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1  Chess Publishing Openings / French / Rubinstein / Re: C03,C10: Wishing to learn the Burn gxf6 variation
 on: 02/01/25 at 01:38:24 
FreeRepublic wrote on 01/31/25 at 15:15:26:
Does anyone know if this was covered by Aagaard and Ntirlis?

Aagaard and Ntirlis don't cover the Burn Variation in their book Playing the French. The authors respond to 4.Bg5 with the Classical Variation (allowing the Alekhine-Chatard Attack) and the McCutcheon.

2  Chess Publishing Openings / Nimzo and Benonis / Tango / Re: The Tango after 'Tango!' (2005)
 on: 01/27/25 at 15:50:06 
an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 01/27/25 at 07:09:37:
Maybe that's another case of do as the GM says and not as the GM does.  Smiley We can certainly find openings in Nunn's repertoire which seem to "hang entirely on specific tactical points". I'm thinking in particular of the white side of the Sozin Sicilian, black side of the Austrian Pirc, Marshall Attack, and Poisoned Pawn Najdorf. Those are just off the top of my head.

Reminds me of noticing that in the 2023 World Senior Team Ch he played a line of the Velimirovic which he played in the '80s. I wonder what he will play this time (the tournament is next month).

3  General / General Chess / Re: Reimagining 1.e4 by Nikolaos Ntirlis
 on: 01/26/25 at 11:52:07 
doefmat wrote on 01/25/25 at 20:28:44:
MarkG wrote on 01/09/25 at 20:02:10:

Finally, as an Alekhine's Defence player, I would like to thank Nikolaos for his recommendation there. I can only hope it becomes fashionable Smiley


I'm curious; why do you hope this?


Speaking for myself as a former Alekhine player, I was so traumatised by Gawain Jones's 4PA coverage in his coffeehouse repertoire that I find any book not recommending the 4PA to be a huge win for Alekhine players!

4  Chess Publishing Openings / Open Sicilians / Scheveningen / Re: New Scheveningen book on the way!
 on: 01/26/25 at 11:18:34 
Uhohspaghettio wrote on 01/23/25 at 19:20:34:

Maybe the Scheveningen would be a good option if you would be happy with a draw but don't want your opponent to know that as he might associate playing into the Keres with riskiness trying to win. You could also hope for the opponent to play 9. Bb5 or some similar inaccuracy, as the Scheveningen isn't very popular these days. Of course that would only last for so long if the opening became popular again. 

Otherwise we need someone with new ideas on how to create practical winning chances for black, especially in the following position (or 6. ...e5 a completely different way of playing), to try and revive the opening to its former prestige. It hardly looks like a dead draw with best black play, there must be some way.


Just play differently earlier if it's an issue. 

The Classical Schevy - delaying going a6 for quite a while - always has been first and foremost (in terms of it's philosophy) a very solid opening.

You develop, play a central break round move 8-10 then have to just slowly outplay white if you're going to win. In compensation, White has very few ways to really try and hack you.

5  Chess Publishing General / ChessPublishing.com Discussion / Re: Site redesign wish list!
 on: 01/25/25 at 13:17:56 
I'm in the process of having the site modernised (again, but let's hope more successfully than the last time!) Any thoughts on what you would find useful - it will probably be based around the Position Search page.

6  Chess Publishing General / ChessPublishing.com Discussion / Re: Games download 2024
 on: 01/25/25 at 13:15:38 
As per every January I've just put all the games from the last year online in the Gold Plus section at https://www.chesspublishing.com/p/15/quickgamesdownload.htm, that is up till the end of 2024. Please let me know if there is a problem.

7  General / General Chess / Re: Tv Golden Oldie
 on: 01/24/25 at 17:21:13 
Possibly, but I somehow doubt it. 

However, your chances of seeing it in the USA might be improved if you wrote to the head of BBC Programming. They might well look kindly on a request for a BBC America listing.

