Dealing with wing attacks

I had a chance to follow up my post about the Steinitz Principle with a practical example from a game I played today. My opponent launched a kingside pawn storm but did so before his centre was secure. As a result I was able to push back in the centre, stalling his attack, and eventually winning a pawn. Although I did not play the subsequent rook ending as well as I should, I still manged to score a win, ironically with one of my own kingside pawns promoting.


White - Black
Street Chess, 30.06.2019

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Bg5 e6 4. e3 Be7 5. Bd3 h6 6. Bh4 Ne4 7. Bxe7 Qxe7 8. Nbd2 Nxd2 9. Qxd2 O-O 10. g4 c5 11. c3 Nc6 12. h4 cxd4 13. exd4 e5 14. dxe5 Nxe5 15. Nxe5 Qxe5+ 16. Qe2 Re8 17. Qxe5 Rxe5+ 18. Kd2 Bxg4 and Black went on to win

2019 ANU Open - 27th and 28th July 2019

The 2019 ANU Open is being held across the weekend of the 27th and 28th July 2019, at the ANU Schools of Art and Design, Childers St, Canberra. Now in it's 27th year, the event offers over $3000 in prizes, including a top prize of $1000.
Online entries can be made at http://vesus.org/festivals/2019-anu-open/ and a tournament brochure containing all the event details can be downloaded from there.

The Steinitz Principle

One of Steinitz's revolutionary ideas (for his time), was that a successful kingside attack required a solid centre as a precondition. As with most general rules this doesn't always hold, but it is a piece of advice that club players would do well to pay more attention to.
I'm guessing that this game from the first round of the GCT even in Croatia owes something to this idea, but I'm not actually sure how much. The early g5 thrust idea by Nepomniatchi has become much more common in recent top level games, although Anand then turned the tables by keeping his king in the centre, and launching his own kingisde attack instead. Fortunately for Black, White couldn't do much with the open h file, and in the end the weak central squares were occupied by Black, leading to victory.
While the classicist's of the 20th century may not have approved of play by either side, I'm sure Steinitz would have found this game quite logical from his point of view.

Anand,Viswanathan (2767) - Nepomniachtchi,Ian (2775) [C55]
Croatia GCT 2019 Zagreb CRO (1.5), 26.06.2019

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 h6 5. c3 d6 6. Nbd2 g5 7. h3 Bg7 8. Bb3 O-O 9. Nf1 Ne7 10. h4 g4 11. N3h2 d5 12. f3 Ng6 13. fxg4 Nxh4 14. g3 Ng6 15. Qe2 a5 16. Bc2 d4 17. g5 hxg5 18. Bxg5 a4 19. c4 Qd6 20. Nd2 Ra6 21. Rb1 Nh7 22. Qh5 Nxg5 23. Qxg5 Qe7 24. Qxe7 Nxe7 25. Nhf3 f5 26. Bd1 Bd7 27. Nh4 Bh6 28. exf5 Nxf5 29. Ne4 Be3 30. Be2 Rh6 31. Rh2 Bc6 32. Rg2 Nd6 0-1

DIY Chess Sets

I was having a discussion about giant sets sets (like the ones used in Hyde Park Sydney, or Garema Place Canberra) and the topic of replacement pieces came up. Single pieces are often hard to source, and a full replacement set is a little expensive. One suggestion was to simply use traffic cones with a picture of the piece taped to it as a temporary fix. While a practical solution, it probably lacks the aesthetic charm required for such a set.
One solution is to use a 3D printer to make a replacement. For example, someone has used such a device to print a giant rook. This could be used to replace one that has gone missing, and if you click on the link, you will find that inside the rook, is in fact an entire chess set that could be used to play a smaller game!

Getting a little better

Despite attempts to make at least one blog post per day, I am once again falling short. Surprisingly the cause of this is that I am quite busy with of all things, chess! It is the middle of the Canberra Interschool season, and some of my days are taken up running events.
One thing I'm pleased to report on is that the understanding of the game has improved among Canberra school students in recent years. Previously I have more than my share of bizarre rule interpretations, but they seemed to have disappeared recently.
One example was in a game today when a player said his opponents fingers bumped his king, but he then moved another piece. When I explained 'touch move' applied when a player touched a piece 'intending to move it' he was happy to tell me that his opponent didn't touch his piece on purpose. Of course there were a few illegal moves played, but even then they were corrected without much stress. Probably the greatest surprise for the 60 odd players who took part was that in competition chess, you don't have to say "check"!

