IECC Weekly Jottings #4 January 9, 1997 Editor: Gordon Lee Publisher: Lisa Powell Contributors: Erwin Ooerbeek Conrad Goodman Mike Power Heiner Theofel First of all, I hope you've had a wonderful New Year and that you haven't over-indulged yourselves in the holidays! Anyway, It seems from the compliments we have received that you are enjoying Jottings as much as we have been creating it. Well, things are about to get better! We have lots of voluntary contributors whose articles will soon be gracing these pages. Also, as we will have a new editor on board in Mid-Jan. It can only means that Jottings can only get better! If you like to subscribe to Jottings, please send your name, address and current rating to Gordon Lee . You don't have to be a member of IECC to subscribe! If there's anything you want to see in Jottings in the future, just drop me a line and I will get try my best to cook something up to suit your taste. Contact Gordon Lee or Lisa Powell ------------------------------------------------- How to open a game of chess ====================== The basic principles of the opening are: 1.Development 2.Central Control 3.King Safety Chess is a game which relates time (in terms of moves) with space (the 64 squares). Consequently it is criminal to waste time in the opening because each move should be seen as an opportunity to control more squares. Efficient development should adhere to the following guidelines: ------------------------------------------------- Develop all your pieces quickly and effectively, do not attempt to attack with just one or two pieces developed. Do not move a piece more than once in the opening until you have completed development, unless of course, you stand to gain material or positional advantage, without compromising your position. Do not make unnecessary pawn moves in the opening unless, again, it is to your advantage. Be wary of snatching pawns in the opening if, as a result, your development is hindered while your opponent's development is enhanced. ------------------------------------------------- To this end, some players will sacrifice a pawn (as in King's and Queen's Gambit) or even a piece (or two!) to gain a lead in development. The game here shows a drastic piece of scorning material for the initiative and development. BCO2 King's Gambit II line 8 footnote 44 1.e4 e5 2.f4 exf4 3.Nf3 g5 4.Bc4 g4 5.O-O! [Introducing the ultra sharp Muzio Gambit, this move sacrifices the knight. 5.O-O! is the only move here as anything else won't do: 5.Nc3 gxf3 6.Qxf3 d6! 7.d4 Be6 -+ Keres 5.Bxf7+ Kxf7 6.Ne5+ Ke8 7.Qxg4 Nf6 8.Qxf4 d6 -+ Schmidt (1886) 5.d4 gxf3 6.Qxf3 d5! 7.Bxd5 Nf6 8.O-O c6 -+ 5.Ne5 Qh4+ 6.Kf1 Nc6! -+ Hertzfeld] 5...gxf3 6.Qxf3 Qf6 7.e5!? [Again, for the sake of development and exposing the king, a pawn was sacrificed] 7...Qxe5 8.Bxf7!? [Now a bishop!!] 8...Kxf7 9.d4!? Qxd4+? 10.Be3 [Now quick material count, Black is ahead by a pawn and two minor pieces, however, White's compensation is more than evident - Black's king is rather open in the wild. White has three pieces developed rather than Black's lone queen. Watch how White convert these advantages to a full point! Qxd4+? was a mistake, Qf5 was the correct move, however, White's advantage is still more than evident and Black's task of defending is extremely difficult. Actually, it is more like near darn impossible! All I could calculate was that one force move and either I get mated or lose loads of pieces, the only thing I could do was find a reasonable plausible move which doesn't lose any pieces. Of course there is a way out of Muzio Gambit, but if you're faced with it for the first time or you're not an expert (<2200) then it is a very unpleasant experience. PS For the more regular readers of Jottings. Yes, I've lost!] 10...Qf6 11.Nc3! Ne7 [11...fxe3 12.Qxe3 d6 13.Nd5 +-] 12.Nd5! Nxd5 13.Qxd5+ Qe6 14.Rxf4+! Kg8? [14...Kd8 is slightly better] 15.Qg5+ Qg6 16.Rxf8+ Kxf8 [Material update: Black is now a rook and a knight up. Yet, he can't work up a proper defence to White's relentless onslaught!] 