Enter The Endgame

"Thirty next Friday, aren't you Tom?" an office buddy asked me today. Indeed . . . and then we got on to discussing the ways age brings change, and also the ways it doesn't.

For me, it mostly doesn't - or so I told my friend. I still have very similar dislikes and likes to when I was twenty, I said. With age, I've not developed the sophistication that prefers wine to beer, and I still can't stand anything Martin Amis has written. I still like Bach, but I still like Oasis, too. And much to my regret, I can't pretend to enjoy Citizen Kane when Jurassic Park is available on the shelf of DVDs instead.

My office mate is not a chess player, but then it struck me maybe my chess tastes have transformed over time. Ten years ago, my heroes were Kasparov and Tal. And mostly Tal, too. Yet once our office conversation was over, I spent too much of the rest of the afternoon contemplating the position in the diagram.

Dull, I would have called it ten years ago. But in fact, white faces a simple but testing dilemma. Should he play 14. Bxf6, or 14. Bd3? With the latter he preserves the bishop pair, and despite having a slight lead in development, a draw is most likely, due to the near-symmetry of pawns and lack of queens. With the former, black's pawns on the kingside are busted - but white will have to face the two bishops and activity from black.

The position is taken from this excellent Chess Vibes post, with the minor change of a2-a3, to prevent Nd5-b4. I really recommend Chess Vibes, for all manner of reasons. And there's also an interesting ChessWorld discussion about this position.

So: what do you think of this endgame dilemma? And has age made me completely boring, or is there life left in me yet?

The Christmas Tree

January, and Christmas Trees across the land are shedding their needles into carpets, fairy lights packed away for another year.

In the Christmas Tree (Chessmas Tree?!) on the right, it's black to play - and mate in two. Which needle is about to fall, and why?

(Via Imperial's nice site, where you can also currently find the solution.)

Every Cloud

Some good news for English patzers like me - via Australian blogger The Closet Grandmaster - from an interview with Nigel Short:

"I am very disappointed with the state of chess in England. We don't have enough tournaments, so how can we produce players? Even Adams is getting long in the tooth. He was the last of the greats. Matthew Saddler has retired. Luke McShane will not become a professional player; you can't make money out of chess. And he is a bright kid. Maybe he will play for a year or two."

No more English Grandmasters! When enough Goliaths have fallen, the Davids stand tallest. I see myself clearly now at the Chess Olympiad of 2020, blundering cheerfully away on Board 1 - against those giants of the 64 squares, who play for the countries at the bottom of this list . . .

What are you doing on Sunday?

Just a little reminder.

If you spent too much of your hard earned cash over the Christmas period & New Year's celebrations, why not try winning some of it back this Sunday - 7th January 2007 - at The 69th Richmond Rapidplay? There are four sections - an Open, an under 160 Major, under 120 Intermediate, and an under 80 Minor. This tournament has an excellent 4½ point rule: "if you score 4½ or more out of 6 you are GUARANTEED A PRIZE." Plus, it's organised by Streatham & Brixton Chess Club members Angus & Sue (amongst others) too.

Good luck! (& for those who plan a bit further ahead than me, you might want to take a look here at a promising tournament coming up mid-February . . .)

Fireworks

Now the fireworks are forgotten and put away, and the fizz has gone from the champagne. The bottle bobs about, there in the cooling bucket's melted ice, where the paper from a party popper dissolves, slowly. Comfort food and aspirin determine the day.

Fireworks on the chess board have a remarkable property, different to those of New Year's Eve: the delight their display allows spans years, rather than merely mark a few passing moments, the flick of a calendar. This one was created by Al-Adli in the ninth century, for instance. It's white to play and win - and a bit of an easy one to ease you into 2007.

Want To Live Long? Then Don't Prosper . . .