8  Chess Publishing Openings / French / Winawer / Re: C18: Current status of Winawer with 7. ...00
 on: 01/22/25 at 03:25:15 
We should be getting some new material on 7...0-0 to peruse soon. I noticed that the "Expected" page on the Thinkers Publishing site recently added a new book, A Complete Repertoire for Black After 1…e6 by Nicolas Yap. Seeking more information on the book, I found that the author had mentioned it on his Chessable profile page, noting that he proposes meeting 1.e4 with the French and 1.d4 with the Modern Stonewall Dutch. When I contacted him via Chessable, the author kindly provided a few more details. The French repertoire in his book recommends the Winawer vs. 3.Nc3 with the main line proceeding 7.Qg4 0-0 8.Bd3 f5. As FreeRepublic noted in Reply #41, John Watson analyzed this line in the January 2024 French update. A look at the Mega Database with ChessBase indicates that 7.Qg4 0-0 8.Bd3 f5 is a "hot" line. It also appears to be popular in correspondence, with fourteen games in the UltraCorr database from 2024.

Yap informed me that he handed in his manuscript to the publisher around June 2024, so 7.Qg4 0-0 8.Bd3 f5 would have been a topical line while he was writing the book.

Interestingly, Yap said he intended to also cover the Armenian Variation (5.a3 Ba5) in the Winawer. However, his first draft was over a thousand pages at that point! Thus, the Armenian material had to be removed to prevent the book from becoming too unwieldy.   

The author informed me that the book is scheduled to be published in mid-February. It's already available for pre-order on the USCF site as a 520-page hardcover costing $48.95.

9  Other / Chess and Computers / Kindle book copy limit
 on: 01/21/25 at 20:27:39 
I splurged and spent $2 to buy Jon Edwards Kindle ebook on the McCutcheon variation of the French defense. It contains 11 annotated games. I played through ten games using Chesss Opening Wizard (COW). I occassionally copied text from the Kindle edition and pasted into COW. 

To my surprise, the copy function stopped working. I reached the "copy limit set by the publisher."

I don't know if the copy limit varies by book, publisher, or if is a Kindle imposed limitation. Another Kindle title might not have this limitation. A book published as an Adobe Digital Edition might not have this limitation.

10  Chess Publishing Openings / d-Pawn Specials / London / Re: London tactic
 on: 01/18/25 at 14:10:19 
Very nice! There can only be one tactic, but it works nicely Smiley
Impossible to see in blitz with White's threat Nxf5

That remembers me of the position after 1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Bf5 3.Bf4 e6 4.e3 Nf6 5.c4 (diagram):
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Black was thought to have an easy life after 5...Bxb1 6.Rxb1 (6.Qa4+ Qd7 is possible but not necessary) since 6...Bb4+ forces 7.Ke2, but White has some backlash, e.g. : 
- 7...dxc4 8.Qa4 Nc6 9.Ne5 asks for trouble after 9...a5 (or 9...Nd5) and the thematic 10.Nxc6 Qd7, Black regains the piece but likely not for free 
- 7...Be7 8.Qb3 Qc8 9.g4! with initiative
- 7...Bd6 8.g3 Bxf4 9.gxf4 is likely Black's safer, but += by computer
So, not sure Black is threatening anything with this trick, maybe he should just play Bd6 instead of Bb4+ ?

11  Chess Publishing Openings / Open Sicilians / Paulsen / Re: Spectacular early novelty in the Paulsen/Kan
 on: 01/17/25 at 21:27:50 
brabo wrote on 12/05/07 at 20:43:14:
1. e4, c5 2. Nf3, e6 3. d4, cd4: 4. Nd4:, a6 5. c4, Nf6 6. Nc3, Bb4 7. Bd3, Nc6 8. 0-0 N ??!!! Yes the knight on d4 hangs but things aren't so simple :


I imagine many chess players pause once 8.0-0!? is played!

12  General / General Chess / Re: Why not play delayed morra gambit after Nf3
 on: 01/12/25 at 03:00:33 
Heuristic2025 wrote on 01/11/25 at 05:07:35:
If you have a knight on f3 and black declines the Gambit with Nf6, then you aren't transposing to the alapin, are you?

The 2...d6 issue is serious, but aside from that, please show something for white after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 2...e6/2...Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.c3 Nf6 which is not transposing to the Alapin. Because either way (whether 2...e6 or 2...Nc6) I think the positive white move is 5.e5 which does transpose to the Alapin.

13  Chess Publishing Openings / French / Re: The French Defense Revisited
 on: 01/08/25 at 20:29:54 
Nernstian59 wrote on 12/22/24 at 00:27:09:
the video book review by IM Andras Toth, who was quite effusive in his praise of the book, going so far as to anoint it as his Book of the Year, even though there were still more than nine months left in 2024 at that time.