Queen for piece

There has been a lot of recent excitement about Queen sacrifices, especially where a player gives up the queen for long term attacking chances, rather than for a more direct mate. The recent game between Alireza Firouzja and Murali Karthikeyan saw Karthikeyan sac his queen for two pieces on move 9, but go onto win in 53 moves. Comparisons were made to Nezhmetdinovs classic queen sacrifice from 1962, but there have been other similar examples.
Here is a game from 1975 where Kavalek (as Black) gives up his queen for a single piece. He was certainly under pressure when he did so, and even after the sacrifice Portisch was still winning. But Kavalek kept pushing and pushing, and eventually found enough in the position to escape with a draw.

Portisch,Lajos (2635) - Kavalek,Lubomir (2555) [E80]
Hoogovens Wijk aan Zee (11), 27.01.1975

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 c6 6. Be3 a6 7. Bd3 b5 8. e5 Nfd7 9. f4 O-O 10. Nf3 Nb6 11. b3 N8d7 12. a4 bxc4 13. bxc4 c5 14. a5 cxd4 15. Nxd4 dxe5 16. Nc6 Qe8 17. axb6 exf4 18. Nd5 fxe3 19. Nc7 Bc3+ 20. Kf1 Bb7 21. Nxe8 Bxc6 22. Nc7 Rad8 23. Rc1 Bd2 24. Nd5 Bxd5 25. cxd5 Nxb6 26. Rc5 Nxd5 27. g3 Rd6 28. Kg2 Rfd8 29. Rxd5 Rxd5 30. Bc4 Rf5 31. Qb3 Rf2+ 32. Kh3 Rd6 33. Qb8+ Kg7 34. Qa7 g5 35. Qxe7 g4+ 36. Kxg4 Rg6+ 37. Kh3 Rh6+ 38. Kg4 Rg6+ 1/2-1/2

Following on

Following on from yesterdays post, here is a recent example of playing poorly, and yet winning. My opening play was so dodgy that at least one later opponent in the tournament repeated the line, hoping I would play just as badly. I was struggling until  I played 21...c5, which turned the tide so completely that my opponent collapsed in the space of a few moves.


Camer,Angelito - Press,Shaun [D24]
2019 Oceania Zonal (5.4), 20.02.2019

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 dxc4 4. Nc3 a6 5. a4 e6 6. e4 Bb4 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bxf6 Qxf6 9. Bxc4 O-O 10. O-O Nc6 11. Qb3 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 Rd8 13. Rad1 a5 14. Bb5 Bd7 15. Rfe1 Be8 16. Re3 Qe7 17. b3 Nb4 18. Bxe8 Rxe8 19. Ne5 Red8 20. Rc1 Rac8 21. h3 c5 22. Rf3 Na2 23. Qd2 Nxc1 24. Rxf7 Qxf7 25. Nxf7 Kxf7 26. Qxc1 cxd4 27. Qf4+ Kg8 0-1

Play poorly but win, or play badly and lose

When luck is running with you, you can get away with poor play. For the first half of 2019 I've been quite fortunate in that I've escaped from some poor positions to either draw or even win games I probably shouldn't have. This run of luck came to and end last night when my poor play met with suitable punishment. While the game finished with a blunder (I actually missed why 20...Bg6 needed to be played before 20...Nxe5) I was still worse if I had played it in the correct order.


Grcic,Milan - Press,Shaun [D11]
Autumn Leaves, 18.06.2019

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. g3 Bg4 4. Bg2 e6 5. O-O Bd6 6. c4 c6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. Qe3+ Kd8 10. Nc3 Nbd7 11. Qd3 Kc7 12. Bd2 Rae8 13. Rfc1 Kb8 14. b4 Ne4 15. Be1 Nxc3 16. Bxc3 Nf6 17. Ne5 Bh5 18. a4 Bxe5 19. dxe5 Ng4 20. e3 Nxe5 21. Qf5 1-0

If grabbing the b pawn is bad ....

Grabbing the b pawn with your queen is considered one of the cardinal sins in the opening (Bobby Fischer notwithstanding), so how bad is grabbing the a pawn?
Examples of this sin are not that common, but here is a recent game where Black did this and lost horribly. As to whether the blame can solely be attributed to the pawn grab, (or neglecting the centre, not developing, and failing to castle) is an exercise left to the reader.