Or at least, don't prosper at the chess board if you want to live long. That's the message from Sciurus of Squirrel Chess, who blogged here how

chess grandmasters have to pay a price for their extraordinary ability. I browsed through a copy of "The psychology of chess skill" by Dennis H. Holding and found that the average life expectancy of outstanding chess players is almost one decade shorter than the life expectancy of minor masters (60.1 vs. 68.1 years, respectively.)

Well, I guess a minor master is an IM; a few hundred Elo points below them are FMs, and then a few hundred Elo points below FMs are me. So by that reckoning, I ought reach the age of 84.1 years! I can live with that.

My friend Michelle, meanwhile, revealed in the comments here that she can't quite remember the rules of our deadly game. Now I'm no scientist, but I am pretty sure that makes her immortal. Good news indeed.

Happy New Year, Streatham & Brixton Chess Club and everyone else. May it be a healthy one, whatever happens to your rating.

Happy Holidays!

Christmas is coming - and that means, no internet connection for me down at my mum's.

So, Streatham & Brixton Chess Club's blog is now officially on holiday until the New Year.

In the mean time, don't forget the Richmond Rapidplay coming up early January - nor the Chessabit Tournament later in the month.

And if Santa brings you nothing interesting to read, why not download a free book on Botvinnik's secret games? Or if there's nothing on TV - Chess Fever (featuring a cameo from Capablanca) is well worth a watch.

Or if you fancy stretching your brain power, you can try a nearly impossible quiz - or more realistically, some fun chess puzzles. Also on the fun front, find out your Kasparov Number, and check out the Blunders of His Great Predecessors.

So, happy holidays; have a great Christmas and new year. Barring surprises, our blog will be back in 2007 with more chess news, puzzles, links, fun, games, and anything else anyone can think of.

Chessabit: One, Two, and (Soon) Three

Chessabit held their second one day rapid event at the beginning of this month. Jerry Bloom from Hackney Chess Club was the outright winner, with 7½/9. I finished in the chasing pack on 7/9: Second place, you might think. But alas a statistical tie-break put me out of the money prizes, that went instead to Peter Ackley (second) and David Haydon (third.) The fact I beat Haydon in the final round didn't count for much either, since the tie-break used was apparently the 'Median Buchholz' - which ignores the result of one's highest placed opponent. Ho hum.

Still - it was a fun and interesting day in a pleasant venue (pictured.) Two other Streatham & Brixton Chess Club players took part - Adam W, and James who emailed me for this report to say: "I will definitely play again. It's a great addition to the London chess scene, the organisers are great." Well, the good news for James and others interested is the wait won't be too long. The Third Chessabit Rapid Tournament is coming up on January 20th, at The Crosse Keys pub again in central London. First Prize once again is £500, whilst the number of rounds seems to have been reduced from 9 to 8. Entry stuff here.

Anything else? Well, you'll find my first report on Chessabit here, and this is my second. And don't forget The Richmond Rapid on the 7th too (preview here.) Finally, below you should find two of my games from the event - playing through them ought give you an idea of the standard. The David Haydon game took quite a few more moves to finish - but the result is already clear where the fragment ends.

Chess Fever

I saw this movie at an exhibition in London a few years ago, The Art of Chess: now, as Chessbase report, you can watch it yourself on Google. It's known among chessplayers for its chess content, notably Capablanca's appearance in which (not out of character) he's depicted picking up the hero's girlfriend.

It's not just a curiosity though: it's actually a good, funny movie. You can watch it here.

The Tenth Annual ChessCafe Holiday Quiz

The hardest quiz in the world of chess made its annual appearance today*: scroll down for the questions. You'll have to scroll quite a way - the section describing the prizes is even longer than the quiz itself. Come to that, in this particular quiz the list of prizes is usually longer than the list of completely correct entries. Substantially longer.

So, while we could all pretend to have a go at it ourselves, and be lucky to get one or two correct, I would propose, in the spirit of the Kasparov v The World chess game, that we pool our resources and try and get as many answers as we can between us, much as people do with the King William's General Knowledge Paper. After which the only question will surely be - what to do with the prizes?