17.Rf1+ Qf7 [17...K moves, queen check, mates soon follow, this is where the book ends, however, I have added the possible continuation] 18.Qd8+ Kg7 19.Rxf7+ Kxf7 20.Qxh8 1-0 [Now it is White who have the material advantage! Note that NO black pieces on the Q-side had been developed. Poor Black have no answer the back row pin, the exposed king and the two passed pawns on the king side, therefore he resigned.] Now that was a nice example of placing development in front of material. We all dream of an immediate attack, pieces slashing across the board and the opposite king ends up dead within ten moves. Unfortunately, a dream is all it is. A quick attack, without much piece support, would usually comes to a sticky end. As your attack fizzles out, you are miles behind in development. The example I've just given is extremely risky, one false move by white and if his attack just come to a stop. He will have no compensation for his huge material deficit, therefore, it is only recommended for the brave players amongst us. The simplest form of quick attack is the 4-moves Scholar's mate: 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Bc5 3.Qh5 Nc6??? 4.Qxf7# 1-0 You may wonder why it is called Scholar's mate, because Black is quite obviously a fool! Not only did he get himself mated. He missed a splendid opportunity to punish White for attacking to early! See what happen when Black defend himself properly. 1.e4 e5 2.Bc4 Nc6 3.Qf3 [White threatens mate on f7, but his queen has been brought out far too soon] 3...Nf6 4.g4 [White set out to attack the knight which stands in his way] 4...Bc5 5.g5 Nd4! [The other Black knight takes a fine central square and drives White's queen from her menacing position] 6.Qd3 Ng4 7.f3 d5 8.exd5 Bf5 [A fine move, developing and gaining time by threatening the White queen. Now it is Black who is attacking, and his attack is far more powerful because he has developed properly.] 9.Qc3 Bb4! [The wretched queen can't find peace anywhere! if 10.Qxb4, 11.Nxc2+ gives a family fork!] 10.Bb5+ c6 11.Qc4 cxb5 12.Qf1 [Now the white queen must wish she stayed at home!] 12... Nxc2 13.Kd1 Nf2+ 14.Ke2 Bd3# 0-1 To attempt a snap mate in the opening is very silly. Unless your opponent blunders, you are unlikely to be successful. If your opponent is a strong player, he is very likely to just work all over you like in the last game! Remember, the first rule of chess is to develop all your pieces!! I will cover the other two points (Central Control and King Safety) next week and possibly the week after that. ------------------------------------------------- World Champions - What they REALLY were like.... ALEKHINE, Alexander (1892-1946) ========================== Alekhine was everything a chess player ought to be: an arrogant, selfish, alcoholic womanizer, with a talent for making enemies and a liking for cats. When sober he had a complete strategic mastery of the game and an unsurpassed ability too keep control of complex positions. This mastery became exaggerated when he published notes to his own game. He liked to include long variations, often discovered in analysis days after the game was played, claiming that he had seen them and calculated them correctly at the time. Sometimes he would substitute a pretty finish which might have occurred for the more mundane ending which really happened. Some tournaments he played with a higher than recommended level of alcohol in his blood. This led to reports of strange behaviour such as urinating in the corner of the stage during one event. After Dr. Euwe had deprived Alekhine of the World Championship. The great man gave up drink, subsisting only on milk for two years until he had taken his title back. Alekhine introduced hatred into the acceptable repertoire of match players. Against Capablanca in their 1927 match, there