead of 28.Qf3)
When defending,
Sit tight and calculate variations!
Don't be afraid to make "ugly" moves (24...Qh7; 28...Qh8) as long as they are backed up by your calculations
Be patient and your time will come! (30...Qxc4+)
We have to credit L. Kavalek for his inventiveness and courage to play such a bold move, what a pity that he was not able to follow up with the right idea!
In the latest edition (2014-2) of New In Chess, Levon Aronian gave a very interesting interview and said something that struck me as fairly obvious and yet it took me a while, in my early Chess days, to realize how powerful this is:
We are living in a society that is fixated on numbers, rankings, things like this. It's difficult to forget this, even though that's what we should be trying to do. Sometimes you think, "oh, I don't want to lose this rating, I want to gain more". As soon as you allow yourself to forget it, that's when you start playing well.
Being not too focused on your Elo rating will definitively, in the medium-long run, help you improving your overall play!
Another episode of the on-going serie about interesting Endgame studies aimed at improving your tactical imagination (if you need to be convinced, just read here). This 2 Knights against a Rook is an interesting fight...and quite painful for the weaker side! Even though the bishop pair can be extremely powerful in open positions, the 2 knights duo are monsters in blocked or "messy" situations! Also you certainly don't want to face them at the end of a Blitz game or in Zeitnot! Below is a list of studies that will hone your skills and should demonstrate how powerful and difficult to face this duo can be. A special mention of Alexey Troitsky (composer of two studies below) who is considered the father of the modern endgame study. If you are interested to know more about him, here is an interesting article about his work and legacy. Enjoy!
This is a recurring question among beginners and intermediate players as opening theory often plays a major role in their overall Chess training unfortunately. As always, there is no clear cut answer to that.....
So the best opening? None!....or rather all of them!
There are lots of good and perfectly playable openings out there but really the best (for you) is the one:
you understand!This seems pretty obvious but you'd be amazed how many players are just memorizing long opening lines and just don't know what to do with the resulting positions!So know, at least, the main standard strategic plans (and keep in mind that a wrong plan is still better that no plan at all) and tactics
you enjoy playing!This is very important as Chess is a game after all!
you feel comfortable playingThe opening fits your style of playing and provides room for growth and improvement.
Your next steps to improve your opening repertoire
For each of your main White and Black openings, ask yourself:
Do I know the standard plans well enough for this particular opening?
Do I know the standard tactics well enough for this particular opening?
Do I feel that my middle games out of the opening are reasonably playable/well balanced?
To wrap things up, I cannot resist to post a fairly well-known game, and a great one, between to fantastic players of the 80's, Anatoly Karpov (the ultra-dominant World Champion at that time,and, in my opinion, one of the greatest player of all times) and GM Tony Miles ....if you don't already know this game, you're in for a treat...Enjoy! (also with comments here):
Like dogs who sniff each other when meeting, chess players have a ritual at first acquaintance: they sit down to play speed chess. - Anatoly Karpov
That shows how prevalent and widespread Blitz (speed) chess is in the Chess culture!
But what is Blitz Chess exactly anyways?
It's a game where you have to play the entire game within 15 minutes. Usually, this is less than that and the most popular time controls are 5 minutes or 3 minutes plus a 2 seconds increment for the entire game. Faster than that it's called "Bullet" usually 1 to 3 minute games but I have to say that I agree with V. Kramnik's statement:
To be honest, I consider [bullet chess] a bit moronic, and therefore I never play it. - Vladimir Kramnik
That being said Bullet Chess can be fun....but, to me, this is not Chess anymore....
One thing for sure: Blitz Chess is fun....but is it hurting my level of play?
Well, You can see the glass whether half-full or half-empty...
Why Blitz can be good for you....
It can help you develop an opening repertoire:
As I said in a previous post, if used properly, Blitz Chess can be a great tool to help you developing, enhancing and broadening your opening repertoire.
It leaves room for experimentation:
You definitively have less inhibitions in Blitz games than longer time controls games so it is an opportunity for you to be creative or, at least do things you wouldn't normally do in regular games.
Being a good blitz player helps when in zeitnot:
That one is pretty easy to figure out
You learn to keep your composure when things go awry:
Because of its very own nature, your Blitz game can go from huge plus to a huge minus in a split second!...so this usually teaches you how to regroup quickly, look for opportunities, develop tenacity and a "can do" attitude, skills very useful during regular games
But not till you drop....or your chess strength will too!