I would start off, but at first glance I don't think I know any of the answers at all.

So...who does?

[* = this link may become defunct in which case I'll try and update it]

You can't fail . . .

The open goal you can't miss - and bang, the ball is fifty foot up in the crowd. Six wickets in hand, three runs to win - and then, ouch: it's Shane Warne bowling, and the Ashes crumble in your fingers that very over. Or in chess terms, you're three rooks, five queens, twelve knights, and three hundred bishops ahead - and drat, his king's stalemated. You never even saw it coming.

Yep - we've all been there, ruining those certain wins. However, I promise you that you'll solve this puzzle by V. Röpke (Skakbladet, 1942) correctly. In fact, try not to.

(Of course - were it a game, you'd have lost on time.)

____________________________________________________


Oh - just one little thing extra. If you don't yet know your Kasparov Number, go work it out, and let us know in the comments. I've just remembered I beat Adam FF in the Portsmouth Major eleven years ago when we were both Juniors - so that increases mine to 5.

What's Your Kasparov Number?

Bit of fun this.

So, one time you beat player A. Another time, A beat B - who also has beaten C. C beat D, D . . . How long is that chain until you reach Player Z who beat Kasparov? Well, how long is, in fact, your Kasparov Number. And this is the website that will work it out for you.

For instance, Adam FF beat David Howell in 2001. Two years later, Howell beat Speelman - who had in 1996 beat Yermolinksy. And way back in 1975, Yermolinsky beat Kasparov. So Adam has a Kasparov Number of 4. Impressive!

Of course, not every Streatham & Brixton Chess Club player will be on Chessbase Megabase 2005, which IBeatGarry.com use to work out these degrees of separation. I'm not, for instance. But then I beat Antony Cullen earlier this year - and he's there, with a Kasparov Number of 6. So, my Kasparov Number is 7. Dang, I need to work on that!

What's your Kasparov Number?

Team Updates: London League 1, Croydon League 2

"Was it Wimbledon v Streatham, Wimbledon v Watford, Watford v Streatham, or Watford v Watford?" writes Martin about our London League Division 1 match on 30th November. "It was impossible to tell. Everyone seemed to know everyone else and had played each other a hundred times before - all very convivial, but it didn't stop the slugfest."

Well, I'll solve the mystery. It was Streatham 1 versus Wimbledon 1. And, indeed a slugfest it was. The score of that match currently stands at 5½-5½ - with only three draws amongst all that. I blogged the finish of my game from the evening here - while the match will be decided by Adam W's adjourned game.

The above position is taken from Adam F-F's game on the evening. He had black against Mark J Dubey on board 5, and describes the action as follows:

After a dull ‘strategic’ game we were both down to around 15 minutes left to complete the game. I made an error on my previous move, leaving us in the above position. Can you spot White’s move?

36. Nxd6! Losing concentration can be costly! I decided I didn’t fancy being a routine pawn down, so tried to mix it up by taking the knight (36. … Bxb3 37. Ncxb5! achieves little). 36. … Rxd6?! 37. Rxd6 Now 37. … Rxd6 38 Nxb5 is horrible, so sadly the queen has to go. 37. … Qxd6 38. Rxd6 Rxd6. Despite the material deficit Black has some open lines and threats. Unfortunately, White has another trick up his sleeve that I had missed 39. Nxb5 cxb5 40. Qc8+ Bb8 41. Qxg8 Rd2+ 42. Kc3 Rxg2

Now the smoke has cleared and White has a winning endgame, but with little time and an annoying passed h-pawn to deal with, can he convert it? If there were one more pair of pieces on the board he could ‘play for mate’, but the queen can’t do it alone. At least he has a draw ‘in hand’…

