While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
Something I have talked about over the years is my desire to one day use the method that Vladimir Zak allegedly taught in the Leningrad Pioneer’s Palace of taking between 13-17 hours to annotate a single game.
The formula essentially works out thusly:
Play the game over quickly in 15 or 20 minutes to “awaken your thoughts.”
Play it over the course of an hour to synopsize the key moments.
Analyze key moments in detail over three to four hours.
Analyze the opening for three to four hours.
Play the game over one more and write analysis for four to five hours.
I am fairly certain I can not analyze every one of my games in this fashion as I don’t have that much time. However, I have always wanted to do one.
Here is the game I have selected. I will show my work over some upcoming blog entries.
Feel free to critique me on this journey. I think it will be interesting.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
I didn’t post yesterday, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t training. I didn’t get to do any Sherlock’s Method, but that’s mostly because I work from the office on Tuesdays. So my “free” hour between 7:00-8:00 am that I use for training on Mon/Wed/Fri is spent dropping my dog off at doggy daycare (shout out to Dogtopia in Pewaukee, WI – they are awesome!)
However, I knew this going in. I will also have the same issue on some Thursdays since I work from the office on that day too. I also go to the chess club on Thursday night. I don’t think I will have a game tomorrow, so I might still get my positions in. Time will tell. The plan is to do at least eight today to get in yesterday’s and today’s four positions.
Here’s a position that exposes an interesting blind spot in my calculation. I used to have an issue where any time there was a pawn exchange in an endgame, I would “forget” that you can just push past and that you’re not forced to recapture just because you can. This issue is not the same, but in my mind it is probably related.
Here is the position. It is from a correspondence game in 2011.
I’ll try to replicate my thoughts as I had them.
“White is down two pawns, but the d5 pawn is hanging. So really, they can be down only one pawn if they desire.
So what about 1.Nxd5. If 1…Qxd2+ 2.Kxd2 I’m threatening a fork on c7 along with 3.Bxg7, winning material. Wait, no, there is no fork on c7 since the d6 bishop guards against it.
Oh, OK. I play 1.Nb5, and now I am threatening both the d6 bishop as well as taking on g7. If Black puts the bishop on f8, now the fork works! Except 1…Qxd2+ 2.Kxd2 Bf4+ and now c7 is still guarded and after I move my king, Black can guard against the capture on g7.
Wait, maybe this is a positional puzzle since it’s a correspondence game. What if I play 1.Qxd5, and then after 1…Qxd5 2.Nxd5 Black has to either play 2…Nf6 and give back the pawn, or play 2…f6, which looks not great. Plus, in this line there is no …Bf4+ since the d5 knight guards against it.”
At this point, I’m essentially through most of the time I had allotted myself to solve this one. So I decide my solution has to be 1.Qxd5. After all, that looks to be pretty level, and an engine will tell you it’s slightly better for Black if Black gives up the second pawn with 2…Nf6 3.Nxf6+ gxf6 4.Bxg6 0-0. Of course, I’d rather be playing Black since I think the queenside majority would be a factor in the endgame.
Of course, there is a huge hole in my calculation. Do you see it? Do you see why I say that it’s related to my old inability to realize there were two ways to do something with a pawn?
The solution and my explanation are below.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott
.
.
.
.
.
What I am missing is that after 1.Nb5 Qxd2+
White is not forced to recapture with the King, allowing …Bf4+. Instead, just recapture with the knight and the dual threats against the bishop on d6 and the pawn on g7 remain, along with the potential for the fork on c7 if the bishop moves to f8.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
As I mentioned yesterday, I am now training for the US Senior Open. This morning I kept up the routine of working on four exercises from Sherlock’s Method.
So far, here are my results. Out of eight puzzles, I have gotten four correct, three incorrect, and one I am giving myself partial credit for because I saw the main idea but not the purpose of it, so while I had a couple of moves correct, I missed some of the follow-up moves.