IM Toth was close but not quite on the mark. Winning Chess Middlegames Volume 2 placed third in chess.com's Book of the year Award, announced yesterday. The winner was The Unknown Fischer by Cyrus Lakdawala. I'm guessing that its victory may have been at least partly the result of appealing to a wider audience plus the enduring fascination that Fischer holds for many chess fans.

14  General / General Chess / Re: How many defenses do you play as Black?
 on: 01/07/25 at 13:58:20 
The question might be better framed as "at most how many openings (or even "how many second moves)" do you play against the same first White move?" As it is, someone who answers "4" might always play 1.d4 d5, 1.e4 e5, 1.Nf3 Nf6, and 1.c4 c5. 

By the way, I like your repertoire choice.

15  Chess Publishing Openings / French / Tarrasch / Re: C03-C09: What is best book for Tarrach variation?
 on: 01/02/25 at 23:52:27 
FreeRepublic wrote on 12/18/24 at 17:26:24:
After 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2, someone described 3...Nf6 as "the French move."

FreeRepublic - It's my understanding that some refer to 3...Nf6 vs. the Tarrasch as being "more French-like" because it tends to yield positions with features commonly associated with the French, namely locked pawn chains and a blocked center with White pawns on e5 and d4 opposed by Black pawns on e6 and d5. In contrast, 3...c5 typically doesn't lead to such structures. White's d- and e-pawns are often exchanged off, as is Black's d-pawn. Instead of being blocked, the center is usually open with only a Black pawn on e6 (in the ...Qxd5 lines) or on d5 (in the IQP positions arising from ...exd5). 

You've likely seen 3...c5 also referred to as the "Open Tarrasch" because of the clear central files and open diagonals for the bishops. Correspondingly, 3...Nf6 is sometimes called the "Closed Tarrasch" because of the blocked nature of the positions it can yield. Of course, "closed" is a relative term since after Black's ...c5 and ...f6 pawn breaks in the main lines for 3...Nf6, the positions often have an open c-file, a half-open e-file for White, a half-open f-file for Black, and clear diagonals for the bishops, except for the "French bishop" on c8. In comparison to some lines of the French Advance or the Winawer, where Black locks things up with ...c5-c4, these positions developing from 3...Nf6 are at least somewhat more open.

16  Chess Publishing Openings / 1. d4 d5 2. c4 / QGD Intro / Re: Exchange variation QGD
 on: 12/28/24 at 01:27:14 
applechess wrote on 12/26/24 at 12:13:35:
Gukekh played 15.Rg1 when Nigel Davis claims: "A sharp and controversial move because it gives Black the f5 square." And then he suggests:

That was a good issue for those of us who play the Black side of the Exchange variation. Perhaps for White players also! I have yet to go through all the games, but intend to.

17  Chess Publishing General / ChessPub.com Forum / Re: Finding a discussion on a tabiya
 on: 12/02/24 at 14:00:42 
Ok, well so be it then, thanks.

18  Chess Publishing Openings / Anti-Sicilians / Re: What is 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 e5 called?
 on: 11/28/24 at 05:50:22 
I notice it was played by Kamran Shirazi in 2008. (I recall Stuart Rachels, who played Shirazi a few times, calling him something like "the master of the bizarre.")

19  Chess Publishing Openings / Anti-Sicilians / (Smith-)Morra ...Nc6/d6/a6
 on: 11/28/24 at 05:20:12 
Just some historical notes.

In the latest Anti-Sicilians update, IM Palliser refers to this line as an old suggestion of Joe Gallagher (who as I recall advocated it in an anti-anti-Sicilians book in the '90s). In one of the games in the update, the "tricky recent try" 7. e5"?!" was played, and well-met by 7...e6"!".

This took me back to Ken Smith's 1972 book Smith-Morra Gambit Accepted. It gave 6...a6 as "the move, or should I say the order of moves, recommended by MCO-10th Edition [from 1965, revised by Larry Evans]."

Smith (translated from descriptive): "One source recommended here 7. e5 and on 7...dxe5 (7...Nxe5? 8. Nxe5 dxe5 9. Bxf7+!) 8. Qxd8+ Nxd8 (8...Kxd8 9. Ng5 Nh6 10. Bxf7!) 9. Nd5 Ne6 10. Nb6 Rb8 11. Nxe5 Nf6 12. Nxf7 Kxf7 13. Bf4 White wins. Which is worth a try against an unsuspecting opponent. But if you are ever Black and someone plays 7. e5 just answer 7...e6!."