43. Qd5+ Ka7 44. Qf7+ Ka8 45. Qxf6 h3 White needs to somehow combine pushing his e-pawn, disrupting Black’s h-pawn’s progress and even bringing up his king to help in the mating attack. 46. Qa6+, 46. e5 or 46. Kb4 looked good to me, but instead he chose 46. Qh8? (this wasted move probably throws away the win) 46. … h2 47. Qh7? losing to the simple 47. … Rg1. It transpires that White had missed the fact that the bishop on b8 covers the pawn on h2, and thought Black was just tied down!! Unfortunately, White cannot give any checks and his unfortunate king position means there is no perpetual as Black can bring his rook back.48. Qd7 Rc1+ 49. Kb4 h1=Q 50. Qd5+ Ka7 51. Qd4+ Ka6 52. Qf6+ Kb7 53. Qf7+ Rc7 54. Qd5+ Ka7 55. Qd4+ Ka8 56. Qd5+ Rb7 Despite having no more checks, White plays on in the time scramble. 57. Ka5 Qa1 58. a4 bxa4 59. bxa4 Qf1 60. e5 Bc7 mate. I expect White had nightmares about that one!

And that's what we mean by slugfest . . .

Meanwhile, Richard sent me a brief note about our Croydon League Second Team: "We lost night’s match at Dulwich. It stands 3-0 to them, but hopefully we will avoid the whitewash as Jonathan has much the better of things in his adjourned position."

So, that's two adjournments to wish Streatham & Brixton Chess Club players good luck in. Good luck!

The Clockwork Ending

Click here: piece originally posted on A Few Words Before We Go.

(Diagram shows position after Black's move 43.)






(Some Streatham and Brixton members may remember this ending being demonstrated at the club one evening a couple of years ago!)

White's Move

"Perhaps I should just give up with puzzles altogether?" commented an exasperated Jonathan, after being stumped by Justin's very tricky post. Well, we wouldn't want that.

So - here's a brief, witty little number, that hopefully won't hurt the brain cells too much, and will entertain to boot. It was composed by puzzle-legend Sam Loyd in 1858 - although I encountered it just the other day in the ChessWorld Chess Forum.

Previous puzzles are indexed here btw. And if you fancy something different, don't forget our growing collection of Ultimate Blunders.

January Rapid Play

What does January mean to you?

As a child, I would have said snowball fights in the back garden, a new BMX to race across the fields, to the mirror magic of an ice pond; or spotting a bird's nest amongst white branches, the glimpse of a wing lifting through frozen morning. Now it's more likely to mean a new pile of books I don't want to read, an emptied overdraft, and a barely-functioning liver.

Still, this January offers something different from either of those. Yes, that's right. The 69th Richmond Rapidplay has just been announced, and it will take place on Sunday 7th January. There are four sections - an Open, an under 160 Major, under 120 Intermediate, and an under 80 Minor. Rather nicely, this tournament has an excellent 4½ point rule: "if you score 4½ or more out of 6 you are GUARANTEED A PRIZE."

Oh - and it's organised by Streatham & Brixton Chess Club members Angus & Sue, amongst others, to boot. Personally, I can't think of a reason not to go. So click the above link to find out more - or go straight to the entry form here (PDF file), and I hope to see you there.

World Championship Quality Blunders II

Do you recognise this position?

I’m betting that a fair few people will know it’s taken from the first game of the Fischer – Spassky match in 1972.

Spassky, playing White, had just exchanged a pair of knights on d6 and after Fischer recaptured with the bishop, pushed his pawn to b5. What happened next was so shocking that journalists still wanted to ask Fischer about it 20 years later.


The genius that is Bobby came up with …

29 … Bxh2 ??

and after Spassky replied with the far from difficult to spot

30. g3

the bishop was trapped.


What’s so incredible about this blunder is that it’s exactly the sort of move an early chess computer would play. It sees the bishop will be trapped but the number of moves it takes to actually capture it is beyond the machine’s ability to calculate (the ‘horizon effect’) and as a result evaluates the position as better for Black because he will be material up as far as the computer can reach in its analysis.

But Fischer was no silicon muppet so what happened?

