King of the lounge room

Getting into competitive chess can be tough, especially if you start as an adult. There is a pretty big step between playing with your friends, and turning up to a rated competition where everyone is super serious. As I have noted preciously, this can turn into a big disincentive for new players, as getting beaten in every game can be discouraging, no matter how close you came to winning.
One piece of advice I give to new players is not to worry about their initial tournament results. The rider I attach to this is that even if they don't win any competition games, they will learn enough to at least beat their casual chess opponents. "King of the lounge room" is a term I have coined to describe this.
I do like to quantify things though, so I do wonder what skills you need to be "King of the lounge room". Based on what I have seen over the years, being alert enough to capture pieces for free, and knowing when to capture the last moved piece is a pretty good place to start. I would also throw in a couple of basic checkmating ideas, namely Q+B mating patterns (ie target f7) and Q+N mating patterns. At this level I don't think openings really matter (e4, Nf3, B somewhere is normally fine), but endgame knowledge does help. Nothing too in depth, but certainly knowing when to push your passers, and how to promote them, would provide plenty of 'fluky' wins. Mating with K+Q v K is also helpful, although I have seen enough 'accidental' checkmates to make me wonder if it is essential.
Feel free to suggest other skills in the comment section, noting that this is for players whose ambitions don't extend much beyond bragging rights over a few beers.

Kasparov v Habu

Yesterday Garry Kasparov made one of his rare returns to OTB chess, playing a 2 game rapid match with Japanese FM Yoshiharu Habu. While Former World Champion V FM does not sound like much of a match up, Habu is also the strongest Shogi player in the world. He also one of Japan's strongest chess players, but his earnings and recognition from Shogi far exceeds what he would receive as a chess professional.
The 2 game match was played with a time limit (25m+10s), and Kasparov won 2-0. In the first game Habu lost a couple of pawns in the middlegame, in part due to a weakened pawn structure. The second was a lot closer, and was one of the games where White seems to be ok right up until the point he was not. Probably the decisive mistake came on move 40 when a pair of rooks were exchanged, leaving Kasparov with the better R+P ending.


Habu,Yoshiharu (2415) - Kasparov,Garry (2812) [B06]
Dwango Habu vs Kasparov Rapid Match 2014 Tokyo JPN (2), 28.11.2014

Not according to plan

Having gushed a little about Kramnik's decision to play in the Qatar Masters, I can see why he might be having second thoughts about the whole excursion. Normally the first round of any swiss is a bit of a massacre, but for such a strong event like the Qatar Masters, this isn't always the case.
For Kramnik, used to knowing his opponents (and their openings) in advance, Stelios Halkias (2519) might have been a bit of an unknown quantity. Doubly so when Halkias played the Evans Gambit, still a popular choice for club hackers, and the odd World Champion (G. Kasparov).
It turned out to be an inspired choice, as Kramnik never got more than equality in the game, and Helkias was possibly a bit better when he went for a draw by repetition. As a result of the slow start Kramnik ends up on Board 31(!) for the second round, and it may be a few rounds before he catches up with the leaders.


Halkias,Stelios (2519) - Kramnik,Vladimir (2760) [C51]
Qatar Masters Open Doha (1.2), 26.11.2014

2014 Qatar Masters

The 2014 Qatar Masters starts this evening. It is billed as the strongest Open for 2014, and the field does look very strong. The top half of the 154 player field is rated above 2520, and the top 14 players are all 2700+. The event is offering a first prize of $25,000 and with a total prize pool of $100,000 it is no surprise that the tournament has attracted a stellar field.
Top seed is Anish Giri, just ahead of surprise entrant Vladimir Kramnik. While his participation in this event has been known for quite a while, it has been a long time since he has played an Open Swiss. While some of the top players will occasional play in an event like Gibraltar, Kramnik has previously not been part of this group. Of course the overall strength of the field might help him avoid the problem of playing an uneven strength field, but even then, it will be interesting to see how he copes with preparing for unfamiliar opponents.
Australia has one participant in the tournament IM Rishi Sardana, although WIM Emma Guo will also be there, but only as a spectator. Home page for the tournament is http://www.qatarmastersopen.com/ and you can find links to live coverage, games and results from there.