This is why I insist on writing down all of my analysis. There is no way to pretend, “oh yeah, I saw that,” since it’s not on the page.
The next piece of work that I need to do is to determine what line of the Caro I want to play against the starting move order of the classical variation. Take this position:
Here the main three moves are 4…Bf5; 4…Nf6; 4…Nd7. The one that seems to be the most in vogue is the 4…Nf6 line, but I don’t know how I feel about it. I have never played it or 4…Nd7, so I can see some value in deeply learning one of those systems. On the other hand, there is something to be said for sticking to the lines that I know best. Something to think about in the coming few days.
In the meantime, here’s a position from So-Van Foreest Zagreb 2022 Blitz.
I was checking this game as I saw it was an 0-1 game in the 4…Nf6 line of the Caro. In this position White has a massive edge, but Wesley slipped by playing the natural looking, but less precise 23.Rae1 instead of a move that holds the bigger edge. What move did Wesley miss? Solution below.
Here is the entire game.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott
What Wesley Missed
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
23.f4 keeps the position at a little over +5 according to Stockfish 15
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I want to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out and can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
I don’t play many weekend tournaments. There are a myriad of reasons for this, and they are not likely to change in the near future. That means that when I do play a weekend tournament I have to make the most of it.
Since I have also been relatively dormant on this blog, I figure what better way to bring it back than to track my progress here.
On June 6th I will turn 50 years old. This means that for the first time, I will be eligible for the US Senior Open, which starts on July 21st in Elmhurst, IL.
That gives me 68 days from today until then in order to train. Here is the plan for preparing for the event:
As I have been doing basically every day for the past several years, I will solve some basic tactics on Chessable. The courses I use are three of the Frank Erwich “1001” series. Specifically, I use 1001 Chess Endgame Exercises for Beginners, 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners, and 1001 Chess Exercises for Club Players. Please note that “for beginners” does not mean raw beginners. I am 1800, and I find many of the puzzles to be quite challenging.
Solving from Sherlock’s Method. My good friend and coach, Elshan Moradiabadi, wrote this book along with Sabina Foiser. It’s intentionally designed to get a player ready for a tournament. The first two chapters on simple positions and endgames comprise 270 puzzles. If I average 28 per week (one page of four per day), I will finish them just as the tournament arrives.
Opening prep for Black. When you are as sloppy as I am at studying the opening, two months just isn’t a lot of time. So I have decided to work on my black openings for this tournament. This means the Slav, Caro-Kann, and 1…e5 against the English.
Now let’s take those items and break them down into more details.
For Chessable, I consider these puzzles to be a warm-up. For years I have kept the timer off on Chessable puzzles. I am not looking to solve them fast; I am looking to solve them correctly. Speed comes when the patterns are well-established in my brain. If It takes me a few minutes the first time, that’s fine. By the 5th-6th time, it will take a few seconds as long as the pattern sticks.
I also solve these on a screen. Typically, I use my phone, but occasionally on a proper computer. Again, the idea with these is to warm my brain up. I’m not looking to do any heavy lifting with these.
Here’s a nice example of a puzzle from 1001 Chess Exercises for Beginners by Frank Erwich. Solution below.
For Sherlock’s Method, I am taking a more rigid approach than I am with the Chessable stuff. For one thing, if I don’t solve the puzzle within a minute or so I am starting a clock and giving myself 10 minutes to come up with a solution. I am very much trying to solve these under tournament conditions. I am also writing down my answers so I can’t play the “I saw that” game when there is a move in the solution that I didn’t consider.
This means I am also physically setting them up on a board. Yes, that can be annoying when you spend a couple of minutes setting up a position only to solve it in 15 seconds. I guess that’s a good problem to have.
Here is a puzzle from Sherlock’s Method that I failed to solve this morning. Let’s see if the readers can do better than I did. The solution to this one, along with some of Elshan and Sabina’s analysis, is below. As you can see by the analysis, great detail is given in the explanation. You can buy this book here.
