Keep Calm and Carry On!

The incredibly strong Gashimov Memorial Tournament just started a few days ago and already we have seen some of Carlsen's "usual" masterpieces.

Today's post is about Carlsen's beautiful Round 2 win against Nakamura: Carlsen demonstrated, once again, his incredible ability to exploit small advantages and gradually, almost gently, convert them into a winning and eventually won position. The comparaison with the Karpov of the 80s is definitively not far-fetched.

I encourage you to watch Daniel King's report below: once again, he does a beautiful job explaining complex stuff in his usual clear and concise style:

For me, the big takeaway is this: in a superior endgame position,

• Think Prophylaxis
• Take your time (i.e do not rush the pawns until the time has come)
• and then press forward!

Wednesday, April 23, 2014 Update!

Carlsen got a taste of his own medicine today where Caruana played a very smooth, very "Carlsen-like" game. Kudos to Caruana for not buckling up under Carlsen's final attempt to escape!

A remarkable position {2}: Kavalek - Huebner (1979)

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!

Afraid to lose, afraid to win, afraid to play!

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!

The Tactical Endgame series: The crazy rodeo: 2 Knights against a Rook!

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!

What's the best opening?!

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?
  • Do I enjoy playing it?
  • What is my success rate with it?

Experiment...

• Based on the answers to the questions above
  • Try new sub-lines, plans and tactics
  • Learn new openings

and practice, practice, practice!

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):

Chess Tips: the 15 seconds rule

During regular games...

To blitz or not to blitz?

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!