Boris Chessky vs issam4679 on chess.com

1. Nf3 d5 2. e3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Bd6 5. d4 O-O 6. c5 Be7 7. b4 a6 8. a4 Nc6 9. Ba3 b6 10. Bd3 Re8 11. Qe2 h6 12. O-O Nh7 13. Bxh7+ Kxh7 14. cxb6 cxb6 15. Na2 Bb7 16. Rac1 Bd6 17. Rc2 Qf6 18. b5 Nxd4 19. Nxd4 Bxa3 20. Qd3+ Qg6 21. Qxa3 e5 22. Rc7 Reb8 23. Nc6 Bxc6 24. Rxc6 Qe4 25. f3 Qh4 26. bxa6 Rxa6 27. Qd3+ Kg8 28. Qxa6

Game 6 - 2013 World Chess Championship - Anand vs Carlsen

Chess.com has provided good coverage of the 2013 World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen, and I have enjoyed playing through the games move-by-move. Chess.com provided an excellent video review of game 6, but not the usual online board to play through the moves as far as I could see.

I found the game's moves over at chessbase.com. Here is game 6:

Boris Chessky vs ReasonWriter703 on Chess.com

Here's one of my recent games on chess.com that took almost five months to play with a two-week time limit for each move. It was an enjoyable game.

1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. e3 c5 5. b3 Bg4 6. Be2 Bg7 7. cxd5 Nxd5 8. Bb2 O-O 9. a3 e5 10. Ne4 Nc6 11. Nxc5 b6 12. Ne4 Bf5 13. d3 Qe7 14. O-O Rad8 15. Qc2 Rc8 16. Rac1 Na5 17. Qd1 Qe6 18. Neg5 Qf6 19. Bxe5 Qe7 20. Bxg7 Kxg7 21. Rxc8 Rxc8 22. b4 Nb7 23. Qa1+ Kg8 24. Rc1 Rxc1+ 25. Qxc1 Qf6 26. e4 Nc3 27. Bf1 Bg4 28. e5 Qc6 29. Qf4 Qd7 30. d4 Nd8 31. h3 Bf5 32. Nh4 Nc6 33. Nxf5 Nd5 34. Nh6+ Kg7 35. Qxf7+ Qxf7 36. Ngxf7 Nxd4 37. Bc4 Nf4 38. a4 Nc6 39. b5 Na5 40. e6 Kf8 41. Nd6 Ke7 42. Ng8+

The Flanders Panel

I just finished reading Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Flanders Panel. It was a fairly enjoyable read, although I think Pérez-Reverte's write-up in Wikipedia might be going a bit far when it compares him to Hemingway, telling us about "...  the author's Hemingway-like ability to build layers of complexity around each person."

Further searching found another mention of Perez-Reverte compared to Hemingway: "He has a very distinctive writing style that's clear and precise, almost like Hemingway except with more detail and lush prose, as the occasion calls." Sounds like a bit of contradiction there, but each to their own...

I'm not sure that Pérez-Reverte would be happy with the comparisons. Apparently, "... he does not give a damn about Hemingway ... [and] ... with the passing of time he has come to hate Hemingway and his pathological continuous assertion of virility..."

Anyway! The Flanders Panel. I won't bother ruining any of the plot - it's a story about an old painting that depicts a chess game, and the intrigue that flows on from the painting being restored, ready for auction. An inscription is found during restoration - you find out all of this in the first couple of pages.

On page 96, though, we have the chess position shown below, and one of the characters states, amongst his analysis on what the last move may have been, "[The] pawn on A5 couldn't have moved either, because it's between a white pawn and its own black king." That doesn't make any sense to me.

Surely the reasoning to explain that the pawn on A5 hasn't moved is because the only square it could have come from - B6 - has a white rook on it, so there's no way the pawn came from there in the last move of the game.

The Petroff - one of the oldest

The Dictionary of Modern Chess by Byrne J. Horton tells us:

[The Petroff Defence] ... is one of the oldest defenses to the King's Knight opening which dates from the Gottingen Manuscripts of 1490. 

It was described by the English master Walker in 1841, carefully analyzed by M. Jaenisch in the Palamède in 1842, and popularized about the same time by the distinguished Russian player von Petroff. Hence, this defense is sometimes known as the Russian Defense.

Possibly the cutest chess set ever created

In Frank Greygoose's book Chessmen, we find this photo of two beautiful old pawns from a Doulton set.