No deep thinking is involved in Blitz:
You tend to rely on what you already know (standard tactics & plans, same old openings and so forth);
Most of the time (but not always) no real creativity is involved, just Pavlovian reflexes!
Bad habits can develop pretty quickly:
You tend to rely more and more on tricks (because it works!) rather than healthy tactics or true strategy;
Also sometimes positions to be avoided in Blitz (declining an obviously incorrect sacrifice for the sake of "Blitz pragmatism" for example....) could be playable and even desirable in regular games... and per the various reasons listed above Blitz Chess is not to be advised for true beginners...
In conclusion Blitz is fun and, to some extend, has some upsides but, in my opinion, you should never play it more than 10-20% of your Chess time if you want to make any significant and steady progress...
To wrap things up, below is a video of Hikaru Nakamura playing Blitz Chess with the white pieces: there are several great Blitz players in Chess History (R. Capablanca, A. Karpov, M. Tal and the much lesser know Genrikh Chepukaitis) and Nakaumura (CapilanoBridge on ICC) is without a doubt among the very best today... Enjoy this fantastic fight!
Studying opening theory came shortly after I learnt the game. I discovered with amazement that you could get "a decisive advantage" right out of the opening if you know the "right moves". Wow! pretty interesting and intriguing stuff! So I started studying openings...which probably sidetracked my true Chess development for many years. I am not saying that studying opening Chess theory is wrong in itself but it has to be approached the right way.
Opening theory and GMs
Nowadays, being up-to-date on the latest theory development (as well as coming up with new, fresh and unexpected ideas) is definitively a pre-requisite for very strong players (GMI and above). The trend was probably set by Garry Kasparov over 3 decades ago or so (even though, before him, Lev Poulougaieski was also known to have very deep opening preparation, see his famous and excellent book Grandmaster Achievement) where games can be won...without playing! This is still true (to some extent) at the highest level; As an example, you can watch the following game Kariakin Mamedyarov 2013 (nicely commented by GM Daniel King) where a strong theoretical novelty, in a rather well-known position, basically wins the game.
Chess Opening theory for mere mortals
But I would definitively not recommend this approach for players below 2200 FIDE and for many reasons:
It divert the player's efforts, energy and time from more important topics mainly:
It can be viewed as somewhat the "miracle" recipe to climb the ELO ladder but the truth is that opening preparation, at lower levels, backfires more often than succeed
But we still need to have some opening knowledge, don't we!?
Right, but instead a theoretical one, it should be a practical one, based on experience and also, but not only, opening theory. As far theory is concerned, a minimum opening theoretical knowledge is sufficient. Ok, but what is minimum opening theoretical knowledge? Well, the goal, when entering the middle game, is to have a good (or at least a descent) position where we know what to do next!
So knowing the various possible standard plans for an opening is extremely valuable. You still can come up with something on your own of course but there is a great probability for a given position that a proven strategic plan already exist for it. That being said, you should use your common sense and judgement as much as possible: this might not work well with certain openings though, like the Sicilian Dragon and Poisoned Pawn lines, so try to avoid them!
Opening study: the process
Depending on the scope of your study, a whole opening(!) or a very specific variation, the process remains more or less the same:
Study Few GMs or important games for that opening and/or system. This allows you to:
get a general feeling of the opening/variation
identify tactical and strategical ideas
build some reference points It is important to stay away from opening manuals!....at first. The number one thing to avoid is memorizing lines; You will eventually know the moves because of the practice and games! The objective is to rely on ideas, not variations!
Practice, Practice and Practice!
Try some 5-minutes blitz games first, a few dozens of blitz games to get a feel of the opening
Then switch to longer time controls (15/20/30 minutes games), obviously the more the better; practice make perfect!
The Oracle...that must be challenged!
Finally take a look at some opening manuals:
a comprehensive yet general manual like Batsford Chess Opening is usually more than enough
Compare your thoughts / analysis with the assessments and lines given in the book:
no needs to be shy about having your own opinion; quite often analysis/assessments presented in this kind of book are just wrong!
The key thing is to develop one's own opinion: Be an explorer and challenge every analysis!
Start playing your opening in tournaments/serious games!