It seems he’d expected

30. … h5
31. Ke2 h4
32. gxh4

(leaving the pawn isolated and weak)

on the grounds that

32. Kf3 h3
33. Kg4 Bg1
34. Kxh3 Bxf2

leaves Black a pawn up. Unfortunately for Fischer, 35. Bd2 traps the bishop for real.


In the game after 32. Kf3 Bobby tried …Ke7 and apparently this position is still just about drawn but he blundered again the move before the time control and eventually resigned on move 56.

So … Bxh2 turned a certain draw into a very difficult one. Although it had a significant effect on the game the same can’t really be said about the match. Fischer famously failed to turn up for the next game so he effectively gave Spassky a two point head start. Nevertheless by game 6 Fischer was already in front and by game 13 he had stretched his advantage to 6-3. Several draws followed before Fischer wrapped the match up with victory in game 21. There was no way Fischer was ever going to lose to Spassky regardless of how many points he blundered away.

Not much value there then but the real genius behind the blunder is finding it in the first place. It’s just so completely unnecessary it’s beautiful. I’d love to know how long Fischer thought before moving. You might have thought that, playing in his first title match, Fischer would have paused to check whether the World Champion really had just left a pawn en prise – but we can all be grateful that he didn’t.

Effect on the Game: 3.5/5
Effect on the Match: 0/5
Degree of Difficulty: 4/5
Artistic Merit: 4/5

That gives Fischer an Ultimate Blunder Rating of 11.5 and leaves him comfortably ahead of Topalov, which is probably as it should be. There are still plenty more blunders to work through though.

Next time … double trouble.

Name that Position

I came across this somewhat random position earlier today (Black to play).

Who's playing?
What's the objective assessment of this position?
How did the game actually end?

Clue:

it's from a World Championship match.

Streatham 2 versus Wimbledon 2

On Thursday last week Streatham 2 faced what looked like a tough fixture in Division 3 of the London League against fellow promotees Wimbledon 2. Yet, we romped home to an astounding 8-2 victory. The team now has 3 wins out of 5 this season - currently a mid-table performance. But with much canibalisation going on - and Albany currently the only undefeated team - it's too soon to say that another promotion is out of the question.

Unfortunately, I recently played my fifth game this season for Streatham & Brixton Chess Club's First Team. This means, I won't be able to play for the second team again this season. But at least I went out with a good result against Wimbledon 2 - winning this game against Chris RA Clegg as black on board 1.


1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. g3 g6 4. Bg2 Bg7 5. d3 e6 6. Be3 d6 7. Nge2 Nge7 8. Qd2 h5 9. O-O O-O 10. Bh6 Nd4 11. Bxg7 Kxg7 12. Nd1 f5 13. f4 fxe4 14. dxe4 Nec6 15. c3 Nxe2+ 16. Qxe2 d5 17. f5 (Total confusion now!)

17. ... d4 18. fxg6 Rxf1+ 19. Bxf1 Qg5 20. Nf2 h4 21. Qg4 Qxg4 22. Nxg4 e5 23. Nf2 hxg3 24. hxg3 Be6 25. c4 (25. Bb5 - threatening Nd3 - is met by 25. ... c4, so it's now obvious white was not correct to head to this endgame.) 25. ... Kxg6 26. Rc1 b6 27. Kg2 a5 28. Be2 (28. a4 white still might draw.) 28. ... a4 29. Kg1 (29. a3 was absolutely essential.) 29. ... a3 30. b3 Nb4 31. Ra1 Rf8 32. Ng4 Bxg4 33. Bxg4 Kg5 34. Be2 d3 35. Bd1 Rf7 36. Kg2 Rf6 37. Kg1 Rf8 (The rook moves were just to reach the time control.) 38. Kg2 d2 39. Be2 Nc2 40. Rh1 Ne3+, and white resigned.

Four thought

Here's a puzzle I saw in a chess encylopaedia the other day.

Give the line of play, from the normal starting position, which leads to this position after exactly four moves by both sides.