Smith recommended 7. 0-0 Nf6 8. Bg5 e6 9. Qe2. He didn't mention 9...h6, which he faced from Evans later in 1972, at the San Antonio international tournament. Evans won decisively. Some years later Evans had this comment: "Either you have faith in Black's position or you don't. I'll take the pawn any day of the week."

Some video from the San Antonio tournament:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWVUm8Qg5H8

20  Other / Endgames / Rook Endings / Re: Capablanca-Yates (Hastings, 1930) revisited
 on: 11/27/24 at 07:55:00 
B. 74.Rd8

Compared with the winning line A (74.Rb4), given by Kopayev, this move of Gelfand seems at first appearance more accurate, because the rook immediately occupies the 8th rank and restricts the mobility of the king. The only drawback of 74.Rd8 is that the rook on d-file is too close to enemy king. 

74…Re1+ 75.Kf3 Rf1+ 76.Ke3 Re1+ 77.Kf2 Re4 78.Kf3 Re1 

D. 9

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Gelfand suggests here 79.Rd7 (a) which undoubtedly wins, but the way to it is much more difficult. It was not too late to play the rook to 79.Ra8 (b) (or 79.Rb8 or 79.Rc8) in order to keep due distance to the enemy king.   

a) 79.Rd7 Rf1+ 80.Ke4 Ra1 81.f5 Kf8 

D. 10

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Here we have the key difference between this line and the line of Kopayev (74.Rb4 … 77...Ra1 78.f5 Kf8, D. 8). In the Kopayev’s line with the rook on b7 White easily wins by 79.Rb8+ Ke7 80.f6+. Here  82.Rd8+?! is useless because after 82…Ke7 the rook is under attack. The rook must retreat to d4 (or d3 or d2), after which the win is much more complicated. 

82.f6 

We have now reached a very important set-up for this type of endgame. I will deal with it in the second part of this thread. Here I simply follow the precise analysis of Gelfand.   

82…Re1+ 83.Kd5 Rd1+ 84.Kc6 Rc1+ 85.Kb5 Rb1+

85...Ke8 86.Re7+ Kf8 87.Ra7! Ke8 88.Ra8+ Kd7 89.Rf8 Ke6 90.Re8+ Kd5 91.e6+–. 

86.Kc4 Rc1+ 87.Kb4!!

87.Kb3? Rc8 88.Kb4 Re8 89.Rd5 Kg8!=. 

87...Rc8

87...Rb1+ 88.Kc3 Rc1+ 89.Kd2 Rc8 90.Kd3 Kg8 91.Kd4 Rf8 92.e6! fxe6 93.Ke5 Ra8 94.Kxe6+–. 

88.Kb5 Re8 89.Kc6! Kg8

89...Rxe5 90.Rd8+ Re8 91.Kd7+–. 

90.Kd5 Ra8 91.Ke4 Ra4+ 92.Kf5 Ra1 93.Rd8+ Kh7 94.Rf8+–. 

b) 79.Ra8

D. 11

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70…Rf1+ 71.Ke3 Re1+ 72.Kf2 Re4 73.Kf3 Re1 74.Ra7+–. 

We have transposed to the winning line of Kopayev in D. 5. 

Back to D. 1 after 61.Rb6?!

II. 61…Re3 

This move of Yates is weaker than 61...Ra4, because White can easily displace the Black rook from the e-file. The rest of the game was masterfully analysed by Kopayev in 1956 and almost completely included in the 1st and 2nd editions of ‘Chess Endings’, edited by Yu. Averbakh (1. Russian edition, 1958, p., 2. Russian edition, 1984, p. 319-320, “Comprehensive Chess Endings, Vol. 5 Rook Endings”, Pergamon Press 1987, p. 304-305). Kopayev made only one analytical error on the 64th move, when he considered Capablanca's move Rb7 inaccurate and proposed a move that missed the win.

62.Rb4 Rc3 63.Kf2?

63.Rb8! Re3 64.Re8+–.

63...Ra3?