Dreev,A (2657) - Loiacono,Antonio (2317) [D02]
10th Dolomiti Open 2019 Forni di Sopra ITA (2.2), 16.06.2019

1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 c6 4. g3 Bg4 5. Ne5 Bf5 6. cxd5 Qxd5 7. f3 Bxb1 8. Rxb1 Qxa2 9. Bd2 Qd5 10. e4 Qxd4 11. Qb3 Nxe4 12. Qxf7+ Kd8 13. Ba5+ 1-0

Double Resignation

One of the stranger incidents in my arbiting career occurred during the NSW Open last weekend. During one game there was a dispute over whether a player had said "adjust" before touching a piece or not. Anyone who has been involved in schools/junior chess knows how hard these cases can be, but in this case it was between to adult players. If the touched pawn was moved then it would be a pretty easy win for the opponent, while if not, then the ending was still difficult.
As there were no witnesses, no action could be taken, apart from warning the player to make it "very" clear when he was adjusting a piece, and to make sure when adjusting it it doesn't first move to another square (this was part of the first players claim).
After a few more moves the claimant approached me and told me he wished to resign the game, as he felt he could not continue playing under the circumstances. While I sympathised with him, I did tell me that resignation was final, which he accepted. Having then walked away, the opponent then approached me, saying that he would be willing to resign the game, as he did not want to upset his opponent. I told him that it was (un)fortunately too late as his opponent had got in first!
Someone did suggest a double loss could be recorded, but I ruled that out, as the game was officially over when the first player informed me of his resignation.

More big board action

This will not be a permanent feature of this blog (I promise), but here is another game played on the giant chess board in Garema Place, Canberra. The usual caveats about seriousness and soundness apply.


Press,Shaun - Patterson,Miles [C02]
Big Board Civic, 14.06.2019

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 c5 4. c3 Nc6 5. Nf3 Qb6 6. Bd3 cxd4 7. cxd4 Bd7 8. O-O Nxd4 9. Ng5 Nc6 10. Re1 h6 11. Qh5 Nd8 12. Nxf7 Nxf7 13. Bg6 O-O-O 14. Bxf7 Bc5 15. Be3 Bxe3 16. fxe3 Qxb2 17. Nc3 Kb8 18. Nxd5 exd5 19. Bxd5 Qb5 20. Bxb7 Nf6 21. Qh4 Qxe5 22. Rab1 Bb5 23. a4 g5 24. Qb4 Kxb7 25. axb5 Nd5 26. Qa5 Nb6 27. Ra1 Ra8 28. Qa6+ Kb8 29. Rac1 Qe4 30. Rc6 Qa4 31. Rxb6+ axb6 32. Qxb6+ Kc8 33. Rc1+ Kd7 34. Rc7+ Ke8 35. Qe6+ Kf8 36. Qf7# 1-0

I've only just seen this

BTW I did meet Lee Lin Chin while travelling back from the 2008 Chess Olympiad (along with Gary Bekker). Chess was discussed.

Things that never happen (until they do)

A lot of coaching/teaching books have the classic endgame example of 3 pawns v 3 pawns, where the central pawn push is the only move that wins. For this to work of course, both kings have to be on the far side of the board, otherwise the idea doesn't work. And the situation never occurs anyway, as one side or the other pushes a pawn to prevent this exact situation from occurring.
 Or so I thought, at least until this evening.
White had been winning the diagrammed position for quite a while, and the obvious idea was to give up the c pawn to win the kingside pawns. However it appears that while Black was aware of how to force a passed pawn on the kingside, White was not. So Black took his only chance in the position, and crossed his fingers.

1...g4 2.hxg4 f4 3.gxf4 h4 Now even here White is still winning but Black's luck held out, as White did not run for the kingside but instead blindly pushed on 4.c6 h3 5.c7 Kd7 6.g5 h2 7.c8Q+ Kxc8 8.g6 h1Q 9.g7 Qh7 0-1

Not all checks are good checks

The 2019 NSW Open saw a number of interesting games. On such game from the early rounds was played by IM Junta Ikeda on his way to winning the tournament. He built up a strong attacking position but it wasn't until his opponent played an ill-judged check (in time trouble), that the attack roared into life. Ikeda offered a queen sacrifice, which would have ended the game very quickly if accepted, but declining it did not help White either.