were periods when Alekhine refused to sit at the same board as his opponent. Karpov and Korchnoi adopted similar policies fifty years later, but nobody has ever really rivalled Alekhine for sheer personal venom. To become a true Alekhine authority it is best to concentrate on his losses. Firstly, this is easier, since there are far fewer than his numerous wins, but they are generally less well known. Some of his worst games, usually dismissed as aberrations of inebriation, nevertheless contain some remarkable original ideas. Had he been sober enough to follow them up correctly, the whole of chess theory might be developed more quickly. "Soft Pawn" - William Hartston ------------------------------------------------- How to offer a Draw ============== Dialog between GM's Najdorf (ARG) and Boleslawski (RUS) during a game: N: Do you want a draw? B: No! N: Are you playing for a win then? B: Eh...No... N: Then you're playing for a draw then, are you not? B: No N: Are you playing for a loss?! B: Of course not! N: So, what do you want?? B: I want to play chess!! Even World Champions are not above little ploys to mislead their opponents where draw offers are concerned. Alekhine himself once claimed a draw by threefold repetition when the position occured only twice. His opponent contested the factual accuracy of the claim, was proved correct, and then felt morally obliged to avoid repeating moves for the third time. Alekhine won a brilliancy - all according to plan! ------------------------------------------------- Some interesting Statistics about IECC ====================================== by Mike Power The following statistics were calculated from the latest IECC rating list as of Dec. 27, 1997. Our current membership stands at 1536 players but a large proportion of them (41%) have yet to submit a completed game that has been rated. It is also interesting to note that the higher categories also tend to have more games on average than lower categories. [note: games are 1/2 games since they are counted both for white & black] Number Completed Average Players % players Players Games Games w/o games w/o games Category 1: Senior Master 17 179 10.5 2 12% Category 2: Master 73 638 8.7 13 18% Category 3: Expert 114 1019 8.9 31 27% Category 4 - Class A 200 1606 8.0 54 27% Category 5 - Class B 256 1746 6.8 83 32% Category 6 - Class C 252 1150 4.6 79 31% Category 7 - Class D 173 820 4.7 67 39% Category 8 - Class E 414 575 1.4 296 71% Category 9 - Class F 37 116 3.1 0 0% Grand Total 1536 7849 5.1 625 41% Another interesting summary from the latest IECC rating list was the breakdown of players by country. About 50% of the members are from USA followed by 10% from Canada and a total of 64 countries are represented in our club! No. of Completed Players Games Wins Loss Draw USA United States 758 4045 1927 1552 566 CAN Canada 152 1219 568 497 154 ENG England 84 385 231 110 44 GER Germany 63 348 181 109 58 NED Netherlands 50 241 132 68 41 AUS Australia 42 79 37 39 3 SWE Sweden 35 208 120 49 39 BRA Brazil 29 128 87 33 8 ITA Italy 29 123 73 34 16 FRA France 28 66 32 18 16 ESP Spain 25 81 40 23 18 RSA South Africa 21 126 62 48 16 ISR Israel 18 71 46 14 11 BEL Belgium 15 39 14 18 7 AUT Austria 14 61 34 11 16 FIN Finland 13 60 25 25 10 NZL New Zealand 13 76 42 22 12 DEN Denmark 10 24 9 9 6 POR Portugal 10 71 46 13 12 IRL Ireland 8 15 14 1 0 MEX Mexico 8 21 8 10 3 ARG Argentina 7 24 20 2 2 SCO Scotland 7 13 7 4 2 SIN Singapore 7 26 14 5 7 MAS Malaysia 6 16 3 12 1 NOR Norway 6 17 10 3 4 SUI Switzerland 6 33 21 3 9 HKG Hong Kong 5 6 1 4 1 IND India 5 33 18 10 5 EST Estonia 4 22 6 13 3 RUS Russia 4 14 4 8 2 CRO Croatia 3 0 0 0 0 EGY Egypt 3 14 11 0 3 GRE Greece 3 6 4 0 2 JPN Japan 3 9 0 6 3 PUR Puerto Rico 3 11 4 6 1 SLO Slovenia 3 7 3 4 0 TUR Turkey 3 22 16 4 2 CHI Chile 2 9 5 2 2 KGZ Kyrgyzstan 2 8 3 2 3 MLT Malta 2 0 0 0 0 POL Poland 2 2 0 2 0 TPE Taipei 2 0 0 0 0 URU Uruguay 2 8 5 1 2 VEN Venezuela 2 