63...h5! 64.g5 h4 65.Rb7 Kg6 66.Rb6+ Kh5! 67.Rf6 h3 68.Rxf7 h2! 69.Kg2 Rc2+ 70.Kh1 Kg4 71.Ra7 Kg3 72.Ra3+ Kxf4=

D. 11

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64.Rb7

This is the best move, but Kopayev mistakenly regarded it as an inaccuracy and suggested 64.Rb8 instead. This analytical error is quite instructive. Kopayev seemingly overlooked the simple fact that the Black rook was on the third rank, and proceeded in a manner similar to the position of D. 6, where the Black rook occupies the first rank. In D. 6, the optimal move is Ra8, while Ra7 is inaccurate. In the current position, however, 64.Rb8 is a critical mistake, as after 64...h5!, the White king is effectively cut off along the third rank (similar to the situation above after 63.Kf2? h5!): 65.g5 h4! 66.f5 h3 67.e6 fxe6 68.f6+ Kg6! 69.Rg8+ Kf7! 70.Rg7+ Kf8! 71.g6 Ra2+ 72.Kg3 Ra3+ 73.Kg4 Ra4+! 74.Kxh3 Rf4!=.   

This error of Kopayev still appears in the Russian edition of Dvoretsky's textbook (p. 246), but  was corrected in the 5th English edition, where the move 64.Rb8 is no longer mentioned. 

64...Kg8 65.Rb8+ Kg7 66.f5 Ra2+ 67.Ke3 

67.Kg3 is better: 67…Ra3+ 68.Kh4 Re3 69.Re8 Re1 70.Kg3 Re4 71.f6+ Kh7 72.Kf3 Re1 73.Kf4 Rf1+ 74.Ke4+–. 

67...Ra3+ 68.Ke4 Ra4+ 69.Kd5 Ra5+ 70.Kd6 Ra6+ 71.Kc7 Kh7 72.Kd7 Ra7+ 73.Kd6 Kg7 74.Rd8 Ra5 75.f6+ Kh7 76.Rf8 Ra7 77.Kc6 Kg6 78.Rg8+ Kh7 79.Rg7+ Kh8 80.Kb6 Rd7 81.Kc5 Rc7+ 82.Kd6 Ra7 83.e6 Ra6+ 84.Ke7 Rxe6+ 85.Kxf7 Re4 86.g5 hxg5 87.Kg6. Yates resigned. 


21  Chess Publishing Openings / King's Indian / Four Pawns / Re: Problems in the e5 e6 d6 gambit main line?
 on: 11/26/24 at 17:03:22 
Yes, thanks - that was the model game I looked at! But with c3 - instead of Rb1 after Qxb2, he should have played Qf3

22  Chess Publishing Openings / Anti-Sicilians / 2 c3 Sicilian / Alapin and Accelerated Dragon
 on: 11/25/24 at 00:12:07 
Here is a line that I'm considering from the Black side vs. the Alapin. I've also considered it from the White side against the accelerated Dragon.

Alapin
1. e4 c5 2. c3 d5 3. ed5 Qd5 4. d4 g6!? 5. Nf3

Hyper-accelerated Dragon
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 g6 3. c3 d5 4. ed5 Qd5 5. d4

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It's easy enough to see variations where White is a little better, but lines where White maintains a significant advantage is something else. Moreover, Black tends to score as well as White overall.

23  Chess Publishing Openings / 1. e4 e5 - Non-Spanish / Re: C22: The Centre Game
 on: 11/24/24 at 10:00:59 
an ordinary chessplayer wrote on 11/22/24 at 22:00:43:
 

[b]1.e4 e5 2.d4 exd4 3.Qxd4 Nc6 4.Qe3 Nf6 5.e5?! Ng4 6.Qe4 d5


Modern engines recommend 6...Ngxe5 winning for black. I have been playing 6..d5 in 43 online games between 2008 and 2023 which shows that I am playing too much blitz and should better redo the analysis of those old lines.
See also my blogpost of August 2024 https://schaken-brabo.blogspot.com/2024/08/statistiek-deel-2.html

24  Chess Publishing Openings / 1. e4 e5 Spanish / Archangel / Re: Opinions of Arkhangelsk DVD by Mikhalchishin
 on: 11/20/24 at 23:44:48 
...and the sale is a bit "covert" as well. After all, they clearly didn't make much noise about it. Perhaps "Sale" should also be in quotes?  Wink

25  Chess Publishing Openings / French / Advance / Re: Advance Variation playable eBook
 on: 11/20/24 at 23:40:56 
FreeRepublic wrote on 10/17/24 at 14:49:36:
The Advance variation and the Classical and Rubenstein variations were updated in October 2024.They are available as PDF and CBV files. They contains 327 and 788 annotated games respectively.


The great advantage of the CBV files is that contain games. The PDF files refer to games but do not contain games or live links to games.

 
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