As for openings, I am working with several books and the Chessbase database. I am creating proper files for the first time and plan on reviewing GM games in my lines regularly.
Til Next Time,
Chris Wainscott
Solutions to Puzzles Below
.
.
.
.
.
Erwich Puzzle
1…Qxh2+ 2.Kf1 Qxf2# (or 2…Qh1#)
Elshan Puzzle – analysis from the book.
20…Rf5!
with the idea of …Rh5. The simple theme is White’s misplaced queen, who happens to be the caretaker of White’s king. White simply lacks the necessary cohesion among his pieces in order to stop Black’s attack.
In this position, Giri played 20…h5? taking away a great square for his rook. 21.Bg5 Rh7? (21…Qg6 22.Bd3 Bf5 was essential and Black’s attack is still strong.) 22.Re3 after which White equalizes and eventually went on to win the game.
21.Be2
21.Bb5 maybe this is the move that worried Giri and prevented him from playing …Rf5, although after 21…Rh5 22.Re8+ Qxe8! 23.Qxg4 Qf7 White has no compensation.
21…Bxe2! 22.Rxe2 Qg6!
Once again taking advantage of the trapped queen on h4.
23.g4
Is the only move in this position. but it is sad when one must weaken one’s own king this much.
23…h5 24.Rbe1 Kb7!
Preventing the back rank exchange. White seems dead lost.
25.Re6
25.g5 Rf3 and now …Qxc2 is an overwhelming threat.
25…Qxg4+ 26.Qxg4 hxg4
And Black does not only have an attack on the kingside, his king can also calmly march into White’s weakened camp on the queenside with a much better position.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I’d like to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out, and if you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
Rock Solid Chess – Tiviakov’s Unbeatable Strategy: Pawn Structures by Sergei Tiviakov and Yulia Gokbulut. New in Chess 2023 264pp
It’s true that I haven’t been posting as much lately, but that’s not due to time away from chess. I actually have my highest rating in seven years at this point. Not bad for a guy who’ll be 50 in less than three months.
So what’s the “secret” that’s propelling me right now? Well, for one, I’ve been hitting the books pretty hard. One of those books is this latest offering by famed Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov.
As far as I am aware, this is his first book, though he has produced many videos for ChessBase, including two which I am intimately familiar with, his videos on the …Qd6 Scandinavian and the Alapin Sicilian.
This book is the first in what will be a series of books on chess strategy by these co-authors, and I have to say I not only found it to be highly instructive, but I enjoyed it immensely.
The book is broken into seven chapters. They are
Pawn majority on one flank
Doubled pawns, part one
Doubled pawns, part two
Semi-open files in the centre
One open file in the centre
Two open files in the centre
The double fianchetto
Preceding these chapters is one of the most interesting introductions I have ever read. It’s titled “Human chess versus computer chess”. It gives several games, some classics, some modern, where Tiviakov explains the difference in thought processes between humans and engines.
The games contained in the book are mostly lightly annotated in terms of variations, as the authors give most of the explanations in prose. The idea here is for the reader to understand the ideas rather than to get to the absolute analytical truth of a position.
This is something I would like to see a lot more in chess books. Yes, when you read certain books, like Ramesh’s recent book Improve Your Chess Calculation, it’s highly important to give line after line to ensure that the reader is thoroughly absorbing the most subtle details of each position. In a book such as Tiviakov’s, however, it’s far more important to ensure that the reader understands the concepts, which are best established with verbal explanations. Next year’s engines may give different lines than this year’s, but the ideas will remain the same.
Like many authors, Tiviakov knows his games best, so he often illustrates his ideas using them, but he also leans heavily on games from days gone by. Thus, you’ll see games from Botvinnik in the ’30s; Tal-Smyslov from the ’50s; Karpov from the ’90s, etc.