Know the classics

In yesterdays post I mentioned the game Selzniev v Alekhine from 1921, which contained a similar idea to Anand's exchange sacrifice against Carlsen. This game was used as an example of the exchange sacrifice in  Euwe's and Kramer's "The Middle Game Volume 1". Annotating the game, the authors said the sacrifice (20 ... Rb4) was perfectly sound as in return for the material lost Black has (a) A protected passed pawn, (b) the two bishops, (c) White's weak a and c pawns as targets and (d) the c5 square. Alekhine himself thought this was in fact worth more than the exchange.
Nonetheless it took quite a while for Alekhine to covert his position into a winning one. He had to trade one advantage (position) for another (material), but in doing so he was able to retain enough of an edge to eventually wear his opponent down.


Selezniev,Alexey Sergeevich - Alekhine,Alexander [A47]
Triberg-A Triberg (3), 09.07.1921

2014 World Championship - Carlsen Wins

Magnus Carlsen has retained his World Championship title, with a win over Viswantahan Anand in the 11th game of their match. The final score of 6.5-4.5 (predicted here) was closer than the 2013 Match, which Carlsen won by a 3 point margin.
Game 11 saw Anand try and play more aggressively, after the by now familar Ruy Lopez Berlin Variation. Sensing that this was his final chance Anand played an exchange sacrifice on Move 27. While both players criticised the decision after the game, the idea did have an historical precedence, being played by Alekhine against Selesniev in 1921. In the current game Carlsen was able to find enough tactics to neutralise Anand's hoped for counterplay, and then win the subsequent endgame.
With this win Carlsen holds the title for the next 2 years. The next candidates tournament is 18 months away, and while Anand is eligible to play in that event, most of the early money is going on Fabiano Caruana to be Carlsen's next challenger.


Carlsen,Magnus (2863) - Anand,Viswanathan (2792) [C67]
WCh 2014 Sochi RUS (11), 23.11.2014

A 'blogworthy' game

One of the juggling acts you have to perform when writing a blog is decide what is content worthy of publishing. It is a little easier writing a chess blog, as chess has a built in ranking system which attaches importance to players, tournaments or games, based on the ratings of the subjects. So news about the World Championship is going to be a big deal no matter what happens, but more local events have to be judged a little more closely.
This also goes for the games I publish on the blog. I usually try and publish at least one game a week, as the front page only keeps the last 7 articles posted. I try and keep the choice fairly broad but I do have 2 distinct biases. One is games from Super GM events and matches, especially from players I like (such as Aronian or Svidler). The other is of course my own games, as essentially this is a blog about what I find interesting in chess.
Apart from what I find myself, I also get helpful suggestions from chess playing friends. Often at Street Chess or the ANU Chess Club a game is finished with a suggestion to 'put it on your blog'. 'Bloggable' or 'blogworthy' are other adjectives attached to games in which the winner is particularly proud. Usually I need to independently confirm that the game is indeed publishable, although I will sacrifice quality for curiosity.
For today's game I am actually choosing one of my own, played on Saturday at Street Chess (G/15m). It was an opening that I usually am on the black side of (The Two Knights) but I decided to try it from the other side of the board. 8.Qf3 is unusual but sound, although 8. ... Rb8 is considered the best reply. The idea behind Nc4-a3 was to try and pick up the exchange, but it left the c pawn unprotected, allowing the tactical shot 15. Nc5 Black thought for quite a while trying to find a way out of the mess, but failed to find a escape route. She decided to resign at that point only to be met with the annoying 'I think I will put that on my blog'


Press,Shaun - Chibnall,Alana [C58]
Street Chess, 22.11.2014