Exaggeration?

I recently purchased a second-hand copy of Lev Aptekar’s Wisdom in Chess, published in 1987.

The foreword by International Master Ortvin Sarapu states: "There are more books printed about chess than all other sports and games put together." While I acknowledge there are many books written about chess, that statement must surely be an exaggeration... mustn’t it?

Я благодарен за Algebraic Notation

My last post originally had some moves shown, where I misread my 1973 edition of I.A. Horowitz's Chess Openings. The final move was written in the book "B-N5", with a symbol after it meaning the opponent was in check. I missed the check symbol at the time, and moved the other bishop, which could also move to its respective N5 square. I didn’t notice at the time that both bishops could move to their own Knight’s 5^th square on opposite sides of the board.

The end position confused me, and I planned on coming back to analyse it more. Today, after analysing it and getting nowhere with the supposedly great move, I realised my mistake, and have corrected the post.

I originally learnt to read chess moves with the old notation, and for some reason enjoyed reading a game written with it more, compared to algebraic notation, but this example has shown me that algebraic has much less chance of being misunderstood. "B-b5" could never accidentally imply the other Bishop’s move, even if you missed the check symbol that might be there.

Here is the original series of moves with the (now quite funny [to me, anyway]) incorrect last move:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7 5. Qxe4 d6 6. d4 Nd7 7. Nc3 dxe5 8. Nd5 Nf6 9. Nxf6+ gxf6 10. Bg5!

Taking the pawn is bad

Continuing on from the Petrov line that Burgess' The Mammoth Book Of Chess tells us is best for Black if the White pawn is taken on move 3 are these two lines of play from I.A. Horowitz's Chess Openings.

We're warned that Black taking the pawn "is bad".

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7 5. Qxe4 d6 6. d4 c5 7. Nc3 dxe5 8. Nd5 Qd6 9. Bf4 Nd7 10. O-O-O
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7 5. Qxe4 d6 6. d4 Nd7 7. Nc3 dxe5 8. Nd5 Nf6 9. Nxf6+ gxf6 10. Bb5+!

Don’t be too hasty

A word of caution for those starting out with the Petrov – if White takes the Pawn on his third move, Black shouldn’t immediately take White’s Pawn.

As E. E. Cunnington says in Chess Opening For Beginners, "... the Pawn cannot escape." More importantly, though – The Mammoth Book Of Chess by Graham Burgess points out that if Black takes the Pawn with his Knight, White then moving his Queen to e2 "wins material".

The Mammoth Book Of Chess illustrates a couple of lines with a real-life example (from then-future Grandmasters Nigel Short and David Norwood when they were ages 10 and 6 respectively) and the ideal play at move 4 for Black if he does in fact take the Pawn on move 3.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Nf6 5. Nc6+ "Black overlooks a simple idea. He has to play this line, hoping for compensation for a pawn in the play following 6. d4"
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 Nxe4 4. Qe2 Qe7 5. Qxe4 d6 6. d4

I like Petrov’s Defence

1. e4 e5   2. Nf3 Nf6


When Black, it seems a nice way of saying right from the start, “Ok! You attack me - I attack you back!”

It doesn’t seem to be so popular lately due to it being considered an opening that often ends up with a draw, although Wikipedia mentions that "Grandmasters Karpov, Yusupov, Smyslov, Marshall, Kramnik, and Pillsbury have frequently played the Petrov as Black."

For my own sake as much as anyone else’s, I plan on going through my books and searching for Petrov’s Defence examples. There are a multitude of examples online, but hey, I like books (although the irony of then publishing them online isn’t lost on me...).

My old copy of David Brine Pritchard’s The Right Way To Play Chess simply states “Black answers the attack on his KP with a counter-attack on White’s KP.” [My copy actually has ‘on White’s QP’ printed, but that doesn’t make sense – White’s QP is quite safe at this point...] “White retains the minimal move advantage.”

Referring to another old book – Reverend E. E. Cunnington’s Chess Openings For Beginners, we find the following two examples of the opening:

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O O-O ( 7... Nc6 )
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. d4 exd4 4. e5 Ne4 5. Qxd4 d5 6. exd6 Nxd6 7. Nc3 Nc6

Welcome!

Comrades! Hello!

I will be playing chess and reading books and looking into things such as Petrov's (Petroff) Defence - the Russian Game. Of course!

Peace,
Boris