All in all, this book is quite well done, and I found it not only useful but enjoyable. Also, it seems that perhaps NiC’s “experiment” with paper of a lesser quality is over. This book is printed on high-quality paper for which NiC has historically been known.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I’d like to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out, and if you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
Here’s a position you don’t typically think of as move 24 in a Berlin:
So how did we get here, and how did I manage to blunder away all of my advantage? Let’s look at the game. Please note that I haven’t really analyzed this much so that’s why the notes are so sparse. This game was just played 12 hours ago.
So my rating continues to climb, but my openings continue to verge on nonsensical.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I’d like to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out, and if you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
The Checkmate Patterns Manual by Raf Mesotten 2022 New in Chess 376pp
One of the latest offerings in the Chessable/New in Chess partnership, The Checkmate Patterns Manual by Raf Messoten offers something for everyone.
Comprised of 30 chapters designed to drill the basic “name” mates, i.e. Anastasia, Arabian, Boden, Smothered, Swallow’s Tail, etc this book serves as an excellent primer for beginner and post-beginner players, a refresher course for slightly more intermediate players, and as a source of valuable teaching material for instructors.
Before we start talking about the book itself, let’s talk about a couple of technical points. First, the book is hardbound with excellent quality paper as has become a hallmark of the Chessable/New in Chess books. Second, the author is an average club player from Belgium (around 1900 FIDE).
I think that for some readers, this second point may seem overly important. After all, who wants to buy a book from a player well below the level of most authors? However, in this case, the level of the writer is well suited to the level of the material selected, so I don’t find that to be an issue at all.
Who is this book for? In my opinion, this book is best suited either for newer players, let’s say up to about 1000 Elo, or for anyone who coaches newer players.
To demonstrate the level of this book, let’s take a quick look at a couple of the puzzles in the “Final Test” which contains “100 of the hardest exercises in this book.”
For most players, neither of those exercises should present too much of a challenge. Those who do find them challenging should immediately buy this book, and those who coach should also immediately buy this book.
As for the book itself, it starts with a basic test to check the level of the reader, and is then split into 30 chapters, covering various “name” mating patterns such as Anastasia’s Mate, Arabian Mate, Boden’s Mate, etc, along with thematic mates such as Mate in the Opening, Bank Rank Mate, etc. After those chapters come three more tests, and then the solutions.
Each chapter contains several examples of the type of mate being discussed. Let’s take a look at an example from the first chapter on Anastasia’s mate.
First, the reader is given a diagram that shows the pattern:
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I’d like to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out, and if you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
Imagine you are White in the above game. You’re up a piece for a pawn. You just need to convert this won game and you’ll add a full point to your score. What could be better?
So why not just play 52.Bc2 and threaten to win a pawn to go up a full piece? Yep, that’s what you do. You see your opponent’s eyes light up. Oh no, what have you missed?
Your opponent plays 52…h4, and now after 53.Bxe4 hxg3 54.fxg3 Kg4 you realize your mistake.
If White saves the bishop, Black will win White’s last pawn, and the game is a theoretical draw of R+B vs R.
I honestly don’t know why White didn’t go into that and at least try for the win.
Here is the complete game, which is wonderfully rich and complex.
While you’re here, let me ask for your help. I’d like to keep this blog and journey going in perpetuity, but it’s not free to me.
If you feel like helping me out, and if you can spare it, please click here and become a supporter. Even $1 a month can help me continue this project.
Here’s an interesting position. White has just played 21.Rxd8
Take a minute and ask yourself which way you would recapture as Black. 21…Rxd8, or 21…Kxd8 and why.
To me, the instant answer was 21…Rxd8. I didn’t even give it any thought. Somewhere in the back of my mind some trope about taking the open d file was probably rumbling around.
Yet in the game, Mitrabha recaptured with the King, playing 21…Kxd8. After a moment’s thought I realized that this makes perfect sense since White has a queenside pawn majority and so Black would want his king on that side of the board.
Out of curiosity I checked with the engine. 21…Kxd8 is equal. 21…Rxd8 is +1.2 for White.
There should be no “automatic” recaptures without thinking.