4 3 1 0 BER Bermuda 1 1 0 0 1 COL Colombia 1 3 0 3 0 DOM Dominican Republic 1 6 2 4 0 ECU Ecuador 1 11 5 4 2 GEO Georgia 1 3 3 0 0 GUA Guatemala 1 0 0 0 0 HUN Hungary 1 9 6 2 1 ISL Iceland 1 1 1 0 0 IRI Iran 1 2 1 1 0 LTU Lithuania 1 0 0 0 0 MAR Morocco 1 1 0 1 0 MYA Myanmar 1 0 0 0 0 PAN Panama 1 2 1 1 0 PER Peru 1 0 0 0 0 PHI Philippines 1 2 2 0 0 KSA Saudi Arabia 1 8 5 2 1 UKR Ukraine 1 5 3 2 0 WLS Wales 1 0 0 0 0 YUG Yugoslavia 1 4 4 0 0 Grand Total 1536 7849 3919 2815 1115 ------------------------------------------------- [Event "KO-303"] [Site "IECC"] [Date "1996.12.26"] [Round "1"] [White "Moscoso, Fernando"] [Black "Soberano, J.Pedro"] [Result "0-1"] [WhiteElo "2120"] [BlackElo "2390"] 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 O-O 6.Bg5 [KID Averbakh variation, with links to the Benoni and the Maroczy Bind, tries to provoke Black to kick off that bishop and weakening his pawn structure. A favourite of Uhlmann] 6...Na6 [More usual are 6...h6 or 6...c5] 7.h4?! [White is not hiding his aggression, but I think it is too premature, he should develop more and try Nf3 or Qd2 first] 7...c5 8.d5 Nc7 9.Qd2 e6 10.e5!? [Nothing tactically wrong with the text, it tries to create active play with a passed, however, I think White should lock the centre and keep going with 10.h5 or 10.Nf3 and carry out his plan swiftly for example: 10.Nf3 exd5 11.cxd5 (looks like Benoni now!) Bg4 12.Qf4 Bxf3 13.Bxf3 b5 14.h5 and White will prepare to castle long +/= He will have a dangerous K-side attack] dxe5 11.d6 Nce8 12.Rd1 [12.O-O-O would be better, gets the king out of the centre] 12...Qd7 13.h5 b5 14.Nxb5? [It is bad as it vacates e4, this is probably the reason why Black played b5. He want to get rid of that dangerous dark squared bishop. 14.h6 followed by 15.Bf3 defending e4 is the best policy. After the text, Black have time to work up a counter] 14...Ne4 15.Qe3 Nxg5 16.Qxg5 a6 17.Nc3 Nxd6 18.hxg6 hxg6? [Better 18...fxg6 keep the h-file closed, text loses some material] 19.Ne4 Nxe4 [Horrible decision to make, but there is no alternative, the threat down the h-file was very strong and g7 must be defended] 20.Qh4 Nf6 21.Rxd7 Bxd7 [Rook, Knight and pawn worth about the same as a Queen] 22.Nf3 Rfb8 [22...e4 could be better] 23.b3 Bc6 24.Nxe5 Bxg2 25.Rg1 Be4 26.Qf4 a5 27.Bf3 Bxf3 28.Qxf3 Ra6 29.Ke2? [White should continue with the king side attack. There's no possible way for White to win now. As Black's Q-side play looks strong. All he could hope for is to create some play. The text is too slow. 29.Ng4 looks good, but to be honest, the position is difficult.] 30.a4 30.Rb1 axb3 31.axb3 Rab6 32.Kd2 R8b7 33.Nd3 Nd7 34.b4 Ra7 35.Rb3 cxb4 36.c5 Rba6 37.Rxb4 Ra2+ 38.Kc1 R7a3! [The decisive pin against the queen] 39.Qb7?? [This move was annotated by Erwin Ooerbeek This loses quickly, but after 39.c6! Bh6+ 40.Kb1 Ra1+ 41.Kc2 Rc1+ It looks as Black can't get anything more than a perpetual! However, after 41.Rc1+? white would even win: 42.Nxc1! Rxf3 43.cxd7. I had the idea that it should still be won for black, but couldn't really find it. So I used my computer programme, which came up with the following convincing line: 39. ... Nc5! 40.c7 (40.Rc8+ Kh7 41.Qh3+ Bh6+ 42.Kb1 (42.Kd1 Rd2+ etc.) 42. ... Nxd3 also loses) 40. ... Rc3+! 41.Kb1? Ra1+!! 42.Kxa1 (42.Kb2 Rcc1+ mates in a few moves) (So far I had seen it, but now I only thought of Rxd3+, which isn't good; instead white can simply mate in 2:) 42. ... Rc1+ 43.Ka2 Ra1 mate. Therefore 41.Kd1 is forced, after which 41. ... Nxd3 leaves white two possibilities: A) 42.c8Q+ Rxc8 43.Qxd3 Rxf2 B) 42.Rc8+ Kh7 43.c8Q Nxf2+ 44.Qxf2 (44.Ke1? Rxf3 -+) Rxf2 In both cases black should eventually win, though there's probably still quite a long way to go.] Rxd3 40.c6 Nf8 41.c7 Rxf2 0-1 [Threatening Bh6+ and mate to follow, can't be prevented without the ruinous loss of material] Annotated by Gordon Lee 04/01/97 -------------------------------------------------