Siva Sankaran,Anup Kumar (1749) - Ikeda,Junta (2424)
2019 NSW Open Sydney, Australia (1.3), 08.06.2019

1. d4 f5 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d6 4. e3 g6 5. f4 Bg7 6. Nf3 O-O 7. Bd3 Nc6 8. O-O e5 9. d5 e4 10. dxc6 bxc6 11. Nd4 c5 12. Nde2 exd3 13. Qxd3 Re8 14. Ng3 Bb7 15. Re1 Ng4 16. Nce2 Qd7 17. Nc3 Re6 18. h3 Nf6 19. Bd2 Rae8 20. Rad1 h5 21. b3 h4 22. Nf1 Nh5 23. Nh2 g5 24. Qxf5 Nxf4 25. Nd5 Rf8 26. Qxg5 Rg6 27. Ne7+ Qxe7 28. exf4 Bd4+ 29. Kh1 Rxg5 30. fxg5 Rf2 31. Nf3 Qd7 32. Be3 Bxf3 0-1

2019 NSW Open - Ikeda wins

IM Junta Ikeda is the winner of the 2019 NSW Open, scoring an impressive 6.5/7. A quick draw with top seed IM Stanislav Smetankin left him a point in front of Smetankin, IM Igor Bjelobrk and IM Gary Lane.
The Under 1600 event was won by Shane Dibley with 6.5/7, half a point ahead of Lee Forace on 6 points.

2019 NSW Open - Rounds 4&5

IM Junta Ikeda is now the sole leader of the 2019 NSW Open after winning both his round 4 and round 5 games. In the top board clash in round 5, Ikeda beat 2nd seed GM Daniel Fernandez, going into an ending a couple of pawns up. Tied for 2nd place are IM Igor Bjelobrk and IM Stanislav Smetankin.
This morning's round has Ikeda up against Bjelobrk, while Smetankin is playing young Canberran, Willis Lo.
In the Under 1600 tournament, Shane Dibley and Lee Forace lead with 4.5/5. They drew their round 5 game, and now play Tim Singleton and Ruofan Xu respectively.
Today sees the last two rounds of the tournament. You can see the scores for the Open and Minor at chess-results.com, while live coverage is available at chess.24.com.

2019 NSW Open - Round 3

The leading group in the 2019 NSW Open has been reduced to 6 players after round 3. While the top 4 seeds all won their games, IM Gary Lane drew against Fred Litchfield, while FM Donato Malari scored an upset win over IM Andro Wagdy on board 6. The fourth round sees IM Stanislav Smetankin against IM Igor Bjelobrk, WGM Jilin Zhang against GM Daniel Fernandez and IM Junta Ikeda against FM Donato Mallari.
Apart from the upset results, there were a couple of strange finishes on the lower boards. FM Kevin O'Chee allowed his opponent to escape with a draw, after swapping rooks and allowing a bishop and wrong coloured rook pawn ending. In the Minor, there was great amusement when one player left a piece en-pris, only to have his opponent offer a draw (rather than capture it!).
While Round 5 (the evening round) normally sees a large number of requests for half point byes, it looks as though almost all of the leading players will be on deck. You can follow the top 6 boards at chess24.com, while the tournament results are available at chess-results.com

2019 NSW Open - Round 2

The 2nd round of the 2019 NSW Open has finished, with most games still going according to rating. The top 15 seeds are still on perfect scores (2/2), along with 1 unrated player, Gia Huy Nguyen. While the lower rated players had some chances to score upsets, a combination of good defence, or even good luck for their stronger opponents meant they fell just short.
There were a couple of interesting round 2 games, with Junta Ikeda's offer of a queen being a particular highlight, while the board 6 game between Plunkett and IM Wagdy started with 1.Nc3 Nf6 2.g4!?!.
Tomorrows first round (starting at 9:30) will see the leading pack chopped in half, but even then it won't until the evening round that the likely winners will emerge.

2019 NSW Open - Round 1

The 2019 NSW Open has begun, with a field of 132 players in attendance. Top seed is Bulgarian IM Stanislav Smetankin, with English GM Daniel Fernandez the second seed. The Open section has 17 players rated over 2000, out of the field of 65 players.
The Minor (under 1600) tournament has 67 players. Defending champion Frank Low has already suffered an upset round 1 loss to Lucas Ni, while a couple of the other top seeds have suffered a similar fate.
Pairings and results from the tournaments can be found here (Open and Minor) while live coverage of the top 6 boards of the can be found at Chess24.

