Exploration in Chess Beauty

"Exploration in Chess Beauty" is the aptly named book by IM Andras Toth. It is a book that looks at chess problems and the joy that such problems bring, both to the solver, and to the observer. Toth highlights this feeling with a story about his own father. He recalls showing his father the solution to a problem by Kubbel. Despite his own modest chess ability, his father was so impressed by what he had seen, that he grabbed the set, the problem and Andras himself and went next door to share the solution with his brother, an even weaker player. The fact that two "non serious" players were so excited about a chess problem had a lasting effect on Andras.
While the starting point of the book, as well as each of the chapters are problems related to a theme ("The Mighty Pawn", "The Tricky Knight", "The Secrets of the Starting Position"), the book does not deal exclusively in puzzles. There are a number of games drawn from contemporary praxis, which utilise the same ideas and motifs. An example is in the section on pawns, where after demonstrating the power of the pawn in constructed positions, the game Serper -Nikolaidis shows how mighty the pawn can truly be. It is this marriage of the "theoretical" with the "practical" that I feel is the real strength of this work.
If you have read "Secrets of Spectacular Chess" then the theme of this book may seem a little familiar. Toth recognises this, even going so far as to declare "Secrets of Spectacular Chess" as the best book in this area. Nonetheless he hopes that he has written at least the second best book in the field, using a simpler and less scientific approach. While devotes one chapter to the beauty of composing problems (and the technical issues involved), he does not get bogged down in the jargon of composition.
While this book is good enough to stand on its own, it is worth mentioning the form it takes. It is an eBook from e+Chess, and is available for the iPad/iPod/Iphone platform. The benefit of this format is twofold. Firstly the solutions to each of the problems are initially hidden, and will only be revealed at the time of your choosing. Secondly, you don't need a chess board to play through the solutions or games, as the book comes with its own board, and you can simply move through the games with the touch of a finger.
Overall I found this book both interesting and challenging, and I would recommend it to anyone who regards chess as more than simple competition. Toth has clearly put a lot of effort into a subject close to his heart, and it shows in the final product.

Dubbo 2012

One of my favourite "small" tournaments is the Dubbo Open. Of course it isn't actually that small a tournament with fields of 40+ playing over the last few years. However it does have to work hard to get these numbers, as it is about 400km from Sydney and Canberra. This years event will be on the weekend of the 17th and 18th of March, at the usual venue of the Dubbo RSL Club. It is a 6 round event played with a time limit of 60m+10s per move. Entry fee is a very affordable $45 ($35 concession, $25 juniors) and the organisers have guaranteed a first prize of $350. It is also part of the 2012 Meyer-Tan Grand Prix, as a class 2 event. I'm travelling up again this year, although only as an arbiter rather than a player. I expect the usual contingent of ACT players to make the trip, as well as a number of players from Sydney and Newcastle. If you have never sampled the delights of a country chess tournament (which is often played at a different tempo than city ones), then I highly recommend this one. Further details can be found at the Dubbo Chess Club website.

Top competition makes top players

The title of this post comes from the sport of Rugby Union, specifically New Zealand Rugby Union. It was said as part of a debate about whether it was better to have restricted competitions, where the very best players did not play. The comment was an observation on where those same "best" players came from. It seems the stronger the competition the stronger everyone is, not just the best players. This isn't normally an issue in chess, where almost all competitions are open, or if they are restricted, restricted at the bottom, rather than the top. However I had a conversation yesterday that brought this issue to mind (NB I'll leave names out of it, although I'm pretty sure they read this blog and would even recognise themselves). It was about reasons for not playing in an event which you are likely to win. The reason given was that by doing so, you might deprive regular players of a change to win the event, and this may not be looked upon favourably by the regulars. While this is generous sentiment, if it was me I wouldn't be so worried. What might be taken away in prizes is more than compensated by the opportunity of the regulars to play chess at a higher level. Given the choice between easy prize money or a chance to be a better player I'd guess at least 90% would want to be a better player. And if popularity is the measure your looking for, I'm sure that playing is going to generate more kudos than staying away.

Arm-Brain

While I was being awoken at 6am on my last day in Queenstown (courtesy of a fire alarm), another group of player were just getting to sleep at around the same time. According to Shannon Vuglar, one of the participants, they were playing a chess variant called "Arm-Brain". It is a partnership game, where one of the players is the "Brain" and the other is the "Arm". The game is played using the normal rules of chess except that the "Brain" must name a type of piece that is to be moved. It is the job of the "Arm" to then move a piece of that type. The players cannot confer, except for the "Brain" naming a piece. It is up to the arm to decide which move is best, including which piece to move, if there is more than one piece of the same type (eg a choice of bishops to move). According to Shannon, it helps to team up with a strong player, as this compensates for the "other" player. In his case, a partnership with GM Gawain Jones yielded victories over a team of greater "average" strength (an IM and FM), where they took turns at being the "Arm" and the "Brain". Whether this is true in all cases would clearly require more testing.

Short wins Gibraltar 2012

Nigel Short has won the 2012 Gibraltar International, after defeating Womens World Champion Hou Yifan in a 2 game playoff. The finished on 8/10, after Short won his last round game to catch Yifan, who only drew with Mamedyarov. In the playoff match, Yifan failed to take advantage of a Short miscalculation in the first game and lost. The second game ended in a draw, giving Short the title. Both players had a TPR of over 2800, as did Michael Adams who finished on 7.5 Slightly further down was Swedish GM Emmanuel Berg who finished on 7.0. He got there with a nice win in the final round, which included a queen sacrifice for a mating attack.
Berg,Emanuel (2550) - Vachier Lagrave,Maxime (2699) [B96]
Gibraltar Open Caleta ENG (10.11), 02.02.2012

2012 ACT Championship

Hot on the heels of the 2012 ACT Lightning Championship comes details of the ACT Championship. As in the previous few years it will be a 9 round FIDE Rated Swiss, played over consecutive weekends. However this year it is a little earlier in the calendar, and begins on a Friday evening.
The full details are:
Venue: Tuggeranong Vikings Club, Ricardo St, Wanniassa
Dates: Friday 17 Feb , Sat 18 Feb, Sun 19 Feb, Sat 25 Feb, Sun 26 Feb
Time Limit: 90m+30s (Fischer)
Rounds: 9
Round Times: Friday (Round 1) 7:30pm, Sat & Sunday Rounds 10:30 am & 2:30 pm
Entry Fees: $60 ($40 concessions and juniors)

Entry form is here

(NB I will be the paid DOP for this event)

2012 ACT Lightning Championship

FM Endre Ambrus was the convincing winner of the 2012 ACT Lightning Championsip, scoring 10 wins and a single loss. He finished a point and half ahead of Roger Farrell and FM Junta Ikeda, with IM Andrew Brown a further half point back. Ambrus's only loss was to Farrell in round 6, and he defeated everyone else who finished in 8th place or better. Farrell kept pace with Ambrus up until round 8, when a draw with WIM Emma Guo caused him to fall behind. Ikeda recovered from a slow start (1.5/3) but his loss to Ambrus in round 8 ended his winning chances.
33 players took part in the tournament, which offered $600 in prizes ($300 for first). Full results of the event can be found at this link.