Playing on the big board

If you are in Canberra City during the week, you will find the big chess pieces are now being put out in Garema Place. Most of the time they aren't being used, but for the last couple of Fridays' I, and a few others, have gone down at lunchtime for a couple of games.
However, using the big pieces is a slightly different experience than playing normal chess, as the following game demonstrates. Apart from the difficulty in keeping track of everything, both players were following the 'big piece' playing guide which includes: Move fast, play aggressively, make obvious threats, and don't worry if you lose.


Press,Shaun - Raidisch,Matt [B22]
Canberra Big Board, 07.06.2019

1. e4 c5 2. c3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. cxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 g6 6. Nf3 Bg7 7. h3 a6 8. Bd3 O-O 9. O-O b5 10. Be3 Bb7 11. Qe2 Nbd7 12. Rac1 Rc8 13. e5 Nd5 14. Nxd5 Bxd5 15. exd6 Bxa2 16. Rxc8 Qxc8 17. dxe7 Re8 18. Rc1 Qb7 19. Bf4 Be6 20. Rc7 Qb6 21. Ng5 Rxe7 22. d5 1-0

A change in numbers

A number of years ago (at least 20), I was involved in running a high school competition in Canberra, at the Australian National University. The event was well attended, with over 120 players (IIRC). Of those 120 players, there were only 2 female players. At the time this wasn't that unusual, as there was a significant drop in the number of female players once they reached High School.
Move forward 20 years and the 3% participation level has jumped to over 40%. At this years North Canberra Secondary event, almost half the field were female players, as were the top 2 seeds. This was helped by Merici College taking part for the first time, a welcome addition to the ACT Schools chess scene.
As for the tournament itself, Lyneham High School dominated once again, They picked up all the major prizes, and despite the valiant efforts from the top players from other schools, 4 of their players finished with perfect scores (7/7)!

Both players were lucky to draw!

Black to play

The diagrammed position comes from a club game I was watching last night (NB I have reconstructed it from memory so it may not be 100% accurate). White had sacrificed a piece for an attack that didn't work, and then lost the exchange, to go a full rook down. However Black was short of time, and so White went looking for a way out.
In the position it is Black's move, and worried about the check on c4 played 1 ... Kb7?? White then hit him with 2.Rf6 and in a panic Black played 2...d4?? However while White had been on the receiving end of some good luck, it was now Black's turn the get more than his share. White missed Qe4+! which wins pretty quickly and instead played 3.Qxd4. After 3...Qc8 White should have finished off Black with Qb6+ and Rf7, but the idea that he might win the game hadn't occurred to him. Instead he played 4.Rf7+ Qc7 5.Rxc7+ Kxc7 6.Qc5+  and then checked across the 6th rank until a draw was agreed!

More sacrifices on h6

I have never found sacrificing a bishop on h6 (or h3) very subtle. You can usually see it coming a few moves ahead and either prevent it with a move like Kh7, or allow it on the assumption it isn't going to work. At long time controls this is probably easy enough to work out, but at blitz ....


Vachier-Lagrave,Maxime (2779) - Grischuk,Alexander (2775) [B30]
7th Norway Blitz 2019 Stavanger NOR (3.2), 03.06.2019

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. c3 Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bc4 e6 6. O-O d6 7. d4 cxd4 8. cxd4 Be7 9. exd6 Bxd6 10. Nc3 O-O 11. Re1 h6 12. Bb3 Nf6 13. Ne5 Bc7 14. Be3 Bd7 15. Nxd7 Qxd7 16. d5 exd5 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. Qxd5 Rad8 19. Qh5 Rfe8 20. Bxh6 Rxe1+ 21. Rxe1 gxh6 22. Qg6+ Kf8 23. Qxh6+ Kg8 24. Bc2 1-0

Another World Cup

Lots of late nights store, with the Cricket World Cup running for the next month or so. One of the interesting things for this edition is that they have dispensed with the pool system and gone for a singe round robin qualifier. Each of the 10 teams plays each other once, and then the top 4 qualify for the final. While this format is probably the best for getting the best 4 teams into the final, the notorious English weather may have a part to play, with washed out games being the equivalent of a drawn game. But unlike chess, the teams don;t have a say in which games are drawn, so pity the team needing a win in the final round, just as the heavens open ...

More things that aren't chess

While chess grapples with the issue of drawn games and the best method of deciding a champion/tournament winner/rating prizes, the world of 'competitive spelling' (words I spelled incorrectly in my first draft), dealt with the issue by simply giving up. The US National Spelling Bee ended in an 8 way tie when it became clear that the remaining finalists new every word in the dictionary. As usual I defer to Deadspin for commentary on obscure competitions.